Energy efficiency is a year-round issue, and good ventilation can be one that is of concern many months of the year. Many times this can be a two-pronged issue in the sense that you install and use one component for better energy efficiency and yet another for better ventilation. But what if we told you there were a single component that can do both? There is such a component, and it is called an energy recovery ventilator, also known as an ERV.
What Is It?
An ERV is a medium-sized, box-like component that attaches directly to your HVAC system for the purpose of providing ventilation – but it does more than that. By using the thermal energy from your stale, indoor air, the ERV pre-treats your incoming air, during both summer and winter, so that you can achieve better energy efficiency along with better ventilation. The best way for us to demonstrate this is by describing what happens during each season.
The Summer Months
In the summer months, the ERV expels your stale, cool indoor air to the outside, but it does so by first passing the air through a heat exchanger at the core of the component. At the same time, a fan on the ERV draws warm, moist air from the outdoors into the heat exchanger. Inside the heat exchanger, the thermal energy of the outdoor air is applied to the indoor air, cooling and dehumidifying the outdoor air before it passes into your HVAC system and into your home. Once the exchange has occurred, the stale indoor air completes its journey to the outside.
The Winter Months
During the winter months, the opposite happens: your stale, warm indoor air is expelled and the cool, dry air is drawn in. The air streams meet in the heat exchanger and the thermal energy is applied to the cool incoming air, warming it up and adding moisture to it before it moves into your home.
The Benefits
- Better energy efficiency – with pre-treated air, your HVAC system doesn’t have to work as hard to heat or cool the air in the system for your home; this can result in significant energy reduction.
- Continuous fresh air – with an ERV, you can have continuous, fresh air moving through your home without having to worry about losing heating or cooling.
Think an ERV would be of benefit to your home in Bolingbrook, IL? Give the indoor air quality specialists at DuAll Heating & Cooling a call today!
