A project was undertaken to develop guidelines for the selection of residential heat and moisture recovery ventilation systems (HRVs) in order to maintain an acceptable indoor humidity for various climatic conditions. These guidelines were developed from reviews on ventilation requirements, HRV performance specifications, and from computer modeling. Space conditions within three house/occupancy models for several types of HRV were simulated for three climatic conditions (Lake Charles, LA; Seattle, WA; and Winnipeg, MB) in order to determine the impact of the HRVs on indoor relative humidity and spaceconditioning loads.

Results show that when reduction of cooling cost is the main consideration, exchangers with moisture recovery are preferable to sensible HRVs. For reduction of heating costs, moisture recovery should be done for ventilation rates greater than about 15 L/s and average winter temperatures less than about - 10°C if internal moisture generation rates are low. For houses with higher ventilation rates and colder average winter temperatures, exchangers with moisture recovery should be used.