Want to see more on ERV for old drafty 1960s built homes and see the steps to air tighten and filter cost effectively for high humidity forida block home
When I installed a panasonic intellebalance 100 ERV in my house, I made a little prefilter box with the table saw. Used 3/4" plywood, a couple hinges, clasps, and weather stripping for the top, some duct connectors on the ends, and caulked and painted it. I made it to fit a 3M Filtrete F1 size HEPA filter. The unit pulls around 100 cfm and the filter can flow 200cfm. It has worked out great for me, but I understand as a builder, you kind of need something off the shelf. As always I really like what you're doing Matt.
We had our a house built in Florida 6 years ago and when I asked for the GC to add an ERV he looked at me like I was high. It’s so logical even in this climate I never understood his reticence. But I insisted and was happy I did.
I really like that pre-filter! What a great idea. I can confirm that a 30° delta will show condensation on the inlet line. What's also cool is my Zehnder is seeing a 25° delta without the preheater even operating. To me, that's impressive energy recovery! I love the Cadillac of ERV systems!
I've had an Aprilaire filter like that in my house for 25 years. Great filtration and not too restrictive. And the filters are relatively cheap to replace.
Just make sure the erv fan is rated for the higher static pressure caused by long duct runs and extra filters. This can result in loss of airflow. Larger surface area filters are better to run.
Thanks for the video Matt. Just a sidenote when you were downstairs in your current home, you had stereo audio, but when you are up in the two attic, it was only coming out the right ear of my Apple AirPod maxes, which was really difficult to listen to after having the good quality stereo down in, your house
I live in Minnesota and we had a Broan heat exchanger installed. I got the digital display control so I can set a schedule so it runs in near "Turbo" mode when we are cooking as we have a gas range. It works great in helping manage humidity in the winter. We tied it in with our Lennox high efficiency furnace that the HVAC guys installed over 20 years ago. We asked about an ERV, but because of our cold climat an HRV is more effective. I do turn the HRV off during the day in the summer as the higher humidity outside makes the AC work harder. I run a Quest 70 dehumidifier (It is nearly identical to the Santa Fe in the same size, just different controls, but they are the same company). I let it run with the fan on 24/7 and set the humidistat, so it runs the compressor when required. We pull out about 5-7 gallons of water a day in the summer when it gets humid here in Minnesota. We recently installed the Marvin Ultrex high efficiency windows in our 60's rambler, so it is a lot more air tight. Adding the Broan HRV and going with a Quest commercial dehumidifier were a must to keep the indoor air fresh. The filter on the Broan is a washable, so I check/clean it more frequently in the fall when leaves and dust are high. The HRV is installed on the cold air return of the furnace, so it is further filtered when it passes through the 4 inch furnace filter. I should note, the HRV needs the furnace to run at the same time. Since the Lennox is a dc drive high efficiency furnace, the fan has run nearly 24/7 for 22 years. Only time it is turned off is when I do a filter change and simple tune up between heating/cooling seasons. This keeps the temps even throughout the house. Just make sure it is sized correctly and it is calibrated for the static air pressure differences. The Broan is calibrated at install and then it autmatically adjusts as required (ie a bathroom fan is turned on, the dryer is run, etc). The only issue is there is elevated noise, but that was because they didn't use flexible duct when connecting it to the cold air return. I will ask them to swap out the rigid duct for flexible duct when I have them come out for an annual tune up.
@@andersjohansson6118 wow, thanks for sharing all that information, definitely really interesting to know. I'm on the coast of North Carolina and looking at adding an erv and dehumidifier since we have such long shoulder seasons and are really fighting the humidity and getting fresh air. Really great to hear about your experience. Thanks!
The key is to work with an HVAC contractor who knows their stuff. Many of the manufactures will help you find a qualified contractor. That's a good route to go sometimes when you know what you want, but don't know where to go. I recommend finding a few contractors and do some background research on them before contacting them.
