Project Overview
A multi-generational family in Howick shares a three-level home, with an adult daughter living independently in a self-contained ground-floor apartment. She has severe chronic rhinitis, with allergies to dust, cats and dogs, and shares the apartment with two much-loved cats, while a dog lives upstairs. The home’s existing ducted system was carrying cooking, incense and litter box odours from the apartment up to the top-floor bedrooms and home offices, where the outflow vent sits. Future Energy designed a dedicated ventilation and air quality solution for the apartment: a Mitsubishi Single Room Lossnay heat recovery ventilation system, two layers of air purification, and Airtouch 5 zone control. The daughter now has fresh, filtered air and full control of the heating, cooling and comfort of her own space, and the rest of the household is no longer living with odours that used to travel through the house.
The Challenge
The apartment had three problems at once. First, air quality: a resident with severe allergies, living alongside two cats, needed a continuous supply of clean, filtered air, not just an occasional airing. Second, odour transfer: because the apartment was tied into the home’s ducted system, and that system’s outflow vent sits on the top floor, everyday smells from the apartment (cooking, incense and the cats’ litter box) were being drawn up through the house and ending up in the parent bedroom and the home offices. Third, comfort and control: across three levels with very different sun and heat, one shared setting could never suit everyone, and the daughter wanted to manage the temperature and airflow of her own space without affecting the rest of the family.
The System
Mitsubishi Heat Recovery Ventilation Single Room Lossnay: Balanced Fresh Air, With the Heat Kept In
A Single Room Lossnay is a compact balanced pressure heat recovery ventilation system. It runs two air streams at once: one brings filtered fresh air into the apartment from outside, while the other extracts an equal volume of stale, humid air. As the two streams cross a heat exchange core, up to 92% of the warmth in the outgoing air is recovered and used to pre-warm the fresh air coming in, so the apartment is ventilated continuously without throwing the heating away. It runs from as quiet as 14dB, so it can stay on around the clock without anyone noticing. Because it serves the apartment directly, the daughter has her own supply of fresh air rather than depending on the rest of the house.
A Mitsubishi Heat Pump for Personal Comfort and Cleaner Air
A new Mitsubishi high wall heat pump gives the daughter full command of her own climate. She can warm the apartment in winter and cool it in summer to exactly the temperature that suits her, independently of the rest of the home, which matters in a three-level house where every floor sits in different sun and warmth. It is her comfort, on her terms, without waiting on a shared setting. On top of that comfort, the heat pump carries Plasma Quad Connect filtration, Mitsubishi’s air purifying technology that targets dust, pollen, allergens and other fine airborne particles. Paired with a Panasonic FV-15CSD1 ceiling mounted air purifier, that gives the apartment two layers of air purification running alongside the Lossnay, 24/7, taking on the exact triggers behind her rhinitis: pet dander from two cats, household dust, and the allergens that build up in a closed room.
Airtouch 5 Zone Control to Stop Odours Travelling Through the House
The odour problem was solved by giving the apartment independence from the shared system. An Airtouch 5 controller lets the apartment adjust or switch off the main house’s ducted heating and cooling to her zone, so her air is handled locally by her own heat pump, Lossnay and purifiers rather than being drawn up through the shared ducting to the top floor. Between her own heat pump and the Airtouch control, she has genuine autonomy over her space: her own temperature, her own airflow, on her own terms, without affecting the different climates the rest of the family prefer. The result is one less shared system to manage, and odours that stay where they belong.
The Results
- Mitsubishi Single Room Lossnay heat recovery ventilation installed in the ground-floor apartment, running 24/7
- Balanced fresh air that recovers up to 92% of the outgoing heat, from as quiet as 14dB
- A Mitsubishi high wall heat pump giving her full control of her own heating and cooling, independent of the rest of the home
- Two layers of air purification, a Panasonic ceiling air purifier plus Mitsubishi Plasma Quad Connect filtration, targeting pet dander, dust and allergens
- A clear reduction in the resident’s chronic rhinitis symptoms, with clean, filtered air around the clock
- Cooking, incense and litter box odours no longer transferring up through the ducted system to the top-floor bedrooms and home offices
- Airtouch 5 zone control giving the apartment independent temperature and airflow control in a three-level home
- Greater independence for the daughter, and healthier, more comfortable living for the whole household
Fresh air in, odours out, and an apartment that finally breathes easy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a ventilation system help with allergies and asthma?
Yes. A ventilation system continuously replaces stale indoor air with fresh, filtered air, which lowers the concentration of the airborne allergens that trigger allergies and asthma, including pet dander, dust and pollen. In this Howick apartment, a Mitsubishi Lassnay Single Room heat recovery ventilation system was paired with two air purifiers, so the resident, who has severe chronic rhinitis and lives with two cats, has clean, filtered air around the clock. A well-ventilated home is also a drier home, which means fewer dust mites and less mould, two of the most common allergy triggers in New Zealand homes.
What is a Single Room Lossnay, and how is it different from whole-home ventilation?
A Single Room Lossnay is a compact balanced pressure heat recovery ventilation unit that serves one room or a self-contained zone, rather than ducting fresh air through the whole house. It brings filtered fresh air in and extracts stale air at the same time, recovering up to 92% of the heat in the outgoing air. That makes it ideal for a self-contained apartment, a home office or a single problem room, where you want proper heat recovery ventilation without installing a whole-home system. For a larger project, the same heat recovery approach scales up to cover the entire house.
Can ventilation stop cooking and pet odours moving between rooms?
Yes. Odours travel when air moves, so the fix is to control where a room’s air goes. In this home, the apartment was tied into a shared ducted system whose outflow vent sits on the top floor, which is why cooking, incense and litter box smells were ending up in the upstairs bedrooms and offices. Giving the apartment its own balanced ventilation, and using Airtouch 5 zone control to take it out of the shared duct, means the apartment’s air is extracted locally instead of being drawn through the rest of the house.
Is it expensive to run ventilation and air purification 24/7?
Running costs are lower than most people expect, because heat recovery does the heavy lifting. A Lossnay core recovers up to 92% of the warmth from the air it extracts, so you are not constantly reheating a home you have just ventilated, and modern units run from as little as 14dB on low wattage. Air purifiers are similarly efficient. Because a drier, well-ventilated home is also easier to heat, ventilation works even harder for you when it is paired with an efficient heat pump, and cheaper still when that runs on your own solar power.
Struggling with allergies, pet or cooking odours, or condensation in one part of your home? Future Energy designs ventilation and air quality around the room and the people who use it, from a single-room heat recovery Lossnay to whole-home ventilation. Book a Free Home Energy Consult, and we will assess your home and recommend the right system for it, not just the one we happen to stock.
