I’m having some serious ventilation frustration right now so I thought I’d reach out and see if anyone has any insights that I haven’t thought of.
People talk a lot about humidity and odors in tiny houses but from the data I’m collecting your CO2 is through the roof long before either of those things becomes the main issue, so the goal here is to keep CO2 below 1000 ppm and humidity and odor will manage itself.
We started by installing two Panasonic passive air vents and the fabled Whisper Green fan with the continuous airflow module. The problem with this set up in conjunction with a non-airtight woodstove however, is that even with more passive air vents and a direct airbox there is always going to be a risk of depressurization and backdrafting the stove which you really don’t want to have happen while you’re sleeping. By the time you install enough passive air vents to eliminate this possibility you might as well just open a window!
So maybe it’s time to get one of those fancy energy recovery ventilators to balance the pressure and save some of the heat? The problem is that the Panasonic ERV has this sneaky feature that closes down the intake when temperatures reach freezing, turning it into a pure exhaust fan and bringing us right back to the potential backdraft issue.
The Lunos eGO gets around this by giving you full manual control and a truly amazing heat recovery rate, as long as you’re willing to spend $1000 (which I am) and as long as you are willing to live with the sound of a tiny airplane in an otherwise extremely quiet space (which I’m not).
The final option is to vent the space with positive pressure and a Panasonic whisper supply fan which solves a lot of problems but is the same amount of work and only a few hundred dollars less than installing their ERV.
Gah, it’s really hard to figure out what to do here. Every option has a deal killing downside. Thoughts?
-Brian
UPDATE: for the full conversation sparked by this post, check it out on Instagram »
