Are you thinking of buying a heat recovery ventilator (HRV), an energy recovery ventilator (ERV), or maybe you already own an air exchanger? In this post, we share critical information about how to get the most out of your residential air exchanger, as well as some tips and tricks that many people don’t know.
After reading this post, you will understand the basic owner maintenance required to keep your units running, how to get the most out of your air exchanger at difference times of the year, and better understand the options for different controls for customizing your air exchanger usage.
It is very important that your air exchanger is installed and set up properly. Balanced air flow is critical so that you do not depressurize or pressurize your home, as both of these conditions can have adverse consequences.
If you recently purchased an air exchanger from BPH Sales and are unsure if your system is correctly balanced after professional installation, don’t hesitate to contact our team for support and advice.
An air exchanger will require regular owner maintenance, whether it is a HRV or an ERV. The maintenance may be different for each homeowner, depending on the climate where you live, the frequency of use, and the neighbourhood where your home is located (for example, polluted air will likely require more maintenance for an air exchanger).
Most air exchangers, including ALL offered by BPH Sales, have reusable filters in them as well as re-usable, cleanable exchanger cores. Keep these filters and cores clean to keep your unit running at its optimal performance and to provide continued balanced airflow. The filters clean the exhaust air from the building and the incoming outside air prior to air flow through the exchanger core.
The filter for the incoming outside air (fresh air) may need to be checked and cleaned more often than the other filters, depending on your home’s location. During certain times of the year, these intake filters can become restricted by bugs, fuzz off trees, dust, or other airborne particles. It is good practice to check all the air exchanger filters once a month and clean them as needed.
Heat exchanger cores and energy recovery cores should only ever be cleaned as per manufacturer instructions, which typically recommend once or twice a year. Please refer to the documentation provided with your new HRV or ERV for further details.
As mentioned above, all air exchangers offered by BPH Sales feature re-usable filters and cores that can be cleaned. Typically, HRV or ERV filters only need to be replaced if the old filter has been damaged, when upgrading to a different filter rating (such as a HEPA filter or MERV-13 filter), or if you are recommended to replace the filter by the manufacturer or your maintenance provider.
When installed and set up properly, continuous operation of an air exchanger will provide you with constant air changes and fresh air into your structure. Some ERV and HRV controls allow intermittent operation where the unit will operate for a set period of time and then be off for a set period of time, such as 20 minutes on, then 40 minutes off.
Some air exchanger controls provide an adjustable humidity level setting to change the exhaust capacities if higher than desired humidity is detected. With this, an HRV may switch to high speed in an attempt to exhaust more indoor air and bring in less humid outdoor air.
However, this is only attainable if the outdoor air is at a lower humidity level than the inside air. Depending on your location, seasonal outdoor air may have increased humidity levels above that desired for your indoor setting. To avoid your unit operating at a maximum velocity and actually introducing more humidity into your structure, the comfort setting for the indoor humidity may need to be manually adjusted accordingly.
Our wide selection of OEM air exchanger controls allow you to choose the products you need.
You may want to be aware of the frequency of operation during hot humid weather or during very cold weather. For example, HRV operation in the summer when very hot humid weather is present will introduce heat and humidity into your structure. If you have and are operating an air conditioning system, this will be trying to cool and dehumidify the interior conditions of your structure
Possibly! If you prefer opening your windows at certain times of the year, such as the summer, you may not need to operate your HRV or ERV air exchanger as often as you may already be providing adequate ventilation throughout your home with the open windows.
Your HRV or ERV provides your home with fresh, filtered, clean air while expelling stale, stagnant air from inside. Having open windows with a fresh breeze may already suffice, depending on your homes needs, the humidity levels, and a range of other factors.
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]]>Then the answer is definitely YES, you need an air exchanger in your home. No matter whether you live in an apartment, condo, row house, or standalone home, your home, wallet, and, most importantly, your health, will all benefit from the installation of a modern residential air exchanger.
Older buildings used to leak stale inside air to the outside and would simultaneously allow in fresh outside air, creating a sort of natural ventilation throughout your home. However, modern houses, condos, and apartments built to much higher standards than previously are much more air tight and as such, modern homes don’t ‘breathe’ on their own anymore. Thus, you need an air exchanger to exhaust stale indoor air and replace it with fresh, high-quality outdoor air.
To get a better understanding of the flows through an air exchanger, let’s take a closer look at the visual example below.
During the heating season, fresh air from outside (#2) is drawn into the air exchanger core, where it meets with stale air from inside the home (#3). Inside the core, energy and/or heat is transferred from the warm, stale air to the incoming cool, fresh air, warming the cooler air before the next step. The fresh air is then distributed throughout your home (#4) through your ducting and/or your forced-air heating/air conditioning system. The now-cooler, stale air is exhausted to the outside (#1).
There are two main types, or designs, or residential air exchangers available on the North American market. The most common for across Canada, and colder regions in general, is the Heat Recovery Ventilator, or, HRV for short. The other design is the Energy Recovery Ventilator, or, ERV.
Both types fulfill the same basic air exchanging function but they do differ significantly in how they exchange energy or heat in the core of the exchanger. This also impacts the control of humidity levels inside your home.
This is THE most common question we get regarding residential air exchangers. And, understandably so! This isn’t as straightforward a question to answer as it would first appear. Let’s start with the basics of how an air exchanger works, and then we will work towards which type you need.
A HRV and ERV both exchange the air in your home, and have similar designs – on the outside. The REAL differences between the two designs is in HOW they exchange heat, or energy, inside the core of the air exchangers.
The core in Heat Recovery Ventilator allows for the transfer of heat from the outgoing stale, warm air to the incoming cooler, fresh air. However, the core in a HRV will not allow the transfer of moisture, or humidity, between the two air streams. Thus, if you have high humidity in your home, this excess moisture is expelled with the outgoing stale air.
The core in an Energy Recovery Ventilator works in much the same way as for the HRV, but instead of just allowing the transfer of heat energy across the core, the ERV core also enables the transfer of a high percentage of heat and moisture between the incoming and outgoing air streams.
In both cases the transfer of energy or heat between the outgoing and incoming air streams will lessen the loads on your home HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system.
The three below images, compliments of Venmar, help to visualize this process for us.
Heat & Moisture transfer inside a Venmar HRV Core
HRVs are best suited for homes in dry and cold climates with excess humidity during the heating season. HRVs enable the removal of that excess moisture, thus preventing the build-up of moisture in your home and significantly reducing the chances of dangerous mold and bacteria growths.
An ERV is best used in either colder climates where there is no excess moisture in the home during the heating season, or, in homes located in warmer climates where the outside humidity levels are high.
Residential air exchangers are rated based on the maximum provided volume of airflow, measured in CFM (cubic feet per minute). Our offered air exchangers can all run at variable speeds, meaning if you buy a 130 CFM air exchanger, the maximum air flow will be 130 CFM while the unit can also run at lower speeds to provide only the required amounts of air.
If you are not making (major) changes to your homes HVAC or ventilation system, you can often times get away with replacing your old unit with a similarly sized new unit. However, if there have been changes in your system (think of home additions or renovations), there is a good chance you require a different sized air exchanger.
Still not exactly sure what size or model you need? Don’t hesitate to contact our team! Contact us online 24/7, or give us a call Monday through Friday during standard business hours and we will be glad to help.
Most major manufacturers have substantial amounts of information available on their websites to help you better understand residential air exchangers and your options. Some of our favourite references are here:
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