Of Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV)……Let’s Go to the Zoo!

It’s a jungle out there people. It truly is. Only the strong survive.

Christmas Tree Shops. Yes the Editor and I did some Christmas shopping the other day and I tell ya it was ugly. (I didn’t know the Editor could walk so damn fast. I almost lost her in the Food Court!) Thank God we went early. I can’t even imagine the zoo like conditions that were just a few hours away. The people working there were quite pleasant believe it or not. But man what a feeding frenzy. Have to go out one more time just to mop things up so to speak. (I’m going to do some cardio training this week so I can keep up with the Editor.) I don’t know how people do it. Or how people like it. Hmmm. The holidays. You could really spend quite a bit of time going off about them. But it’s neither the time nor the place.

Welcome friends of Middle Earth and those interested in the ways of Hobbit House building. Welcome.

So like I was saying the holidays are upon us and time is of the essence. I only have a few moments here to get this blog post done. A few items to note. Update on the stone. The front of the house is now complete and he is nearly done with the back. Probably two more days I’d have to guess. The weather is supposed to stay warm so I’m really hoping he is able to finish up. My excavator guy also graded out the front and set my 2 inch electrical line back to the garage area. Check it out.

Stone completed with front yard final grade.
Back of the house stone coming along nicely.

I’m going to have the stonemason do the fireplace as well as long as the price is decent. I came up with a pretty nice design. You know with Hobbit Houses and Middle Earth in mind. I have to have an iron guy make me a curved lintel out of steel….to sit the stone on. The picture I drew is pretty cool. I think it will really have a nice impact on the room.  One of the things I did this weekend was clean up the living room so I could start the framing for the fireplace. Check it out.

Cleared the living room out for the framing of the fireplace.

So my big ticket item came in this Friday in the mail. My Zehender Heat Recovery Ventilator that is. I had it dropped off over at my Mother-in-Law’s house cause they give you one of those long time frames on the delivery. I think it was  from 2 am to 6 pm. Which worked out really well cause my Mother-in-Law never sleeps. She stays up all night figuring out ways to bug me. She quote unquote gave the guy a $100 dollar tip for unloading the truck. Seems a bit excessive to me. He had a lift gate and a pallet jack. What’s up with that???? She said, and I quote, “It was a lot of stuff!!!!!” I use the exclamation points to indicate volume here people. That came out quite loud. I forked over the $100 a little reluctantly.  I really just wanted to get my stuff and high tail it out of there so I could look at the stuff. Which is pretty cool.

It actually took three trips to get it all over to the house. There is quite a bit. I spent over an hour just going over the invoice and making sure everything was there. It’s going to be very interesting to put this system into the house. I really can’t wait. The guts of the system is this ventilation box which hangs on the wall.

Main ventilation unit from Zehender.

Just the short version here. Basically what this machine does is bring fresh outside air into the house while expelling stale air from the bathrooms, kitchen, and mechanical room. This system runs continuously. When you shower, cook, or have a party at your house there are boost switches you can hit to increase the fan speed on the system so more fresh air comes into the house. The beauty of the system is that inside of that box is a device that transfers the energy of the incoming air to the outgoing air with 90% efficiency. Translation. In the winter time the incoming air is cold. The outgoing air is warm. They intermingle when they go through that box and the heat of the outgoing air is transferred to the incoming cold air. It’s that simple. The high efficiency of this unit means that your heating bills will stay low.

One other important fact. The reason we need this type of device is that our house is completely air sealed. It is almost impossible for air to get in or get out once the windows and door are shut. This is why we have to bring in a constant supply of fresh air.

Pretty cool.

That’s what a Passive House is all about people.

I hope you all have a great week. Take it easy and watch out for little old ladies on social security.

Jim

 

PS: A few more pictures for the road.

Finished up 1865 broadway.
Top of the house at 1865 Broadway

 

 

4 thoughts on “Of Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV)……Let’s Go to the Zoo!”

  1. Hi Jim, Have to agree with your mother in law, house really looks great. About shopping…that’s why they call it the Holi-daze! (Groan) Sorry, couldn’t resist, too good to pass up. As always, best wishes….john

    Reply
    • Okay. I don’t need anyone else in the world siding with my Mother-in-Law on anything. Even if she is right. There’s a fine line there is all I’m saying. Yeah. After shopping I was dazed and confused as the song goes. Take it easy and thanks for writing.
      Jim

      Reply
  2. Hi son-in-law,

    The house looks great,every time I see it I can’t get over how much was done,got any more deliverys,I would be happy to wait for them,but right now I’m going shopping found an extra $60 bucks in my wallet,have a great day.

    Love ya,
    mother-in-law

    Reply
    • Hmmm. I’m going to pass on responding to this one. I’ll wait. Patience is a virtue. Do me a favor and have the Editor look over your comments before you post. You need a little help with your punctuation and run on sentences.

      Send the shrimp over when you run out of room in the freezer.
      Love you.

      Reply

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