There must be some shape that can work as both air filter and heat exchange, so one could have ample air circulation while keeping the heat inside, at the cost of having to wash it once every few months.
I would love to find a portable air exchanger too—opening windows helps with CO2 levels but it’s inefficient for most of the year in much of the United States. Built-in air exchangers with heat recovery are available but are a non-starter for anyone in a rented place. Unfortunately, no good solution exists so far
What you really want is a heat exchange / heat recovery ventilation system. Brings in fresh, filtered air from outside, and warms it up by swapping heat with the stale, warm air that it removes.
I wish there was such a thing as an in-window heat exchanging ventilator. Yes, I can just run the heater, but I shouldn’t have to. And punching a whole in my wall to install something permanent is so… permanent. And expensive!
The beauty of a real ventilation system is the heat exchanger. I’m still waiting for someone to make one that I can run by feeding a tube out my window, but until then, you need to spend a bit of cash on a permanent installation.
there is a similar idea for high insulation homes where you heat exchange the outgoing air (recirculated for freshness) with the incoming air to avoid having to cool/heat the incoming air as much
imo, heat exchangers are a good way to reduce consumption because they're usually passive and don't require much maintenance
Get a counter current air exchanger. It vents cool inside air to the outside along a heat conducting surface that contacts the hot outside air to the inside, with only 5-8% heat import.
Here are some explainers as well as some DIY methods.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=make+counter+cu...
You can use a heat exchanger to get "fresher" air while keeping the heat/cool inside. Although many places don't have this in place. It is probably mostly due to lack of awareness or concern than any technical reason.
What kind of options do apartment dwellers have in this space? I've been thinking of DIY-ing something like this (suck in air from the window, heat it resistively in the rare event it's too cold inside, pass it through a HEPA filter, pass it through a humidifier, enjoy), but that is clunky and I'm wondering if products actually exist that I could just buy instead.
(I own my apartment, but no HVAC system. Through-the-wall AC, steam radiator heating.)
Couldn't an waste air heat recuperation be fitted in way that would keep the architecture preserved?
Seems such a waste to have this kind of heating in this day and age. I'm guessing the temperature and humidity wary a lot inside, so if not for the sake of bills or the environment, proper air conditioning could be done for the sake of comfort.
My home as a kid did. I don't know why it's fallen out of favor, since I can't imagine it costing more than $100 or so in parts and labor on a build... If we can have a bathroom vent, why not a cooking vent?
If the vent moves more than a certain amount of CFM air, then an exchange system is required, but that takes almost a restaurant grade vent to get to.
I wonder how expensive that would be.
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