Matt! It looks like you put your Intake filter in upside down in the Zehnder! You may want to check the fans and core for schmoo :) great video as always!
If you're really on a budget, you can put a washable K&N filter on your outside intake....probably add 10hp to your house 😎👍 lol all jokes aside a washable pre filter could help your filter expenses
Matt, I would love to see more on this stuff. We live in San Antonio in a late 80’s home that we want to remain in and update. I’m always looking for things like this that can help us get closer to the best achievable indoor air quality we can achieve! Recommendations and finding quality teams to work with that service our area would be a huge plus as well.
Been there, done that! I was hoping this was a video on and even more economical solution. I have a AprilAire 213 w/MERV13 20x25x4 filter that during pollen season in NC will only take two weeks to look like your filter looks in six months. That's $100/mo. This unit filters all fresh/makeup air from a minimum of 100CFM to 600CFM. Outside of pollen season it might go three to four weeks before it gets two restrictive. Oddly enough, while the downstream filters do stay much cleaner, I still have to vacuum insects off of them as insects some how gets past the AprilAire. Also, when I change the filter I'll end up letting several insects that have collected in the AprilAire into the house. What I need is a "pre" pre filter on the exterior that will both extend the life of the Aprilaire and stop the insects from going down stream. Ideally this filter would be large enough to only require quarterly changes/cleaning with out having to much pressure drop.
Sounds like you maybe need a couple filter layers. Maybe do 1 box with a cheap MERV8 or even a washable filter and then the next box with your more expensive and nicer MERV13.
Even on a higher end unit, this could still be useful. I'm doing this for my Panasonic Intellibalance because the proprietary filters are so expensive. Using a prefilter allows me to use more common, less expensive, standard size filters without compromising air quality.
I would like to see more on this. But letting us know best way to teach the install guy around the country how to get it right since all I spoke with don't even know what an ERV is. Have a Great Day Patrick
We have a 120 yr old farm house. Now I know it’s not super tight but we monitor air quality and in winter we worry about co2 levels due to also having pets - especially at night in our bedroom. Would love to see show on retrofitting for erv in old homes. We live in NW Ohio so opening window in winter for sleeping is not an option. Winter is really our only season we really have issue with air quality. House had been insulated and I did spray foam in basement rim joists, etc to seal up as well.
Just a video quality comment, the left audio channel dropped out at 5:15 and was mono on the right for the rest of the video. Been having that on a few videos lately between you and Steve B.
The problem with adding that extra filter is you’ve now raised the friction and lowered the pressure. So keep in mind that you will get less air flow by adding more filters.
Good call yes indeed. My Zehnder will ramp up fan speed with static pressure drop. Unsure if this LifeBreath will. That’s one reason I went with MERV 10 not a 13
The ERV should be recalibrated after installing an upstream filter. When they installed the Broan HRV Ai in our house, it goes through an initial calibration sequence to balance the static pressure. After that, it automatically adjusts when a bathroom fan, clothes dryer is turned on. We opted for a washable filter on our Broan and it is installed so it dumps the fresh air in the cold air return of our furnace before the 4 inch filter. I just need to vacuum out the HRV filter more frequently in the fall when leaves fall and the dust flies. Best investment ever. We live in Minnesota, and after installing the Marvin Infinity windows on our 60's rambler, the HRV helps with managing condensation as it has a humidity sensor to bring in drier air when temps drop. The tighter house required adjusting management of humidity in winter.
Thats how my filters look after 1 month and i dont live next to highway. My core is extremely dirty even with me changing the filters every 1-2 month. Also the electrical box is located on the intake side pre-filter and all wires got corroded after 4 years of 24/7 use. The manufacture, Soler & Palau is trying to deny the warranty now saying unit has been neglected. In talks with them now. The warranty is 5 years for unit and 10 years for core.
