GBA Logo horizontal Facebook LinkedIn Email Pinterest Twitter X Instagram YouTube Icon Navigation Search Icon Main Search Icon Video Play Icon Plus Icon Minus Icon Picture icon Hamburger Icon Close Icon Sorted

Community and Q&A

Zonal ERV?

stevedavis | Posted in General Questions on

Has anyone ever put used motorized dampers to create a zonal ERV?

My house has an ERV that is completely separate from the furnace ductwork. It has a one central ERV return and three supplies (1 in each bedroom). See attached.

Through CO2 monitoring, I have found that this works great for sleeping at night in the bedrooms but can still feel a bit stuffy in the other rooms during the day when say 6-8 people are over. Our house is also relatively tight at 1.8ACH. 

I could simply add more supplies to the other rooms in the house (kitchen and living room). However, when the bedroom doors are closed at night, I would suspect that little air would be delivered to the bedrooms as they don’t have a good return path. I could add jumper ducts or other methods but would prefer not to for acoustics and it’s also just difficult to do so with our floorplan. 

So could I use motorized dampers that only push the air to the bedrooms at night and then other rooms during the day?

I’ve attached the house floorplans that show the current exhaust and supplies. The colors are a CFD simulation I ran and reflect how many air changes each room is getting.

GBA Prime

Join the leading community of building science experts

Become a GBA Prime member and get instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.

Replies

Log in or create an account to post an answer.

Community

Recent Questions and Replies

  • |
  • |
  • |
  • |