Is Your Home Lacking Ventilation? We’ve Got the Solution

Getting some fresh air helps you to feel a little more relaxed. After spending a large portion of your time indoors with the air conditioning and heating systems running, sometimes you want to open up a window or sit out on the back porch to get away from the stuffiness of the indoors. Of course, once temperatures dip below a certain setting on the thermostat, opening up a window is no longer really an option, and you may only feel comfortable sitting outside for a short period of time. That’s when you should turn to professional technicians to install an energy recovery ventilator or heat recovery ventilator for your home.

Letting in Some Fresh Air

Opening up a window could greatly decrease the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems, as the system has to work a lot harder to keep temperatures up to standards. An overworked air conditioner or heating system is also more prone to breaking down frequently as well. Letting in the fresh air is nice, but the effects on your air conditioning and heating can be too severe to attempt opening your windows. However, there are systems that work with your heating and air conditioning system to bring in fresh air. Energy recovery ventilation (ERV) and heat recovery ventilation use heat exchangers to make sure that the air coming into the home from the outdoors is pre-heated (or loses some of its heat, in the summer) so that your air conditioning and heating systems run as smoothly as possible.

Energy Recovery and Heat Recovery

ERV and HRV systems work in the same way. In the winter, the heat exchanger transfers heat from the stale air leaving the building to a stream of incoming fresh air from the outdoors entering your HVAC system. In the summer, the heat exchanger allows the incoming fresh air to lose some of its heat. The only difference between an energy recovery ventilator and a heat recovery ventilator is that an ERV also can transfer some humidity, allowing for better moisture control and comfort. Call the Oak Grove indoor air quality experts at Air Mechanical, Inc. to get better ventilation throughout your home.