Letting in fresh air through the windows is great, but not when the weather outside is uninviting, or the pollution index is high. The problem is that without adequate air exchange, the air inside your home quickly becomes more polluted than the air outside. The answer for comfortable summertime fresh air is an HRV.
What is an HRV?
An HRV, or heat recovery ventilator, is a whole-house mechanical ventilation system that takes advantage of heat energy by transferring it between inflowing and out-flowing air. This is accomplished by employing a heat-exchanger core inside the duct system, or your cooling professional may install a dedicated duct system if none exists in your home, or sharing your existing duct system. A similar system, ERV (energy recovery ventilator), transfers moisture along with heat energy, to help dehumidify your home in the winter and remove moisture in the summer.
Fresh supply air and stale indoor air exchange heat through thin metal plates inside the core. The thin plates prevent the air streams from mixing, which means the supply air is not contaminated by the stale indoor air.
Unsurpassed efficiency
An HRV is extremely efficient. It can recover as much as five times more energy than the energy it needs to operate. Basically, this is a super ventilator that not only exchanges fresh air for stale air, but also helps heat or cool your home.
In fact, HRVs transfer more than 90 percent of heat energy between air streams. This means that you can enjoy conditioned fresh air throughout your entire home for less money than it costs to cool or heat uncontrolled ventilated air from open windows.
Fresh air on your schedule
HRVs are controlled and programmed with a comfort-control panel, or you may link up a smart programmable thermostat for seamless operation with other compatible comfort systems. A motorized duct damper regulates the amount of air flow your home receives based on your settings. You may opt for an outdoor sensor that adjusts ventilation based on outside weather conditions.
In addition to exhausting polluted and stale indoor air to boost indoor-air quality, HRVs utilize an air filter to capture unwanted allergens and other airborne contaminants from the fresh supply air.
Contact Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning if you would like more information about an HRV. We’ve proudly served Fresno area homeowners for more than 40 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Fresno, California area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about HRVs and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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