Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Hinse Brothers Mechanical YouTube channel. My name is Trevor and I’m here with Adrian Hinse. He’s one of the brothers that own Hinse Brothers mechanical. And today we’re gonna be talking about the benefits of adding HRV and ERV to your HVAC system. Now I have no clue what either of those things are, so he’s gonna enlighten us a little bit on that topic today.
And as we always do with our videos, we start off with an inspirational quote. This one’s from Maya Angelou. You’ll face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated. I love that one. That’s very good. I think that you know, life comes at your heart, especially the last couple of years with all this covid stuff that’s been been happening. Don’t, don’t let it get you down. Don’t let you be defeated. Alright another statistic about hvac. Okay, 73.9% of consumers made their HVAC purchase after consulting at least one online review site. So speaking of reviews, you guys have a lot of reviews out? In Sherwood park there. Yeah, we do.
Awesome. So highly reviewed company out in Sherwood Park, Alberta. If you need any HVAC furnace, air conditioning any plumbing as well. You guys do plumbing. Don’t be afraid to give them a call. The number’s right there on the screen. Okay. so Adrian let’s get right into it. What the heck is an Hrv?
Well, an H RV is a heat recovery ventilator. Okay. So the actual initial purpose for these is to actually warm up the incoming air into your home before it meets your furnace. Oh, okay. So what it does is it’ll increase the efficiency of your furnace at the same time it’s gonna be bringing in fresh air from outside and expelling stale air, giving you air changes in your home.
Okay. now the next question is what’s, what’s an ERV? So we talked about HRV, what’s an ERV?
So, an energy recovery ventilator is an ERV. And what it does, it’s basically very similar to an Hrv, except it’s got an added function, which will actually transfer moisture as well as temperature. Oh, okay. All right. That sounds very cool. Are they very common now?
Why would somebody need an HRV?
So, probably the most I important reason for us is to save energy. Oh, right. So we want to save energy by using any of the fresh air that we’re, sorry, stale air that we’re removing from the home. We’re gonna take the heat from that air and add it to the incoming fresh air. Okay.
So instead of having your furnace warm up air that’s, you know, minus 30 here in Alberta, or minus 40, sometimes it’s, it’s going to be warming up or it’s gonna be heating warmer air. Okay. So it’s gonna take less BTU to warm up that air initially.
Let’s get into the next decision that people would have is why would I choose either an ERV or HRV?
So it based on the different climates that we’re in. So you can actually use an HRV as a dehumidifier as well as bringing in that fresh air. So if your home has a high humidity level and we’re dry climate Yeah. So it can be used to dehumidifier, bring in that dryer air and expel the moist warm air. Right. with an ERV in high humidity climates, what it’s gonna do is actually transfer incoming humidity to the outgoing air. Okay. So you’ll be able to maintain humidity at a, a better, well control humidity better in your home.
Well, that’s, that’s really good because we are quite dry here. And you know, I, it, it, it affects everything. Like it affects your skin, it affects, you know, that that itchiness the static electricity that gets built up, especially in the winter time. So having something to control that humidity wouldn’t be, you know, beneficial for anybody in especially Alberta. But, you know, think about Vancouver in area, right. Vancouver is very much a, a a more of a, a moist and humid climate. So getting rid of some of that moisture in here also big benefit.
Absolutely. So in that situation, in like Vancouver area on the coast ERV would likely be a more beneficial choice for you.
There you go. So everybody in, in Vancouver area, if you don’t have an ERV, get one. So another, another thing about the about the HRV and RVs is that they’re actually kind of working as a air purifier.
Oh, okay. So is there a filter inside?
There is a filter inside. So what it’s doing is it’s removing some of the larger debris before it enters your home. But the biggest thing is that it’s actually exchanging air. So with the older systems, you would just have fresh air coming into the home, but nothing to actually ventilate and remove any of the stale air. Okay. So that’s like one of the major benefits of this system of these systems as well, is that we’re exchanging the air for fresh air.
Very good. So I, I know it can get very stale inside of home, especially ’cause they build them so airtight these days. Having a good source of fresh, clean air would be very beneficial for our health, for sleeping, for, for everything. Yeah. Absolutely.
Okay. now tell us a little bit about how an HRV works.
So the way an HRV works, there’s two basically parallel ducts. So one is bringing in fresh air into the house and one is removing air. So what they do, they’re both plumbed into what’s called a heat exchanger. So the H RV’s an actual heat exchanger, it’s got two fans on it, one for the exhaust and one for the for the incoming air. Okay.
