Background and Objective: Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV) are increasingly present in residential environments to enable the energyefficient provision of controlled outdoor air ventilation. In this work, we investigated pollutant transport through a typical residential ERV as a potential pathway for re-entrainment of indoor air pollutants into the outdoor ventilation air supplied to an indoor space. Specifically, we investigated the transfer of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) through the sandwiched membrane matrix of the ERV core, between two adjacent air streams. Materials and Methods: Pollutant transfer efficiency is calculated for experiments intentionally injecting two common indoor VOCs (acetone, Isopropanol (IPA)) and the behaviour of transfer is studied for different ERV exhaust and supply flowrates (supply, exhaust, balanced scenarios). Results: Maximum pollutant transfer efficiency of 17% is recorded for isopropanol at balanced (equal supply and exhaust airflow rates) conditions at intake and exhaust airlines. Maximum pollutant transfer efficiency of 26% and a minimum of 5.3% for unbalanced CFM settings are obtained. For VOCs studies, we observed short response times of <10s from starting injection of VOCs into the indoor exhaust air stream until the concentration at the indoor supply air stream reaches to steady state. Conclusion:The airflow rates of intake and exhaust streams of a typical membrane ERV can tremendously impact the contaminant crossover back to the residential space. Also, a membrane ERV can demonstrate a fast response to contaminant crossover.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.