Reducing Building HVAC Costs with Site-Recovery Energy

Building owners are caught between two powerful forces--the need to lower energy costs and the need to meet or exceed outdoor air ventilation regulations for occupant health and comfort. Large amounts of energy are wasted each day from commercial, institutional, and government building sites as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems replace indoor air with fresh outdoor air multiple times per day. Heating or cooling energy is continually wasted in the exhaust air stream, while new energy must be generated and used to condition entering outdoor air. Building owners who fail to capture this wasted energy will continue to incur high energy costs, negatively impacting asset values, profitability, and the ability to attract tenants, customers, or students with corporate or federally directed energy-efficiency mandates. To address this challenge, many building owners are turning to site-recovered energy technologies such as Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV). Designed to operate with new or existing HVAC units, ERV technology provides an affordable means to simultaneously cut HVAC energy costs without compromising outdoor air ventilation requirements. (Contains 3 figures and 5 endnotes.)