Sent my plans to them for an idea of the system design, after 6 weeks they contacted me with a quote of just the parts of $7,000.

Never thought the HRV's cost that much $$

They suggested a 80-96 cfm unit.

I see other brands for under $1,000 what am I missing here?

Need some input on this, I have to have a system because I'm planning a very tight house.

You have to have a system, but it doesn't necessarily have to be ducted with all of those micro-ducts.

Four-5 pairs of ductless Lunos units would put you in the same cfm ball park for about 1/2-2/3 the money, and would be directly ventilating 8-10 rooms without ducts.

Odds are you don't really need anything like 80cfm either.

the Lunos system - I'm a bit perplexed how they don't allow air infiltration ie: cold air in when cycled off.

It is only a 3 bdrm two bath about 1500' 1.5 story.

I thought 80 was high also, the Fantech ductless for about $600 look worth investigating

Anyone else care to chime in?

Zender has higher efficiency than other brands such as VentMar, and they are more expensive. Also, the ductwork and grilles are probably part of your 7K quote, where the ductwork and grilles are purchased separately for a VenMar. Zender's ductwork is faster to install than the others. We've installed several VenMar & similar units & find final installed costs for a new 2000-3000 SF house in the 4-5k range. If you do the install yourself, you'll save 1-2k.

I was looking at renewair and fantech's they are both 700-$1,000 depending on cfm's

Zehnder did say about 85-90 cfm's would do the job and that included all the resistance thru their ducts.

Hopefully not too off topic, but has anyone tried a hybrid approach of Zehnder ductwork (expensive but quicker to install) with a less expensive HRV? Might save some money, but may not offer much benefit over a Lunos system. Any thoughts?