Heat Recovery Ventilator

I'm considering adding a Heat Recovery Ventilator to my 1200 sq.ft. house heated by solar thermal with a wood stove backup. However, most of these devices that I've found seem suited only for larger houses (>2500 sq.ft.). Can anybody recommend a good brand of 'mini' heat recovery ventilators?

thanks,

Reply to
Greg
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Hi Greg,

I have a Venmar HEPA 3000 model, which is rated for up to 3,000 sq. ft. I'm very pleased with the performance of this product. I run mine mostly in "recirc" mode as a way to distribute heat from my ductless heat pump (located in the living room) throughout my home; you could do the same with your wood stove.

See:

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If you don't require this much capacity (it provides 105 cfm of fresh air for a total of 270 cfm of filtered air), you could operate it on a timer so that it runs only at set times of the day, e.g., three or four hours in the morning and likewise in the early evening. Since it is plugs into a standard wall outlet, an inexpensive lamp timer (e.g., the ones with the multiple pin settings) is all you need.

Cheers, Paul

Reply to
Paul M. Eldridge

Any of the HRV models will work in your home.

Run the calculations for volume of the air in your house and divide that by the amount of fresh air you want brought into the house. Divide the answer by 60 to get hours to exchange rate

Answers of less than 3 hours and you may want to cycle the unit on a timer.

For example 1200sqft with 8 ft ceilings is 9600 CU FT.

Using Paul's installation as an example above, it brings in 105CFM

A constant 105CFM does a complete change out of the air in your home in

1.5 hours.

So a reasonable approach is to use a timer that will allow you to run it

20 minutes out of every hour for a complete change out in 4.5 hours Paul's lamp timer idea is useful, but you may want a slightly more flexible timer for this application.

For example, this timer has a remote control and allows 20 on/off cycles. Not enough to cover all 24 hours, but close and very inexpensive.

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Reply to
Robert Gammon

Hi Robert,

Some good points. A fully programmable timer with a remote control would be a smart way to go and at under $25.00, the price is reasonable.

I should add this particular Venmar operates at two speeds ("normal" and "boost") and at this lower setting the outside air portion is 70 CFM. As mentioned, I run mine in "recirc" mode most of the time and only use the fresh air option when showering and at other times as required for humidity and odour control (a simple wall control located in the main bathroom allows me to change these modes and to turn the unit on and off).

Depending upon occupancy load and living habits, showering and cooking can be major sources of indoor humidity. Here in Nova Scotia, it's not uncommon for people who heat with wood to store a portion of this wood inside their basement; as you can imagine, the amount of moisture given off by this wood as it dries can be significant. I would closely monitor indoor humidity levels and adjust run times accordingly. With the remote control timer you've recommended, that's a fairly simple matter.

Cheers, Paul

Reply to
Paul M. Eldridge

But a typical 2400 ft^2 US house leaks 0.7 ACH, ie 0.7x2400x8/60 = 224 cfm, so an HRV saves almost no energy, compared to a less-expensive exhaust fan which might only run when the outdoor temp is close to the indoor temp.

Way too much. Enough for 7 full-time occupants, by ASHRAE standards.

Still too much. Andersen says an average family of 4 evaporates 2 gallons per day of water, ie 16.66lb/24h = 0.694 lb/h. In a mythical airtight US house with 15 cfm of fresh air with an outdoor humidity ratio wo = 0.0025 pounds of water per pound of dry air (Phila in January) and wi indoors,

15x60x0.075(wi-wo) = 0.694 makes wi = 0.0128, so Pi = 29.921/(1+0.62198/wi) = 0.603 "Hg, vs 0.748 for 70 F at 100% RH, for an 81% indoor RH.

But that's high enough to allow mold and mildew, so it might be reasonable to run an HRV when the indoor RH rises to 60% in wintertime, with a timer that only allows it to run in the afternoon, when outdoor air is warmer.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

Do you really need one, only a blower door test will determine if your house is tight.

Reply to
m Ransley

Thanks everyone for the information. I hadn't considered running the HRV on a timer but it sounds like a reasonable approach to scaling down the oversized equipment.

As for whether or not I actually need an HRV, I'm far from an HVAC expert so I cannot tell for sure. The house however, located on Cape Cod, is (by far) in the most humid environment I've ever lived. Its rare, even in the winter with the wood stove running, that the indoor humidity level will drop below 60%RH (in the summer if floats around

70-80%). The house is relatively tight, but could be better (I haven't yet had a blower door test). In the past I've run a bathroom ventilation fan for an hour or so each day to circulate the air.

Is there a difference between so called HRV and ERVs? Does one not deal with humidity?

Greg

Reply to
Greg

Hi again Greg,

I live on the Atlantic coast as well (Halifax, N.S.) and at this moment the relatively humidity stands at 97 per cent. I run my dehumidifier virtually non-stop nine months of the year and try to minimize any indoor sources of moisture, e.g., wiping down the walls after showering, cooking with tightly covered pots, etc. I'm not convinced exhaust fans are appropriate in our climate given that the makeup air (i.e., the air drawn back inside the house) is likely to be equally humid. I tend to believe a dehumidifier and HRV would be the better option, especially if mould and mildew are of concern.

Although I'm not absolutely positive about this, I believe EVRs transfer at least some humidity between the incoming and outgoing air streams, so a HVR would be the better choice.

Cheers, Paul

Reply to
Paul M. Eldridge

ERVs transfer heat and humidity. HRVs only transfer heat.

The price difference is not extreme.

HRVs gain favor in Canada in particular as cold air entering the home is a bigger problem for them than for most of us, and electric resistance heating seems to dominate the heatings systems there.

Humidity management suggests running an ERV so long as outside temps are in the range 20F to 100F, and RH indoors is above RH outdoors. Got to worry about DewPoint and condensation.

Reply to
Robert Gammon

16 Oct 2006 Typically, HRVs are useful for very tight, extremely well insulated houses. A lot of conventionally built houses are sufficiently leaky / drafty, so as not to require much more than exhaust fans in the bathrooms.

About 18 years ago, I made a homemade HRV, which I used in my house for the next 16 years (then I moved). In my current house, I use prolonged use of exhaust fans, and opening windows (just a crack) to feed the exhaust fans. That seems to provide a fairly continuous supply of fresh air, but is a bit drafty in the winter. But it rarely gets below

+15 degrees F. where I currently live, so it is tolerable.

For a source of information on infiltration, HRVs and ventilation, I have some documents you can access on-line.

All the text data is also on a Google site (with no diagrams), but it has the links to the Yahoo site and two alternative MSN sites, with much of the same data.

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Good luck. Dave

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Energy Conservation in Housing

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