ERV selection – DIY options – Filter costs – Renewaire
cedarknoll
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi all, I know this gets asked a million times, I’m looking for an ERV for a roughly 1500sqft 2bedroom. I’m leaning towards a Renewaire EV Premium L or maybe Broan AI.
I have plenty of room, So physical size of ERV doesn’t matter, its going in a conditioned crawl space.
It seems like some folks recommend using separate filter boxes for potentially cheaper, higher MERV and/or larger more efficient filters. this makes sense to me. Is the Renewaire a good system to do this with? Or are there other systems or maybe even sort of DIY/Build your own systems I should be looking at?
Thanks!
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I have a renewaire EV premium M. The filters are a frustrating proprietary size and very expensive and hard to get in Canada. I'm going to be installing a filter box that takes standard 4" thick Merv 13 furnace filters that are available in the hardware stores. It's well built, but seems basic at the same time. The thin filters load quickly, they just don't have enough surface area if you using Merv 13.The unit is well built, but lacks airflow compensation for clogging filters.
My parents have a VanEE that has much better controls (both onboard, and the wall mounted, does some nice OAT compensation to ventilate more when it's efficient to do so) and nice ECM fans. It does various balancing tests, and has a great commissioning wizard. It compensates for the Air Handler fan (there's is connected to a ground source HP air handler) and filter loading and was much cheaper to buy.
My local HVAC supply can order a pack of custom sized filters, I would give that a try first.
To the OP.
If you are connecting to an air handler, I would go for an auto-balance unit. If not the ERV Premium L is definitely a great value.
Akos, I am not connecting to an air handler. It's going to have it's own ducting, I'm going ductless for my heating, I have a very small heat load.
Can the HVAC companies potentially do custom MERV 13 or above? the MERV 8 ones seem pretty trivial to do custom.
thanks for the input
Awesome thanks for the info. I assume the VanEE would be basically the same as the Broan AI?
We are in Seattle and have to have smoke filtration for fire season now.
We have an older Broan that is now discontinued and would not recommend it due to noise and proprietary HEPA filter that costs >$140 and most likely will go end of life.
I purchased a Panasonic because their bathroom fans are very quiet but found features limiting, filter small ans expensive, and it smelled terrible for 2 years like burnt rubber from the gaskets (possible COVID supply problem).
We are really sensitive to noise and smells and the whole point of these it to have “fresh” air so the chemical off gassing from the foam insulation is a real disappointment on my 2 $1000 investments. I am thinking of trying Lunos fans now that they have filtration but definitely will buy w a return policy to test smells.
I definitely recommend adding a filter box w any of these proprietary filter systems. They are cheap and you can get 3M smoke filters for much less in 12x20 or 20x20 sizes and have more airflow.
Amazingly I stumbled onto a crazy Swiss filter box from IQAir that is in the multi thousand dollars for the super obsessive.
https://www.iqair.com/us/products/air-purifiers/perfectpro-series
One could make something similar to the box fan smoke filter w 2,3, 4, or 5 20x20 filters and some custom sheetmetal frame and panels.
Yeah it seems like I'll be adding a filter box no matter what. Thanks for your input.
Now I'm curious if some ERVs play better with addon filter boxes then others? Does oversizing help? One of the reasons I'm leaning towards E Premium L it seems like a good value for 280 CFM. The Broan AI is 210CFM.
Actually I think the cost is about the same between the Broan AI 210CFM and the Renewaire EV Premium L 280cfm.