We created a pretty effective and affordable ductless ventilation system for our 1,300 sq ft ranch on a conditioned crawl space. We have our filtered air intake fan in a great room at one end of our house, near our mini split and stand alone dehumidifier. The mini split blows air through the great room and straight down our central hallway towards the two bedrooms at the other end of our house. We have floor vents in the far corners of both bedrooms, open to the crawl space. And an exhaust fan in the crawl at the opposite end, under the great room. So fresh air is blown the length of our house, down the vents, and through the length of our crawl space. The CO2 in our bedrooms remains below 800 ppm, even after having the bedroom doors closed all night. Not a perfect system, but it works reasonably well for us. It also works well for radon control, and our floors stay reasonably warm all winter.
9:23 - - *DILUTION AIR* - - 9:26 - - Air is cleaned mostly w filters 9:31 - - Diluting w outside air = more $ (energy, comfort, humidity control, pollutants) 9:44 - - Dilution can replace all air w outside air several times a day 9:56 - - *DILUTION AIR - 4 METHODS* - - (1) Exhaust only (2) Supply only (3) Mix/Balance of Exhaust + Supply (4) Balanced Ventilation with an Energy Recovery Core 13:11 - - Consult or train with Corbett Lunsford 0:00 - - Overview - - 5 Factors for Ventilation - - 3:01 - - 1. Circulation 7:02 - - 2. Capture/Filtration 8:27 - - 3. Humidity Control 9:23 - - 4. Dilution Air 10:35 - - 5. Pressure Relief 10:59 - - *2 WAYS FOR PRESSURE RELIEF - - ACTIVE & PASSIVE*
I would like to see a couple of videos showing sample layouts for what equipment you would include and where you would locate the units for a complete HVAC system in a small home - perhaps a one bedroom home under 1000 sq and a two or three bedroom home under 1500 sq'. I know you've covered everything needed for a tiny home and also for your forever home but there's not much information available for something in between. The houses could be built to "pretty good house" standards (2x6 walls, exterior insulation, air tight, triple pane windows, etc) and be located in a zone 2, 4 or 6 environment.
I think you could do “radiant cooling” in a high performance house. You need a dehumidifier in a tightly sealed house anyway. Running one (probably smaller) duct to each room that delivers filtered , dehumidified air that’s been diluted with outdoor air would manage the humidity and ventilation in one shot (in most heating dominated markets where using in floor heating makes sense the humidity loads are not that high but are persistent) and the floor could be kept at a cool 65-68 degrees using a ground source or air source hydronic heat pump in cooling mode. It may seem absurd but when you consider that your high performance home has about about forty hvac machines it’s really not that far out there. You could also decouple the humidity/ventilation/filtration systems more easily because your wall space isn’t being taken up by larger heat/ac ducts.
Anything is possible, Paul! I like a bit of decentralization as insurance- if your dehu died you wouldn’t be able to run the radiant cooling anymore either until it got fixed- wheels within wheels.
@@HomePerformance yes Indeed. that would be one downfall of that approach. However, the net result of that situation would probably not be that serious if you’re in a climate where in floor heating really does make any sense at all. Around buffalo, NY we don’t do it to keep our toes warm, but rather because it allows to get maximum combustion, and thermal efficiently out of condensing gas boilers. It also has potential for a gas free future in our market because we have several heavy “lake effect” snow events each year where we get about a week long period where we get 2-6’ of snow. These cause air source heat pumps to have to defrost much more frequently and use more energy while they are not defrosting from the excessive snow accumulation on the outdoor coils. Having an air to water radiant setup could theoretically minimize the effects of heavy precipitation on heat pumps because you have more of a heat buffer both to help with the defrost cycle on a heat pump and to keep the home warm while the heat pump is defrosting. It’s likely that it won’t be common ever but I think there’s more of an argument for in floor heating and cooling and fir hydronic hvac in general than people give it credit for.
