Heat recovery is a ventilation system for the entire house that will both supply and extract air.
Studies have suggested that it can recover up to 95 percent of heat which otherwise could have been lost through your standard home ventilation process.
With a heat recovery unit centrally located in a loft or cupboard, each of your rooms get connected through a network of ducts, wall or ceiling grilles.
How Do They Work? HRVs comprise of two ventilation ducts that run next to each other.
One duct brings in fresh air while the other one carries out the moist and stale air.
The clever aspect of it all is that the two different airstreams go through a special device known as a heat exchanger which allows the air heading out to pass much of its heat onto the air that is getting in without the two streams of air really mixing together.
Heat Recovery Ventilation is appropriate for a newly built home.
Your choice of a heat recovery unit ought to be based on a computation of your floor area and house occupancy levels.
A HRV is perfect if your home is located in areas that experience colder climates, because they experience excessive heating during heating season.
The HRV unit gets rid of this excess heat.
The upshot is that you receive a continuous fresh air supply, without experiencing any unpleasant drafts plus increased comfort within the home.
What Are The Advantages In a paper whose aim was to investigate the impact of HRVs on energy use published in 2003 on Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal (Vol.
24), it was shown that the HRV system could lead to 74% energy savings.
The paper concluded that using this system is fairly cost-effective and a worthy home investment.
Other advantages include: - HRVs give you a warm home that is well ventilated without having to keep on opening your windows.
- During the winter season, HRV could assist you in terms of savings on your home heating bills.
- During the summer, they lessen the need to have your air conditioning on most of the time.
- By keeping out excess moisture, they're best for your building structure, your furnishings, and for the health of the home occupants because they keep the internal climate a level that is constant.
- Typically they could retain much of the heat which would on average be lost from the home through standard ventilation.
Some manufacturers put this at between 85-95% savings.
Are There Any Disadvantages? - Most of the associated benefits can only be experienced if you live in extreme climates.
In climates that are milder, the benefits are diminished and may be nonexistent in some cases.
- HRVs could be quite expensive to install.
A typical HRV comes with several small electric powered fan blowers that cost some money to run.
- When using HRV in climates that are particularly cold, you'll require somewhat more complex equipment to prevent the unit from freezing up.
- HRVs require regular maintenance.
You'll need to clean or replace the filters every 6-12 months.
When you're planning for any ventilation system, there are several building code requirements which you need to observe.
Specifically, the equipment must comply with the Building Code of Australia (BCA).
The technician who is doing the installation for you must also comply with AS 1668.
2 that address 'Mechanical ventilation for acceptable indoor air quality'.