DeHart Plumbing, Heating, and Air Inc. Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Energy Recovery Ventilator’

How We Can Improve Ventilation in Your Home

Monday, July 12th, 2021
airflow-diagram

Proper home ventilation is on people’s minds more. Too many houses today have limited ventilation to allow for the proper movement of air and to allow fresh air to circulate. This poor ventilation is one of the main causes of bad indoor air quality, which has been on the rise over the past few decades. 

At Greenhart, our goal is to help our customers enjoy the best quality of living in their homes thanks to better indoor air quality—and helping their homes achieve energy efficiency at the same time. There are steps you can take to help with better fresh air ventilation, such as opening multiple doors and windows and remembering to use exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathrooms. But we have several ways to better your ventilation and improve your home’s indoor air quality in Modesto, CA.

Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators

These devices allow for fresh air circulation through a home without also causing heat loss or heat gain that will affect energy efficiency. Opening up windows and doors brings the outside temperatures with it, but energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) solve this problem. They draw fresh air into the HVAC system and use the air from indoors to either pre-heat or pre-cool it. This can recover 80% of the energy that would otherwise be lost to opening up windows and doors. There are differences between the two types, and we’ll help determine which one is best for your home.

Duct Sealing

Your house may have problems with leaky air ducts without you even knowing it. Duct leaks are common issues, and they can throw off air circulation for the whole house as well as cause the AC and heater to waste power. We recommend you schedule duct testing with our team if you aren’t certain about the condition of your ducts. We’ll discover if you have duct leaks and how extensive the problem is, then use advanced techniques to make the ventilation system airtight once more. 

Duct Cleaning

After three to five years, the ducts in your home will have picked up enough dust, lint, and other debris on the walls that it will interfere with proper airflow and ventilation. Professional duct cleaning can restore the ducts—just make sure you have actual professionals like our team to do the job. There are many low-cost “duct cleaning” services that do next to nothing at all. You can expect the best from us. 

Air Filters

You already have an air filter on your HVAC system, but it isn’t there to help with the indoor air quality; it protects the interior of the cabinet. If you want to have healthier air circulating through the house, you’ll need to have professionals install powerful pleated or media filters into the ductwork. These filters will remove dust, lint, dander, dust mites, and more. You will need to change the filters every few months or else they will start to block proper airflow. 

Talk to our experts today for great IAQ solutions. At Greenhart, we help you “Live Green, Save Green!”

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A Few Sources of Poor Indoor Air Quality in Homes

Monday, November 16th, 2020
woman-with-allergies

The quality of air in many homes is much worse than it should be. This isn’t because polluted air from outside is moving inside. It’s because too many pollutants indoors are trapped there, with scant circulation of fresh air to remove them. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the improvement in home construction to make houses more energy efficient. The tight construction limits the ventilation that removes the concentration of pollutants.

The Pollutant Sources

“But where are these pollutants coming from?” That’s the big question. There’s no single answer because there are a range of sources for indoor pollutants that lower the quality of the air in a house. Below we’re going to look at some of the most common.

Appliances the combust fuel

If you live in a house that uses natural gas for cooking, heating, and other tasks, that is one of the main sources for harmful chemicals. True, you aren’t dealing with a toxic level of carbon monoxide (you have CO detectors to warn you if this is the case) or other gases, but they still have long-term health effects.

Building materials

Many modern materials used for the construction of homes have potentially harmful chemicals in them that will enter the house. An older home may have asbestos in it. Pressed-wood, which is much more common in homes today than even ten years before, often has chromated copper arsenate (CCA) in it, which contains arsenic, chromium, and copper, all of which can create health problems.

But the most common harmful chemical found in building material is formaldehyde—which also can result from combustion and cleaning products. Formaldehyde is often found in particleboard, hardwood paneling, and fiberboard.

Cleaning/Hobby/Personal Care Products

A large number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) arise from these materials that can be found in almost every household. VOCs include numerous chemicals that can affect people’s health in both the short and long-term.

Mold

Yes, you may have mold hidden somewhere in your house, possibly in the ductwork or located under floorboards where excess moisture has allowed it to grow. Toxic mold spores are a significant danger in homes where mold is growing.

The Horror! What Can I Do About This?

You’re probably not likely to tear out all the walls and throw away every cleaning supply you have and then stop using your gas stove. But although you don’t have many options for reducing these sources of air pollutants in your house (aside from mold and asbestos remediation), you do have options for better indoor air quality in Modesto, CA when you work with us. We offer numerous IAQ solutions, including:

  • Air filters and air purifiers to remove contaminants.
  • UV air purifiers to target organic pollutants, including mold spores.
  • Heat and energy recovery ventilators, which allow for fresh air circulation without a loss of energy efficiency in the house.
  • Dehumidifiers to remove the source of mold growth.
  • Duct sealing and repair to improve ventilation.

Get in touch with our professionals, and they’ll get started finding out exactly what your house needs for better, healthier indoor air quality.

Your home should be a breath of fresh air. With Greenhart, you can Live Green, Save Green!

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The Dilemma of Modern Homes and Indoor Air Quality

Monday, August 10th, 2020
spinning-fan

Our company exists to help homeowners overcome the dilemmas they face with houses that are uncomfortable and energy inefficient at the same time. It’s an unfortunate fact for many people that they live in homes that are stuffy and uncomfortable with air quality far worse than it should be, and yet they’re paying high energy bills for the “privilege” of inferior living.

Today we want to specifically address the trouble with indoor air quality Modesto, CA. IAQ is a big trouble spot for homes, and we’re going to explain why this situation exists. Part of it is because attempts to make homes more energy-efficient end up creating a new problem (often without solving the original energy waste problem).

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Enjoy Fresh Air in Your Home Without Opening the Windows

Monday, May 4th, 2020
room-vent

As the weather begins to heat up as we move into the middle of the year here in the Central Valley, you’ll want to find effective ways to stay cool in your house, but without having to run the air conditioner all the time. But what’s the main way to enjoy fresh air currents? Opening up windows. And when it’s 90°F outside, opening the windows means bringing in the heat along with the fresh air. Even letting the windows open for a short time means having to run the air conditioner for a longer stretch to cool the house down again.

There is a way out of this problem. You can recover the energy used to run the AC to cool the air and use it to cool incoming fresh air. That sounds strange, right? But it is possible thanks to the energy recovery ventilator, a system we offer that can be a game-changer for your comfort and the energy efficiency of your house.

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