I have a plot of land, and am getting educated before I go find an architect. My current house was very well ventilated. We have "Florida Windows", which are comprised of 16-22 pieces of glass acting as slats. Angle them and the window is effectively open, close them and you are down to 1/6 *15 *22= 1*22 = 22 square inches of open surface area. Luckily only 10 of the windows have this issue. Now we put window film (the kind that attaches to the window frame, not the glass) up so that 7 of the windows are closed. 2 are unfilmed (including one in the kitchen), and 1 in my bedroom is filmed then opened to 10 square inches, to reduce my bedroom CO2 load. Putting up the window film dropped our utility bills by $200/month (power here is $0.10/kwh). However our house is not tidy enough for the wife to let someone come in and put insulation in the attic, which is completely uninsulated, and I don't fit(i am 6 foot 6).
I realized something about opening a screen window. The screen, whether inside or out, sits there collecting dust, pollen, and other particulates. Those particulates sit loose on the screen because it is safe from strong winds. That is, until you open the window and now the screen has wind blowing straight across it, freeing up those particulates and depositing them inside the room.
All homes naturally have lower air pressure indoors than outdoors. I added a small vent from outdoors to the return side of our HVAC system in our Utah home. I leak conditioned air out instead of unconditioned air in. Doing so also reduced radon by 1/2.
I'm not in construction. I have a dream of someday owning a home that is at least net zero and a forever home. Not one that's designed to fail in 30 years. In any case, this video is captivating. Thanks!
Michael, do you currently live in a typical home in NJ, Fellow Devil's Fan! You can begin with HPwES by reaching out to me or Ciel Power for a comprehensive energy assessment to retrofit your current home and get similar benefits while you eventually work towards your Net Zero Home 🏠. Here if you have questions or might want to consider an energy assessment. Kind Regards! Jesse
First, I find your videos and treatment of home science and technology fascinating. I am building a new home in Florida and wondering if there is a way to use a ventilating dehumidifier as the make up air system for the home. I'm a pretty big geek on home automation and I can see how I could determine the exhaust fan usage with a few different home automation platforms but I have not (and I spoke at length with Aprilaire)been able find a way to separately and independently turn on the ventilation feature to match when exhaust fans are in use. This would seem to be a pretty logical way to keep pressure neutral with the added benefit of dehumication in a warm climate plus it can work with some automation logic for all the exhaust fans in the house. Has anyone tried to do what I'm thinking about here? While the integration with my HVAC system for dehumidification is solid using Ecobee my current understanding is the Aprilaire EV100 ventilating dehumidifier ventilation feature has its own on board controller with a simple timer (with some outdoor temperature suppression logic) and can't be triggered through any external relay or protocol.
Depending how much the warranty matters to you, seems that a few low voltage wires and a relay could do exactly what you're looking for. You might have to get up-close and personal with the dehumidifier's control board.
Awesome sauce Corbett. Just waiting for inflation and materials to come down and I know who's services I'm going to hire. Keep em coming. The videos are great.
Thanks for another great video. Love your points on ultra violet add ons and ionizing air purifiers. We have talked to multiple companies who make particular air purifiers and no one can answer if their product can differentiate between grabbing onto good or bad microbes.
Corbett, What is your health opinion of water filtering systems which in addition to sediment and carbon filtering ... also use UV light to "kill bacteria?" Cheers, Eric
Haha, I am covid binge-watching! Another excellent video! Question: thanks to you, my new home design will have a shorter run for range hood makeup air. But shall I also still have an ERV Exhaust in the general kitchen room area? 😊 I'm thinking yes, because while I am not be cooking, microwaving, toasting ... the kitchen still has soap & sink smell or even a ham & cheese smell. Hahaha Cheers, Eric
How would you arrange your air filter and dehumidifier? Would you suck in external humid air, filter it and then push into the house to create positive pressure and constant flow of fresh/new air into the house? Or would you have both systems circulating internal air and open the windows to bring in new/fresh air when required? 🤔
How should a high performance house deal with clothes dryers? I recently learned that they move much more air through the vent than most people would guess.
One pet peeve of mine is that an HRV/ERV costs 2000 monies, whereas a good dishwasher or washing-machine or fridge costs just a third of that. Arguably, the latter are far more "technologically complex" and resource-hungry than an ERV. Why this insane difference?