So it’ll suck the air in. And what happens is both streams of air cross through a heat exchanger. So when the air is leaving the home, the heat will transfer through this heat exchanger into the incoming air. Okay. So actually it’ll use up to 99% of the heat leaving the house Oh. For the fresh air to warm up on the way in. Nice. So you’re, you’re saving some of that some of that heat that you’ve already paid for. That’s right. Yeah. Awesome. That sounds really good.
Now what about an ERV? How does that work?
So an ERV essentially works the same way except it is able to actually trap some of the moisture coming into the home and expel it out as well. Okay. Through that same, a similar type of exchanger.
So like a, a two step process instead of just a, a single kind of
Process’s. So in earlier times, you know, houses were built loose and a lot of fresh air would enter the home and a lot of air would leave the home. Right. So it breathe a lot easier. But to increase the efficiency of our heating systems, we don’t have to keep burning those fossil fuels and doing that to heat our homes. They’ve tightened the envelope of the home and increased insulation in that, but we do need to bring that fresh air and expel this stale air. And this also helps trap the heat in rather than bring in just straight cold
Air. Yeah, that’s really good. I think anybody who is e energy conscious you know, if you’re looking at your heating bills and cooling and so forth it’s, it’s kind of a big deal right now. I know. Yeah. My bill increased quite a bit in the last little while. So, you know, being able to save a little bit on those energy bills would be, would be great if you can, you know, store some of that energy and reuse it.
That’s that’s awesome. Much more beneficial. Now the next thing how do HRV and E RVs affect the air quality in the home? I know we talked a little bit about that, but you know, let’s go into it a little bit, a little bit deeper there.
So with the ERV and HRV there’s actually little filters inside the units. So when the air’s coming in, you’ve got dust, you’ve got Paul, and you’ve got all sorts of things when you’re mowing the lawn and that heavier debris that’ll get trapped in those. So you want to clean those probably on a monthly, at minimum quarterly basis. Okay.
And so that’s gonna trap the heavy debris before it gets to your furnace filter. Ah, I see. So when you have a furnace filter that’ll trap the finer dust so you’re not you’re not clouding it up with the heavy debris. So you actually increase the life expectancy of your, your furnace filters in your home. Wow. And make them more effective. This could also work in conjunction with like an air purifier as well. Right. So you’re, you’re bringing in that fresh air, so it acts as somewhat of an air purifier. But that in conjunction with a UV lamp and a high Merv filter Yeah. You’re gonna have extremely clean air in your home. Yeah.
Yeah. That’s really important too because, you know, where do colds and flues come from? They come, you know, they’re, they’re airborne, right? Yeah. Airborne. So if we can trap them, kill them before they, they get us and circulate through the house you know, just helps us be a little bit more healthier in our, in our home. Right.
And in the current state with different viruses coming out and things like that, people are a lot more conscious of having clean air in their home. Right. And this is one way of increasing that for you.
Yeah. Awesome. I’m not a doctor, I’m not giving you advice, but having clean air I know would be very beneficial for anybody. Right? Yeah, absolutely. There’s a reason they have, you know, hepa filtration on airplanes. Right. ’cause you’re trapped in a tube with everybody else. Okay, next thing here. What is the most appropriate type of ventilator for Northern Alberta? Kind of where we are.
So Northern Alberta, typically you see a lot of HRVs. Okay. So in for my brother for instance, he had extremely high humidity level. He was experiencing 68% humidity in his home. Oh wow. This is in the middle of the winter when most people are experiencing dry air in their home. Yeah.
Yeah. That’s pretty Strange. Yeah, it was. It’s kind of a strange situation. And basically the moment he installed an HRV, he was able to bring in his levels to normal levels. You know, bring ’em down to the 35 to 40 zone where they should be. Right. And not only that though, he’s got fresh air in his home and increase the efficiency a
Lot a in his house. Yeah, that’s great. Now I did have a question because it’s pulling moisture out. Is there like a drain on that? Does it trap condensate kind of like a, a coil in your, your
Ac? That is correct. So it does get kind of plumbed like your furnace. There’s a condensate drain off your furnace. There’s a condensate drain on your H rv, so that’ll actually just be piped into your like floor drain or near drain. Or if there isn’t a floor drain in the near area, what we can do is put in a condensate pump and pipe it off somewhere else, such as your laundry drain or the nearest drain.
Right. Okay. So there you have it folks. We learned a little bit more about HRVs and ER vs. And if you are in the insured park and you know, greater Edmonton area really we can help you out with one of those systems or get a consultation on them and see if it’s the right choice for you. See how you can save some energy as well as breathe some nice fresh, clean air. And Adrian is the guy to call on that the number is on this screen. So thank you so much for joining us on this video and we’ll see you on the next one. Thank You.