WHAT IS AN HRV ANYWAYS?

WHAT IS AN HRV ANYWAYS?

HRV, you’ve heard the term thrown around in your hunt for your new home but you’re not really sure what it means and what it’s purpose is in your new home. Why would your home need it when older houses didn’t? The simple answer? A shift in construction technology to increased attention to a tight building envelope has brought the need to changes in a home’s ventilation system. Gone are the days of drafty houses, where air seepage and passive heat loss were the norm.

The benefits of the tighter building envelope includes better indoor air quality control and increased longevity of the building itself. The downside being that eventually without a continuous flow of fresh, conditioned air the homes air quality quickly diminishes becoming stale and stuffy.

How a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) Works 

A heat recovery ventilator is a whole-house system that uses a combination of controls, fans, and heat-recovery elements which exhaust the building’s stale air while bringing in fresh air from outdoors. Before releasing the fresh air into the home, most of the heat energy from the exhausted air is transferred to the incoming air.

This allows for a continuous stream of air that maintains a steady, comfortable temperature while using little energy in comparison to standard heating and cooling systems. At the same time, the incoming air undergoes “quality control” in that it minimizes the entry of dust, pollen, insects, and other issues that may be introduced by other ventilation methods.

With every North Ridge home an HRV system is included as standard so you can breathe easy knowing your home is kept comfortable and no energy is wasted.

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