ERV / Home ventilation system

J

JMP

Adept
Guys, dust at my place is bothering me a lot these days, each time I clean my PC or vacuum my room I start worrying about the state of my lungs and it's cascading effects on long term health.
There is nothing I can do about air outside but at least at home having some clean air can somewhat mitigate the damage. So, I was looking for an affordable whole home HVAC system when I came across this thing called an ERV - energy exchange ventilator, which helps flush out stale air, intake fresh air through a filtration system and keep humidity / moisture under check.
Does anybody here have this or something similar installed at home ?
 
This sounds nice, i have no idea about it.

But - i think PM2.5 levels probably is what can cause damage. Air purifiers + closed/almost closed windows/doorrs can work well in fixing that. Wont fix humidity (ac can do that) and we still get some heavier dust setting down in room with time.

I have been using that for a month or two + added filters to my case intake + slowed down idle fan speeds. This time when i opened up pc and used blower, i did not get much dust out, almost all of it was caught by the mesh and then by the filter ( lian li 215) and a lot of dust was caught by my air purifier pre filter.

Air purifier is keeping PM2.5 levels under 10. and generally under 5 at low/medium speeds too which is good and my allergy symptoms are much much better, only can get a bit when in outside air but it settles down quickly once back in room. But true test might be in winter ( mumbai)

So this is easy fix, what you mentioned might be a proper solution, ideally for entire house.
 
Tracer_Bullet said:
But - i think PM2.5 levels probably is what can cause damage. Air purifiers + closed/almost closed windows/doorrs can work well in fixing that. Wont fix humidity (ac can do that) and we still get some heavier dust setting down in room with time.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate, I tried using air purifiers with closed windows for a while but that leads to build up CO2 and other gases within the home / room, which can get dangerous very quickly. Manually opening window and venting becomes cumbersome over time, so I was thinking of having a fresh air intake system + air purifiers + air conditioners (as needed). Now I am grappling with the choice of either going DIY or with a proper ERV.

I was doing some research on air purifiers and found this, you may find it interesting.
 
JMP said:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate, I tried using air purifiers with closed windows for a while but that leads to build up CO2 and other gases within the home / room, which can get dangerous very quickly.
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yeah, if house is insulated well.
In my case i haven't had an issue since there are small gaps in windows / doors and my family basically keeps windows open in other rooms. I have been keeping windows closed for a long time.
Also, so far i see that air purifier still works well if window is slightly open, might depend on airflow and how bad it is outside.
Still, this is a workaround fix at best, i agree.

JMP said:
I was doing some research on air purifiers and found this, you may find it interesting.
Click to expand...
yeah i know, someone made a post about this here too before i bought. Since within room air will circulate through filter multiple times, better airflow works better vs highest grade hepa filters with minor difference in filtration and higher expense/lower airflow. But marketing is stupid, 99.95% must be better than 99.5 or 95 etc right ?
We can also simply buy filters and attach it to fan.

But its not too practical for me to build stuff like this and not sure if we can get all parts here, where are those cheaper filters ?
So I just bought AP from ikea which has decent cost for filters ( 1k good size filters - slightly worse than HEPA13 ). Also carbon filters from what i heard tend to get used up very quickly + not really needed for my purpose + reduces air flow making it slightly worse as AP, so not using those. I also bought a nice sensor from ikea too to keep track of it.
For now this is enough, and later will buy ac for humidity ( cant do it for now due to something ).

But having a good system for whole house is much better - just get filtered air + constant temperature ( heating/cooling) + controlled humidity.
Ideally we should have professionals doing this, but it doesn't seem to be a thing for indian homes in spite of air pollution.
 
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How if you took natural way?

Grow Money Plant & some other flowering creepers etc. on window, from where fan can intake natural fresh air (creeper leaves will take care of maximum dust) and fit heavy industrial exhaust fan to throw stale air out (opposite side of window/space from where fresh air can came inside).

Make Exhaust Fan hole in wall and not on window/wood/plywood panel, so vibration sound will be minimum (when fan fit on wall)

Takings care of plants/creepers while it's growing will be good stress buster for you.
 
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