I saw on Nextdoor a report of somebody local that had a system like this complaining about always smelling his neighbors fire pit inside. How do things like smoke get screened by any of these filters?
Zehnder ERVs show Latent “Efficiency” in the mid-80s. Super impressive, right? The issue is that it doesn’t state at what rated condition. Basically, it is a worthless percentage if the condition is not your project’s design conditions. My advice, if the ERV doesn’t have a performance calculator, it has no real-world value. No validation, no performance guarantee, no deal.
I've pretty much settled on the idea that I'm just going to skip the built-in filters on my ERV and Dehumidifier when we build and add those large filter boxes. Those AprilAire filters are ridiculously expensive though. Regular filters with all the same specs are less than half the price so I don't see the point. I'm actually looking for a two- or four-filter V- or W-box instead to make the filters even more economical over the decades. (2 filters in parallel last 3 to 4 times as long at the same flow rate)
Installed a Life Breath HRV just this fall. Went with HRV due to being in the Canadian Prairies. Im still playing with what settings work best for us. Ive gotten into a few online arguments about I should of gone ERV, but from people that dont live in Canada and dont have -40 temps. You have a great setup, but a ton of us dont have that room or long runs in basement furnace rooms. For the prefilter however, wouldnt a good 5" media filter on your furnace be just as good of a filter, although its after the HRV, not before
as Arte Johnson - German soldier.. would say ' very interesting' but not stupid. Love more details. BUT why would you put that metal box directly onto your wood table with no protection?? thank you.
Matt I notice that my return vents in my home get dirty, quite often. Do you think that is an indication of an air quality problem? I have an HRV and the Aprilaire filter system on my HVAC. So I thought I had good quality air in my home but now I don’t know.
@@buildshowre: dirty return filters. Out MERV10 return filters that total a rather large surface area, last about two years but we currently don't have pets. That said, do you use your range hood enough when cooking? If so, how good is your makeup air filter? Could it be letting in less filtered air? Also, I use a whole house (600CFM) HEPA which uses the same returns as the central HVAC and optionally can use it's own supply or the HVAC supply duct work spread throughout the house. This eliminates the need for dedicated spot filtration. The dehumidifier also uses the same duct work.
We have 3 cats and notice the 4 inch filters get a bit more dirty. We run the furnace fan 24/7 too (Lennox high efficiency DC drive means cleaner uniform air temp in the house).
Not gonna lie, the manger figure spooked me. Thought there was just a guy hanging out in your attic. So your ERV fights 3 filters? That poor machine. Coming from HVAC, filters are to protect the hardware and I wouldn't recommend any of the insane MERV values because they put strain on the machine. I never dealt with these ERVs though.
LOL. Funny how he doesn’t mention that Aprilaire filters are over $100 each now. Worst decision I’ve made in quite a while. $2700 a year for HVAC filters. Ridiculous.
Why pipe air out of the bathroom into the erv? It would often be humid air which makes the erv job of pulling humidity out of the fresh outside air harder or impossible
Because that's how ERV/HRV work. You have a recovery core with four sides. One is for incoming outside air. Once tempered by the core, the air goes to the rooms. For the system to be balanced you must evacuate the same amount of air you bring in. Therefore the air being exhausted from the bathrooms gets pulled into the ERV so that air can exchange its thermal energy and some humidity before it is sent outside. Air must be sent to the ERV, otherwise there could not be any thermal recovery possible.
I wrestled with this as well. In NC, since we can't put a return in the bathrooms to help control moisture, we must exhaust it to the exterior. I figure six months out of the year with outside dewpoints in the 70s, for an hour or two a day when you need to evacuate shower moisture it's a wash. No pun intended LOL! Without and ERV your letting in about as much moisture as your taking out. With an ERV you might be retaining as much moisture as your exhausting. The rest of the time you get the benefit of the ERV and you forgo the complexity of an addition ventilation system.