Some appliances are commodities manufactured at scale, bought by everyone. Some are still mostly unknown and have less dependable snd consistent sales.
@@HomePerformance For the sake of argument, let's say that 95% of all new houses in a well-to-do country get a dishwasher, vs. 20% get an ERV. Granted that 5x as many dishwashers are sold as ERVs but then, there are 5x as many manufacturers and variants of dishwashers as there are of of ERVs. Does this alone justify the ridiculous price-difference?
@@HomePerformance Ironically, if the prices were in-line, likely 100%new houses would install an ERV, which would be a win-win-win for the mfg., health, and the environment.
My only criticism of airtightness is that we should be preparing our bodies to adapt to the real world. The real workd has bad stuff in it. If we over isolate and dont get outside much while living un an airtight clean enviornment, we arent doing ourselves and iur immune system any favors. Granted this assumes you dont spend a considerable amount of time outdoors.
@@HomePerformance Yeah I'm splitting hairs here. I still love airtightness and think it should be a standard. Most people don't isolate themselves indoors all day... So it's a great to have a home to come back to to reset and to have peace of mind that you have a always have an extremely good air quality shelter to return to
We created a pretty effective and affordable ductless ventilation system for our 1,300 sq ft ranch on a conditioned crawl space. We have our filtered air intake fan in a great room at one end of our house, near our mini split and stand alone dehumidifier. The mini split blows air through the great room and straight down our central hallway towards the two bedrooms at the other end of our house. We have floor vents in the far corners of both bedrooms, open to the crawl space. And an exhaust fan in the crawl at the opposite end, under the great room. So fresh air is blown the length of our house, down the vents, and through the length of our crawl space. The CO2 in our bedrooms remains below 800 ppm, even after having the bedroom doors closed all night. Not a perfect system, but it works reasonably well for us. It also works well for radon control, and our floors stay reasonably warm all winter.
Good work Debra
9:23 - - *DILUTION AIR* - - 9:26 - - Air is cleaned mostly w filters
9:31 - - Diluting w outside air = more $ (energy, comfort, humidity control, pollutants)
9:44 - - Dilution can replace all air w outside air several times a day
9:56 - - *DILUTION AIR - 4 METHODS* - -
(1) Exhaust only
(2) Supply only
(3) Mix/Balance of Exhaust + Supply
(4) Balanced Ventilation with an Energy Recovery Core
13:11 - - Consult or train with Corbett Lunsford
0:00 - - Overview - - 5 Factors for Ventilation - -
3:01 - - 1. Circulation
7:02 - - 2. Capture/Filtration
8:27 - - 3. Humidity Control
9:23 - - 4. Dilution Air
10:35 - - 5. Pressure Relief
10:59 - - *2 WAYS FOR PRESSURE RELIEF - - ACTIVE & PASSIVE*
I would like to see a couple of videos showing sample layouts for what equipment you would include and where you would locate the units for a complete HVAC system in a small home - perhaps a one bedroom home under 1000 sq and a two or three bedroom home under 1500 sq'.
I know you've covered everything needed for a tiny home and also for your forever home but there's not much information available for something in between. The houses could be built to "pretty good house" standards (2x6 walls, exterior insulation, air tight, triple pane windows, etc) and be located in a zone 2, 4 or 6 environment.
That’s exactly what you’ll find in the Ventilation Design course, Ryan. Perfect.
I think you could do “radiant cooling” in a high performance house. You need a dehumidifier in a tightly sealed house anyway. Running one (probably smaller) duct to each room that delivers filtered , dehumidified air that’s been diluted with outdoor air would manage the humidity and ventilation in one shot (in most heating dominated markets where using in floor heating makes sense the humidity loads are not that high but are persistent) and the floor could be kept at a cool 65-68 degrees using a ground source or air source hydronic heat pump in cooling mode. It may seem absurd but when you consider that your high performance home has about about forty hvac machines it’s really not that far out there. You could also decouple the humidity/ventilation/filtration systems more easily because your wall space isn’t being taken up by larger heat/ac ducts.
