What needs extracting?
Ventilation Installation South Africa moves stale, humid or contaminated air out and fresh air in, which is a different job from cooling it. Kitchens, bathrooms, workshops, server rooms and tightly sealed buildings all need it, and getting it wrong shows up as damp, smells and headaches.
Describe the space and get ventilation quotes.
Get the Best QuoteThe Common Systems
- Extraction fans. Bathrooms, toilets and small kitchens.
- Kitchen canopies. Commercial extraction over cooking lines, with filters.
- Supply air. Fresh air brought in, filtered, to replace what is extracted.
- Balanced systems. Supply and extract matched so the building is not starved.
- Heat recovery. Recovering the cooling from extracted air before it leaves.
- Industrial extraction. Fume, dust and welding extraction at the source.
Why Buildings Need It
- Moisture. Bathrooms and kitchens produce it and it has to leave.
- Cooking. Grease and smoke, which is a fire and hygiene matter too.
- Occupancy. People use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide.
- Contaminants. Fumes, dust and solvents in workshops.
- Tight buildings. Modern sealed buildings do not leak enough air to breathe.
- Equipment. Server rooms and plant rooms shed heat that must go somewhere.
Where It Goes Wrong
- Extracting with no supply. The building goes negative and doors become hard to open.
- Ducting too small. The fan is rated for air it cannot actually move.
- Discharging badly. Into a roof space, or right beside a fresh air intake.
- No filtration. Grease in a duct is a fire risk, not a cleaning problem.
- Noise. An undersized duct makes a fan roar and the fan gets switched off.
- No maintenance. Filters block and the system quietly stops working.
Ventilation Installation Prices
Ballpark ventilation figures so you can check a quotation.
| Item | Ballpark price |
|---|---|
| Bathroom extraction fan, supplied and fitted | R1,800 - R5,500 |
| Inline duct fan with ducting, domestic | R4,500 - R14,000 |
| Domestic kitchen extraction, ducted outside | R6,500 - R22,000 |
| Commercial kitchen canopy and extraction | R45,000 - R220,000 |
| Fresh air supply unit with filtration | R28,000 - R120,000 |
| Heat recovery ventilation, domestic | R55,000 - R180,000 |
| Workshop or fume extraction, per point | R12,000 - R65,000 |
| Ductwork, per metre installed | R650 - R2,800 |
Prices JUST UPDATED. Ballpark figures, rounded, excluding VAT. They reflect typical South African aircon and refrigeration rates. They are not our prices or quotations, and no provider is bound by them. Confirm what each quotation includes, such as the unit capacity, the standard pipe run, the electrical work, making good and callout fees.
Get a ventilation price for your own building rather than a range.
Get the Best QuoteWhat Affects the Price
- Air volume required. Calculated from the use and the room, in litres a second.
- Duct runs. Length, size and how hard they are to route.
- Filtration. Grease, carbon or fine filtration all cost differently.
- Fire requirements. Dampers and rated ducting in a commercial kitchen.
- Noise limits. Attenuators and larger ducts where quiet matters.
- Access. Roof discharge points and high level ductwork.
What to Include in Your Request
- The space. Size, use and how many people are in it.
- What you are extracting. Moisture, grease, fumes, dust or just stale air.
- What is there now. Existing fans or ducts and whether they work.
- Where it can discharge. Roof, wall or an existing duct route.
- Hours of use. Continuous, on a timer or on demand.
- Any requirement imposed. Health, fire or landlord conditions.
Before the Installer Quotes
- Ask for the air volume. A fan size without a calculation is a guess.
- Ask about make-up air. Extraction without supply causes its own problems.
- Ask where it discharges. And how far that is from any intake.
- Ask about filter access. Someone has to clean them, regularly.
- Ask about noise. A system people switch off ventilates nothing.
- Check fire requirements. Especially for a commercial kitchen.
Ventilation Installation FAQs
Is ventilation the same as air conditioning?
No. Air conditioning cools and recirculates the air already in the room; ventilation replaces that air with fresh air from outside and removes the stale air. Many buildings need both, and in a tightly sealed building the cooling cannot fix air that is never changed.
What size extraction fan does a bathroom need?
It is worked out from the room volume and the number of air changes an hour, not from the size of the fan on the shelf. A small bathroom typically wants somewhere around 15 to 25 litres a second. More important than the exact number is that the duct is the right size and runs to outside rather than into the roof space.
Why does my extraction fan not seem to do anything?
The usual reasons are a duct that is too small or too long for the fan, a duct that discharges into the roof space instead of outside, a blocked or taped-over outside grille, or no make-up air so the fan cannot pull against the pressure. The fan is usually the last thing at fault.
Do commercial kitchens have special requirements?
Yes, and they are not optional. Grease filtration, cleanable ductwork, fire dampers where the duct crosses fire compartments, adequate make-up air and a discharge point away from windows and intakes are all normally required. It is worth quoting it as a system with a designer involved rather than as a canopy and a fan.
What is heat recovery ventilation?
A balanced system that passes outgoing and incoming air through a heat exchanger, so the air you have already cooled gives up some of that coolness to the fresh air coming in. It means you can ventilate properly without throwing away all your cooling, and it suits tightly sealed buildings in particular.
Ventilation is one of the services providers listed on Aircon Hub quote for, alongside aircon installation and air curtains.
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