I’m installing radiant floor heat in a SIP home. My question is where to bring the air into the house with the heat recovery ventilator? The boiler is going to be a direct vent w/ an indirect water heater. Any ideas?
Garett
I’m installing radiant floor heat in a SIP home. My question is where to bring the air into the house with the heat recovery ventilator? The boiler is going to be a direct vent w/ an indirect water heater. Any ideas?
Garett
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Replies
Contaminating your fresh air intake with exhaust air from the HRV and gas appliance is a real possibility if you are not careful. Check the local codes and manufacturer’s recommendations. If I remember correctly the minimum distance between the HRV's exhaust and intake is six feet. But prevailing winds, snow height, vehicular parking etc...must be considered.
RBean
http://www.healthyheating.com
http://www.healthyheating.com/blog
Edited 3/26/2005 5:49 pm ET by RB
We had a timber-frame built with SIPs and 1st flor radiant (slab); moved in Jan '05. Our framer (also GC) installed a Lifebreath #155 max in for our ~2,400 SF cape and it's worked well -quiet, adjustable and the air exchange quality has been noticable. When the outside air was below 10 deg-F the returning air was ~ 60 when our thermostat was set at 70.
He set the intake vent on the NW side and the discharge end on the SE side (both awy from the kichen down-draft vent discharge).
Daveinnh,
Thank you for the response.
My plan is to pull air out of both bathrooms and the kitchen(in addition to range vent) with 6" duct work and adjustable intake vents.
I then plan on dumping my "preheated" fresh air into the basement near the boiler. I do not need this as make up air the boiler is a direct vent unit.
Is this similar to your system? Would you do anything differently?
What are you using as a heat source for your home?
Thank you
Garett
Our T-Fr did place intakes at both baths and the kitchen. Lifebreath had several options for remotes, and we just recently selected 1 for each bathroom (to override the manual settings on the operating unit.
Our builder used flexible duct, probably as it's much easier to install - the intake duct is also insulated. I don't know if I'd want to send air/grease from a cooktop discharge into the system; why not discharge outside?
We have 3 discharge locations- one in each of the 2nd floor bedrooms and the 3rd at the top of the stairwell. The T-F/ builder said the return air will be slightly cooler; cool air sinks; so place discharge vents higher in your living space. It made sense to me and seems to work well; the system did need 1/2 day of "balancing" so the air flows would be barely noticable. Therefore, placing the discharge in your basement may not promote a good air pattern, and may actually stir up dust. BTW, my workshop is located in the basement and machines are connected to a cyclone system - ain't cheap but works nice!
Hope these responses help,
daveinnh
Very Helpful Daveinnh.
Thank's again!
Hey Dave - my wife and I also just built a timber frame SIP home on a radiant slab, moved in March 05. I also have an HRV but have only ran the interior ducts thus far - I had major issues running the ductwork b/c of no basement and the inability to run ductwork on the exterior walls (b/c of the timbers). How did you deal with it? Do you have a picture?
I'm sorry - we have a concrete slab on joists (~2" thick sand-only, no aggregate, underlain by blue-board insulation) with a full-basement beneath - NOT a slab-on-grade.
Our builder/timber-framer ran 4" PVC, Sch 40 pipe thru a chase located adjacent to our chimney (center chimney cape w/ a rear stick-built Ell) for the supply/recharge air to the upper bedrooms.
If you already have the timber-frame built, you may wish to contact one of the HRV vendor for suggestions regarding pipe requirements. Be sure you don't place them directly against an un-heated wall though.
The flexible hose was used only in the basement. The HRV unit is designed to "hang" from the joists and has a condensate discharge tube that discharges to a basement drain - not much water produced though.