Whole-house ventilation set-ups such as ERV and HRV systems afford you an economical, effective and comfortable means to bring fresh outdoor air into your Twin Cities home. This is especially important for homes that are tightly sealed to save energy and keep the cold weather outside.
Explore your options for home ventilation, and eliminate stagnant air that harbors pollutants such as chemical contaminants, allergens, odors, bioaerosols, and even auto emissions for homes with attached garages.
Comparing ERV and HRV systems
ERVs (energy-recovery ventilators) and HRVs (heat-recovery ventilators) circulate outdoor air into your home, while at the same time venting the stagnant indoor air outside. As the two air streams flow through the core, or heat exchanger, heat is transferred from the warm outgoing indoor air to the inflowing cold outdoor air (during the heating months; the opposite heat transfer occurs during the cooling months).
ERV and HRV systems may utilize your current duct system for whole-house ventilation. Or you may choose to install dedicated venting ducts for your ERV or HRV if your furnace blower motor is inefficient. Filtration is utilized to clean inflowing air in both systems.
ERV and HRV systems differ in how they handle humidity control. ERVs transfer moisture between the opposing air streams to help humidify or dehumidify your home. HRVs do not. While HRVs have zero percent mixing of opposing air streams, ERVs have a very small percentage of air mixing in order to transfer moisture for humidity control.
Choosing between ERV and HRV systems
For the most part, ERV systems offer a more complete ventilation process than do HRV systems for the Twin Cities area. This is because cold weather results in dry indoor air. The humidity enhancing that ERVs deliver can help increase, or maintain, humidity levels inside your home to eliminate the discomforts and potential property damage that dry winter air brings.
For more information on ventilating your home, please contact us at Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning today.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about ventilation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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