Central vacuum system recommendation?
LMYUYMkwcy
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
My husband and I are building a new construction green home in NC and want to install a central vacuum system.
We were wondering if you have any recommendations between BEAM or Riccar? Are there noticeable differences in performance, benefits, drawbacks, energy use, etc?
Thanks so much
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Replies
Don't know too much but I did notice there are now systems where the hose retracts into the wall, I think one is called hide a hose. People seem to like this feature a lot, as there is no hose to store or lug around. I would look into this and see which vacuum systems are offering it. Sorry I can't offer any more help.
Holly,
I can't speak to the different brands you mentioned, but I recently did some work on a house where the central vacuum (Nutone) was exhausted to the outside via a PVC pipe.
This house was poorly sealed and insulated---and there was a large opening in the masonry wall around the exhaust pipe. These things might not apply to you, but I can imagine a few issues for someone building an energy efficient house with a central vaccuum / outside exhaust:
1) Depressurization of the building envelope (depends on the ACH50 rating of the house and whether or not you have combustion appliances)
2) Energy loss via the vaccuum exhaust, which is probably not much considering the low usage rate, low number of operating hours. But it could affect your house's airtightness rating.
3) Another hole in the building envelope - make sure it's well sealed.