Whether natural or mechanical, homes need ventilation.

They are no longer built to leak heat and

moisture the way they used to be; we now build them as airtight as we can. This makes mechanical
ventilation essential in a high performance home.
•How much fresh air is enough?
•How much fresh air comes in through the building envelope?
•What is the difference between an HRV and an ERV?
•How do you choose between an HRV and an ERV?
How much fresh air is required and the best way to provide it are important issues. Energy recovery from
exhaust air is becoming common place in cold regions, and two types of equipment can do this-
an HRV(Heat Recovery Ventilation) and an ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilation.
Both HRVs and ERVs are somewhat new to mainstream home construction, and can often be confused. In
an effort to clear that up, we will first explore why ventilation is so crucial, then explain the options and their
best applications.
Up until the last few decades, houses were so leaky that sufficient cold dry air seeped in to meet the needs
of occupants, and ensure homes had no moisture damage. These houses were said to 'breathe', but that
would be like breathing through your skin instead of through your nose.
It meant that cold, dry winter air would need to be warmed as well as humidified, while hot and humid air
would enter in the summer.
Nowadays, in the name of energy efficiency, houses are built to much higher standards of air tightness, so a
mechanical ventilation system is essential for the following reasons:
•To provide oxygen for occupants since people deplete oxygen as they breath. In a reasonably airtight home
with no ventilation you would feel the effects of that in quite short order.
•To remove contaminants – because along with the toxins emitted by the human body (ammonia, benzene,
carbon monoxide and methane to name but a few), chemicals in building materials and furnishings continue
to off-gas for many years after installation.
•To remove the excess humidity generated by normal human activity in order to ensure building durability
and efficiency in heating.
How much fresh air is enough?
It is very difficult for humans to detect low levels of contaminants in their air, even when they represent a health
hazard. An ideal ventilation system would include sensors that could detect the presence of excessive humidity
and all harmful agents in order to provide fresh air accordingly, but no such system exists yet.
Therefore, our best option at present is to err on the side of safety, and provide a minimum fresh outdoor air
supply at all times. Most building codes rely on the *ASHRAE standard 62.2 (or some variation of it) to
establish ventilation norms for homes.
*ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers) is the most respected
and authoritative source for interior air quality standards. ASHRAE 62.1 and 2 are the recognized standards for
ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ).
According to the current version of the ASHRAE standard (2013), the calculation for individual homes is as
follows:
Q = 7.5 cfm/occupant + 3 cfm/100 ft² of living area
=12.75 m³/h per occupant + 5.5 m³/h per 10 m² of living area

cfm - Cubic Feet per Minute

Q - The air supply rate
This equation assumes the number of occupants equal to the number of bedrooms plus one, a reasonable
assumption for an average family where each child has their own room. The calculated value refers to the
minimal installed rate (Q). Some codes (like the National Building Code of Canada) insist on insuring a
capability of providing half this value on a continual basis.
Note that the 3 cfm/100 ft² of living area used is triple that of the previous version (2003), since the extra 2
cfm were considered until now to be provided by the air leaks in the envelope. Worth noting, key
professionals in the industry are still debating the value of this update, read more.
In Canada, the ventilation capacity is prescribed according to the type and number of rooms to take into
account the activity of the occupants rather than the dimension of the living space.
The National Building Code refers to standard CAN/CSA-F32 for establishing the ventilation rate of a
residence. But, at any rate, the intent is to ensure around 0.3 ACH, which is the international norm to evaluate
ventilation systems.
How much fresh air c
Choosing between an HRV and an
ERV
Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) is a system that uses the heat in stale exhaust air to preheat incoming
fresh air. This reduces the energy required to bring outside air up to ambient room temperature.
Similar to the human breathing system as mentioned above, this exchange of air is performed in a single
area of the home, the lung of your home, your ventilator core.
Note that outgoing air and incoming air never mix in the heat recovery process; they simply pass in separate
channels in the ventilator core, allowing an exchange of heat through conduction.
The 'efficiency rate' of an HRV unit determines how much energy will be saved by using that particular
device. Although it requires the operation of a fan on a continual basis, the energy recovered from the inside
air is many times that of the energy required for the fan.
Typical efficiencies range from 55% to 75%, but some extremely efficient models are rated as high as 93%
efficiency. At present, these latter units are significantly more expensive and only available from
Europe. However, when you factor the value of energy savings over the unit’s full life cycle, shipping these
costly units across the ocean can still make it a financially and ecologically sound investment.
Energy (or Enthalpy) Recovery Ventilation (ERV) goes a little further than the HRV scheme, as this type of
system also captures some of the humidity in the air to keep it on the same side of the thermal envelope that it
came from.
So in winter, the system transfers the humidity from the air being extracted to the incoming fresh (and dry) air
to help keep the ambient humidity level at a reasonable value (between 40 and 60%) at all times.
In summer, the humidity transfer reverses and the humidity in outside air is removed before it is injected into
the home. This saves energy by reducing the load on your air conditioning system and/or dehumidifier. A high
efficiency of humidity transfer would be around 70% but this value depends on the actual humidity on either
side of the envelope.
One important note is that whatever you choose for your needs, there will always be a power on/off switch. If
your system is too noisy, you will likely turn it off for long periods of time even if you really need it. Ensure you
have a quiet system and that it is installed properly to avoid the temptation of turning off a piece of equipment
that represents both a financial and health investment.
How to choose:
The best option between an HRV and an ERV depends on your climate and specific needs. If your house is too
humid in winter (above 60% RH) then an HRV is the better choice, as it would surely get rid of excess humidity
while an ERV would tend to keep it at a high level.
If the opposite is true and your house is too dry in winter, then an ERV would be a better choice as it helps retain
humidity, eliminating the need (and cost) for you to generate it through other means.
In summer time, the use of an HRV will usually increase the humidity level inside your home, so an ERV is better
in hot and humid zones. But a dedicated dehumidifier will likely do the trick much better. At the very least, the
ERV will lower the load on the air conditioning system, even if it can’t keep up with the high humidity level on the
outside.
So in the end, there is not one right choice. It depends on your climate, your lifestyle and your home. In a perfect
world we would have one of each, short of that we are left to make a choice.
One thing is for certain though, whichever you choose, an airtight home with an ERV or HRV is an evolutionary
leap beyond the leaky houses of the 20th century, so if you are building or have a reasonably airtight house,
don't lose sleep over which one to get – just get one.