Why You Need A Heat Recovery Ventilation System

Copyright (c) 2015 Matt Reardon

Our daily activities within our homes are generating both pollutants and moisture in vast quantities. The increasing levels of moisture are coming from our washing, cooking, bathing and breathing. When it reaches excessive levels, the moisture will condense on your windows and may lead to structural deterioration of your house, not to mention the health implications for you.

Areas that are prone to excessive moisture also become rich breeding grounds for mildew, mold, mildew, bacteria and dust mites. You'll realize you got a problem when you discover moisture is collecting on your glass surfaces like the windows, or when you notice some blackish spots on your walls. These types of unsightly black spots are clear indications of mildew growth. Dust and mold spores can easily get airborne and potentially cause a range of allergic reactions.

Why Choose a HRV System?

The main benefit of a heat recovery ventilation system according to the Journal of Power and Energy November 2008 Issue, is to eliminate excessive stale air from within your house, recover a good fraction of some heat from it, then add that recovered heat to the fresh air and have it pumped it back into your house. This is achieved through the following process:

1. Air extract grilles get mounted in humid and warm rooms inside your house, such as the bathroom, kitchen and wet rooms. This is to make sure that warm heat gets captured as closest to the source as possible.

2. Air supply grilles get mounted in different areas in the house like your sleeping or living rooms to deliver fresh air that has been warmed, the heat which has been recovered from the extract air.

3. Your suitably placed heat recovery unit will transfer the heat from the extracted air, to the fresh air and have it reintroduced back into your house.

4. The more air tight or insulated your house is, the more you're going to benefit from your mechanical HRV. A home that is well insulated devoid of ventilation will produce an enormous quantity of condensation and give you an unpleasant indoor environment.

5. Installing a good heat recovery system not only eliminates the excessive condensation through extraction of stale air, but also recovers some heat from your stale air and pumps fresh warm heated air back into the house, greatly improving your entire indoor environment.

A study titled "Run-around coil ventilation heat recovery system: A comparative study between different system configurations" published in Applied Energy, Volume 90, No.1, of Feb 2012 found out that the energy performance of houses in colder climatic zones, with a substantial demand for heating, is based on the rates of ventilation air change rates. The same study concluded that for such houses to get a realistic energy performance, a form of heat recovery system is frequently employed in recovering heat from the air being exhausted to the incoming makeup air.

On top of the biological contaminants and excessive moisture, your domestic appliances which use combustion have got great potential for letting in gases such as carbon monoxide plus other harmful pollutants to escape into the open breathable air. Some of the most common sources of such gases might include your wood-burning appliances, gas and water heaters, unvented space heaters and any leaky chimneys.


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Matt Reardon is an electrician with MouldBuster where he assures you of quality installations. Whenever you meet Matt, you will be glad you did, for he will give you worthy advice and service for all your electrical installations. To read more about Matt advice and their services logon to http://mouldbuster.com.au .