‘Trickle Vents’ in PVC Windows and Doors

[MoseSchrute]

We’ve just moved to a relatively new build house (20 years old) and all the windows have these useless trickle vents in them. Even when shut they allow a draft through an otherwise close window.

I understand that a house can’t be hermetically sealed shut but none of our previous houses had these. I will always open a window to air the house (much to DH dismay) daily but these vents feel pointless.

Any idea on how to temporarily seal them and also if the only way to get rid of them once and for all, is to change out all the windows?

For people with serious mould / condensation problems a few trickle vents will not make much difference. It all depends on your living habits? Drying clothes on radiators all over the house,not opening windows when showering, number of people in the house things like this make a difference.its amazing how much moisture come out when you breathe .
There are pros and cons for trickle vents , they do let a small amount of air in / out to circulate, but they also let out heat, let in cold and let in noise and also look shit 😀
Personally I don’t think they are worth having, i prefer a small dehumidifier set to a certain humidity % so it comes on and off automatically, sucks the moisture out of the air but keeps the warm air in, they are a bit pricey (ours was £160) but I wouldn’t be without it now, we also have one in the utility just for drying clothes.

Do people really say folly 😂

We had some work done on a woodburner for the tenants when we were abroad. Hadn't had a trickle vent in the windows, and the house is old, so not hermetically sealed, and there are enough drafts for a through put of air. The bloke who did the work insisted on a trickle vent in my very old double glazing.

I shall be very irritated if when I replace that window, I am required to have another trickle vent there. It makes the room cold.

If the window you are replacing didn’t have a vent on then you don’t have to have them on the new one , if it’s a new house or extension then they are required to have them.

We have them in nearly every window in quite a large house. They don’t make it cold. They are barely noticeable. I have a lot of blinds and they are behind them. If you have double glazing, heat efficiently and effectively and ventilate you shouldn’t have problems.

Dehumidifiers use electricity and take up space and are very ugly! Trickle vents cost nothing, don’t use fuel and take up no space.

I wish we'd been offered them when we replaced our windows. I have to deal with black mould in the winter.

I have trickle vents on half the windows in my house (extension part).

They are noisy, draughty and I hate them. We are thinking of replacing the windows and not having trickle vents. We have no issues with mould, damp or condensation even in the part of the house with no trickle vents.

Spoken to a few glaziers who hate them, they are fitting top spec insulating, noise reducing glass and whacking a big hole in the frame.

We have looked at several alternatives for building regs. One is to get night latches- so the windows can be locked open for security but still vent, but we can shut them completely in bad weather, firework night etc. Another is to get an extraction system- house is open plan so we may be able to piggy back onto the existing bathroom fans and vent into the roof. Or you can put air bricks in and/or extraction fans e.g in the kitchen.

As for building regs. Several options. One is to get the council to come round and sign off, apparently some will if you have an adequate alternative, some won’t. Second is to buy an indemnity policy against any action by building regs- apparently this is common. Third would be to retrofit vents in the windows that previously had them, or replace those windows again (less than half our window have tv, and are small, so should only be a couple of grand off the sale)

It likely will only be an issue if we sell the house and the buyers aren’t happy with an indemnity.

Ours are not big holes. They are more like slits. They are ready made with covers and they can be closed. Who has vents that won’t close!? Fans are noisy.

Ours are not big holes. They are more like slits. They are ready made with covers and they can be closed. Who has vents that won’t close!? Fans are noisy

Hyperbole. Ours are slits with covers too but we are semi rural and when the wind gets up they whistle very loudly, and are draughty enough to rattle the blinds, even when closed.

I have an extraction fan in the kitchen anyway, where 3 of the vented windows are. The bedroom has an en suite, with an extraction fan...so no more noise than we have already.

It doesn’t make sense that building regs bang on about u values and insulating you home properly to save energy on heating, and window manufacturers go the the trouble of argon filled k glass, double draft seals on openers , insulated profiles etc. Then cut a hole in every window and cover it ( if closed ) with a thin 2mm strip of pvc ????

I wonder what the u value of a trickle vent is 😀.

All modern pvc windows can be locked in a slight open position which is a better option than trickle vents , as you can close it properly when the beast from the east is rattling on your windows 💨❄️

Ventilation is an essential part of insulating a house you cannot insulate properly without it.
There are two types of ventilation - background and purge
Extractor fans like those in your bathroom and kitchen are purge ventilation and get rid of the excess moisture (& smells) from things like washing and cooking. Opening windows is also purge ventilation.
Background ventilation deals with the background moisture such as us breathing - humans produce a surprising amount of water.
In old houses this wasn't a problem as their were draughts from poor construction, fireplaces etc which acted as background ventilation. However with the advent of modern insulation we started to seal our homes up like a plastic bag.
This meant that moisture has nowhere to go and caused problems with condensation etc. Trickle vents are a easy and cheap solution, there are others.
Heat loss calculations assume they are part of the fabric of your home. So your better u-values account for them.
Newer special 'superinsulated' houses don't have them and instead used MVHR systems which provide constant controlled ventilation - these are more expensive and require specialist design.
I suspect they will over time disappear in lots of houses to be replaced by more sophisticated systems but it will take time and money.

We have them on our 20 year old house but they’re open and closed by sliding along and when shut they're draft and sound proof. They were useful when the DC were tiny and I didn’t want to leave bedroom windows open but these days they’re just left shut and I open the windows when I want to air the room.

Presumably they’re there because some people literally never open a window. All the windows in some friends’ house were not only never opened, they were locked! I had to ask for a key for the spare room window - I had to have it open at night.

I'd keep them.

We moved from a modernish house where we'd replaced the wooden windows with top spec UPVC with trickle vents to a similarly aged house where the previous owners had put in non-trickle vented UPVC. We get SOOO much condensation in this place even though we live the same way (don't dry a lot of washing on radiators), breathe the same amount, open windows fully every morning, use a dehumidier if we are drying washing inside. I'd much rather have constant background ventilation of the trickle vents.

Hmmm. We're going to build a rear extension which will be our only living/kitchen/dining space. Bifolding doors across the back wall, and some combo of roof lights/lanterns on the roof. No actual 'windows'. Oh, and a door to an internal courtyard which will not be open to the elements but hopefully not hermetically sealed either

Anyone have any idea whether we'd be required to have trickle vents in the roof lights..? The back doors?

The rest of the house is old and I'm sure very draughty! (We've not lived there yet.)