I am not sure if this is the correct forum to post this to, but I figured I'd give it a shot. 

In any case, we have a well insulated, pretty tight house built in 2000 that is heated with hydronic radiant floor heat.  Cooling via Spacepak high velocity system.  We are in central Virginia. 

We are now doing some renovation and upgrades and are trying to decide on whether to install an ERV unit (energy recovery ventilation).  We have lived in the house for the duration and certainly have not suffered significantly from poor air quality (as far as we know).

Our HVAC guy that is upgrading our system for the renovations recommended an ERV because we told him that at times, the house seems "stuffy", particularly in the Summer with the AC on.  Also, our 3 year old son has developed pet (we have a dog and a cat) and pollen allergies (documented by skin tests).  He feels that an ERV will help with all of this.

The HVAC guy gave us two references to discuss this with.  One family loves their ERV, the other says the only thing he regrets is paying the extra money for installing one (he says he can live without it).

I understand all the potential benefits of the ERV, but am specifically wondering if anyone has had a house that they lived in before and after installation of an ERV (so you could actually notice a difference) and what your thoughts were.

Please let me know if there is a bettor forum for this and I will cross post.

Thanks,

BM

Progressive, open minded, and conscientious HVAC installers will have equipment to monitor air quality. Find one who will install some monitoring equipment in your home for a few days. If your house is well built and tight you quite likely have bad air you don't know about. Then you can make a more reasoned decision about the worth of an ERV or HRV. A blower door test may be worthwhile as that will definitively tell you how tight your house is, or isn't. ASHRAE has guidelines about how many air changes an hour your house should have.

There's no need to make an educated guess when there are means available to produce real information.

Hi, thanks for the input.  A question: with what type of device does one (HVAC installer) measure air quality?  What type of things are measured?
Thanks,

BM

Sorry, I really don't know. All I know is my HVAC contractor nephew has talked about it and even showed me a chart or the recorder, or something of the sort, one day. I believe various chemicals are measured, maybe even dust. He mentioned one case where the pollutant levels rose and sank on a daily basis according to the times the family had windows open. Windows closed, bad air. Windows open, good air!

I haven't concerned myself with testing yet as the house I'm building isn't complete. I probably will have him test it after we move in just for general info. I'm building it very tight so have never considered not installing an ERV or HRV.

The new mantra in the HVAC industry is, "Build it tight, ventilate it right!"

If your house is tight an ERV or HRV enables you to control the ventilation rates and times.

Yes, the pundits all recommend ERV's for tight houses.
What I am wondering is why it only feels stuffy in the summer, not the winter. But Virginia is "south" so cooling will predominate. Possibly the problem is the A/C system is oversized and the "stuffy" really means "humid"

I like to combine the ERV with the toilet exhaust system in the house. This way, I don't feel so bad about dumping conditioned air, since its "bad air" already, even though some energy (not all) will be recovered.

Make sure that the ERV unit is well controlled. You dont want to dump air then the outdoor temp is near the design.

We are building a new 2300 sq. ft. home with radiant heat and will have an HRV. I got two quotes which were very diiferent but they are using different systems. The low quote was for the Basic Gold & HE Series while the other was for Eneready model 1000NP. Both the quotes vent the same rooms. Does anyone know why such a variance in the price of these systems?