4 ms·

Wait you want to redistribute shit air to the rest of the house? Im not understanding this proposal

paulmd 3y ago
I think the implication is he wants to run industrial air-changers 24/7, basically turning his bathroom into a fume-hood, and then venting it outside. So, same idea as bathroom fan but really big and running it less intermittently. He wants a big industrial air-changer so his bathroom is less dank. One problem is this will definitely suck a lot of heat out of the house. You might want to only run it when a sensor detects humidity, and just give it a ton of hysterisis/etc so that it runs a relatively long time. Pulling a bunch of heat out of your house 24/7 will be expensive and will cause other problems (like extreme low humidity since the furnace is running much more, which will lead to crazy amounts of static etc). You can of course run a humidifier (or whole-house humidifier) etc but it's generally not without problems to just dump air 24/7. (I had similar sentiments around my current house not having good air handling for the stove, if you are frying something it can get pretty greasy/nasty inside even with the fan on, and you can't always open a window depending on the weather.) On the other hand, this also might help with CO2/oxygen levels, which might lead to better overall health/comfort too, because your air is being cycled more aggressively. The overall thrust that houses are getting too airtight nowadays is generally correct, and this has negative health effects too. It is, again, unfortunately balanced against heating costs (energy efficiency seals the house up, then we circulate the air out...) and other problems. If the house is super breezy (or has air changers aggressively changing the air) then you're also pumping out all your heat and humidity. If you are going to have some strong air changers though, you could run a heat pump in the air changer stage too. Being able to spend 1 unit of energy to move 10 units of heat from the exhaust back to the intake would be ideal, and the air is going outside anyway so you might as well dump waste cold (or waste heat, in the summer) outside while you're doing it. An easier step, if you have the space in your bathroom, would just be to run a dehumidifier in the bathroom. Obviously would be pointless/inefficient during a shower, but maybe you could have a switch where one pole is "bathroom fan on" and the other one is "dehumidifier on". Or get a timer switch and just run it for an hour after the shower is done. It is also worth noting that if you get the humidity under control in general, that the house itself will act as an "anchor" and tend to resist changes from the mean. The bathroom is dank because all the building materials around it are saturated and constantly giving off water, if you can keep it at 40-50% humidity more regularly then eventually they will dry out and the system stabilizes at a less-dank humidity.
- keep_reading 3y ago
  That's what an ERV is designed to handle. They're becoming code in some places https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/model-8100 https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/m...
  - wombatpm 3y ago
    My house in Minnesota had one. The building codes were such that the first winter without we had constant condensation on the windows, which ruined the finish. Installed one later that did 4 whole house air exchanges per hour. Best investment ever.
- hinkley 3y ago
  I first encountered consumer grade versions of these on This Old House. I’m not sure when, but I stopped watching it regularly probably twenty years ago, so at least fifteen? At the time dust collection systems were still pretty exotic, so they were putting them into wood shops to make sure the dust didn’t get sucked into the rest of the house.
keep_reading 3y ago
Maybe install the ERV/HRV return vent into his bathroom wall? https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/model-8100 https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/m...
- hinkley 3y ago
  That’s exactly what I’m taking about. Downvoters seem to not know these have existed for thirty years.
Izkata 3y ago
They said "If I ever build my own house" - I think the idea is to prevent it from becoming "shit air" in the first place by having the air exchange there from the beginning.
- manwe150 3y ago
  I think they meant “shit air” literally. As in, it doesn’t just smell like farts, it is actual farts, being proposed to be blown throughout the rest of the house
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
hinkley 3y ago
What is wrong with everyone today (yesterday)? Does nobody hear know what an air/heat exchanger does? They’re for ventilating modern sealed construction so you don’t choke to death on fumes from your belongings, or get cancer from your wood shop.

I think the implication is he wants to run industrial air-changers 24/7, basically turning his bathroom into a fume-hood, and then venting it outside. So, same idea as bathroom fan but really big and running it less intermittently. He wants a big industrial air-changer so his bathroom is less dank. One problem is this will definitely suck a lot of heat out of the house. You might want to only run it when a sensor detects humidity, and just give it a ton of hysterisis/etc so that it runs a relatively long time. Pulling a bunch of heat out of your house 24/7 will be expensive and will cause other problems (like extreme low humidity since the furnace is running much more, which will lead to crazy amounts of static etc). You can of course run a humidifier (or whole-house humidifier) etc but it's generally not without problems to just dump air 24/7. (I had similar sentiments around my current house not having good air handling for the stove, if you are frying something it can get pretty greasy/nasty inside even with the fan on, and you can't always open a window depending on the weather.) On the other hand, this also might help with CO2/oxygen levels, which might lead to better overall health/comfort too, because your air is being cycled more aggressively. The overall thrust that houses are getting too airtight nowadays is generally correct, and this has negative health effects too. It is, again, unfortunately balanced against heating costs (energy efficiency seals the house up, then we circulate the air out...) and other problems. If the house is super breezy (or has air changers aggressively changing the air) then you're also pumping out all your heat and humidity. If you are going to have some strong air changers though, you could run a heat pump in the air changer stage too. Being able to spend 1 unit of energy to move 10 units of heat from the exhaust back to the intake would be ideal, and the air is going outside anyway so you might as well dump waste cold (or waste heat, in the summer) outside while you're doing it. An easier step, if you have the space in your bathroom, would just be to run a dehumidifier in the bathroom. Obviously would be pointless/inefficient during a shower, but maybe you could have a switch where one pole is "bathroom fan on" and the other one is "dehumidifier on". Or get a timer switch and just run it for an hour after the shower is done. It is also worth noting that if you get the humidity under control in general, that the house itself will act as an "anchor" and tend to resist changes from the mean. The bathroom is dank because all the building materials around it are saturated and constantly giving off water, if you can keep it at 40-50% humidity more regularly then eventually they will dry out and the system stabilizes at a less-dank humidity.

keep_reading 3y ago
That's what an ERV is designed to handle. They're becoming code in some places https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/model-8100 https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/m...
- wombatpm 3y ago
  My house in Minnesota had one. The building codes were such that the first winter without we had constant condensation on the windows, which ruined the finish. Installed one later that did 4 whole house air exchanges per hour. Best investment ever.
hinkley 3y ago
I first encountered consumer grade versions of these on This Old House. I’m not sure when, but I stopped watching it regularly probably twenty years ago, so at least fifteen? At the time dust collection systems were still pretty exotic, so they were putting them into wood shops to make sure the dust didn’t get sucked into the rest of the house.

keep_reading 3y ago

Maybe install the ERV/HRV return vent into his bathroom wall? https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/model-8100 https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/m...

hinkley 3y ago
That’s exactly what I’m taking about. Downvoters seem to not know these have existed for thirty years.

Izkata 3y ago

They said "If I ever build my own house" - I think the idea is to prevent it from becoming "shit air" in the first place by having the air exchange there from the beginning.

manwe150 3y ago
I think they meant “shit air” literally. As in, it doesn’t just smell like farts, it is actual farts, being proposed to be blown throughout the rest of the house
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

hinkley 3y ago

What is wrong with everyone today (yesterday)? Does nobody hear know what an air/heat exchanger does? They’re for ventilating modern sealed construction so you don’t choke to death on fumes from your belongings, or get cancer from your wood shop.