Comparison Ballu BMAC-200B vs Royal Clima RCS 350

— Centralized. Powerful and performant units, designed to be used as the "heart" of an extensive ventilation system, with long branched air ducts. One such installation can serve a large area — for example, an entire floor in an office building. But for private home use (and other tasks of a similar scale), it hardly makes sense to purchase such models — they are bulky, expensive, and most often require installation in a separate room and complex installation of air ducts.

— Decentralized. Small units with relatively low power, not designed for use with long ducts. For such a model, only a pipe for the intake of outside air is required. Decentralized installations are usually mounted directly on the wall, at the exit point of such an air duct. This type is optimal for supplying air to small rooms — primarily residential buildings and apartments; most often, installations of this type are responsible for both supply and exhaust at the same time (see "Ventilation").

— Supply and exhaust with recuperator. Units that provide air movement in both directions — for supply and exhaust, and thus solve all the main tasks of ventilation. First of all, they are convenient when organizing a ventilation system from scratch, when any equipment is missing. On the other hand, ventilation recovery units turn out to be noticeably more expensive, heavier, larger and higher consumption than purely air supply units, which is especially noticeable on large centralized units (see “System”). However, even among them, this variety is found quite often. However, decentralized ventilation installations are mostly made of supply and exhaust units. First, they do not require a high air flow, and the device can be made relatively small and inexpensive. Secondly, when organizing decentralized ventilation, it is easier to entrust all tasks to one unit than to provide separate modules for supply and exhaust. The same type, in addition to working on the supply and exhaust, prevents the "blowing out" of heat from the room during the cold season. The principle of operation of the recuperator is that it takes energy from the blown air and transfers it to the incoming one. Thus, ventilation sends relatively cool air out and supplies preheated air into the room. The use of the recuperator can significantly reduce heat loss and, accordingly, heating costs — the amount of heat returned in the most advanced hea...t exchangers can reach 97% (see "Heat exchanger efficiency"). At the same time, such systems are often passive and do not consume energy themselves (and where it is required, the consumption is still lower than the amount of saved heat).

— Supply and exhaust. Devices similar to those described above, but not equipped with a recuperator. They are less common and are quite rare.

— Supply. Units responsible only for supplying external air to the room; the air extraction must be provided either by additional equipment or in a natural way. This option is the most popular for centralized models: separate supply and exhaust units can be easier to place in a limited space than a powerful and bulky supply and exhaust unit. From the point of view of the general organization of air movement, such a “separation of roles” is also often optimal (not to mention the fact that in some cases special equipment for exhaust may not be required). However, there are very few decentralized supply models.

The regular way of mounting, provided for by the design of the installation.

— Suspended. Installation by hanging — usually under the ceiling, on hooks driven into it, elements of the internal frame of the room, etc. The advantage of this placement is that the unit does not take up space in the most useful space. In addition, the unit can be hidden behind a false ceiling. On the other hand, the installation itself can be quite troublesome. The vast majority of wall models are centralized (see "System"), but there are also decentralized ones; for the latter, usually, hidden installation is not allowed.

— Wall mounted. Mounting on the wall, often — right at the location of the ventilation duct. Installations of this type often look like a pipe with protrusions on the sides — the pipe is fixed in a channel punched in the wall, and the protrusions play the role of an indoor unit and an external stop. However, there are more traditional wall-mounted units. Anyway, this type of installation is practically not used in centralized models, but it is extremely popular in decentralized ones — this is due to the peculiarities of using one and the other variety.

— Floor. Floor-standing models are perhaps the easiest to install: a heavy device does not need to be raised to the ceiling, it is not necessary to drill walls, etc. — it is enough to bring the...installation to the location. At the same time, this requires free space on the floor — and, usually, quite a lot, since floor installation is popular mainly among centralized ventilation installations. In cramped conditions, this can be a problem.

— Suspended/wall. Models that allow both types of installation — suspended or wall, to choose from. Unlike "purely" wall-mounted units, they most often belong to a centralized type.

— Universal. Models that allow universal installation — floor, wall or suspended, at the request of the user. The most convenient, but at the same time, somewhat more expensive option compared to analogues. Note that brackets for some installation methods may not be included in the package, and you will have to purchase them separately.

Note that it is highly not recommended to install air ventilation units in a "non-native" way. The installation method determines not only the design of the mounts but also some features of the hardware and functionality — and non-compliance with the installation requirements is fraught with various troubles, up to breakdowns and even accidents.

The diameter of the holes intended for connecting air ducts to the ventilation unit. The more performant the air ventilation unit, the more air the ducts must pass and the larger, usually, the mounting holes. For wall-mounted models (see above), this parameter determines the size of the channel that must be drilled into the wall to accommodate the unit.

Additional functions provided in the design of the unit in addition to ventilation.

— Recuperator. A heat exchanger that prevents "blowing" heat from the room during the cold season. The principle of operation of the heat exchanger is that it takes energy from the blown air and transfers it to the incoming one — thus, ventilation sends relatively cool air out and supplies preheated air into the room. The use of a heat exchanger can significantly reduce heat loss and, accordingly, heating costs — the amount of heat returned in the most advanced heat exchangers can reach 97% (see "Heat exchanger efficiency"). At the same time, such systems are often passive and do not themselves consume energy (and where it is required, the consumption is still lower than the amount of saved heat). Naturally, this function is found only in full-size, supply and exhaust units (see "Type of ventilation"). Note that external recuperators are also produced, which can be supplemented with ventilation units that do not have this function; however, an integrated heat exchanger is often more convenient and efficient.

