Decentralised MVHR vs whole house
Updated: 22 October 2026
You are torn between a ceramic wall fan at about £123 and a loft box at about £319, and both mention heat recovery on amazon.co.uk. They are different architectures. One hole alternates push and pull in a single zone. A ducted appliance tries to serve more than one room. This page maps that split onto the nine rows on the [MVHR comparison](/hub/heating/mvhr) and keeps installed cost bands off the shelf price. Peter F. checked the listings and public UK sources. There was no lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
You are torn between a ceramic wall fan at about £123 and a loft box at about £319, and both mention heat recovery on amazon.co.uk. They are different architectures. One hole alternates push and pull in a single zone.
You are torn between a ceramic wall fan at about £123 and a loft box at about £319, and both mention heat recovery on amazon.co.uk. They are different architectures. One hole alternates push and pull in a single zone. A ducted appliance tries to serve more than one room. This page maps that split onto the nine rows on the MVHR comparison and keeps installed cost bands off the shelf price. Peter F. checked the listings and public UK sources. There was no lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Architecture | Airflow stated | What it can serve | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  LIRAST LIRAST EER100 white | One hole, alternate flow | Not stated | The room behind the grille | 8.5 | about £123.12 | View offer |
| Best value |  EUROPLAST EUROPLAST EER100 | One hole, stated flow | 29 m³/h | One room, switch in the box | 8.0 | about £189.90 | View offer |
 Vent-Axia Vent-Axia HR100R | Loft box and ducts | 18 l/s FID | A ducted bathroom or bedroom zone | 6.8 | about £319.00 | View offer |
On this page
What a single-room wall unit does
The decentralised rows are the two LIRAST listings, EUROPLAST, Brookvent, LINGGONGAIR and Envirovoid. They mount through an external wall. LINGGONGAIR also names ceiling or window. Heat sits in a ceramic core, then the fan reverses, about every 70 seconds. Supply and extract share one hole.
The fan changes the room behind the grille, plus leakage from next door. A flat with one external wall often has no duct route. Up to 85% or up to 90% describes the regenerator, not a bill cut. Shelf prices run from about £123 to about £360. The Centre for Sustainable Energy discusses about £600 installed per decentralised fan.
What a ducted box needs
Vent-Axia HR100R is a small loft unit: 18 l/s FID, two speeds, condensate and ducts. The CFLO250 puts 550 m³/h and up to 75% in the title and lists no duct kit. Swiftair puts 100 m³/h and four rooms in the title. One buyer received a two-room box.
Whole-house wording without ducts is a capacity headline, not proof every room is on the system. Shelf prices for these ducted rows are about £319 to £400, before terminals and commissioning. The Centre for Sustainable Energy discusses central systems from about £3,000 and above £10,000. Those bands are not the amazon.co.uk cards.
Airtightness and Part F
Savings show up most in a relatively airtight home. Passivhaus Trust targets for bedroom noise and wet-room boost are design aims, not a pass mark for these wall fans.
Approved Document F (2021, England) sets whole-dwelling supply and wet-room high rates. Hitting every wet room at once is a dwelling design. One wall fan can help one room. It is not that plan. Notifiable work needs measured airflow on the BEAMA pattern. Buying a loft unit does not commission the house. A 10–30% heating-cost band from the Centre for Sustainable Energy applies to suitable systems, not to each ASIN.
Which column to start in
One external wall starts with a decentralised unit. Stated airflow and a switch point at EUROPLAST. A loft duct to one zone points at the HR100R. Several terminals, after you open the carton, point at Swiftair. A central headline points at the CFLO250 only with ducts from a merchant.
Do not rank the white LIRAST against the CFLO250 on a recovery percentage. Do not add the anthracite reviews to the white listing’s 182. Figures of about £2,500 to £10,000 elsewhere are designed installations, not this shelf. Match a row on best MVHR for a named job.
Common questions
Can one wall fan ventilate a whole house?
Not as a designed balanced system. It ventilates the zone behind the grille and air that leaks through doors. Under Approved Document F, Volume 1 (2021), whole-dwelling supply is the higher of 0.3 l/s per square metre and Table 1.3, from 19 to 43 l/s for one to five bedrooms. One sleeve is not that calculation.
What does whole house on an amazon title mean?
Often a large central-unit headline. Check whether ducts, terminals and controls are in the listing. The fans4less CFLO250 shows no duct kit, despite 550 m³/h and up to 75% in the title. Swiftair’s four-room title did not match a two-room box in a UK review. The words are not a commissioning record, and they are not proof every bedroom is on the system.
When do I need ducts and a loft box?
When more than one room needs supply and extract in balance. That is the Vent-Axia HR100R or Swiftair path, not a single ceramic sleeve. You also need a condensate drain, insulation on ducts in a cold loft, and terminals. The fan has to sit lower than those terminals on the Swiftair installs reviewers describe. A flat with no pipe route stays on the wall-fan side.
Is decentralised MVHR cheaper to retrofit?
The shelf price is lower, and you make one penetration instead of a duct network. Installed cost still sits above the card. The Centre for Sustainable Energy discusses about £600 or more per decentralised fan once labour and electrics are included, against about £3,000 and upwards for a central system. Compare those installed bands with each other. Do not compare a £3,000 designed system with a £123 listing and call them the same job.
Should I remove trickle vents if I add MVHR?
Not because the parcel arrived. Background ventilators and airtightness need one view of the whole dwelling. Sealing every trickle vent after a single wall fan can leave other rooms short. If you later add a ducted system, that vent strategy has to be reopened with whoever is assessing the home. Approved Document F still expects purge ventilation. Do not add the fan and delete every other air path on the same afternoon.
Can I add a wall fan now and a loft unit later?
You can, if someone designs the two so they do not fight. Two fans that both extract, with no plan for supply, can pull the dwelling out of balance. Many people start with one damp bedroom because that is the room they can reach. A whole-house system remains the path for a new airtight shell, or for a major retrofit that already has a loft route and a condensate drain.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources named below. amazon.co.uk prices, stars and review counts on these nine listings were taken from the listing files read on 20 October 2026. Page updated October 2026.
- Approved Document F, Volume 1 (2021 edition) (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- GOV.UK ventilation: Approved Document F (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Centre for Sustainable Energy: mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- NHIC: why ventilation is important (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Passivhaus Trust MVHR good practice guide (2018) (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Passivhaus Trust: the case for MVHR (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- BEAMA Part F ventilation commissioning sheet (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Approved Document P (retrieved 20 October 2026)