@@JohnComeOnMan honestly man, this kind of stuff just satisfies my latent autism. Like you have no idea how happy mundane things such as car and house maintenance make me happy. I could watch hours of oil changes being done on excavators lol. I fantasize about high performance appliances and house construction (like Matt shows/is sponsored by) the way most people drool over Lamborghini’s
I don’t think Matt understands what really makes an ERV a Cadillac or a Chevy. It is called Effectiveness. What is the effectiveness of the core’s ability to change the sensible and latent conditions. In Central Texas, an ERV needs assistance with latent work so a dehumidifier is added to the airstream. He doesn’t have one. That tells me Matt has never verified the performance capacity on peak Summer days. Trust but verify.
For this exact reason I stopped being a fan a long time ago. Matt will say just about anything for a quick buck. The old Matt was much more informative and less of a walking infomercial.
Interesting this video in particular raises your “sellout “ concerns. I think this method could be useful for any brand ERV. Nonetheless thanks for watching my videos
@@buildshow Dunno, you take money from a company for a sponsored video, then later you have another video featuring that product that's technically not sponsored. The providence of the second video will always be suspect. And you're welcome for the view. Didn't Jesus boot the money changers out? Den of thieves, house of trade and all that jazz.
@@Ty-marco I still watch em out of morbid curiosity. I guess I shouldn't bother myself with what others do. Still, the crass amorality of it all keeps bringing me back to shake my head..
Other than celebrities like musicians, people with money don’t use words like “homie”. Start speaking the way wealthy white people do, at all times. Fake it till you make it
Holy moly Matt you did not provide a viable affordable solution at all. This level of clickbait is not honest towards your less wealthy viewers and frankly not good Christian behavior. Shame on you.
I would love to see a video on selecting an ERV based on the specs and data sheet. And maybe best practices for installation!
Yeah, but no one is going to sponsor that.
@ 😂😂😂😂😂
Want to see more on ERV for old drafty 1960s built homes and see the steps to air tighten and filter cost effectively for high humidity forida block home
When I installed a panasonic intellebalance 100 ERV in my house, I made a little prefilter box with the table saw. Used 3/4" plywood, a couple hinges, clasps, and weather stripping for the top, some duct connectors on the ends, and caulked and painted it. I made it to fit a 3M Filtrete F1 size HEPA filter. The unit pulls around 100 cfm and the filter can flow 200cfm. It has worked out great for me, but I understand as a builder, you kind of need something off the shelf. As always I really like what you're doing Matt.
Would love to see a video on how you would handle condensation issues in colder climates
Yes, agreed!
We had our a house built in Florida 6 years ago and when I asked for the GC to add an ERV he looked at me like I was high. It’s so logical even in this climate I never understood his reticence. But I insisted and was happy I did.
I really like that pre-filter! What a great idea.
I can confirm that a 30° delta will show condensation on the inlet line. What's also cool is my Zehnder is seeing a 25° delta without the preheater even operating. To me, that's impressive energy recovery! I love the Cadillac of ERV systems!
I've had an Aprilaire filter like that in my house for 25 years. Great filtration and not too restrictive. And the filters are relatively cheap to replace.
More ERV videos! Can’t learn enough about this.
Just make sure the erv fan is rated for the higher static pressure caused by long duct runs and extra filters. This can result in loss of airflow. Larger surface area filters are better to run.
4:47 poor dog is like "dad, can you stop filming for a sec and let me back in?"
Thanks for the video Matt. Just a sidenote when you were downstairs in your current home, you had stereo audio, but when you are up in the two attic, it was only coming out the right ear of my Apple AirPod maxes, which was really difficult to listen to after having the good quality stereo down in, your house
They've been having a lot of audio issues lately where many of their microphones are clipped especially those from Steve the architect.
Would love to see a comparison with the Broan systems, they seem bigger with nicer filters but still budget.
