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InOvate believes in creating products that transform your laundry routine, making it safer, faster, and more efficient.

Efficiency, Space, and Safety with the Dryerbox®

One of the most common challenges homeowners face in their laundry rooms is the lack of space. Traditional dryer venting solutions often require a large clearance, leaving your dryer sticking awkwardly into the room. The revolutionary Dryerbox® by InOvate is designed to tackle this problem head-on.

The Dryerbox® is a recessed box that fits into your wall behind the dryer. It allows your dryer vent hose to run straight through the wall, eliminating those unsightly and space-consuming bends. This allows your dryer to sit flush against the wall, freeing up valuable laundry room space.

But that’s not all; the Dryerbox® also promotes efficient airflow by providing a direct path for venting. This reduces drying times and energy consumption, saving you money in the long run.

Safety and Maintenance with the DryerFlex®

Another paramount concern with dryers is the risk of fire from lint build-up in the vent. The DryerFlex® by InOvate offers a solution to this problem. Made with all-aluminum ribbon, the DryerFlex® provides a safe, smooth, and efficient conduit for your dryer vents. It takes the concept of a flexible vent hose to the next level, offering superior protection and airflow compared to semi-rigid or plastic options. Its smooth interior and flexible design minimize lint accumulation and make it easy to clean, reducing the risk of dryer fires.

Roof Venting Solutions with the DryerJack®

Unlike regular roof vents that are prone to lint build-up and bird nesting, DryerJack® offers a unique design that minimizes these issues. It features a curved damper, allowing it to open fully for maximum exhaust airflow, while the professional-grade construction keeps pests out, ensuring your vent stays clear and secure. The DryerJack® also offers a sleek, low-profile design that blends seamlessly with your roofline.

Outdoor Venting Solutions with the DryerWallVent®

The DryerWallVent® is an aesthetically pleasing and effective solution to outdoor dryer venting. Its low-profile design sits flush against your exterior wall, making it an attractive addition to your home’s exterior. But the DryerWallVent® isn’t just about looks. With a strong, lightweight damper and a structurally optimized hood, it also helps to ensure optimal airflow, enhancing dryer performance and efficiency.

Improving Indoor Air Quality with the Dryer-Ell®

The Dryer-Ell® is an innovative elbow fitting that offers a brilliant solution for long vent run situations. It provides equivalent airflow performance to traditional sections of straight duct, enabling you to have longer vent runs without compromising on dryer efficiency or safety. It’s a perfect choice for homes where the laundry room is located in the center of the house or on upper levels.


InOvate dryer products are designed with the customer’s needs in mind. They aim to solve common laundry problems with innovative solutions, making the routine task of doing laundry easier, safer, and more efficient. So whether you’re renovating your laundry room or simply upgrading your dryer venting solutions, InOvate’s products are the right choice for you.

 

MERV and HEPA Filtration

On July 24, 2023, in news, by Michael
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What is a MERV?

MERV is the Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, it is a standard rating system used to measure the effectiveness of air filters in removing particles from the air. The MERV rating scale ranges from 1 to 16, with higher numbers indicating better filtration preformance.

What do the MERV ratings mean?

MERV 1-4: These are the lowest-rated filters and provide minimal filtration. They only capture large particles such as dust, pollen, and carpet fibers, but are not effective at removing smaller particles or airborne contaminants.

MERV 5-8: Filters in the range offer moderate efficiency and are suitable for most residential and light commercial applications. They can capture smaller particles like mold spores, pet dander, and fine dust.

MERV 9-12: Filters in this range provide a high level of efficiency and are commonly used in commercial and industrial settings. They can capture even smaller particles like tobacco smoke, bacteria, and particles from exhaust fumes.

MERV 13-16: These are the highest-rated filters and are generally used in specialized applications such as hospitals, cleanrooms, and other environments where very high air quality is essential. They can trap extremely small particles, including viruses and bacteria.

How do MERV filters work?

MERV filters work by capturing and removing airborne particles from the air that passes through them. To do this, the filters are typically made from materials such as fiberglass, synthetic fibers, or pleated paper. The materials are designed to create a maze-like structure with passages for the air to pass through.

While the air flows through the filter, particles are trapped in different ways depending on their size. Larger particles are trapped by colliding with the filter fibers in a method called impaction. Smaller particles are trapped when they collide with filter fibers as they travel through the passages in a method called interception. Smaller particles can also be trapped when random particle motion causes them to hit and adhere to the fibers in a method called diffusion.

What is HEPA?

HEPA stands for High-Efficiency-Particulate-Air, it is a highly effective method of air purification that can remove a wide range of airborne particles.

What is the difference between a HEPA filter and a MERV filter?

