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.
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
Do you feel like your home doesn’t retain heat well, or is just plain cold and drafty? Are your energy costs during the winter months out of control? It could be because all your heat is escaping through your attic.
Improper sealing and insulation of the attic space in a home can lead to a great deal of your warm air escaping. It is known that heat rises, so this makes sense. Heat rises to the highest point in a confined space, the same as it would in a hot air balloon to make it rise.
As warm air escapes out the top of the house, the negative pressure created by this action sucks cold exterior air in through lower areas of the house, often times the basement and crawl space areas. This occurrence is known as the stack effect (also called the chimney effect) and can be the primary culprit in loss of warm air in many houses that haven’t had energy-saving upgrades.
Properly sealing the attic can help your home retain much of its heat. In addition, your home should have controlled ventilation to keep the air fresh and reduce pollution in your home. This can be attained through HRVs or ERVs or other ventilators.
HRVs and ERVs are essentially mechanical ventilators, but with a heat exchanger. This allows them to transfer heat between air streams, allowing for proper ventilation without sacrificing efficiency. They can take some of the load off your heating and cooling systems because of how they pre-warm and pre-cool air before it enters your home. HRVs can remove stuffy air from rooms with limited airflow and ERVs reduce humidity in the summer and help retain moisture in the air in the winter.
Keeping a good temperature in your house, while properly ventilating is a delicate balance, but this is why there are so many products on the market to help you achieve the correct ratio, while also saving on energy.
Older leaky buildings permitted sufficient air change (fresh air infiltration) to remove pollutants (such as carbon dioxide, moisture, mold spores, formaldehyde from building products) by the natural forces of wind and stack effect. Newer, tightly built homes do not allow this air exchange.
The best way to introduce fresh air into a home is through the use of an HRV or ERV. These products allow for balanced ventilation, same amount of air is exhausted as brought into the house, and the majority of the heat/cool is recovered from the exhaust stream into the incoming air. You get the best of both worlds — good air quality and low operating cost.
Heat Recovery (HRV) and Energy Recovery (ERV) units:
http://www.hvacquick.com/products/residential/Indoor-Air-Quality/Residential-HRV-ERV