— Heater. The built-in heater intended for heating the air coming into the room. At the same time, in contrast to the heat exchanger described above, energy is used...for heating from a third-party source — an electric heater or a water heat exchanger (see "Heater type"). This method of heating requires additional energy costs, and water circuits are also quite troublesome to connect. But it is much more efficient: if the air supplied from the heat exchanger into the room cannot be warmer than the air blown out, then this is not a problem for the heater. This function is mainly used to raise the temperature of the supply air supplied from the heat exchanger (built-in or separate) to the temperature of the extract air and thus avoid unnecessary heat losses.

— Cooler. A built-in system that reduces the temperature of the air supplied to the room. Simplified, this function can be called a "built-in air conditioner" — because air conditioners are usually used to cool the air in hot weather. In fact, in some cases, installing an air ventilation unit with a cooler can eliminate the need for separate air conditioners. On the other hand, such systems are quite complex and expensive, and therefore they are used rarely, mainly among centralized units(see "System").

— Humidifier. A system that increases the humidity of the air supplied to the room. The peculiarity of the human body is such that the feeling of a comfortable climate depends not on the absolute, but on the relative humidity of the surrounding air. Relative humidity, on the other hand, depends not only on the actual amount of water vapour in the air but also on temperature: physical laws are such that as the temperature rises, relative humidity drops, even though the amount of moisture in the air remains unchanged. In fact, this leads to the fact that during the cold season, the heated outside air begins to seem dry. To avoid this effect in climate technology, including air ventilation units, humidification systems may be provided. Note that such systems usually require either a connection to the water supply system or regular refilling of the water tank.

— Ionizer. A system that saturates the air entering the room with negatively charged ions. The effect of such ions on the climate is positive — the air feels fresher, ionization contributes to the sedimentation of contaminants on the floor and walls and provides a bactericidal effect. In addition, it is believed that ionized air is good for health, improves immunity and recovers from injuries and illnesses.

Class of air purification, which corresponds to the supply and exhaust unit.

This parameter characterizes how well the unit is able to clean the air supplied to the room from dust and other microparticles. Most often it is specified according to the EN 779 standard, and the most common classes in ventilation units are as follows:

— G3. Marking G denotes coarse filters designed for rooms with low requirements for air purity and retaining particles with a size of 10 microns or more. In residential ventilation systems, such devices can only be used as pre-filters; additional equipment will be required for additional purification. Class G3 is the second most efficient coarse cleaning class, it means a filter that removes from the air 80 – 90% of the so-called synthetic dust (test dust on which filters are tested).

— G4. The most effective class of coarse filters (see above), which involves the removal of at least 90% of particles of 10 microns or more in size from the air.

— F5. Classes with index F correspond to fine cleaning, the effectiveness of which is assessed by the ability to remove particles from the air with a size of 1 µm. Such filters can already be used for post-purification of air in residential premises, including even hospital wards (without increased cleanliness requirements). F5 is...the lowest of these classes, suggesting an efficiency of removing such dust at the level of 40 – 60%.

— F6. Fine cleaning class (see above), removal from the air of 60 – 80% of particles with a size of 1 µm.

— F7. Fine cleaning class (see above), corresponding to the removal of 80 – 90% of dust from the air with a size of 1 µm.

— F8. Fine cleaning class (see above), providing the removal of 90 to 95% of dust from the air with a size of 1 µm and above.

— F9. The most efficient class of fine cleaning; the higher efficiency corresponds to the ultra-fine cleaning class H (see below). Class F9 achieves dust removal efficiency of 1 µm at 95% and above.

– H10 – H13. Classes H are used to mark filters of ultra-fine (absolute) purification (HEPA filters) capable of removing particles of the order of 0.1 - 0.3 microns in size from the air. Such filters are used in rooms with special requirements for air purity – laboratories, operating rooms, high-precision industries, etc. In filters corresponding to the H10 class, the efficiency of cleaning from the mentioned particles is 85%. H11 claims 95% absorption. And class H12 and H13 are the most efficient with particle retention of at least 99.95% and 99.99% respectively.

— Carbon filters. Created on the basis of activated carbon or other similar adsorbent. Effectively trap volatile molecules of various substances, thanks to which they perfectly eliminate odors. Carbon filters are subject to mandatory replacement after the resource is exhausted, since if the service life is exceeded, they themselves can become a source of harmful substances.

A lamp that treats passing air with UV radiation. This treatment provides a bactericidal effect: ultraviolet light neutralizes most bacteria, viruses and fungi. Although, in general, the efficiency of UV lamps is not particularly high; they are a great addition to an installed filter.

It is a sensor for monitoring the degree of indoor air pollution from dust.

Based on the information received from the air pollution sensor, a comfortable and safe environment is maintained in the serviced premises.

The lowest performance with which the supply-exhaust unit can operate.

For performance in general, see "Maximum air flow". Here we note that it makes sense to indicate the minimum flow only in cases where the amount of air passed can be regulated (see "Number of fan speeds"). And even then, for such models, this parameter is not always given.