Balance is important to your indoor environment, and a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) balances healthy, fresh air ventilation with temperature control and energy efficiency. Homes don’t “breathe” like they used to. Airtight residential construction conserves heating and cooling but also curtails natural ventilation, leading to stagnant indoor air quality. One-way solutions like supply-only ventilation or exhaust fans cause heat loss or gain as well as disrupting neutral indoor air pressure. A heat recovery ventilator continuously ventilates the home while also transferring heat to preserve comfortable temperatures.
Moving Air
The system utilizes small-diameter flexible ductwork to exhaust stale, humid air from the kitchen, utility room and bathrooms while inducting filtered, fresh outdoor air and distributing it to bedrooms and family rooms. Dual intake and exhaust fans installed in a central controller unit move equal volumes of air into and out of the house, avoiding an over-pressurized or depressurized environment.
Recovering Heat
Ventilation with outdoor air often means adding unwanted cold air in winter and hot air in summer. Your furnace and A/C run extended cycles and operating costs rise. A heat recovery ventilator incorporates a heat exchanger between the intake and exhaust air streams. Heat energy is extracted from the warmer stream and transferred to the cooler stream. In winter, furnace heat is taken from the outgoing exhaust air and added to the cold incoming stream to pre-warm outdoor air and preserve indoor temperatures. During summer, the process reverses and heat is extracted from incoming outdoor air and moved to the cooler outgoing exhaust stream to prevent heat gain. Depending on the unit, an HRV can recover 70 percent to 90 percent of heat.
Saving Energy
Since indoor temperatures are more stabilized compared to conventional ventilation methods, furnace and A/C energy consumption is reduced. A standard heat recovery ventilator consumes only about 100 watts of electricity. However, new high-efficiency HRVs that integrate ECM (electronically-commutated motor) fan technology use as little as 45 watts.
Paitson Bros. has been your Wabash Valley source for healthy indoor air quality since 1922. Ask us about more benefits of a heat recovery ventilator.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Terre Haute, Indiana 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 Guide or call us at 812-645-6859.
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Jeff Paitson is a third generation business owner who continues to run the business with the same values that have been passed down from previous generations since 1922.
Jeff’s belief is that the business belongs to Jesus Christ; therefore 10 percent of the company’s profits go toward the Maryland Community Church.
Jeff is a Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce member and in his spare time, he enjoys 
Ethan Rayburn is a lifelong resident of Terre Haute and a 2005 graduate of Purdue University.
An Eagle Scout, Ethan spent four years as a non-profit executive with the Boy Scouts of America before joining Paitson Bros. as a comfort advisor and later General Manager. In that role, Ethan has brought a renewed enthusiasm for customer care, integrity, value, and service to Paitson Bros. Heating & Air Conditioning.
Ethan enjoys singing and was a member of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club. He also enjoys playing and coaching soccer, spending time with his family and two young boys, and volunteering his time and resources with his church, Terre Haute First Baptist Church, which he has attended from a very young age.
One Comment
How do I know if my home has one of these? I have heard my contractor talk about an exhaust vent, because that was the problem when my house wasn’t cooling in the summer. The “exhaust vent” was blocked and the hot air wasn’t being removed from the house. Does the HRV attach to it?