ERV Recommendations (Other Than Zehnder)
I’m going to be building my home in NY state, climate zone 6. House will be a 2-story with 2,550 sq ft. of heated space with a 2 story living room.
Who wouldn’t love to install a Zehnder? I got a quote from them for about $9,100 including commissioning. I know there are a couple things I can take out of the quote like the option to control the system via the app.
What other brands have you guys installed? Ideally the unit should be efficient in order to get back as much heat as possibly during our winters.
Also, where are the best places to shop for tubing, switches, and other accessories? It seems like any other brand you have to piece your own system.
Lastly, someone mentioned using the Zehnder without their ducting, switches, etc. Apparently they will not commission the system if you don’t use their products, per the gentleman from the company.
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Renewaire makes some decent units but their efficiency isn't all that impressive. You might save $1-2k with alternate equipment but honestly the ease & speed of a Zehnder is worth it in the end. Compare that to fussing around with sheet metal, air-sealing it, etc. I've designed 100+ homes with their system and whenever I do use an alternative I often end up regretting it for one reason or another.
Thanks for the feedback. I definitely want to go that route, if there isn’t much savings that helps make the decision. Buy once, cry once.
I'm planning to go with the new Venmar N Series. They have ecm motors, a decent effiency and best of all they are auto balancing so it's pretty easy to install. They are quite cheap too (around 1200 CAD just for the unit).
As for the ducts, you can use solid metal for the trunks and semi rigid aluminium or flex for the branches.
Great, I’ll have to check them out then. I don’t think I’ve heard of them yet.
BTW Venmar and VanEE are pretty much the same company both owned by Broan. So they may be sold under a different brand name in the US.
Perhaps policy has changed, but they quoted commissioning when I bought just the ventilator and a few pieces of comfo pipe (the 6" stuff). Didn't end up getting the commissioning, as I was satisfied with the ballpark numbers I got with a garbage bag and a stopwatch. Seemed like a waste of several hundred dollars.
They quoted me the commissioning at $550 but I don’t believe I have to go with it. If I did want to get it commissioned, the system has to use their products exclusively. So I couldn’t use different supplies, or piping.
Garbage bag and a stopwatch. That seems like a good way to balance it. Did you make some kind of attachment at the end of the bag in order to put it over the register?
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