With a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) installed in your home, you can generally expect increased comfort and non-stop, maintenance-free system operation. And with an HRV able to re-use heated and cooled air to pre-heat the fresh air coming into the home, these ventilators improve indoor air quality without greatly increasing energy bills.
To ensure top-quality performance from your system, follow these tips to decide when to use low-speed, intermittent or high-speed controls:
- If your home is well-sealed and insulated, and you’re not overly concerned about indoor pollutants, low-speed operation will suffice to provide a balance of fresh air with exhaust air throughout the year.
- If you haven’t improved your home’s energy efficiency, it is not sealed and insulated, and you are not worried about indoor air pollution, intermittent operations may be the way to go. This mode will mix low- and high-speed operation to compensate for energy losses through air leaks and low insulation levels.
- It’s ideal to run the HRV at high speed when you’re doing activities in your home that produce pollutants, like painting or using strong cleaning solutions.
- The system itself may trigger a higher speed when the sensor reads higher humidity levels. The HRV will then ramp up to increase its speed in order to quickly exhaust humidity.
- Other activities, such as smoking or having a large group of people inside the home, can also cause the HRV to boost operations.
Before making any adjustments to the heat recovery ventilator, consult an expert to discuss your lifestyle and home activities in order to set the system to the appropriate operating speed. You can adjust most HRV systems through either manual means or via a timer. Expert advice will help you know when to manipulate the system for optimal performance.
Use these operating tips to ensure that your heat recovery ventilator performs consistently over the four seasons. You’ll not only guarantee better indoor air quality, but you’ll benefit from a more comfortable home. For help selecting or operating an HRV, contact the leading HVAC experts in the Calgary area, Arpi’s Industries. We’ve been serving local homeowners for almost 50 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about heat recovery ventilators and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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