A ‘use factor’ for HRV in intermittently heated dwellings

When considering the performance of HRV systems, the discussion is generally focusing on the reported effectiveness of the air-to-air heat exchanger. Although some excellent presentations at the AIVC conference in the past have dealt with uncertainties related to the test of that effectiveness, the fact that the heat recovered by the HRV unit might not be useful in an intermittently heated dwelling without room-by-room based demand control is usually not considered. Therefore, the ‘use-factor’ for the recovered heat is quantified in this paper.