Same, heard good things about the Broan Ai. Wondering how that stacks up against this Life Breath
I live in Minnesota and we had a Broan heat exchanger installed. I got the digital display control so I can set a schedule so it runs in near "Turbo" mode when we are cooking as we have a gas range. It works great in helping manage humidity in the winter.
We tied it in with our Lennox high efficiency furnace that the HVAC guys installed over 20 years ago.
We asked about an ERV, but because of our cold climat an HRV is more effective.
I do turn the HRV off during the day in the summer as the higher humidity outside makes the AC work harder.
I run a Quest 70 dehumidifier (It is nearly identical to the Santa Fe in the same size, just different controls, but they are the same company). I let it run with the fan on 24/7 and set the humidistat, so it runs the compressor when required. We pull out about 5-7 gallons of water a day in the summer when it gets humid here in Minnesota.
We recently installed the Marvin Ultrex high efficiency windows in our 60's rambler, so it is a lot more air tight. Adding the Broan HRV and going with a Quest commercial dehumidifier were a must to keep the indoor air fresh.
The filter on the Broan is a washable, so I check/clean it more frequently in the fall when leaves and dust are high. The HRV is installed on the cold air return of the furnace, so it is further filtered when it passes through the 4 inch furnace filter.
I should note, the HRV needs the furnace to run at the same time. Since the Lennox is a dc drive high efficiency furnace, the fan has run nearly 24/7 for 22 years. Only time it is turned off is when I do a filter change and simple tune up between heating/cooling seasons. This keeps the temps even throughout the house.
Just make sure it is sized correctly and it is calibrated for the static air pressure differences. The Broan is calibrated at install and then it autmatically adjusts as required (ie a bathroom fan is turned on, the dryer is run, etc).
The only issue is there is elevated noise, but that was because they didn't use flexible duct when connecting it to the cold air return. I will ask them to swap out the rigid duct for flexible duct when I have them come out for an annual tune up.
@@andersjohansson6118 wow, thanks for sharing all that information, definitely really interesting to know. I'm on the coast of North Carolina and looking at adding an erv and dehumidifier since we have such long shoulder seasons and are really fighting the humidity and getting fresh air. Really great to hear about your experience. Thanks!
The key is to work with an HVAC contractor who knows their stuff.
Many of the manufactures will help you find a qualified contractor. That's a good route to go sometimes when you know what you want, but don't know where to go.
I recommend finding a few contractors and do some background research on them before contacting them.
Matt! It looks like you put your Intake filter in upside down in the Zehnder! You may want to check the fans and core for schmoo :) great video as always!
I saw that…
If you're really on a budget, you can put a washable K&N filter on your outside intake....probably add 10hp to your house 😎👍 lol all jokes aside a washable pre filter could help your filter expenses
That’s standard practice for fresh air intakes on larger commercial buildings
@georgewelker2846 do they use the same kind of oil? Doesn't seem like something I'd want to breathe.
Matt, I would love to see more on this stuff. We live in San Antonio in a late 80’s home that we want to remain in and update. I’m always looking for things like this that can help us get closer to the best achievable indoor air quality we can achieve! Recommendations and finding quality teams to work with that service our area would be a huge plus as well.
Been there, done that! I was hoping this was a video on and even more economical solution. I have a AprilAire 213 w/MERV13 20x25x4 filter that during pollen season in NC will only take two weeks to look like your filter looks in six months. That's $100/mo. This unit filters all fresh/makeup air from a minimum of 100CFM to 600CFM. Outside of pollen season it might go three to four weeks before it gets two restrictive. Oddly enough, while the downstream filters do stay much cleaner, I still have to vacuum insects off of them as insects some how gets past the AprilAire. Also, when I change the filter I'll end up letting several insects that have collected in the AprilAire into the house. What I need is a "pre" pre filter on the exterior that will both extend the life of the Aprilaire and stop the insects from going down stream. Ideally this filter would be large enough to only require quarterly changes/cleaning with out having to much pressure drop.
