Modeling the Performance of Energy Recovery Ventilators

N. Lemcoff[1], R. Pastor[2], and E. Miravete[1]
[1]Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hartford, CT
[2]General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, CT
Published in 2011

The objective of this study is to numerically evaluate the effectiveness of an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) during the summer and winter seasons. The energy recovery ventilator allows heat and mass transfer between two air streams separated by a membrane. The effects of varying the following parameters were examined: flows through the supply and exhaust ducts, height of the exhaust channel, and diffusion coefficient through the membrane.

The results showed that the countercurrent flow configuration is more effective than the concurrent flow configuration. For equal supply and exhaust channel flows, as the velocity decreased from 1.5 to 1 m/s, the effectiveness increased from 0.51 to 0.61 and from 0.43 to 0.47, for the countercurrent and concurrent configurations, respectively.