Heat Recovery Ventilation Systems (HRV)
Pre-heated, filtered, fresh air in the winter, cool and clean air in the summer, a balanced ventilation system is key to achieving this. As we look to seal up our homes with insulation so using a good home ventilation system becomes all the more important. Increased is the need to ensure fresh clean air can enter our homes and that stale, impure air can be expelled from internal spaces. While insulation will prevent heat loss in our homes it will also retain unwanted air and here home ventilation can help.
Where it really gets smart is the heat recovery bit that, in the process of expelling the unwanted air, warm air is extracted – via heat exchangers - from that exhausted air flow and in turn used to heat (or cool) the incoming clean air!
How Heat Recovery Ventilation Works
Unlike air exhaust and other mechanical ventilation systems i.e. bathroom ventilation fans or kitchen range hoods, an energy, or heat recovery ventilator not only gets rid of air inside your home, it replaces it with fresh filtered and preheated outdoor air. As the indoor air flow is sent outside, a heat exchanger inside the ventilator extracts the heat and uses it to preheat the incoming fresh air flow. This balanced ventilation system ensures that the moist contaminated exhaust air is continuously replaced with temperature controlled filtered fresh air creating controlled and balanced ventilation.
Example:
The air inside a house should be “exchanged” with fresh air approximately 12 times in a 24 hour period. The fact is that on average a house has only five – or fewer – air exchanges in a day. Alternatively, a good heat recovery ventilation, or HRV system will be designed to keep the air within your home or place of business fresh while venting out the old air and in doing so getting rid of excess moisture left in the air (through heat reclaim ventilation) after cooking, cleaning etc. to reduce the build-up of condensation and ultimately preventing the growth of mould and mildew within the building. All the while a HRV system will filter all incoming air to remove contaminants including dust and pollen. Your HRV system will also keep your home free from unwanted odours or VOCs.
One of the main features of a heat recovery ventilation, or HRV system, is its filter, and a good HRV system takes all contaminants from the incoming air and lets only fresh air into your home or place of business.
Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV): the Right Solution in Ireland and the UK
Stagnant indoor air can quickly be contaminated with pollutants like dust, mould, pollen, radon and even carbon monoxide. Heat recovery ventilation can remedy this potentially unhealthy situation, which for instance helps sufferers from asthma – but it also lowers your utility bills.
Benefits of heat recovery ventilation:
- Relief of allergy problems
- Controlled inlet of heated fresh air
- Exhaust air evacuation
- No draft sensation – “no holes in the walls”
- Reduces heat loss
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