BSK Zephyr Heat Recovery Retrofit

[rkinsella]

Howdy,

Long story short, we renovated the house and added a home office for me. Including a big bay window, an expensive window, north facing, but didn't have the presence of mind to include opening windows.

The room is chilly in the winter, and an oven in the summer, very very stuffy. Builder came back added a 4" vent, did nothing. Window people added two trickle vents, did nothing.

Talked to ventilation people, they recommended the BSK Zephyr to retrofit a heat exchange system. This is my third time trying to fix this. Anyone with any thoughts or experience of these?

 

[Swwils]

I have recently installed one.

It's decent. The air is fresher as expected. It won't directly dehumidify a room unless outside is dryer.

BUT none of this single dMVHR units work at all if they experience any kind of wind.

Bare that in mind. All efficiency figures are obtain with absolutely zero wind speed

Mine is luckily surrounded by 3 walls and very well sheltered.

Your solar gain problem would more directly by aided by either shutters or a small awning so that high summer sun is shadowed on the glass but low winter sun can get in.

 

[Swwils]

Also the app is useless and made the remote not work as well.

For in depth details:

The heat core is a square grid ceramic, it has a very large surface area.

The fan is of decent quality.

The PCB is made by someone who knows what they are doing.

The only major downside is the mains entry, it's very small and there is no dedicated spare area for either a unused earth (it's class 2 device) nor a switched live it that was your original fans configuration.

The mains input is also on a unbranded phonix connector which is the biggest weakness of the whole unit.

Main control is a ESP32.

Voltage step down is done properly, not a bare bones cheap PSU inside.

It also requires a 160mm hole. So be prepared for that.

 

[rkinsella]

Fantastic reviews, thanks folks.

None of the caveats above are a major concern - it will be installed on the most sheltered side of the house. And it sounds like a decent solution for the issue, and preferably to buying a new busy window at €2-3k.

I have mains sockets in close proximity to where this will be installed, in the attic space above it. Is this simplest thing to wire this into a mains socket, or does it require more?

 

[rkinsella]

@Swwils How did you drill out the hole?

I was in HSS this morning, and the guy told me that the biggest they do is 152mm / 6 inches?
Anything above that, they don't do and can't be done with an SDS drill, needs a special rig - or so he said?

Thanks

 

[Swwils]

Chain drill the perimeter and then chisel the rest out.

 

[rkinsella]

That is tough work