Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/1204626
42 | January 2020 By Nate Adams D one right, the HVAC in your home can make it very comfortable, and very healthy. One might even call it bad ass. But it needs to have a few rela- tively simple tweaks to be able to de- liver what we call the 6 Functions of HVAC, and do it well: 1. Load matching 2. Filtration 3. Dehumidification 4. Fresh air 5. Mixing 6. Humidification The trouble is 87% of heating and cooling systems are replaced on an emergency basis. This means mindfulness of the 6 functions is overridden by "I need heat ASAP, and as cheap as possible" myopic urgency. If you have an HVAC system (furnace, air conditioner, heat pump, boiler, etc.) that is over 10 years old, it's a good idea to build a replacement specification now, before you find a gun to your head and a hand rummaging through your wallet. Otherwise, when it dies, you're going to get the first piece of equipment that the first guy who shows up wants to install, and it will almost certainly fail to make your home comfier or healthier. Since these systems last 15-20 years, getting the equipment right avoids either replacing it twice (we have replaced very new equipment), or signing on to a long-term bad relationship. When people hire us, we find the only consistent way to deliver better comfort through the 6 functions is to replace the system. Again, this is often replacing systems well be- fore reasonable life expectancy. Think about how it feels to waste $8,000 - $20,000 replacing a system you recently replaced. It's so wasteful! We hate the waste, so we invented what we affection- ately call BAD ASS HVAC. BAD ASS HVAC is a (pretty) simple system that can tackle the 6 Functions, and most HVAC contractors can install it. Why are those 6 important? And what is BAD ASS HVAC? We'll be exploring those over the next few months. Today we'll talk about the first two - load match- ing and filtration. Load Matching We list the 6 functions in order of priority, and we've found load matching is the most critical for comfort. Do you notice that your house is particularly cold on 40- 55 degree days? Your HVAC is may be too large. If you graphed your temperature it would look like this, with air temperature going up and down quickly: (From chapter 3 of the Home Comfort Book, page 101) Bad ASS HVAC Part 1