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Fundamentals of Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs)

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Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:03.130
[Music]
00:00:05.499 00:00:05.509 hello welcome here we are today at the
00:00:08.000 00:00:08.010 Tec training lab in Melrose Park and
00:00:10.220 00:00:10.230 we're we talking about energy recovery
00:00:11.720 00:00:11.730 ventilators or ARVs we look at different
00:00:14.720 00:00:14.730 types some commercial ones some
00:00:16.189 00:00:16.199 residential ones and look at different
00:00:18.140 00:00:18.150 heat exchangers as well specifically
00:00:19.880 00:00:19.890 rotary wheels and fix plates so let's
00:00:22.250 00:00:22.260 take a closer look so the first thing
00:00:24.710 00:00:24.720 we're going to look at is a commercial
00:00:26.150 00:00:26.160 unit and this one happens to be a wheel
00:00:27.710 00:00:27.720 type heat exchanger a commercially that
00:00:29.990 00:00:30.000 you typically will find wheels and to
00:00:31.429 00:00:31.439 fix plates and even some other types as
00:00:33.229 00:00:33.239 well residential ease pretty much to be
00:00:34.970 00:00:34.980 fixed plate only you won't see any
00:00:36.290 00:00:36.300 wheels residentially so this particular
00:00:38.299 00:00:38.309 one happens to be a standalone ERV means
00:00:40.729 00:00:40.739 that meaning that it's not attached to a
00:00:42.380 00:00:42.390 package rooftop unit although the same
00:00:44.360 00:00:44.370 technology here can be put inside a
00:00:46.790 00:00:46.800 rooftop unit and all be in one box but
00:00:49.369 00:00:49.379 this one happens to be a standalone one
00:00:50.840 00:00:50.850 so on here we have two different hoods
00:00:53.299 00:00:53.309 you see on both sides of the ERV this
00:00:55.610 00:00:55.620 one is an intake hood so we bring in
00:00:57.740 00:00:57.750 fresh air into the system and down
00:01:00.020 00:01:00.030 through the wheel and then this side
00:01:02.029 00:01:02.039 over here return air from the building
00:01:03.349 00:01:03.359 exhaust air from the building is coming
00:01:04.789 00:01:04.799 up and through and exhausting out this
00:01:06.410 00:01:06.420 hood over here so let's take a look
00:01:08.120 00:01:08.130 inside this guy here
00:01:09.200 00:01:09.210 and as you can see this one has a
00:01:10.789 00:01:10.799 Plexiglas on the front of it that's
00:01:12.080 00:01:12.090 obviously not a normal scenario normally
00:01:13.910 00:01:13.920 there'd be a sheet metal cabinet but
00:01:15.560 00:01:15.570 here in the lab we have a plexiglass one
00:01:17.090 00:01:17.100 so we can see what things look like on
00:01:18.560 00:01:18.570 the inside those there's two fans on
00:01:20.840 00:01:20.850 here
00:01:21.230 00:01:21.240 one for the intake air for the fresh
00:01:22.999 00:01:23.009 outside air to come in and one for the
00:01:24.770 00:01:24.780 exhaust air to bring air out of the
00:01:26.149 00:01:26.159 building and throw it away so have two
00:01:27.920 00:01:27.930 different fans on here on these
00:01:29.569 00:01:29.579 commercial type ones they typically do
00:01:31.190 00:01:31.200 run at different speeds in order to get
00:01:33.080 00:01:33.090 the CFM that we need for each side of
00:01:35.120 00:01:35.130 the equation residentially they're off
00:01:37.160 00:01:37.170 oftentimes be one motor driving bull
00:01:39.410 00:01:39.420 fans and they run in a balanced airflow
00:01:41.469 00:01:41.479 we'll take a look at this guy on the
00:01:43.340 00:01:43.350 inside open him up
00:01:45.880 00:01:45.890 00:01:50.690 00:01:50.700 this is our heat exchanger here this is
00:01:52.940 00:01:52.950 a wheel style heat exchanger it's made
00:01:55.190 00:01:55.200 out of a plastic and it has a silica
00:01:58.010 00:01:58.020 based gel and pregnant it on to it
00:02:00.609 00:02:00.619 you probably have seen these types of
00:02:02.719 00:02:02.729 packets before it says silica gel do not
00:02:05.600 00:02:05.610 eat don't eat this obviously be very bad
00:02:08.180 00:02:08.190 for you right but you'll find this in
00:02:09.770 00:02:09.780 your electronics boxes leather shoes
00:02:11.720 00:02:11.730 things like that the purpose of that is
00:02:13.760 00:02:13.770 to keep the moisture neutral inside that
