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From: mike@amdcad.UUCP (Mike Parker)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: A home heating question
Message-ID: <373@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 21:41:26 EST
Article-I.D.: amdcad.373
Posted: Mon Dec 10 21:41:26 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 05:07:16 EST
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Organization: AMDCAD, Sunnyvale, CA
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> Contrary to public belief, an airtight home is not optimal.
> Consider building a passive heat exchanger to bring in outside air...
> 
> -Ron

< Being uncreative, I can't think af anything truly funny to put here >

A truly airtight home is as you say not optimal, it is a health
hazard. A passive heat exchanger is a good idea, but, I'm not
sure how I would go about building one. One of the problems is
that exchange of heat is not really enough. Warming up cold, dry
outside air and cooling off warm, humid inside air gets you a heat
exchanger full of water and cracked furniture. Drainage for the
exchanger is possible, but most efficient heat exchanger have
narrow air passages between many plates and could easily clog with
ice if poorly designed. A humidifier will save the furniture, but
is noisy and a pain to tend. ( When I lived in Maine, ours ate five
gallons of water a day, and the only air exchange was bad
weather stripping ).

I think it would be best to buy a commercial exchanger. There has
been much talk on this in recent issues of "Fine Homebuilding".
Commercial exchangers are available that exchange heat *and*
moisture. If you think about how a heat exchanger, you can
see how readily moisture is exchanged if the membrane is not
waterproof.

Mike @ AMD