Should you run your HRV continuously? Across Dufferin County, many new homeowners moving to Orangeville or Shelburne will discover that their new built home is equipped with a heat recovery ventilator (HRV). Typically, this piece of ventilating equipment is placed near the furnace with a central controller next to your thermostat. Chances are, before you moved in, the house builder balanced the HRV's air exchanges and left you with no other information on how to use it.
To run your HRV continuously on LOW can be very beneficial to your home comfort during the cold months of the year. Considering new built homes are extremely air tight and do not allow for much air infiltration from the outside, your indoor air will become stale. Further, other activities such as, cooking, exercising in your home, using the bathroom, will form unwanted humidity and odor that you'll want to get ride of from your home. The HRV will get ride of this undesirable air, by performing an air exchange.
Hence, during the winter or cooler weather, keep your HRV running on low speed by selecting the LOW option on your HRV controller next to your thermostat. The HRV will exchange the stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air without sacrificing heat or adding extra load on your furnace. This is why it's call "heat recover" and there is no added work on your furnace to heat the new incoming outdoor air. With this in mind, using your HRV will leave you feeling comfortable and cozy, with the stench!
However, during the warm months it is best practice to leave your HRV on STANDBY or OFF. While HRVs are designed to reclaim heat, they are not as efficient at leaving the humidity outdoors. Therefore, an HRV will bring in warm humid air back into your house. This will cause your AC to work harder and your comfort level to go down. With this knowledge, homeowner ought to only turn the HRV on when necessary to exhaust excess odors. Pressing the HRV on for 20 minutes will be enough during the summer months.
If you are not sure how to use your HRV, reach us at EMI Air Systems, we will be glad to help! emiairsystems.ca
437-343-0275 emiairsystems@gmail.com