I recently moved into a new mansion that has inlet vents in every room and a 24 hour fan running in the bathroom.
The inlet vents are push-to-close on the interior wall and the instruction manual says to close them during severe storms. So of course, what happens? I am away on business for a couple of weeks and a severe storm rolls through.
Of course the vents were left open because what is the point of the ventilation if you seal off the intake vents?
And also, of course, there are now water stains on the interior wallpaper. A thin reddish-brown line running from the vent to the floor. Sigh…
This seems like a design defect. If Japanese law mandates 24 hour fans, and by extension 24 hour ventilation, but you must close the intakes when you take a 2 week trip to Okinawa, well, what's the point?
The question becomes, is there a way to prevent water intrusion while leaving the vents open? Two of the vents are on a covered balcony and have an exterior 'hood' that protrudes about 4 cm and seems designed to prevent water intrusion from the top, the third vent is on an exterior wall and seems to have a hood that looks more resistant to rain, in that it looks more like a knee open only at the very bottom.
And the second question is, what is the proper way to clean the wallpaper when this happens?
by skatefriday