Quote:
Originally Posted by sunspot
Years ago I was renovating a house (without AC) located on a hill. I used corrugated metal pipe - two runs of 8" I think it was. The pipe went out the basement wall, across the back yard, and exited on a hillside. A metal frame was welded up with burglar bars and mesh to keep critters out. That frame went on the inside of the poured concrete foundation wall. In front of that was a second frame, hinged to the first, made to hold two thicknesses of furnace filter. An operable skylight controlled by temperature and humidity on the second floor was the other part of the equation. When the skylight opened a noticeable amount of cool air could be felt coming through the furnace filters. The owners were very happy for years to come.
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Sounds like a nice system, Was the air much cooler than the outside ambient temp ?
Our climate is 6 months heating and 1 to 2 months cooling.
The summer cooling is only part of why i want to try this, with the MHRV running year round it struggles when temps drop in winter.
If the incoming air is below freezing it stops the intake fan whilst keeping the exhaust fan running to defrost the heat exchanger, i haven't timed the defrost vs running ratio but it seems like it spends more time defrosting than running.
My hope is that earth tubes will warm the air enough in winter to avoid the defrosting and boost the output temp from the ventilation a few degrees therefore reducing the heating load.
Steve