I recently moved into a new build townhouse that has a fresh air intake. I have never dealt with a fresh air intake before and I've been getting some conflicting information so I thought I would come here.
When doing our new home orientation walk through with the builder they briefly mentioned the fresh air intake, but said the settings shouldn't need to be touched. Well we got our first electricity bill and it was much higher than expected. When we reached out to the community about the higher than expected bill we were told many things but we got responses specifically about the fresh air intake. Some neighbors said that the builder sets the settings too high on the fresh air intake so it runs more than it needs to and that the settings should be changed. I didn't want to mess with anything on my HVAC before consulting the pro's on here.
The fresh air intake equipment I have is an Aprilaire 8126X paired with an Aprilaire 8142. They are hooked into the return duct. Below are pictures of these as well as a picture i took from our pre-drywall walk through (hence the incomplete look), but I can get a better one if needed.
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The controller on the fresh air intake is set to 32min/hr and 'Comfort' is also displayed. Some of the people my community said theirs was set at 45min/hr and even higher, but that they turned it down to 15min/hr or less or even off during the summer months when the AC is running a lot.
I have noticed recently that the fresh air intake seems to be running a lot more. Its easy to tell because there is a return grate in the living room and it is significantly louder when the fresh air intake is running versus when just the AC is running. From reading about it the fresh air intake is only supposed to pull in air if the outside temp and humidity is within a set point range, but I have no idea what that range is or if/how it can be adjusted. I am just outside of Washington DC and when we first moved in the outside temps were routinely above 95 degrees with super high humidity (DC really was built on a swamp). During this time I could only hear the fresh air intake running for ~20 seconds before the AC kicked on. Only recently have the temps cooled a bit and humidity dropped a little so that may be the reason why I am noticing the fresh air intake more. Sometimes it seems like its running for 10-15 mins at a time. I get it...its doing its job and probably saving energy by bringing in the cool outside air and running it through the house instead of using the $$ AC, but is 32min/hr too high? Is this something I should be adjusting throughout the year?
I have definitely noticed recently that even though we never changed the set point of the thermostat (70 degrees) that when the fresh air intake is running more it feels warmer than during those 95+ degree days when the fresh air intake was running less and the AC was running more.
When its cool in the spring and fall we love turning the AC off and just keep the windows open all day and staying cool that way. The problem is this new house is near train tracks and it would be very loud with the windows open so I was hoping to be able to use the fresh air intake to keep the house cool in the spring and fall in lieu of having the windows open.
When doing our new home orientation walk through with the builder they briefly mentioned the fresh air intake, but said the settings shouldn't need to be touched. Well we got our first electricity bill and it was much higher than expected. When we reached out to the community about the higher than expected bill we were told many things but we got responses specifically about the fresh air intake. Some neighbors said that the builder sets the settings too high on the fresh air intake so it runs more than it needs to and that the settings should be changed. I didn't want to mess with anything on my HVAC before consulting the pro's on here.
The fresh air intake equipment I have is an Aprilaire 8126X paired with an Aprilaire 8142. They are hooked into the return duct. Below are pictures of these as well as a picture i took from our pre-drywall walk through (hence the incomplete look), but I can get a better one if needed.
The controller on the fresh air intake is set to 32min/hr and 'Comfort' is also displayed. Some of the people my community said theirs was set at 45min/hr and even higher, but that they turned it down to 15min/hr or less or even off during the summer months when the AC is running a lot.
I have noticed recently that the fresh air intake seems to be running a lot more. Its easy to tell because there is a return grate in the living room and it is significantly louder when the fresh air intake is running versus when just the AC is running. From reading about it the fresh air intake is only supposed to pull in air if the outside temp and humidity is within a set point range, but I have no idea what that range is or if/how it can be adjusted. I am just outside of Washington DC and when we first moved in the outside temps were routinely above 95 degrees with super high humidity (DC really was built on a swamp). During this time I could only hear the fresh air intake running for ~20 seconds before the AC kicked on. Only recently have the temps cooled a bit and humidity dropped a little so that may be the reason why I am noticing the fresh air intake more. Sometimes it seems like its running for 10-15 mins at a time. I get it...its doing its job and probably saving energy by bringing in the cool outside air and running it through the house instead of using the $$ AC, but is 32min/hr too high? Is this something I should be adjusting throughout the year?
I have definitely noticed recently that even though we never changed the set point of the thermostat (70 degrees) that when the fresh air intake is running more it feels warmer than during those 95+ degree days when the fresh air intake was running less and the AC was running more.
When its cool in the spring and fall we love turning the AC off and just keep the windows open all day and staying cool that way. The problem is this new house is near train tracks and it would be very loud with the windows open so I was hoping to be able to use the fresh air intake to keep the house cool in the spring and fall in lieu of having the windows open.
