Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Effect of residential air-to-air heat and moisture exchangers on indoor humidity

Conference · · ASHRAE Transactions (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (USA)
OSTI ID:5783867
;  [1]
  1. ORTECH International, Mississauga, Ontario (CA)
A project was undertaken to develop guidelines for the selection of residential heat and moisture recovery ventilation systems (HRVs) in order to maintain an acceptable indoor humidity for various climatic conditions. These guidelines were developed from reviews on ventilation requirements, HRV performance specifications, and from computer modeling. Space conditions within three house/occupancy models for several types of HRV were simulated for three climatic conditions (Lake Charles, LA; Seattle, WA; and Winnipeg, MB) in order to determine the impact of the HRVs on indoor relative humidity and space-conditioning loads. Results show that when reduction of cooling cost is the main consideration, exchangers with moisture recovery are preferable to sensible HRVs. For reduction of heating costs, moisture recovery should be done for ventilation rates greater than about 15 L/s and average winter temperatures less than about (minus) 10{degrees}C if internal moisture generation rates are low. For houses with higher ventilation rates and colder average winter temperatures, exchangers with moisture recovery should be used.
OSTI ID:
5783867
Report Number(s):
CONF-890609--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: ASHRAE Transactions (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (USA) Journal Volume: 95, Part 2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English