Hello, As 2017 in Ontario, every new house must have installed an HRV system(Heat Recovery Ventilation). I'm in the stage of selecting an HRV system for our new house and looking for some advice: - Where is better to be installed? Attic or basement? - I'm planning to collect air just from bathrooms and kitchen and exhaust in the bedrooms and living. Is this a good approach? A concern with the smell? - Ventports locations at the top of the wall for intake and lower of the wall for exhaust. Is this okay? - Do you have any recommendation for a brand? Looks like in Canada the big box stores carry just Venmar brand, but I can visit US for more options. Thank you

HRVs should be installed in conditioned space. The stale and fresh air are entitely seperate (heat transfer between them is accomplished with a sealed heat exchanger) and therefore they should not be mixed and there should be no issue with bathroom smells being in the fresh air. You do have to keep the outside stale and fresh air vents sufficiently away from each other. Do some brand review research to select the best brand.

Code here requires 8 feet of horizontal separation inlet to exhaust. I would not place exhaust lower than intake as the warm air will rise in winter and could be drawn into the intake. Mine are all in the soffits, so they don't penetrate the envelope in a side wall. Then ducts run in the insulation to the HRV. I have a Lifebreath and am very happy with the performance. You can also place the Inlets and outlets to enhance airflow through the structure. You can draw from the kitchen but it will not eliminate the requirement for a Stove hood.

Find what is available locally. no point driving across and international border to buy something and then suddenly need parts which are not locally available

In Ontario we generally install the HRV/ERV in the mechanical room along with all the other HVAC equipment, you will want access to the unit as the filter requires exchanging/cleaning periodically

The install your talking about is a dedicated system, the most expensive to install as everything is individually ducted, you can also tie it into the HVAC system of your furnace if you have one, save yourself some money and most likely some bulkhead having to be constructed in the house as well.

Your HVAC designer can better answer these questions for you

Wherever you put it, it needs to be convenient for ducting to/from, although conditioned space seems to make most sense (attic in Canada?). Depending on the size of your house it may be easier to have two smaller units vs 1 larger unit if that saves from a lot of long duct runs. You may consider one central fresh air supply as it will be distributed throughout the house as your exhaust ducts pull in stale air. I seem to recall pulling air from the kitchen is not recommended even if it is allowable by code.

Thanks Chris for replay. Unfortunately I'll not have ducting for HVAC, our heating source is radiant flooring and wood fireplace (free wood on property) so the only way to install the HRV is to have individual tubes for each location. The biggest challenge now is to source the 3" tubes and registers. I can find in US but nothing in Canada. Do you have any recommendation sourcing the parts? Thanks

The plastic may be different, or may be identical, maybe doesnt matter, but every time I see Zehnder tubes they remind me of my smooth wall tubing for my insulation blowers. Suspiciously similar and if so, available from insulation supply sources Im guessing for way less than what Zehnder is trying to rape you for. HVAC distributors have smaller tubing for high velocity systems as well.