Similarily to MERV filters, HEPA filters are composed of materials such as fiberglass or polyporopylene with diameters between .5 and 2 microns. The materials are designed as a mat of arranged fibers which create narrow convoluted pathways so that air may pass through. Typically, HEPA filters consist of multiple layers of filtration materials with varying sizes of pores. The layering enhances the filter’s performance and helps extend its lifespan.

What are the HEPA filter do we use?

We use a European standard H13 HEPA filter. These filters must capture at least 99.95% of particles down to .3 microns.

What does that mean?

The hardest particles for a filter to catch are .3 microns, so this rating is used to show the capture rate of the least captured particle. Like MERV filters, HEPA filters capture particles through impaction, interception, and diffusion. Particles that are smaller than .3 microns are captured through diffusion due to the collision of gas molecules with small particles.

This is the typical performance of a HEPA 99.9% filter and as you can see, HEPA filters are incredibly efficient at capturing particles under .3 microns.

What does a pre-filter do?

A pre filter is a MERV filter that is placed before the airflow gets to the HEPA filter. The MERV filter captures a majority of the larger particles and leaves the HEPA filter to only capture the smaller particles that made it through the MERV filter. This makes the HEPA filter more efficient and increases the lifespan of the filter by not getting clogged up by larger particles. This becomes more cost efficient as well because MERV filters are much more affordable than HEPA filters.

Click here for our available inline filter boxes

Click here for our available HEPA product

 

Broan Products

On July 21, 2023, in news, by Michael
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We are thrilled to announce that we now have HRV and ERV products on our website made by Broan. Say goodbye to stale, polluted air in your homes with Broan’s state-of-the-art HRVs and ERVs. Promote a healthier and more inviting atmosphere for you and your loved ones with our selection of Broan products.

HRV and ERV products made by Fantech, Lifebreath, S&P and Aldes are also available.

Find out more about how HRVs and ERVs work, and which one is best for you here.

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HRVs and ERVs

On July 21, 2023, in news, by Michael
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What do HRVs and ERVs do?

HRVs and ERVs allows fresh air to get into the home, and makes stale air go out of the home. The fresh air coming in and the stale air going out travel through the HRV or ERV core, the stale air pre-conditions the fresh air as it’s coming in, and then the fresh air coming into the house is closer to the temperature inside of the house than before it comes in. This means that your house is conserving energy from having to heat or cool the fresh air coming into the house.

Why is this important?

According to the EPA, we spend approximately 90% of our time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations. In order to combat this, it is important to have a constant airflow allowing air to travel in and out of the house. This filters out the stale, poluted air that has been sitting inside and replaces it with fresh air from outside.

What is the difference between an HRV and an ERV?

HRV is a heat recovery ventilator, the core does not allow for moisture to be transferred from one side of the core to the other. This means in humid conditions, the moisture of the fresh air is coming into your home. This will actually make your air conditioner work harder trying to get the moisture out of the air.

ERV is an energy recovery ventilator, the core allows the transfer of moisture from one side of the core to the other. This meanss that in humid conditions, part of the moisture of the fresh air is being transferred to the stale air going out, and your air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard to get the moisture out of the air.

Which device is right for you?

This infographic can help determine if the HRV or the ERV is better for your home.

As you can see, in a majority of the United States, an HRV is recommended over the ERV. These are locations that are typically more dry with longer heating seasons.

As you get closer to the southeast of the United States, it is recommended to get an ERV as these locations are typically more humid with longer cooling seasons.

Click here for our available HRVs

Click here for our available ERVs

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Summer Cooling Tips

On July 21, 2021, in cool products, news, solutions, by neil
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We love houses, and so do our friends at Redfin – the very cool and informative real estate website. They just published this article , which has some great tips on keeping your house cool this summer.

Keeping you cool, while saving energy – that’s a core part of our business, so we’re happy to see our partner at AirScape’s tip mentioned. And what do you know ? They suggested whole house fans.

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To HEPA or not to HEPA – no question !

On January 27, 2021, in news, by neil
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The following article from the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene makes a compelling case for adding HEPA filtration to indoor environments in order to greatly reduce the chance of Covid spread.

The article has a couple of important points.

Based on their model, an office worker has a 40% chance of contracting Covid when sharing an office with an infected worker “Even with use of N95 masks in this scenario” after 1 week of exposure !

By combining HEPA filtration (12 Air Change per Hour – 12 ACH), the probability of contracting Covid from the office environment over a 6 month period drops to 0.003%.

Publication Cover

Conclusion: Use HEPA filtration in indoor environments in this time of panemic, and continue to use to avoid other airborne pathogens.

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Indoor Air Quality : Overview

On December 14, 2020, in news, by Melanie
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What is Indoor Air Quality ?

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduced productivity, and impaired cognition (yes, you can actually become more stupid !).