Anything is possible, Paul! I like a bit of decentralization as insurance- if your dehu died you wouldn’t be able to run the radiant cooling anymore either until it got fixed- wheels within wheels.
@@HomePerformance yes Indeed. that would be one downfall of that approach. However, the net result of that situation would probably not be that serious if you’re in a climate where in floor heating really does make any sense at all. Around buffalo, NY we don’t do it to keep our toes warm, but rather because it allows to get maximum combustion, and thermal efficiently out of condensing gas boilers.
It also has potential for a gas free future in our market because we have several heavy “lake effect” snow events each year where we get about a week long period where we get 2-6’ of snow. These cause air source heat pumps to have to defrost much more frequently and use more energy while they are not defrosting from the excessive snow accumulation on the outdoor coils. Having an air to water radiant setup could theoretically minimize the effects of heavy precipitation on heat pumps because you have more of a heat buffer both to help with the defrost cycle on a heat pump and to keep the home warm while the heat pump is defrosting.
It’s likely that it won’t be common ever but I think there’s more of an argument for in floor heating and cooling and fir hydronic hvac in general than people give it credit for.
👍🏽👍🏽
I have a plot of land, and am getting educated before I go find an architect. My current house was very well ventilated. We have "Florida Windows", which are comprised of 16-22 pieces of glass acting as slats. Angle them and the window is effectively open, close them and you are down to 1/6 *15 *22= 1*22 = 22 square inches of open surface area. Luckily only 10 of the windows have this issue. Now we put window film (the kind that attaches to the window frame, not the glass) up so that 7 of the windows are closed. 2 are unfilmed (including one in the kitchen), and 1 in my bedroom is filmed then opened to 10 square inches, to reduce my bedroom CO2 load. Putting up the window film dropped our utility bills by $200/month (power here is $0.10/kwh). However our house is not tidy enough for the wife to let someone come in and put insulation in the attic, which is completely uninsulated, and I don't fit(i am 6 foot 6).
You’ve got a lot going on Mike
You don’t need wind or a temperature differential to get gasses to move. They will move in or out of the house to equalise their pore pressure.
Thank you (again) for doing this work. Deeply appreciate it
Hey thanks for the appreciation buddy!
I realized something about opening a screen window. The screen, whether inside or out, sits there collecting dust, pollen, and other particulates. Those particulates sit loose on the screen because it is safe from strong winds. That is, until you open the window and now the screen has wind blowing straight across it, freeing up those particulates and depositing them inside the room.
All homes naturally have lower air pressure indoors than outdoors. I added a small vent from outdoors to the return side of our HVAC system in our Utah home. I leak conditioned air out instead of unconditioned air in. Doing so also reduced radon by 1/2.
I'm not in construction. I have a dream of someday owning a home that is at least net zero and a forever home. Not one that's designed to fail in 30 years. In any case, this video is captivating. Thanks!
👍🏽👍🏽 keep moving toward it Michael
Michael, do you currently live in a typical home in NJ, Fellow Devil's Fan! You can begin with HPwES by reaching out to me or Ciel Power for a comprehensive energy assessment to retrofit your current home and get similar benefits while you eventually work towards your Net Zero Home 🏠.
Here if you have questions or might want to consider an energy assessment.
Kind Regards!
Jesse
First, I find your videos and treatment of home science and technology fascinating. I am building a new home in Florida and wondering if there is a way to use a ventilating dehumidifier as the make up air system for the home. I'm a pretty big geek on home automation and I can see how I could determine the exhaust fan usage with a few different home automation platforms but I have not (and I spoke at length with Aprilaire)been able find a way to separately and independently turn on the ventilation feature to match when exhaust fans are in use. This would seem to be a pretty logical way to keep pressure neutral with the added benefit of dehumication in a warm climate plus it can work with some automation logic for all the exhaust fans in the house. Has anyone tried to do what I'm thinking about here? While the integration with my HVAC system for dehumidification is solid using Ecobee my current understanding is the Aprilaire EV100 ventilating dehumidifier ventilation feature has its own on board controller with a simple timer (with some outdoor temperature suppression logic) and can't be triggered through any external relay or protocol.
