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Corey Price 
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 Topic: Heat Recovery Ventilators
Posted: December 22 2008 at 1:55pm |
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Does anyone have experience with heat recovery ventilators? For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, it's a box with four HVAC duct openings. Warm, moist air from the inside of the house is sucked into one opening and out the other to vent outside of the house. Cold air from outside is sucked into another opening and exits as hot air into the home via HVAC ducts, or wherever. The beauty is that the heat from the exiting air is recovered, but the humidity from the house is removed. The process is be reversed in the summer so that cold air is exchanged, and the box has only two fans and an aluminum exchanger core. Typical units operate at up to 85% efficiency. I think I'll try a small version on my new tank room, connected to a humidistat to control humidity.
I hear that they really improve the air quality in newer homes. I like the idea, but I really was looking for a solution to humidity concerns...
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dew2loud1
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Posted: December 22 2008 at 2:01pm |
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I've been looking up trying to figure out how to DIY one for a couple months now, we obviously have humidity problems with 800 gallons and have a hard time getting in enough oxygen to stop pH suppression in the winter.
Let me know what you come up with, from what I've found the exchangers are epoxy coated, thermally I guess copper or titanium would be the best conductor, but i've never seen one in hand to figure out how it works.
From what I can tell its just an X pipe and all the heat exchange happens there, but I find it hard to believe they are 85% efficient without a longer exchange time.
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Daren Wightman
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Posted: December 25 2008 at 8:17pm |
I have been using a heat recovery ventilator for a few months now. It appears to be effective and less costly to operate than my dehumidifier. The only downside at the moment(which I am in the process of correcting) is that I get some condensation on the outside of the unit. This is in the areas that are not insulated as well. The cold outside air entering the heat exchanger cool the chamber and consequently the outside of the unit in that area. Since the unit is located in a warm/humid environment the outside surface of the unit is getting some condensation on it(unintended dehumidification  ).
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300 gallon in wall
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Corey Price
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Posted: December 25 2008 at 10:49pm |
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Cool- someone who is actually using one. Daren, how did you find out about it, and who installed it?
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Daren Wightman
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Posted: December 26 2008 at 9:14am |
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I read about them online. I installed it myself without to much difficulty. The toughest part was cutting 2 large holes through the side of my house. The combination of the osb/strucco was tougher on my blades than expected.
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300 gallon in wall
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Corey Price
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Posted: December 26 2008 at 10:49am |
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Did you put it inline with your furnace ducts, or did you run new ducts?
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Daren Wightman
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Posted: December 26 2008 at 3:16pm |
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I ran new ductwork, it is only operating in the fish tank utility room.
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300 gallon in wall
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Corey Price
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Posted: December 26 2008 at 7:29pm |
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I was contemplating just the fish room, but the benefits are good for the rest of the house.
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jacobse1
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Posted: December 26 2008 at 11:55pm |
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This is very interesting. My pH suppression is worse in summer when I close up the windows for the AC.
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125 g reef
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Corey Price
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Posted: December 27 2008 at 9:44am |
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http://www.fantech.com
They have some great info and good units, as far as I can tell. I'll ask a mechanical engineer about what to get, but I think I need a 200 cfm unit for my new house. We will have 3700 sf, at 0.05 cfm/sf is 190 cfm. If you go by occupant, I need about 105 cfm. If you go by volume, I need about 170 cfm. I bet 200 cfm with the tank will be great.
Edited by Corey Price - December 27 2008 at 9:45am
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