Question:
Does anyone have experience with Honeywell heat recovery ventilators (aka air-air heat exchangers)? There are two varieties, "HRV" and "ERV", the latter supposedly conserve humidity. I’d appreciate your comments. Tom Hilinski
Response:
I was unable to buy a Honeywell HRV (because they make it difficult for the DIY to buy) but bought a Nutone hr155 from a local wholesaler and installed it myself. (www.nutone.com – they mailed installation manual and brochure). I paid US$550 for it and bought 2 outdoor vents with one way dampers and 50 feet of insulated 6-inch flex. It looks like the same mfr made this as made the honeywell hr150. At least they are very similar. Simple to install if you are not afraid of electrical, vent work, drilling large holes in your house, etc. We have a closed ducted heating and cooling system and had a great place to install it in the basement. We are pleased with the result. The air in the house is much fresher and cooking odors just don’t linger. Since we are in Minnesota, it is often we cannot open up the house. I have it tied to a control system that turns it off at night. The primary control I use is plenum temp from the furnace. I set it to go on above 110 degrees or below 55 degrees. So that means the only time it runs is when the furnace or air conditioner is running. You could rig a sail switch to do the same thing, I just happened to have a controller (Honeywell 7505) running the house. When we ran it continuously, we found a huge increase in furnace running time. I estimated balance using flows at the in and out vents and when the temp is 35 degrees outside the heat exchanger puts 65 degree air into the return duct. We run our house at 75 degrees year round. At this time of year we have not seen much condensation coming out of it. (You need to drain the unit with tubing to somewhere). I expect it will dehumidify quite well in the winter and summer. The unit we have has a "dehumidistat" which kicks up the fan to high speed in the face of humidity (settable by a dial). Since we tend to need a humidifier running when the temps get down to 0F and below, it will be interesting to see if we have any problems in that regard. I have asked Nutone for more techie info on their controller and they have p romised to send it along. They offer several interface options in their catalog. I did get a price for the honeywell unit from a local wholesaler who quoted $960 for the HR150. I think he highballed me, but who knows. Even in this town where honeywell is headquartered, they are hard to deal with. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >Does anyone have experience with Honeywell heat recovery ventilators (aka >air-air heat exchangers)? There are two varieties, "HRV" and "ERV", the >latter supposedly conserve humidity. I’d appreciate your comments. >Tom Hilinski
If you like this post and would like to receive updates from this blog, please subscribe our feed.