Depending how much the warranty matters to you, seems that a few low voltage wires and a relay could do exactly what you're looking for. You might have to get up-close and personal with the dehumidifier's control board.
It certainly seems worthwhile and something that the manufacturers should be investing in.
Awesome sauce Corbett. Just waiting for inflation and materials to come down and I know who's services I'm going to hire. Keep em coming. The videos are great.
Muchas gracias Matt buddy
Thanks for another great video. Love your points on ultra violet add ons and ionizing air purifiers. We have talked to multiple companies who make particular air purifiers and no one can answer if their product can differentiate between grabbing onto good or bad microbes.
Pretty sure your indoor air doesn’t have “good microbes”
Sure it does- your gut microbiome has plenty of good bugs, for example
@@trp2413 every indoor space has its own microbiome with good and bad microbes, and since Covid, the gauge has raised significantly.
Thanks for the video.
Corbett,
What is your health opinion of water filtering systems which in addition to sediment and carbon filtering ... also use UV light to "kill bacteria?"
Cheers, Eric
Very important 5 points for a high performance home! Do you have any experience working with the CERV2 yet?
Not yet, though several clients have them
Haha, I am covid binge-watching!
Another excellent video!
Question: thanks to you, my new home design will have a shorter run for range hood makeup air. But shall I also still have an ERV Exhaust in the general kitchen room area? 😊 I'm thinking yes, because while I am not be cooking, microwaving, toasting ... the kitchen still has soap & sink smell or even a ham & cheese smell. Hahaha
Cheers, Eric
Yucky ham and cheese and soap smells?!? Noooo!
@@HomePerformance hahaha!
Thank you.
Is the ventilation course aplicable in Europe?
How would you arrange your air filter and dehumidifier? Would you suck in external humid air, filter it and then push into the house to create positive pressure and constant flow of fresh/new air into the house? Or would you have both systems circulating internal air and open the windows to bring in new/fresh air when required? 🤔
First option is more controlled.
How should a high performance house deal with clothes dryers? I recently learned that they move much more air through the vent than most people would guess.
Yeah, you’ll need makeup air if you don’t have a heat pump or condensing dryer. Opening the laundry room window eorks, if you’re religious about it.
I put in a uv light and a iwave ionizing air cleaner in my hvac system. What is your input on that ?
My advice would be take them back out- the chemistry is unpredictable and your family will be breathing it.
One pet peeve of mine is that an HRV/ERV costs 2000 monies, whereas a good dishwasher or washing-machine or fridge costs just a third of that. Arguably, the latter are far more "technologically complex" and resource-hungry than an ERV. Why this insane difference?
Some appliances are commodities manufactured at scale, bought by everyone. Some are still mostly unknown and have less dependable snd consistent sales.
@@HomePerformance For the sake of argument, let's say that 95% of all new houses in a well-to-do country get a dishwasher, vs. 20% get an ERV. Granted that 5x as many dishwashers are sold as ERVs but then, there are 5x as many manufacturers and variants of dishwashers as there are of of ERVs. Does this alone justify the ridiculous price-difference?
@@HomePerformance Ironically, if the prices were in-line, likely 100%new houses would install an ERV, which would be a win-win-win for the mfg., health, and the environment.
Agreed
I’d ask a manufacturer- they think about things very differently than I do
there is hydro air heating air with hot watter
My only criticism of airtightness is that we should be preparing our bodies to adapt to the real world. The real workd has bad stuff in it. If we over isolate and dont get outside much while living un an airtight clean enviornment, we arent doing ourselves and iur immune system any favors. Granted this assumes you dont spend a considerable amount of time outdoors.
Actually, we’re still exposed to a ton of stuff, it’s just human- associated stuff instead of rocks-dirt-plants stuff. Your point is good though.
@@HomePerformance Yeah I'm splitting hairs here. I still love airtightness and think it should be a standard. Most people don't isolate themselves indoors all day... So it's a great to have a home to come back to to reset and to have peace of mind that you have a always have an extremely good air quality shelter to return to