Sounds like you maybe need a couple filter layers. Maybe do 1 box with a cheap MERV8 or even a washable filter and then the next box with your more expensive and nicer MERV13.
Even on a higher end unit, this could still be useful. I'm doing this for my Panasonic Intellibalance because the proprietary filters are so expensive. Using a prefilter allows me to use more common, less expensive, standard size filters without compromising air quality.
More depth. Always more info 👌
More depth. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
My right ear alone enjoyed this
Great video and would like to see more on the ERV's. Thanks Matt.
I would like to see more on this. But letting us know best way to teach the install guy around the country how to get it right since all I spoke with don't even know what an ERV is.
Have a Great Day
Patrick
We have a 120 yr old farm house. Now I know it’s not super tight but we monitor air quality and in winter we worry about co2 levels due to also having pets - especially at night in our bedroom. Would love to see show on retrofitting for erv in old homes. We live in NW Ohio so opening window in winter for sleeping is not an option. Winter is really our only season we really have issue with air quality. House had been insulated and I did spray foam in basement rim joists, etc to seal up as well.
There will always be air exchange regardless of pressure differential when there is a substantial thermal difference between two bodies of air.
Make sure your system can handle the extra pressure / restriction w/ extra filter. May need to ramp up more / higher to overcome it.
Just a video quality comment, the left audio channel dropped out at 5:15 and was mono on the right for the rest of the video. Been having that on a few videos lately between you and Steve B.
for my money, Matt is the handsomest SOB on the internet!!
1:51 i gotta tell you thats your best method, the furnace isn’t able to pressurize your house, only replace lost air
The problem with adding that extra filter is you’ve now raised the friction and lowered the pressure. So keep in mind that you will get less air flow by adding more filters.
Good call yes indeed. My Zehnder will ramp up fan speed with static pressure drop. Unsure if this LifeBreath will. That’s one reason I went with MERV 10 not a 13
The ERV should be recalibrated after installing an upstream filter.
When they installed the Broan HRV Ai in our house, it goes through an initial calibration sequence to balance the static pressure. After that, it automatically adjusts when a bathroom fan, clothes dryer is turned on.
We opted for a washable filter on our Broan and it is installed so it dumps the fresh air in the cold air return of our furnace before the 4 inch filter. I just need to vacuum out the HRV filter more frequently in the fall when leaves fall and the dust flies.
Best investment ever. We live in Minnesota, and after installing the Marvin Infinity windows on our 60's rambler, the HRV helps with managing condensation as it has a humidity sensor to bring in drier air when temps drop. The tighter house required adjusting management of humidity in winter.
Please tell us more about ductwork with ERV. How clean are they? Should we clean them and how?
Would like to see a setup or build video on the pre filter. Insulation hides it.
Thats how my filters look after 1 month and i dont live next to highway. My core is extremely dirty even with me changing the filters every 1-2 month. Also the electrical box is located on the intake side pre-filter and all wires got corroded after 4 years of 24/7 use. The manufacture, Soler & Palau is trying to deny the warranty now saying unit has been neglected. In talks with them now. The warranty is 5 years for unit and 10 years for core.
Why not have a filter box attached to the inlets side of the ERV in the same manner that commercial units do: connected directly to the AHU?
Code … that’s funny because here in rural northwest Ohio where I live there’s no locality that even enforces residential building codes
I saw on Nextdoor a report of somebody local that had a system like this complaining about always smelling his neighbors fire pit inside. How do things like smoke get screened by any of these filters?
What about additional resistance from the additional filter? Will this force the fan and potentially cause malfunction
Zehnder ERVs show Latent “Efficiency” in the mid-80s. Super impressive, right? The issue is that it doesn’t state at what rated condition. Basically, it is a worthless percentage if the condition is not your project’s design conditions. My advice, if the ERV doesn’t have a performance calculator, it has no real-world value. No validation, no performance guarantee, no deal.
what brand and model is that first one on your table?