Common indoor air contaminants include:

  • Particulates: cigarette smoke, candle burning, wood smoke from fireplaces
  • Allergens: skin flakes, pet dander, mold spores, mite proteins, radon
  • Pollen: plant matter, grass, hay, trees
  • Pathogens: bacteria, influenza, viruses
  • VOC: volatile organic compounds: benzene, ethylene glycol, formaldehyde, methylene chloride

The World Health Organization states that particulate matter in the air can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the body systematically, affecting the cardiovascular and other major organ systems. Chronic exposure to particulate matter leads to increased risks of premature mortality from heart attack, stroke, respiratory infections, and lung cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that “studies of human exposure to air pollutants indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be two to five times — and occasionally more than 100 times — higher than outdoor levels.”

VOC’s

  • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands.

Organic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes and wax all contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing and hobby products.

Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Monoxide

Gas combustion produces PM2.5 (one of the deadliest air pollutants) — research suggests gas cooking produces about twice as much PM2.5 as electric cooking. It also produces nitrous oxides (NOx), including nitrous oxide (NO) and nitrous dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and formaldehyde (CH2O or HCHO). All of these pollutants are health risks if not properly managed.

Stay tuned for solutions to improve indoor Air Quality just in time for winter !

 

https://www.hvacquick.com/products/brands/AquaMotion

THE PROBLEM: How long do you wait for hot water to arrive in the shower? 30 Seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes? While you wait, a family of 5 wastes approx. 15,000 gallons of tempered water down the drain and pays for that water plus sewage fees.

THE SOLUTION: AquaMotion has the SOLUTION for every possible installation in homes, condos, multi-family, mansions, businesses, restaurants and factories. Their products offer the simplest, uncomplicated, most cost-effective solutions for any type of installation.

THE BENEFITS: By providing instant hot water there’s no more waiting for hot water. This prevents the dumping of energy loaded warm water down the drain reducing sewage fees as well as the water bill. The pumps meets building codes for water saving and helps to alleviate water shortages.

Types of Installations and Model Selection

Homes built before 1980 and many later homes use a single pipe (no dedicated return line) system to deliver hot water to the sinks and showers. The water in the pipe turns cold when no one uses hot water. For this type of application, use any of the AquaMotionHOT™ One Kits. They are installed under the sink furthest from the heat source.

Homes that have a dedicated return line (2 pipe) where a pipe goes from the furthest sink from the heat source back to the hot water tank or boiler or tank-less heater use an AquaMotionHOT™ Two kit. See the selection chart below.

One of the most popular systems is the AquaMotion AMH1K-3UV Pump and Valve Hot Water Recirculation System pictured below. The pump is installed at the water heater and the bypass valve under the furthest fixture such as a sink. Additional bypass valves can be added if the house has multiple plumbing systems.

The alternative to the split pump and bypass design is the popular AquaMotion AMH3K-7 Under Sink Hot Water Recirculation System pictured below. The pump and bypass is one piece installed under the furthest sink. Note that power is required at the pump location.

MODES OF OPERATION:  AquaMotionHot™ One and AquaMotionHot™ Two are fully automatic systems that are controlled by built-in sensors and switches. When water at the faucet cools down, the sensor turns on the pump and shuts it off when hot water arrives. The pump runs, depending on the length and size of the pipe, three to four times an hour for one or two minutes to maintain instant hot water at the faucet.

Built-in timers on the pumps are available to limit the operating time to save energy when hot water is not needed.

All systems can be made ON-DEMAND to meet certain codes or preferences by adding ON-DEMAND buttons and wireless receivers or motion sensors with receiver kits.

California and some other states require an operator controlled system where the user presses a CALL button to turn on the pump (ON-DEMAND). Motion sensor are another method used to start the pump. AquaMotion offers both these solutions with their ON-DEMAND systems. Up to 5 wireless buttons or 5 motion sensors or mixed 5 can be programmed into one receiver.

Tankless Water Heaters

The good news is AquaMotion makes larger pump systems to accomodate tankless water heaters. Checkout the full selection here.

https://www.hvacquick.com/products/brands/AquaMotion

Images and data courtesy of AquaMotion.

Indoor Air Filtration and COVID-19

On September 2, 2020, in news, by Melanie
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It is important to think about filtration, ventilation and air cleaning in order to mitigate risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Indoor confined space with closed window
Indoor properly ventilated space with open window

Let’s define some terms :

Droplets are propelled through the air, visible but fall to the ground after traveling 3-6 feet. Published research which has been replicated shows that droplets are only important when coughing and sneezing

Aerosols are much smaller than droplets (generally considered to be anywhere from 1 to 10 microns). They can be generated by talking, or by evaporation of droplets.

