Hi. Has anyone tried pre-heating the fresh air going from an HRV into the rooms, through various methods? My general contractor is suggesting we could have copper pipe coils in the fire box that are then wrapped around the HRV ducts that lead to the rooms. This might be done with air if the HRV is close to the wood stove (as mine is, just behind one wall). Or it could be done with water much as DHW systems are sometimes preheated by a wood stove. I wonder if it might be done without pumps just by virtue of the HRV being wall-mounted higher than the wood stove.

Anyone tried it or heard of it?
Thanks,
...Terry

Nobody has responded to my query, but here's an elaboration that might provoke some thought. The woodstove is on the opposite side of the wall to the utility room, so I'll be running an HRV house supply duct through a ceiling bulkhead right beside the wood stove chimney. I wondered if there was any value in essentially splitting the duct to a 'Y' that forks on either side of the black chimney, hugging it somehow so that air heading into the rooms picks up some of the heat heading up the chimney.

The chimney is double-insulated so that would restrict heat transfer; I don't know if Ontario code would allow me to remove the outer layer within this passive heat exchange box, but I'm sure it would at least raise a challenge from my local building inspector! More importantly, would this fail to transfer any heat to the HRV air because it's passing by quickly and over a small area?

Thanks for this and for any other related ideas you may have!
...Terry

In general, the concept seems good. Not sure about the particulars.
Any system that takes advantage of heat already paid for and redistributes it through out the dwelling unit seems to be advantageous to the cost conscious consumer.