Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) fill a need in home ventilation, but a growing number of industry insiders question their installation in homes where cold winters are the norm.
Through a combination of fans, controls, and heat recovery elements, both ERVs and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) bring in fresh air from the outdoors and exhaust stale air from the home, creating a balanced ventilation system. Continuously running, they provide a steady supply of fresh air while recovering a portion of the energy normally lost through nonheat recovery ventilation.