Hm, well $400 US is pretty reasonable. I was expecting a higher cost than that. So not as big a deal as I thought.

Thanks for the info on the HRVs. It was very helpful. :-)

The problem with single point HRV's is that they dump the fresh air back into the space they pull the inside air from. Good for that space, but they don't develop much pressure differential with the rest of the house so there is no real incentive for stale air from other rooms to flow to the room with the HRV. I think these are mostly intended for bathroom or laundry room ventilation to reduce the pressure imbalance and heating penalty that the exhaust only ventilators create in the winter months.

A central HRV draws from certain rooms(bathroom, laundry, kitchen) and return fresh air to other rooms(bedrooms, living). This dumps the fresh air into the rooms you most occupy, it als creats a pressure differential so air flows between the rooms and you get a better air exchange throughout the house.

IMO, the HRV is the key to a healthy comfortable home at a reasonable efficiency. At say 75% heat exchanger efficiency(they are usually rated higher than this), you can move 3 times more air thru the house for the same heating or cooling load. It also allows for filtration for those who suffer from outside allergens, all with minimal small diameter duct work, that should be fairly easy to install during new construction. The HRV approach also allows you to more closely balance inside and outside air pressures, which can help reduce air leakage past the seals in doors and windows...

With the right choice of supply and return ducts, I don't see them being any more difficult to seal the envelope around than a can light. In fact, they may even be easier...

I am excavating for the basement on my new home now, it will have an HRV...

The Panasonics really are a single-room solution, but if you leave it on all the time and leave the doors open there will be convective air exchanges with the adjacent spaces.

The Lunos system effectively ventilates 2-rooms per pair. They operate by reversing direction every 70 seconds, so both rooms where they are installed get very good air exchange, whereas anything doored off from them, not so much. But two pair can be enough to ventilate a fairly large space if the floor plans are generally open, and there are no duct routing issues to worry about.

Posted By Dana1 on 17 Aug 2015 05:53 PM
The Panasonics really are a single-room solution, but if you leave it on all the time and leave the doors open there will be convective air exchanges with the adjacent spaces.

The Lunos system effectively ventilates 2-rooms per pair. They operate by reversing direction every 70 seconds, so both rooms where they are installed get very good air exchange, whereas anything doored off from them, not so much. But two pair can be enough to ventilate a fairly large space if the floor plans are generally open, and there are no duct routing issues to worry about.

Additionally, you can "sync" two pairs of the Lunos E2's together on one controller. So, you can have two upstairs "pulling" while two downstairs are "pushing"...(and then they alternate of course..)