What kind of insulation is that on the attic ceiling? Rock wool?
Are you using ERVs that are very good at transferring the inside temperature to the incoming air?
Would be really curious regarding return on investment
I've pretty much settled on the idea that I'm just going to skip the built-in filters on my ERV and Dehumidifier when we build and add those large filter boxes. Those AprilAire filters are ridiculously expensive though. Regular filters with all the same specs are less than half the price so I don't see the point. I'm actually looking for a two- or four-filter V- or W-box instead to make the filters even more economical over the decades. (2 filters in parallel last 3 to 4 times as long at the same flow rate)
Installed a Life Breath HRV just this fall. Went with HRV due to being in the Canadian Prairies. Im still playing with what settings work best for us. Ive gotten into a few online arguments about I should of gone ERV, but from people that dont live in Canada and dont have -40 temps. You have a great setup, but a ton of us dont have that room or long runs in basement furnace rooms. For the prefilter however, wouldnt a good 5" media filter on your furnace be just as good of a filter, although its after the HRV, not before
7:28: Matt, Looks like you got a person living in your attic. Some Guy wearing a red Robe! /sarc
5:01 anyone else think the attic was at the top of those stairs, fully furnished?
The ERV i installed had condensation issues(cold climate). Is it just a matter of insulating the intake up to the erv?
I have read that electronic filters are the best filter, they even filter smoke.
How does the Life Breath compare to the Broan Ai? Specifically in the sub 1000sq ft homes?
who's that guy hiding in your attic?
You know him.
Joseph. Father of Jesus
What is the pvc in the attic used for?
Move the pre-filter box outside. That’s my plan.
So how much does the pre filter cost relative to the Zender filter? Makes no sense, you couldn’t get a dolla outa me.
as Arte Johnson - German soldier.. would say ' very interesting' but not stupid. Love more details. BUT why would you put that metal box directly onto your wood table with no protection?? thank you.
Matt I notice that my return vents in my home get dirty, quite often. Do you think that is an indication of an air quality problem? I have an HRV and the Aprilaire filter system on my HVAC. So I thought I had good quality air in my home but now I don’t know.
Mine gets dirty too. I suspect my dog is probably a part cause of this. I use air cleaners in my bedrooms for spot filtration.
@@buildshowre: dirty return filters. Out MERV10 return filters that total a rather large surface area, last about two years but we currently don't have pets. That said, do you use your range hood enough when cooking? If so, how good is your makeup air filter? Could it be letting in less filtered air? Also, I use a whole house (600CFM) HEPA which uses the same returns as the central HVAC and optionally can use it's own supply or the HVAC supply duct work spread throughout the house. This eliminates the need for dedicated spot filtration. The dehumidifier also uses the same duct work.
We have 3 cats and notice the 4 inch filters get a bit more dirty. We run the furnace fan 24/7 too (Lennox high efficiency DC drive means cleaner uniform air temp in the house).
"Watch this cheap trick... just 'buy' more!" lol
@8:00 Is Rasputin living in the corner of your attic? 😳😅
👍
Why even the april air unit? Really just need the filter in a box?
Audio fades out a 5:20?
Not gonna lie, the manger figure spooked me. Thought there was just a guy hanging out in your attic.
So your ERV fights 3 filters? That poor machine. Coming from HVAC, filters are to protect the hardware and I wouldn't recommend any of the insane MERV values because they put strain on the machine.
I never dealt with these ERVs though.
Don’t need blower door in NC
LOL. Funny how he doesn’t mention that Aprilaire filters are over $100 each now. Worst decision I’ve made in quite a while. $2700 a year for HVAC filters. Ridiculous.
If the filter is synthetic (not paper), don't be stupid, boil it in salt water to clean and restore it.
