MVHR, PIV or just a bathroom fan?

[Oldgreybeard]

Hi OGB, what MVHR do you have out of curiosity?
I'm starting to plan some more house refurb projects for next year and this is on my list.

It is a Danish made unit, that seemed to be cheaper than anything available in the UK ten years ago, when I was looking around. It's made by Genvex, who have a UK dealer, but that UK dealer puts an absolutely massive markup on the price. I paid far less than half the price that the UK Genvex dealer wanted, and I got a nice surprise as the VAT man refunded me the 25% Danish VAT I'd paid!

[ducabi]

It is a Danish made unit...

How did you find it? Was it designed by someone and then you started looking around? I'm looking for a shop doing the design and preparing DIY kit, but there are so many options that I'm not sure where to start. Given how pricey it is, there is not much room for failure.

[Oldgreybeard]

It is a Danish made unit...

How did you find it? Was it designed by someone and then you started looking around? I'm looking for a shop doing the design and preparing DIY kit, but there are so many options that I'm not sure where to start. Given how pricey it is, there is not much room for failure.

The honest answer is by complete accident, I came across a post on a now defunct self-build forum that mentioned them. This was over ten years ago and MVHR was almost unheard of in the UK then. I found this company: https://www.genvex.com/en/, who at that time only had a website in Danish. I called them (they spoke perfect English) and they sent me a brochure for all their models in English. I then started looking around, found a UK seller (this company - do not touch them with a long bargepole!): https://totalhome.co.uk/ventilation/?pid=590 and was not impressed at all with their near-total absence of technical knowledge or their ludicrous prices.

I liked the idea of the Genvex products, so hunted around and found a Danish distributor (Genvex didn't sell directly to the public). This company was absolutely brilliant, less than half the price of the UK supplier and cheaper shipping as well (no idea how they do that): https://www.sundthus.dk/

The people at Sundthus speak excellent English, and were more than happy to ship a unit to me.

[chris_n]

It is a Danish made unit...

How did you find it? Was it designed by someone and then you started looking around? I'm looking for a shop doing the design and preparing DIY kit, but there are so many options that I'm not sure where to start. Given how pricey it is, there is not much room for failure.

The honest answer is by complete accident, I came across a post on a now defunct self-build forum that mentioned them. This was over ten years ago and MVHR was almost unheard of in the UK then. I found this company: https://www.genvex.com/en/, who at that time only had a website in Danish. I called them (they spoke perfect English) and they sent me a brochure for all their models in English. I then started looking around, found a UK seller (this company - do not touch them with a long bargepole!): https://totalhome.co.uk/ventilation/?pid=590 and was not impressed at all with their near-total absence of technical knowledge or their ludicrous prices.

I liked the idea of the Genvex products, so hunted around and found a Danish distributor (Genvex didn't sell directly to the public). This company was absolutely brilliant, less than half the price of the UK supplier and cheaper shipping as well (no idea how they do that): https://www.sundthus.dk/

The people at Sundthus speak excellent English, and were more than happy to ship a unit to me.

That was before Brexit though! Many things I used to get regularly here are no longer available due to paperwork etc.

[Oldgreybeard]

That was before Brexit though! Many things I used to get regularly here are no longer available due to paperwork etc.

TBH, I doubt that's made much difference at all. I don't want to get into politics here (and for the avoidance of doubt I voted remain), but shipping the unit from Denmark to here in 2012 was a bloody nightmare. It wasn't at all expensive, just complicated. I had to find a shipping handler here in the UK that could take the pallet from the container it came over in, clear it through customs and arrange shipping from the port to us (which was a two stage process). I also had to deal with the customs carnet and the payment of the handling fees etc before it could be released from the port. Once that was all done (took a week or so) things were straightforward.

I'd had to pay Danish VAT at 25% in Denmark, though, so I also had to get hold of evidence of the Danish kronor to pound sterling exchange rate at the day and time of sale to satisfy HMRC here. In due course HMRC did refund me the Danish VAT I'd paid, but only after I'd had an official translation of the invoice from Danish to English; they wouldn't accept my translation done via an online translation service.

This was a faff, but still cheaper than the shipping fee the UK dealer wanted to charge me, most probably because their shipping fee included the time they had to spend dealing with the port authorities, bonded store people, transport companies etc. Of all the stuff we bought for the house that stands out as being the most time consuming transaction, but worth every penny in the end.