Community: Mechanicals

I currently own a 2006 Lifebreath HRV 155cfm unit in SouthWestern Ontario. It was ducted well enough, but it basically pulls from too many areas of the house (kitchen, laundry room, 3 bathrooms). It does a good job of whole house ventilation, but basically it feels underpowered for wet room exhaust (1850sqft 2 story, with unit in basement, so some runs are also quite long, all flex).

I've read of issues of some ERV units having a "plasticky" stink, as discussed on some austrian and german forums, which affects certain batches of enthalpy heat exchangers made by paul, and used by zehnder and helios among others.

But that aside, how would an ERV cope with removing odours made by regular but moderte cooking?

For example, we stir fry vegetables and grill meat maybe twice a week rest of the time it's just pasta or eggs or some soups.

Equivalent of climate zone 4 (~philladelphia), 3 people in a new 2200sqft house.

Hello, I've been reading some things on drainwater heat recovery and came upon this article: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/toronto-passi...

In it, Lyndon Than says, "Leave at least a 12-inch run of straight drain pipe above the exchanger to smooth out the flow."

How critical is that? I don't have.much room to work with -- about 36" in total. I could likely get a 30" unit in that space, but if the 12" above is necessary, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Hello from a long-time lurker but first-time poster!

It's hard to express how helpful and inspiring this website is to a non-professional like myself. I'm particularly taken by the generosity of spirit shown by all who contribute thoughts, ideas, and experience with such passion. It seems that everyone wants to do their part to help heal our hurting planet--buildings are a huge part. Thank you, thank you.

Okay...end of speech. Some details about our build plans.