Aerosol (also referred to as “airborne”) transmission is similar to droplet transmission, except that the bits of fluid are so small that they can linger in the air for minutes up to 16 hours. Fears AC, Klimstra WB, Duprex P, et al. Comparative dynamic aerosol efficiencies of three emergent coronaviruses and the unusual persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in aerosol suspensions. medRxiv 2020:2020.04.13.20063784. doi: 10.1101/2020.04.13.20063784

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132320302183

Appropriate air filtration and ventilation ensures that adequate dilution is achieved where and when needed, avoiding the build-up of viral contamination

Ventilation is the replacement of stale or noxious air with fresh air to a space or building by natural or mechanical means (ISO, 2017). It controls how quickly room air is removed and replaced over a period of time. Ventilation plays a critical role in removing exhaled virus-laden air, thus lowering the overall concentration and therefore any subsequent dose inhaled by the occupants.

HEPA is a type of pleated mechanical air filter. It is an acronym for “high efficiency particulate air [filter]” (as officially defined by the U.S. Dept. of Energy). This type of air filter can remove at least 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, and any airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns (µm).

Public health messaging can be confusing. Scientists have issued a global statement through the World Health Organization stating that when it comes to COVID-19, the evidence overwhelmingly supports aerosol transmission.

With infectious diseases transmitted through aerosols, HVAC systems can have a major effect on the transmission from the primary host to secondary hosts. Decreasing exposure of secondary hosts is an important step in curtailing the spread of infectious diseases. HVAC systems impact the distribution and bio-burden of infectious aerosols.

https://www.ashrae.org/file%20library/about/position%20documents/pd_infectiousaerosols_2020.pdf

It is important to visualize the mechanism by which COVID-19 is transmitted, in order that individuals and institutions can understand how to protect themselves.

The closer you are to someone releasing virus-carrying aerosols, the more likely you are to breathe in larger amounts of virus. We know from detailed, rigorous studies that when individuals talk in close proximity, aerosols dominate transmission.

Talking increases aerosol exhalation by a factor of 10. It has been found that outbreaks occur when people gather in crowded, insufficiently ventilated indoor spaces

Superspreading events, where one person infects many, occur almost exclusively in indoor locations and are driving the pandemic. These observations are supported and explained by aerosols, and are very difficult or impossible to explain by droplets. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.28.20029272v2

Contact tracing shows that, when it comes to COVID-19, being outdoors is 20 times safer than being indoors, which argues that aerosol transmission is much more important than droplets. Outdoors, there’s plenty of air in which aerosols can become diluted; not so indoors.

As we move from warm weather outdoor activity season into autumn and winter indoor season, the Airscape HEPA.Tower provides an excellent ventilation solution to create fresh air indoors.

https://www.hvacquick.com/products/residential/COVID-19-Mitigation/Air-Purifiers/AirScape-HEPA-Tower-Air-Purifier

https://time.com/5883081/covid-19-transmitted-aerosols/

 

Using Humidity to mitigate Covid-19

On September 2, 2020, in news, by Melanie
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Since coronavirus is spread by breathing in respiratory aerosols from infected people, it stands to reason that avoiding breathing those aerosols is key to not getting COVID-19. One way to do that, according to a new study, is to keep humidity levels in indoor settings at 40 to 60 percent.

Researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing 10 international studies that were done between 2007 and 2020 looking at the rate of survival and infections of coronaviruses and influenza based on humidity levels in the air.

It was discovered that at higher humidity, the droplets grow faster, fall to the ground earlier and have less chance of inhalation by healthy people, meaning that viruses cannot spread as easily in humid conditions.

Although low humidity causes the droplets containing viruses to dry out more quickly, the survivability of the viruses still seems to remain high. Research concluded that other processes are more important for infection. If the relative humidity of indoor air is below 40 percent, the particles emitted by infected people absorb less water, remain lighter, fly further through the room and are more likely to be inhaled by healthy people. In addition, dry air also makes the mucous membranes in our noses dry and more permeable to viruses.

From the researchers’ point of view, more attention should be paid to indoor air to prevent future outbreaks of viral disease.

https://www.tropos.de/en/current-issues/press-releases/details/coronavirus-sars-cov-2-breitet-sich-bei-niedriger-luftfeuchtigkeit-in-innenraeumen-staerker-aus

HRV/ERV exhausts stale indoor air to the outside, and brings in fresh air from outside. This fresh air is then distributed throughout the home either by the HRV/ERV or by your furnace fan.

In the winter, the warm indoor air passes through the HRV/ERV core as its being exhausted and warms up the incoming fresh outside air. The the summer, the cycle is reversed and the cool indoor air cools down the hot outdoor air recovering the energy. The 2 airstreams never mix when passing through the HRV/ERV core.

https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/energy-recovery

https://www.hvacquick.com/products/residential/HRVs-and-ERVs

During cold and inclement weather, high efficiency filter ventilation systems that recirculate some of the air are an excellent solution.

Buy our humidifiers