Hi guys
Our contractor will install an HRV system in our new home.
He tells us we do not need external exhaust fans over the gas range or in the bathrooms.
The building code here says an external fan is required with a gas range.
We have been told the HRV installers can adjust the system to accommodate external exhaust fans. How would that be possible, as they would not know how often we burn stuff on the stove??
Friends of ours with a new home by the same builder wish they had installed external exhaust fans.
Has anyone successfully used charcoal fans in the bathrooms??
Thanks for your help
Stewie
The Sawdust Shop
“Always a new way to screw up “.
Replies
I've got an excellent air system here (.5ACH), plus kitchen/bath exhaust fans. Next house will be the same.
Your friend, not the builder, is correct. How much a problem an exhaust fan makes for your air system depends on a lot of factors. Talk with the person designing the air system. Ask good questions.
Your profile doesn't say where/what climate you are.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
VaTom .5ACH ???? I do not know the acroynm. We are in central Ontario. 2 hours north of toronto , but south of North Bay and Sudbury. thanks for your helpstewie
Air Changes per Hour. 0.5 means that the entire volume of the house is exchanged every two hours.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
.5 air change per hour.
It was Canadian code when I built my house, since degraded. US has never been so enlightened. Here, an operable window satisfies ventilation requirements, in a climate where few ever crack a window. Bad air.
I'm happy to stay with that ideal as there's minimal energy penalty for my houses (passive annual heat storage, PAHS). Extremely good quality air inside. Cheap luxury.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Stewie,
Your contractor is half right. If you have a properly installed HRV, no separate exhaust fan is needed for the bathrooms or laundry rooms. (HRVs extract exhaust air from these locations.) However, HRV manufacturers do NOT recommend connecting an HRV to a range hood, because the grease levels in range hood exhaust air can clog the HRV. The range hood will need a separate exhaust fan, ducted to the exterior.
"Our contractor ... tells us we do not need external exhaust fans over the gas range or in the bathrooms."
"The building code here says an external fan is required with a gas range."
The others correctly answered the question about using the HRV as an exhaust fan.
I, however, would recommend that you fire "your" contractor and find one that can at least understand and follow the minimum acceptable construction practices, i.e., the buiding code(s).
BTW, the recirculting fan with a charcoal cartridge in it migh remove some odors when new, but primarily is good for only creating a distracting noise.