00:02:15.920 00:02:15.930 packaging same kind of stuff is
00:02:18.470 00:02:18.480 impregnated on top of this plastic in
00:02:20.150 00:02:20.160 order to transfer moisture it can absorb
00:02:22.009 00:02:22.019 moisture or release it depending on
00:02:24.020 00:02:24.030 which air stream it's in on a given
00:02:25.910 00:02:25.920 season and that all happens
00:02:27.199 00:02:27.209 automatically there's a small little
00:02:29.780 00:02:29.790 motor down here that drives this belt
00:02:31.580 00:02:31.590 that belt turns this wheel so here comes
00:02:35.210 00:02:35.220 up from inside the building and goes to
00:02:36.590 00:02:36.600 the heat exchanger and gives up its
00:02:37.970 00:02:37.980 energy which depending on the season
00:02:40.009 00:02:40.019 heat goes from hot to cold moisture goes
00:02:42.680 00:02:42.690 from high moisture to low moisture so if
00:02:44.870 00:02:44.880 it is summertime and we have hot humid
00:02:46.910 00:02:46.920 air coming in that means we have cool
00:02:48.740 00:02:48.750 drier air that would be leaving the
00:02:50.180 00:02:50.190 building right so then the moisture
00:02:52.550 00:02:52.560 comes in here and he comes in here right
00:02:55.009 00:02:55.019 and it gets transferred on the ceiling
00:02:56.660 00:02:56.670 dry as it spins and exhaust back out so
00:02:59.360 00:02:59.370 instead of letting the heat and moisture
00:03:00.500 00:03:00.510 go into the building the transfers and
00:03:02.750 00:03:02.760 goes back out so we get the fresh clean
00:03:04.789 00:03:04.799 air molecules to come in but not any of
00:03:07.099 00:03:07.109 their energy heating and cooling right
00:03:09.050 00:03:09.060 same thing happens the opposite season
00:03:10.729 00:03:10.739 in the wintertime we have cold dry air
00:03:12.410 00:03:12.420 coming in and we have warmer moisture
00:03:14.750 00:03:14.760 air coming out of the building that
00:03:16.610 00:03:16.620 warmer moisture air goes into this
00:03:18.050 00:03:18.060 Airstream and gets transferred over and
00:03:20.420 00:03:20.430 then goes down into the building so we
00:03:22.400 00:03:22.410 keep the heat and moisture either
00:03:23.690 00:03:23.700 outside the building in the summer or we
00:03:25.250 00:03:25.260 keep the heat and moisture inside in the
00:03:26.690 00:03:26.700 winter and all that happens
00:03:27.920 00:03:27.930 automatically as this heat exchanger
00:03:29.660 00:03:29.670 moves it moves at a pretty slow speed
00:03:32.270 00:03:32.280 we'll run one in a little bit here but
00:03:34.039 00:03:34.049 it's moving at 40 to 90 RPM right like a
00:03:38.420 00:03:38.430 record player essentially for anybody
00:03:40.039 00:03:40.049 who's old enough to know the record
00:03:41.120 00:03:41.130 player is obviously probably only me
00:03:45.160 00:03:45.170 we do have two sets of filter banks on
00:03:47.170 00:03:47.180 these guys we're filtering both the air
00:03:49.210 00:03:49.220 coming in and the air going out I know
00:03:52.180 00:03:52.190 it seems weird to filter exhaust air but
00:03:54.430 00:03:54.440 in this case we're filtering the air to
00:03:55.809 00:03:55.819 want to keep it off of the heat
00:03:56.920 00:03:56.930 exchanger media we don't we're not
00:03:58.600 00:03:58.610 filtering it for human comfort want to
00:04:00.370 00:04:00.380 keep the heat exchanger clean because if
00:04:02.020 00:04:02.030 it gets dirty it won't transfer energy
00:04:03.430 00:04:03.440 as well so we're filtering both of these
00:04:05.620 00:04:05.630 air streams on here and then going down
00:04:09.250 00:04:09.260 through the curve we would connect into
00:04:10.509 00:04:10.519 the building system there are other ways
00:04:12.220 00:04:12.230 to do it as well we can have it like a
00:04:13.660 00:04:13.670 side discharge unit we can have it
00:04:15.130 00:04:15.140 connecting into a rooftop unit there's
00:04:17.379 00:04:17.389 different orientations that we can have
00:04:19.060 00:04:19.070 but the general feel would be kind of
00:04:20.560 00:04:20.570 like that let's take a look at a
00:04:22.420 00:04:22.430 different style unit now a bit stand up
00:04:24.850 00:04:24.860 here happens to be a residential style
00:04:26.710 00:04:26.720 HRV HRV stands for heat recovery
00:04:29.440 00:04:29.450 ventilator it is a form of an ERV energy
00:04:32.080 00:04:32.090 recovery ventilator but it doesn't do