“Buddy”
Your Christmas decorations was a little creepy at first
Why pipe air out of the bathroom into the erv? It would often be humid air which makes the erv job of pulling humidity out of the fresh outside air harder or impossible
Because that's how ERV/HRV work. You have a recovery core with four sides. One is for incoming outside air. Once tempered by the core, the air goes to the rooms. For the system to be balanced you must evacuate the same amount of air you bring in. Therefore the air being exhausted from the bathrooms gets pulled into the ERV so that air can exchange its thermal energy and some humidity before it is sent outside. Air must be sent to the ERV, otherwise there could not be any thermal recovery possible.
Yep. Well said
I wrestled with this as well. In NC, since we can't put a return in the bathrooms to help control moisture, we must exhaust it to the exterior. I figure six months out of the year with outside dewpoints in the 70s, for an hour or two a day when you need to evacuate shower moisture it's a wash. No pun intended LOL! Without and ERV your letting in about as much moisture as your taking out. With an ERV you might be retaining as much moisture as your exhausting. The rest of the time you get the benefit of the ERV and you forgo the complexity of an addition ventilation system.
Is that a wise man living in your attic?👀
Weird to act like an air filter is the equivalent to the invention of the wheel.
If you don’t find these kinds of products exciting, why do you watch videos on this channel?
@@2AToday It appears you don't think it possible to be overly enthusiastic about a common air filter system. Interesting.
@@JohnComeOnMan honestly man, this kind of stuff just satisfies my latent autism. Like you have no idea how happy mundane things such as car and house maintenance make me happy. I could watch hours of oil changes being done on excavators lol. I fantasize about high performance appliances and house construction (like Matt shows/is sponsored by) the way most people drool over Lamborghini’s
BTW my air is FREE where I come from. Unless I go scuba diving.
I don’t think Matt understands what really makes an ERV a Cadillac or a Chevy. It is called Effectiveness. What is the effectiveness of the core’s ability to change the sensible and latent conditions. In Central Texas, an ERV needs assistance with latent work so a dehumidifier is added to the airstream. He doesn’t have one. That tells me Matt has never verified the performance capacity on peak Summer days. Trust but verify.
Great job opening the video by giving the world your Wi-Fi password 🤨
Video problem: At 5:20, the sound drops out. There's transition music as Matt walks up the attic stairs, then nothing (no music, no voice).
no sound after 5:21 ??????
I have the same problem! 😂
I figured it out. I only listen with left ear bud, and the audio goes only right at that point. Very annoying.
yeah it's way quieter, had to really crank it and it's missing a lot of range. Some goof with the microphones or audio editing...
Audio was only on the right side
Seems like A LOT OF FILTERS to forever maintain.
No audio
Matts choices for his house are based on sponsorships and discounts. Not because those products are the best.
For this exact reason I stopped being a fan a long time ago. Matt will say just about anything for a quick buck. The old Matt was much more informative and less of a walking infomercial.
Interesting this video in particular raises your “sellout “ concerns. I think this method could be useful for any brand ERV. Nonetheless thanks for watching my videos
@@buildshow Dunno, you take money from a company for a sponsored video, then later you have another video featuring that product that's technically not sponsored. The providence of the second video will always be suspect. And you're welcome for the view. Didn't Jesus boot the money changers out? Den of thieves, house of trade and all that jazz.
Everyone seem to just expect info or nothing and hate anyone making money fo their effort.
@@Ty-marco I still watch em out of morbid curiosity. I guess I shouldn't bother myself with what others do. Still, the crass amorality of it all keeps bringing me back to shake my head..
Two houses? Damn, you rich homie! Hey, can I borrow a million? Promise I'll pay you back!
Other than celebrities like musicians, people with money don’t use words like “homie”. Start speaking the way wealthy white people do, at all times. Fake it till you make it
Holy moly Matt you did not provide a viable affordable solution at all. This level of clickbait is not honest towards your less wealthy viewers and frankly not good Christian behavior. Shame on you.