There are many ways you can improve your home’s indoor air quality and its ventilation. One of the most useful is the installation of an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) or heat recovery ventilator (HRV), devices which allow fresh air into your house without it drastically changing the indoor temperatures and placing more stress on the AC or heater.
We usually talk about energy and heat recovery ventilators together, but they aren’t the exact same device. When people are looking for better home ventilation, they’re often curious about what’s different between the two. We’ll explain ERV vs. HRV below.
Air quality in homes is a growing concern today. Government studies have found that the air inside buildings, including residential ones, can be three to four times worse than the air outside. This goes against what most people think of when they think of “air pollution.” The reason for this spike in indoor air pollutants is that homes aren’t designed today for sufficient circulation of outdoor air. This helps to keep homes energy efficient (less heat gain in hot weather, less heat loss in cold weather), but it ends up trapping numerous pollutants generated indoors from household products, paint, varnish, cleaning supplies, and plain o’ dust and lint.
The summers in New York can be notoriously humid, turning what would normally be pleasantly warm weather into something much more unpleasant. It’s not that the high moisture levels is making that day any hotter. What’s actually happening is the moisture in the air is making it harder for your body to release heat—and when there’s more heat trapped in your body, the temperature will feel around 10°F hotter than it is!
It’s not quite full spring weather yet here in Staten Island, but it’s definitely the time to start preparing for it. One of the essential steps is to schedule maintenance for your air conditioning system or heat pump so that it’s ready to go when the first heat hits.
Winter brings with it more comfort challenges in a home than just ensuring everybody stays warm when the temperatures outside dive. Indoor air quality can become a serious issue because a home is frequently sealed off against the outdoor air to prevent heat from escaping. A sealed-up house will begin to develop stale, dry, and contaminant-filled air.
“It’s not so much the heat, it’s the humidity.” Everybody has heard a version of this saying before. People know that when humidity is high, a hot day feels worse. But why does it feel worse? And is an extremely dry day much better? Is there an ideal between too humid and too dry? And what can you do to achieve that ideal in your house?
Spring always brings with it good news: warmer weather! It might come a bit later in spring than earlier, but it gets here no matter what.
