I am building a post and beam passive solar skillion cottage on piers and slab. Plan on hanging erv in tall part of the roof. Where warm air and moisture will build. Basically an earth ship like Goldie and Matts but no tires, no berm, and a post and beam timber frame with 6/12 pitch. Passive houses with one air change an hour don't work for me with greenhouse on front of building. Need one air change every 10 minutes for plants. I hate stale passive house air. 60 cfm don't sound like much. We run 1000 cfm for 10x10 foot grow rooms.
I'm trying to minimise the use of plastics in my house design, especially in services that are likely to release microplastics into our living space. What are the particular considerations if you build this system with rigid metal ducts instead of flexible plastic?
Great video even if Steve didn't get to use Big Red this time. I have to admit I still don't grasp why the ERV needs its own ducting system and fan. When it gets down to forty below outside, I feel like I'd rather be dumping that ERV flow into my main air handler, heating it and sending it through the house using a single set of ductwork. Having said that, I realize that Steve has a great reason for leaving them separate, I just don't understand what that reason is...
I suppose what I'm asking is, would it make sense to pull outside air through the ERV and dump it into the heating/cooling system. Could you have the ERV fan run when fresh air is needed, just pushing it through the heater while it's off, and then have the heater fan do the work when heat is needed, leaving the ERV fan off? Otherwise, it feels like I'd be handing my air twice if it needs to be heated.
The volume of air the ERV moves is relatively small. In most cases we are delivering about 12 cfm per pipe/grille. This necessitates a full distribution system of its own - and makes it very very effective. Dumping it in the ductwork, it would get lost and the delivery would not be well maintained from such a small volume delivery
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431 Ah. That makes perfect sense. I never realized how low the volume was for ERV vs the rest of the HVAC system. Love what you do on your channel, Steve! Where else would I be able to get an answer like this from one of the leading experts in passive house design?
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431 I'd love to know what level of insulation you'd need before you get your house's heating/cooling needs down to matching the ERV volume. I prefer a separate floor heating rather than air heating system, but in my climate where we routinely get 43 degrees celcius in summer, you do need cooling but it's surprising how far you can keep your indoor temperatures down just with insulation and broad eaves. A single set of ducts for the ERV and just cooling that air when it needs to be cooled would make the system tidy.
Why not dump the fresh air into the main trunk lines of the Mitzubishi rigid ducting, thereby eliminating all those individual flex lines and the Distribution box??
1. Many European houses don’t have central ducts….2. You rely upon central blower to be on much of the time. Most feel that stressing and wearing out the more expensive unit, but I doubt replacing a zhender blower is much cheaper than say replacing the blowier on a Carrier central blower? If you are talking say a Payne central blower, or alternate Most ervs dontnhave strong enough fans to overcome static in soem house esp older ones with poorly designed systems. ,y a btoan erv, their motors will be cheaper to replace.That said , what I suggest is arguably the best cost benefit approach, BUT you’ve got to be sure to ducts esp supplies can handle the /be designed for the extra cfm they will now carry ie hvac and zhender/erv. It’s very rare that extant ducts are oversized by that much.
@@johnwhite2576 In summertime, you're bringing in humid outside air and the ERV cools it down. Although the membrane might allow some of that outside moisture to move to the exhaust rather than bringing it inside, there's probably still condensation. In wintertime, the ERV is cooling down the outgoing indoor air before you exhaust it. Although the membrane might allow some of that inside moisture to move to the fresh incoming air rather than sending it outside, there's probably still condensation.
I am building a post and beam passive solar skillion cottage on piers and slab. Plan on hanging erv in tall part of the roof. Where warm air and moisture will build. Basically an earth ship like Goldie and Matts but no tires, no berm, and a post and beam timber frame with 6/12 pitch. Passive houses with one air change an hour don't work for me with greenhouse on front of building. Need one air change every 10 minutes for plants. I hate stale passive house air. 60 cfm don't sound like much. We run 1000 cfm for 10x10 foot grow rooms.
Hope there is a video about humidifiers in the future.
The first and last pipe look like they are compressed by that strap.... Hopefully it is just camera angle
I'm trying to minimise the use of plastics in my house design, especially in services that are likely to release microplastics into our living space. What are the particular considerations if you build this system with rigid metal ducts instead of flexible plastic?
Great video even if Steve didn't get to use Big Red this time. I have to admit I still don't grasp why the ERV needs its own ducting system and fan. When it gets down to forty below outside, I feel like I'd rather be dumping that ERV flow into my main air handler, heating it and sending it through the house using a single set of ductwork. Having said that, I realize that Steve has a great reason for leaving them separate, I just don't understand what that reason is...
I suppose what I'm asking is, would it make sense to pull outside air through the ERV and dump it into the heating/cooling system. Could you have the ERV fan run when fresh air is needed, just pushing it through the heater while it's off, and then have the heater fan do the work when heat is needed, leaving the ERV fan off? Otherwise, it feels like I'd be handing my air twice if it needs to be heated.
The volume of air the ERV moves is relatively small. In most cases we are delivering about 12 cfm per pipe/grille. This necessitates a full distribution system of its own - and makes it very very effective. Dumping it in the ductwork, it would get lost and the delivery would not be well maintained from such a small volume delivery
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431 Ah. That makes perfect sense. I never realized how low the volume was for ERV vs the rest of the HVAC system. Love what you do on your channel, Steve! Where else would I be able to get an answer like this from one of the leading experts in passive house design?
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431 I'd love to know what level of insulation you'd need before you get your house's heating/cooling needs down to matching the ERV volume. I prefer a separate floor heating rather than air heating system, but in my climate where we routinely get 43 degrees celcius in summer, you do need cooling but it's surprising how far you can keep your indoor temperatures down just with insulation and broad eaves. A single set of ducts for the ERV and just cooling that air when it needs to be cooled would make the system tidy.
Why not dump the fresh air into the main trunk lines of the Mitzubishi rigid ducting, thereby eliminating all those individual flex lines and the Distribution box??
1. Many European houses don’t have central ducts….2. You rely upon central blower to be on much of the time. Most feel that stressing and wearing out the more expensive unit, but I doubt replacing a zhender blower is much cheaper than say replacing the blowier on a Carrier central blower? If you are talking say a Payne central blower, or alternate Most ervs dontnhave strong enough fans to overcome static in soem house esp older ones with poorly designed systems. ,y a btoan erv, their motors will be cheaper to replace.That said , what I suggest is arguably the best cost benefit approach, BUT you’ve got to be sure to ducts esp supplies can handle the /be designed for the extra cfm they will now carry ie hvac and zhender/erv. It’s very rare that extant ducts are oversized by that much.
Why does this need a condensate drain? I’ve never seen another erv with that requirement?
@@johnwhite2576 In summertime, you're bringing in humid outside air and the ERV cools it down. Although the membrane might allow some of that outside moisture to move to the exhaust rather than bringing it inside, there's probably still condensation. In wintertime, the ERV is cooling down the outgoing indoor air before you exhaust it. Although the membrane might allow some of that inside moisture to move to the fresh incoming air rather than sending it outside, there's probably still condensation.
see my answer above
thinking first in all things...
Thanks a good plan, right?
@@stevenbaczekarchitect9431
intelligence is in the moment or it is not there at all....
@@jonerlandson1956 Agreed