Could you please tell me your experiences with HRV? Especially those people who have allergies and do they minimise the effect in the air? My house is very hot these days especially in summer so I guess it should do well with cooling the house abit with the near-cold air it forces into your house.
sonyxperiageek: Could you please tell me your experiences with HRV? Especially those people who have allergies and do they minimise the effect in the air? My house is very hot these days especially in summer so I guess it should do well with cooling the house abit with the near-cold air it forces into your house.
In our house, the cooler air from the HRV kicks in at about 9:30pm - until then the air is warmer in the roof. We have a tiled roof, so a tin roof would probably cool down quicker. We don't have the system which also has an intake direct from outside, I guess that would bring cooler air in quicker (the opening a window effect).
It's not really much use in the summer for cooling, it's good in the winter though for some extra 'free' heating.
I set mine to 16c in summer and 24c in winter. Summer its great as there is cold air coming down from about 8pm unless its norwest in chch. In winter its blowing the day heat in all day then shutting down around 6pm. I have a tile roof so i don't get as much heat in winter as a steel roof will get but its still better than nothing.
Also its not near cold air in summer it gets as cold as the air temp outside so the same as opening all the windows. I get mad hay-fever in spring and the HRV works for me as long as you keep the outside doors and windows shut.
Have you run a GZ search under "HRV" ? There are several posts already about these units including dodgy scientific claims and sales practices (other brands as well) Like everything do your homework, and make sure whatever you buy is suitable for the application.
Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman
If your main concern is the hay fever then you can save a lot of money by avoiding HRV. Plenty of other air kits out there. What you need to look for is the filter specs. Bunnings sell kits. Any electrician will sell kits. etc etc.
Yeah if your main issue is pollen in the air then a fan with a filter on recirc and the doors/windows shut etc should eventually catch most of it from the air. If having the doors/windows shut is an issue then you'll need to pump in air from outside and filter it as it comes in. Keeping your house under positive pressure should mean air wants to get out rather than contaminated air coming in. Not sure on how much of a bubble you want to live in etc...
An aircon unit with a filter should fit the bill nicely I would have thought?
Is your issue seasonal, ie only pollen or is it whole year, with moisture/damp etc causing you issues in winter as well?
HRV is just a fan in a box with a filter on the intake side very basic I did not get it installed myself I purchased the house with it already installed. I am thinking of Y'ing in another unit that will take heat from the lounge in winter to heat the bed rooms. I can recommend that every house can benifit from a ventilation system being HRV or any other positive pressure ventilation.
I can't comment on the product, but do have experience with their sales tactics.
We were cold-called by phone to see if we'd be interested in an obligation free quote for a system in our house. As we were considering something along these lines we agreed, after being reassured there would be no pressure.
When the HRV rep arrived, he walked us through his spiel, and then pulled out the paperwork and started to fill it in. As the quote for our house was much more than we had expected or could afford, we told him we would not be proceeding, but thanked him for his time. He was actually genuinely shocked that we weren't taking him up on his "excellent offer", and then tried to guilt us into a sale by saying things such as "Isn't your families health important to you" and other similarly unwelcome and pushy statements.
As a result of this experience, we would never consider purchasing a system from this company.
Something you may want to consider is the controlability of whatever forced-air ventilation system you choose. Most GZers are tinkerers and consider themselves to be masters of their technology. I found my in-law's HRV frustrating to try and do things with. A classic I experienced was trying to turn it off. It would let you, but only temporarily. Another relative, by comparison, has a DVS which seems to have simpler more user friendly controls.
Areas of Geek interest: Home Theatre, HTPC, Android Tablets & Phones, iProducts.
In terms of heat recovery, HRV has been scientifically proven to be a waste of money (Otago University). As already mentioned there are much less expensive options for bringing in outdoor air and filtering it, like the Securimax 'heatrans' kit with a 'summer kit' and filter added.
sonyxperiageek: My house is very hot these days especially in summer so I guess it should do well with cooling the house abit with the near-cold air it forces into your house.
An air con unit will cool, ventilation systems will take whatever temperature the air is outside and pump it into your house. So in summer you will get hot air and winter you will get really cold air. The air will be filtered is all.
We've had HRV for approx 6 or 7 years - needs the filter changed every couple of years (approx $250.00) and we also constantly get cold-called by them despite the fact we're a long-standing customer.
Is it any good? yes, but only since we have had extra insulation put into theceiling and under-floor. Doesn't really cool the house at night, but does offer fresh air circulation, so that's nice to have.
Winter time we get moderate benefits from it, but it doesn't "heat" the house...merely moves the warmer air around a bit...
All in all, I'd say it's 50/50 on whether I'd ever buy another if I moved house.
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
Trusted
