The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, August 2003.

Copyright 2003 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or
in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

Air-To-Air Energy
Recovery Heat Exchangers
By John Dieckmann, Member ASHRAE, Kurt W. Roth, Ph.D., Associate Member ASHRAE,
and James Brodrick, Ph.D., Member ASHRAE
This is the sixth article covering a new energy-saving technology evaluated in a recent U.S. Department of Energy report,
which is available at www.eren.doe.gov/buildings/documents.

ir-to-air energy recovery heat exchangers (ERHXs) include

heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) and energy recovery
ventilators (ERVs). They are placed in ventilation units,
unitary air conditioners, and air-handling units that take in
outdoor air (OA) while venting indoor air (Figure 1). Exhaust
air from the building interior passes through one side of the
exchanger, counter flow to the incoming makeup air, which
passes through the other side of the exchanger. During the cooling season, the (cooler) indoor air precools the incoming OA.
The transfer of heat reverses during the heating season, i.e., the
exchanger transfers heat from the warmer indoor air to preheat
the incoming OA. The heat exchanger may transfer sensible
heat only (HRV) or both sensible and latent heat (ERV). Typical
heat and enthalpy exchange efficiencies range from 55% to
almost 80%.1 ARI Standard 1060 and ASHRAE Standard 84
form the basis for rigorous performance ratings of ERHXs.
Several configurations of air-to-air ERHXs exist. Plate-fin
arrangements transfer only sensible heat between the makeup
and exhaust airstreams. Plate arrangements constructed with
moisture permeable plastic can transfer latent heat as well,
although no product based on this principle has been commercialized on a significant scale.
Heat and enthalpy wheels are slowly rotating discs made of
thin metal, plastic, paper or ceramic surfaces, such as honeycomb or a random woven screen mesh, to create large surface
areas. Enthalpy wheels use the same types of heat transfer surfaces, but add desiccant material, typically silica gel or a molecular sieve (adhered to the matrix material), that enable total
enthalpy transfer, that is, both mass (moisture) and heat transfer.
Implementation of energy recovery wheels in rooftop units
is limited primarily to niche applications where the benefits
are obvious, e.g., exhaust fan unit replacement in high-humidity locations and/or high makeup air applications. Air-to-air
ERHXs can be integrated with single package rooftop unitary
air conditioners (Figure 2). Alternatively, most major airconditioning manufacturers offer add-on accessory ERHX
packages for select AC unit models.
For an ERHX to operate effectively, the exhaust airflow must
meet two key requirements. First, the flow rate must equal a
August 2003

significant fraction of the makeup airflow rate (>~75%). Second, the temperature and humidity of the exhaust air must be
close to that of the conditioned space, i.e., heat losses or gains
in the return and exhaust ductwork must be small.
Energy Savings Potential
When OA is introduced into the interior space of a building at
a higher or lower temperature than the interior temperature, it
must be cooled or heated (respectively) to bring it to the space
temperature. By exchanging heat with the exhaust airstream to
precool (during cooling season) or preheat (heating season) incoming OA, heat exchangers reduce the sensible portion of the
ventilation-induced air-conditioning and heating loads. Enthalpy exchangers also transfer humidity and thus diminish the
latent cooling and heating (dehumidification and humidification, respectively) portion of the ventilation load.
On the other hand, ERHXs increase ventilation fan energy
because of the additional pressure drop posed by the devices.
ASHRAEs Handbook1 indicates that wheel and flat-plate heat
exchanger pressure drops (in inches of water) range from 0.25 to
1.0 (62 to 250 Pa) and 0.1 to 1.5 (25 to 375 Pa), respectively. In
practice, the ERHX face velocity has a large impact on the magnitude of the increase in ventilation fan energy consumption.
In a reasonably tight building, ERVs can reduce annual cooling and heating energy consumption by about one-third.2,3
Taking fan energy into account, an ERV has a maximum national energy savings potential of 0.5 to 0.6 quads in commercial buildings. In addition, ERVs can reduce peak heating and
cooling loads by up to one-third.2 Actual energy savings and
peak cooling load reductions for a specific building depend
greatly upon local climate and building OA requirements.
Market Factors
In addition to reducing HVAC energy consumption, ERHXs
also reduce the required air-conditioning capacity for the building because they decrease the contribution of the OA to the
design air-conditioning load. For instance, a simple calculation shows that roughly every 170 cfm (80 L/s) exhausted from
an ERV reduces peak air-conditioning tonnage by 1 ton (3.5
kW).* The decrease in required air-conditioning tonnage off*

Assuming that the enthalpy exchange effectiveness equals 70% and

the following indoor and outdoor conditions: 75oF (24C) at 50% RH,
95oF (35C) at 67% RH.

ASHRAE Journal

57

T4, H4

Return Air

T3, H3

Supply Air

Outdoor Air

T2, H2

Exhaust
Blower

Duct Wall (typ.)

Dampers
Makeup
Air
Plenum
Return
Air
Plenum

Evaporator

ERHX

ERHX

T1, H1

Exhaust Air

Balance of Unitary
Air Conditioner

Figure 1: ERHX in ventilation application.

Figure 2: Unitary AC with factory-integrated ERHX.

sets the first-cost premium of the ERHXs and leads to attractive payback periods of about two years.
Although ERVs appear to have attractive economics in a sizeable percentage of applications, only about 1% of potential applications specify ERVs. ERHXs for ventilation suffer from a
perception of higher first cost in the marketplace, in some instances because HVAC system designers do not take full credit
for the offset in chiller or unitary air-conditioner capacity (cost)
afforded by the device. The heat/enthalpy transfer surfaces of an
ERHX require periodic cleaning to maintain effectiveness. The
frequency depends on the cleanliness of the OA and exhaust air.
In colder climates during the heating season, frosting protection
may be necessary. Heat wheels and enthalpy wheels also are perceived as having greater maintenance requirements than flat plate
heat exchanger devices, due to moving parts and past opera-

tional experiences with early equipment, although current designs have corrected the reliability problems of early equipment.
References
1. 2000 ASHRAE HandbookHVAC Systems and Equipment, Chapter 44: Air-to-Air Energy Recovery.
2. TIAX. 2002. Energy consumption characteristics of commercial
building HVAC systems volume III: energy savings potential. Final
Report to U.S. DOE, Office of Building Technologies, July.

Kurt W. Roth, Ph.D., is a senior engineer at the Appliance

and Building Technology sector of TIAX, Cambridge, Mass.
John Dieckmann is a principal at the HVAC and Refrigeration
Technology sector of TIAX. James Brodrick, Ph.D., is a project
manager, Building Technologies Program, U.S. Department of
Energy, Washington, D.C.

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August 2003