Heat Recovery and Home Retrofitting

Retrofitting Purpose

• Retrofitting is designed to seal a home more tightly than it was before in order to trap in heat and air. Older homes were designed according to different standards or technology, and these differences -- along with age -- often create airflow problems that make the homes less efficient at retaining heat or keeping it from entering the home in hot months. Retrofitting fixes this problem by replacing old systems with new units and materials.

Heat Recovery Ventilation

• The heat recovery portion of retrofitting is typically used in the ventilation system. While replacing a ventilation system entirely may seem like a workable solution, it often creates problems with condensation by holding in too much heat. The heat recovery system collects heat from the outgoing air, similar to a heat pump, then channels it into the incoming air so that heat is not lost.

Other Types of Heat Recovery

• Sometimes modern systems can actually move heat recovery into other systems as well. A good example is the modern gas furnace, which includes heat recovery units that gather heat from the exhaust that the furnace produces. This allows furnaces to operate with a very high percentage of efficiency, wasting none of the energy that goes into heat production.

Insulation

• Heat recovery is only a small part of home retrofitting. The majority of the remodeling involves installing new insulation, including foam, new windows and new seals. While this does not actually reclaim any heat, it does allow the heat that your systems produce to stay within the home. This helps use heat already present so that recovery systems are not needed.