Trickle vents required as condition of grant.

pineapple

As a condition of getting a Warm Homes Grant from the council, I am being required to have trickle vents fitted to my wood effect UPVC windows fitted 10 years ago. It's a old cottage which already lets in plenty of air thanks to the ancient front door which opens to an open plan ground floor! 
I've heard plenty of horror stories. Anyone had this done? Cheers

MyRealNameToo

Every trickle vent I've ever had has the ability to close them. From my limited understanding whilst building regs now requires the vents to exist it doesnt exclude the ability to close them.

You really need two points of entry/exit for vents to work so whilst the door may be one its effectiveness will be significantly less if there isnt a second. 

Boohoo

pineapple said:

As a condition of getting a Warm Homes Grant from the council, I am being required to have trickle vents fitted to my wood effect UPVC windows fitted 10 years ago. It's a old cottage which already lets in plenty of air thanks to the ancient front door which opens to an open plan ground floor! 
I've heard plenty of horror stories. Anyone had this done? Cheers

This comes up on MSE a lot 

You can get them installed and after the fitting has been accessed or signed off if that is needed then you can remove the inside trickle vent and put duct/gaffer tape over the hole/s and replace the vent 

This is entirely up to you wether you do this as others will say don't do it.

Trickle vents on windows next to roads can be noisy and that is one reason why people block them off.

pineapple

Boohoo said:

Trickle vents on windows next to roads can be noisy and that is one reason why people block them off.

I get a lot of farm traffic going past and I thnk I would rather do without the grant! That said, I've just found something called 'accoustc trickle vents'' which are supposed to be better

EssexExile

I stuffed mine full of insulation material. Kept the cold and the noise out.

rowan222

Despite being able to close them they never seem to properly seal. Horrible things!

knightstyle

We had these vents and they let the wind in even when closed, this left black stains across the ceiling as the wind blew from a recycling plant over a mile away.
I and some neighbours, took the outer cover off and stuck vinyl tape over the hole then put the cover back.

ic

I was required to do this to get CWI from a gov scheme five years ago.  I was going to replace the windows anyway, so I bought some vent covers off ebay, and fitted them to the outside and inside of the windows.  I didn't drill any holes in the frames, just screwed the vents on.  The guy carrying out the survey took photos of the windows as proof, and I got the CWI.

Chickereeeee

I had the opposite experience. I specified (and regs required anyway) trickle vents in the kitchen window to allow the extractor fan to operate properly, and not take warm air from the rest of the house. However, because of the design, they barely let any air though even with the extractor running hard.