Air Recovery/Ventilation System

the HRV sytem is not a heating system, its a ventilation system with an inbuilt 'heat recovery' apparatus... it is not a renewable technology but it is highly energy efficient compared to the alternative.

a HVAC system is a system with in build heating features..

Regarding heating your house by electricity alone.... unless you have very good passive design and a tight building envelope then this can be an expensive and un-ecological method. Remember, with electricity it takes 2.4 kwhr of energy to create 1 kwhr of electricity... highly inefficient...

with wood pellet burners this factor is closer to 1.1...

I understand that a normal stand alone HRV system is not a heating system however as you say a HVAC will do both.

If I can go with the ICF system I want it has a U value of 0.12 this along with extra insulation in the roof and the South facing gable of my L shaped dormer is almost all glass which will be Double Glazed with Argon fill should mean my insualtion is very high. The reason I think electricity is the way to go for heating is because you can produce it yourself well to some degree at the moment but I reckon this will improve in time whereas oil and wood pellets price will increase a lot. If I could afford a solar and wind system which takes care of 60% to 70% of my electricty I think that is the best option and means I'm not as open to been hit in the pocket when oil prices reach $200 a barrel in the next 10 years.

What I'm looking to do might not seem sensible now but I think as technology progresses my system design idea might actually work. I'm still at the research stage and tbh I could just as easy end up with normal cavity block and insualtion and an oil burner but I want to try and look at my idea.

Tulach said:

Good info been posted here, I'm slowly learning.

What I am looking to achieve with my build is a good U value using an ICF build with extra insulation in the roof and make the house as air tight as possible.

Then I went to get away from oil and wood pellet burners as I believe the price of these products will double in about 10 - 15 years. So I want to use electricity for my heating which will be partly subsituted by Solar and maybe Wind technology although most people seem to think Wind is not a good investment at the minute.

So I will have no Rad's I will instead have a Heat Pump which will pump heat into the HRV system when the temp drops, this heat pump will work on electricity.

The water will be heated by Solar where possible and immersion when needed. I may also look at electric UFH for the bathrooms although budget will probably not strecth that far.

Opinions?

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One down side of heating air through an a.h.u is that the air tends to be dry and a little uncomfortable