With buildings becoming increasingly air-sealed to improve energy efficiency, a consequence is a rise in deficient indoor air quality (IAQ). This is a serious—yet often unnoticed—threat to occupant health, cognitive function, productivity and general wellbeing. Deficient IAQ is especially concerning because people are indoors about 90% of the time. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that indoor air may be two to five times, and occasionally greater than 100 times, more polluted than outdoor air.
Increased and balanced ventilation is the best way to enhance indoor air quality in any building. With enough outdoor air coming in to replace the stale indoor air via balanced ventilation, IAQ is enhanced. The only downside is that it can increase energy use and costs.
However, this not the case with energy recovery ventilation. RenewAire’s energy recovery technology reuses otherwise-wasted energy, which enables users to lower energy use, decrease HVAC equipment, and see a drop in their overall energy costs up to 65%. Plus, this energy reduction is better for the planet, as the EPA notes, “ERVs provide excellent opportunities for saving energy, controlling humidity and providing sufficient outside air to promote IAQ.”
An energy recovery ventilator, or ERV, is a system that employs energy recovery technology, such as a static-plate core or rotating wheel. This process uses balanced airflows and recovers otherwise-expended total energy comprised of heat (sensible energy) and humidity (latent energy). In summer, warm and humid outside air is precooled and dehumidified via the total energy from the outgoing cool interior air. In winter, cold and dry outside air is preheated and humidified via the total energy from the outgoing warm interior air. Subsequently, less energy is needed for conditioning and ventilation, which means HVAC equipment can be downsized.
