I am building a house in Anchorage, Alaska and planning to installing an HRV system. The heat will be radiant in floor heat using gypcrete. My supplier stocks the “Lifebreath” brand HRV’s. I’d like to get some feedback on this brand from some of you experts. Is this a reasonably reliable product, and has anyone ever installed one in a similar cold climate? Is there perhaps a better one you would recommend? I am concerned about condensation and frost in the unit when it is run in the winter, and am worried that the reliability will suffer. The supplier says it will work great for me but…
Thanks for the advice.
Greg
Replies
Most HRV units in the USA are made by Nutech, the parent company of Lifebreath under private label for the Carriers, Lennox's etc. of the world. My mum has an older Lifebreath unit and is very happy with it. Among other things, the house air is never stale, the bathrooms are rarely smelly, etc.
If you want to get into something very, very efficient, you can have a look at the Stirling unit from [ed: corrected] http://www.ultimateair.com which ought to offer a very high efficiency coupled with a higher initial purchase cost. It might be justifiable, considering your climate.
Edited 8/17/2005 9:25 pm ET by Constantin