[Greenbuilding] ERV strategy

[Gennaro Brooks-Church]

I think you are right that an ERV would take some of the humidity from
the bathroom outgoing air and put it back in diluted form into the
entire house incoming air. I think the con of that is mitigated by the
pro of taking humidity out of the incoming air on a hot humid day.

Gennaro Brooks-Church

Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231




On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 10:38 AM, Alan Abrams <alan at abramsdesignbuild.com> wrote:
> **
>
>> aren't we getting caught up in the fallacy that ERV's dehumidify?  they (at
>> least mine) don't have a condensate drain to "remove" humidity.
>>
>> - my understanding (and please correctmr  if wrong) is that the HRV does
>> fresh air exchange while maintaining conditioned heat (at about 75%
>> efficiency, usually in colder, dryer climates).
>> - the ERV does fresh air exchange while maintaining whatever conditioned
>> temperatures (heat and cool) AND also doing something with latent heat in
>> the humidity differential inside and out.  (i.e. it helps maintain whatever
>> humidity you have inside - achieved with separate air conditioners or
>> dehumidifiers-- but does not actually change the humidity of the indoor air.
>>  just does it's best to make the outside air just as humid as the indoor
>> air).
>>
>> so putting them on a bathroom doesn't make sense to me.  extra humid air in
>> there will be equalized with incoming fresh air and tend to KEEP that
>> humidity inside the house.  why is it that people use them there?
>>
>
>
> I understand the principles; with regard to the application I was referring
> to--bathrooms--the more precise description would be that the ERV functions
> primarily as an exhaust fan that removes extremely humid air from the
> bathroom where I just took a long hot shower, and replaces it with
> relatively less humid air from outside.
>
> In that circumstance, the ERV might actually work in reverse, transferring
> some water vapor from the moist exhaust air to the incoming fresh air.
>
> AA
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