00:04:33.670 00:04:33.680 any moisture transfer it just does dry
00:04:36.070 00:04:36.080 Energy residential you could have a RVs
00:04:38.590 00:04:38.600 or HRVs and the same commercially same
00:04:41.050 00:04:41.060 with wheels same with plates all will
00:04:42.670 00:04:42.680 come in both forms this one just happens
00:04:44.650 00:04:44.660 to be an HRV just coincidentally
00:04:48.060 00:04:48.070 normally on a residence will be ducting
00:04:50.710 00:04:50.720 from the bathrooms as our exhaust source
00:04:52.659 00:04:52.669 because we have to have exhaust there
00:04:54.040 00:04:54.050 anyway usually the bathrooms and then
00:04:55.870 00:04:55.880 maybe one general hallway common area we
00:04:58.029 00:04:58.039 are exhaust air flow path and that'll go
00:05:00.070 00:05:00.080 through the heat exchanger and be
00:05:01.570 00:05:01.580 exhausted out and the fresh air coming
00:05:03.520 00:05:03.530 in will typically be ducted into the
00:05:05.320 00:05:05.330 return side of our furnace or fan coil
00:05:07.420 00:05:07.430 where it can then use the regular
00:05:08.770 00:05:08.780 distribution system to supply the entire
00:05:10.900 00:05:10.910 house let's open this guy up here
00:05:15.970 00:05:15.980 luckily I'm barely tall enough to do
00:05:18.170 00:05:18.180 that all right so this one is a core
00:05:20.390 00:05:20.400 style heat exchanger so instead of a
00:05:21.920 00:05:21.930 wheel spinning and air going through it
00:05:24.230 00:05:24.240 in this case we have a metal heat
00:05:25.910 00:05:25.920 exchanger and the two air streams
00:05:27.590 00:05:27.600 crisscross with each other right
00:05:29.900 00:05:29.910 that guy slides out we have one air
00:05:31.550 00:05:31.560 stream going this way one of your stream
00:05:33.350 00:05:33.360 going that way we have two fans over
00:05:36.200 00:05:36.210 here one motor in between them driving
00:05:38.780 00:05:38.790 it so both fans are running at the same
00:05:40.610 00:05:40.620 speed no matter what so how much air
00:05:42.560 00:05:42.570 flow they move is a function of how much
00:05:43.910 00:05:43.920 duct work you have on each of those two
00:05:45.170 00:05:45.180 air streams but all the RVs whether it's
00:05:47.750 00:05:47.760 the one we just looked at or this one
00:05:49.040 00:05:49.050 will have four air pathways on them two
00:05:52.040 00:05:52.050 ends and two outs right so in this
00:05:54.320 00:05:54.330 particular case let's see which one's
00:05:56.420 00:05:56.430 which this is the outside air coming in
00:05:57.980 00:05:57.990 the top up here right
00:05:59.570 00:05:59.580 going through this way and then over to
00:06:01.820 00:06:01.830 the furnace and then we have air leaving
00:06:04.100 00:06:04.110 from the first going through that way
00:06:06.440 00:06:06.450 and exhausting out the building right so
00:06:09.370 00:06:09.380 the airflow path moves like that the
00:06:12.620 00:06:12.630 actual heat exchange surface we look at
00:06:15.560 00:06:15.570 it here it's a metal heat exchanger in
00:06:18.020 00:06:18.030 this case cuz it's the HRV only so it
00:06:20.390 00:06:20.400 doesn't do any moisture transfer and we
00:06:22.400 00:06:22.410 have a filter here and a filter here
00:06:23.930 00:06:23.940 these are not like super high quality
00:06:25.490 00:06:25.500 filters because they're not cleaning the
00:06:27.380 00:06:27.390 air in your house you have other filters
00:06:28.790 00:06:28.800 for that these guys job is just to keep
00:06:30.800 00:06:30.810 large debris off of the heat exchanger
00:06:33.140 00:06:33.150 surface area right but if I put my hands
00:06:35.180 00:06:35.190 through here or put them through on this
00:06:36.800 00:06:36.810 side over here my fingers would never be
00:06:38.390 00:06:38.400 able to touch each other because it's
00:06:39.710 00:06:39.720 two separate air flow paths and the air
00:06:41.330 00:06:41.340 is just warming up or cooling down the
00:06:42.890 00:06:42.900 plates in between if I have a one that
00:06:49.880 00:06:49.890 does moisture transfer it will either
00:06:52.010 00:06:52.020 have some kind of fibrous material in
00:06:53.750 00:06:53.760 here or some kind of polymer right so
00:06:56.060 00:06:56.070 this is not just metal this is obviously
00:06:57.530 00:06:57.540 a very small one you wouldn't have this
00:06:59.240 00:06:59.250 you know it's a demo sized one you
00:07:01.340 00:07:01.350 wouldn't have this in your house but in
00:07:02.960 00:07:02.970 this case the air can go through it on
00:07:04.670 00:07:04.680 both air flow paths and do the heat
00:07:06.290 00:07:06.300 transfer and then the fiber material
00:07:08.300 00:07:08.310 wicks the moisture through kind of like
00:07:10.340 00:07:10.350 wicking moisture through on a string or
00:07:11.780 00:07:11.790 a rope same kind of basic idea all right
00:07:14.870 00:07:14.880 let's run one now and see how that goes
00:07:16.600 00:07:16.610 this is our hands-on demo unit that we
00:07:19.040 00:07:19.050 use here in the training lab for our ERV
00:07:20.750 00:07:20.760 classes this is a nice one that's all
00:07:22.640 00:07:22.650 set up the plexiglass
00:07:23.670 00:07:23.680 so we can see inside it and was
00:07:24.990 00:07:25.000 graciously donated to us by the folks
00:07:26.640 00:07:26.650 over at air exchange and as you can see
00:07:28.710 00:07:28.720 it has a fully operational wheel in it
00:07:30.480 00:07:30.490 the small motor down on the bottom
00:07:31.830 00:07:31.840 driving that and we have two blower
00:07:33.600 00:07:33.610 motors on here one a motor here the
00:07:36.300 00:07:36.310 blower is an intake so it's sucking area
00:07:38.159 00:07:38.169 in the cabinet this way through the heat
00:07:39.540 00:07:39.550 exchanger and out the other blower over
00:07:41.700 00:07:41.710 here is sucking air from the building
00:07:43.529 00:07:43.539 through the heat exchanger and then out
00:07:45.120 00:07:45.130 of the building so we're gonna run this
00:07:46.740 00:07:46.750 guy I'm going to give it a few minutes
00:07:47.850 00:07:47.860 and a time-lapse here to speed it up so
00:07:49.920 00:07:49.930 you can see it heat up we have a small
00:07:51.689 00:07:51.699 heater down here in the bottom that's
00:07:53.040 00:07:53.050 gonna simulate a hot summer day for us
00:07:55.469 00:07:55.479 and we'll have to run it that way
00:07:57.140 00:07:57.150 00:08:25.260 00:08:25.270 this guy's been running for a little
00:08:27.010 00:08:27.020 while now we got a hot summer day
00:08:28.600 00:08:28.610 stimulated we're 103 104 degrees air
00:08:31.270 00:08:31.280 coming in from outside so pretty much
00:08:33.159 00:08:33.169 the hottest day you get in any point of
00:08:34.600 00:08:34.610 the year and as you remember that
00:08:36.040 00:08:36.050 airflow is going straight through that
00:08:37.300 00:08:37.310 way and the clean air molecules are
00:08:38.860 00:08:38.870 going into the building
00:08:39.850 00:08:39.860 but the heat as you can see we're going
00:08:41.589 00:08:41.599 from 104 to 77 78 79 degrees something
00:08:45.730 00:08:45.740 like that so we're dropping the
00:08:46.960 00:08:46.970 temperature from 104 down to 78 degrees
00:08:49.270 00:08:49.280 on that air molecules moving in because
00:08:51.910 00:08:51.920 the heats not going that way with the
00:08:53.260 00:08:53.270 air heats going this way
00:08:54.490 00:08:54.500 taking a turn on the heat exchanger and
00:08:56.530 00:08:56.540 coming back out that way so 104 is going
00:08:59.440 00:08:59.450 in 96 is going out because the majority
00:09:01.840 00:09:01.850 of the heats going this way and only a
00:09:03.460 00:09:03.470 little bit of heats going in and then
00:09:05.500 00:09:05.510 the air leaving the building it's coming
00:09:06.970 00:09:06.980 out of the building at 77 picking up the
00:09:09.490 00:09:09.500 heat from that Airstream but not the air
00:09:12.010 00:09:12.020 mass it was just the heat and it's
00:09:13.600 00:09:13.610 leaving here at 96 so that's kind of how
00:09:16.000 00:09:16.010 it's saving heat taking this path like
00:09:17.590 00:09:17.600 that
00:09:18.040 00:09:18.050 the cool air if you will is taking that
00:09:20.080 00:09:20.090 full path like that but the actual clean
00:09:22.750 00:09:22.760 air molecules are going this way and the
00:09:24.640 00:09:24.650 dirty air molecules are going that way
00:09:26.820 00:09:26.830 hopefully that gives you an idea of how
00:09:29.080 00:09:29.090 ERV S&H RVs operates and what they look
00:09:32.020 00:09:32.030 like on the inside
00:09:33.160 00:09:33.170 see at the next video
00:09:35.170 00:09:35.180

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