Installing ERV - Panasonic Intelli-Balance 100 Energy Recovery Ventilator in ICF home DIY

Episode 37: Installing the Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) by Panasonic Intelli-Ballance in an ICF Home. John walks viewers through how he installed the ductwork, air diffusors, and override control switches for this ERV unit. Supplying fresh and clean air is critical in an ICF home. John researched a great deal about ERVs and HRVs in order to understand the size and type of unit needed in Southwest Missouri, USA.
0:00 Introduction
0:33 ERV Model
2:10 Insulated ducting from and to the outside
2:50 How does and ERV work?
5:06 Panasonic IntelliBalance 100 controls and override switch
8:53 Flexible ducting for supply and exhaust in rooms
10:55 Selecting and installing air diffuser
17:12 How to balance the airflow
18:15 Viewer comments
Products Featured in this Episode:
Panasonic Intelli Balance 100 ERV amzn.to/3rwTUd5
Air Diffuser amzn.to/3nBSZat
Flexible Duct amzn.to/3xsDci7

[@tyjonesd]

This Panasonic ERV is pretty ideal, I like that you can control the outgoing and incoming air independently.

[@scottmorgan3879]

Good Job. I love seeing people building homes like this. Learning so much.

[@veneen1]

John Thank you so much learnt a lot and still learning. I was wondering how to get fresh air but ERV never cross my mind. Thanks once again

[@squeekhobby4571]

Great job. Ventilation is mandatory for an airtight house. Great instructions

[@JL-hn6hi]

Thank you! I understood the basic concept, but this helps a lot for how it actually works.

[@LakeLotBuild]

Great! I am so glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@Pond_life]

Nice video, keep them coming, Spouse is starting to get interested loves the view, and can't wait for the kitchen and bathrooms!

[@LakeLotBuild]

Awesome!!! We will film the installation of all our vanities and tile for the bathrooms, so definitely more to come there.

[@keclark4]

Excellent video, glad to be a new subscriber and to have this channel as a most helpful resource on ICF’s and modern building technology. Hoping to build an ICF home in the future on a “tiny scale”.

[@LakeLotBuild]

Thank you for subscribing! Hope you enjoy all our videos.

[@toneale9119]

Great video!. We will likely use something like this. Your details may be overkill for the pro but for nubes like me, fantastic!!! On another note, just ordered the Fast Foot the other day. Breaking ground this or next week. Will nail down the ICF manufacturer in the next week so we can order! Thanks again!

[@LakeLotBuild]

So excited for you! We hope the build goes great and you are enjoying your new home soon.

[@AaronHope_Sow]

Love that you took this one on yourself. I watched the 7 things you would do different as well. Can you and your wife also do a video summary of everything you DIY'd vs hired out and whether or not you would sub out or attempt other aspects of the build?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Great idea! I will add it to our upcoming video list.

[@jasonperry2555]

I'm in Alberta we use HRVs due to our low humidity but in the case of our kitchen exhaust if the homeowner decides to get a high CFM unit code requires a make up air unit to prevent a vaccuum which could pull flue gasses back into the home. This system is hardwired into the furnace regardless you run a kitchen fan your air handler comes on to move fresh air.

[@frgggggdsedd6913]

Youre suppose to use ERV if you have low humidity

[@Z71hosestretcher]

@@frgggggdsedd6913 I think you’re saying that wrong

[@xfranger3025]

John, very helpful video. Do you have any information at this time on the remote switches you ultimately selected & also how you ultimately handled the kitchen fan (closed loop solution or otherwise)? Thank you!

[@MartyHuie]

did you do to the mechanical wiring installation of the ERV? I'm wanting to do it myself I'm fairly good at figuring stuff out yet looking for advice and or what others have done. Thank you for posting these videos,

[@oldmanwrinkles]

I’ve been terrified of doing my own HRV install. Not sure why. I think it’s the HVAC industry that makes it so. I have two that I will be installing this summer. We are doing a new build in central Alberta the we plan on being close to passive. You’re doing a great job, don’t mind the trolls, just keep up the good work.

[@LakeLotBuild]

You got this! Best of luck to you on your project in Alberta. Thank you for watching. ❤️

[@scotthastings867]

John, I'm really enjoying the build. Great work. P.S. I went out and bought a welder and have been playing out in the garage. :0)

[@LakeLotBuild]

Fantastic!

[@justinb2374]

Thank you for the channel, and the time you put in. Will be hopefully buying a raw piece of land within next few months. Going the hard way and building it ourselves. Had a question on this ERV, can you show the duct work to the outside of the house?

[@LakeLotBuild]

The duct work is in the ceiling and then outside. We had the holes cored out after the walls were poured

[@Krazie-Ivan]

lookin good, John! about the drawing @4:56 ...looks like they're running ducts through interior 2x4 walls? is there a super slim ducting product for this application (hopefully still cost-effective), or would those walls need to be thicker to accommodate? figure i'll need a bulkhead along the length of the rear wall (16'x46' simplistic build) to bring power/air/water, but would rather not have bulkheads along the interior cross-section walls or up in my ICF roof insulation if i can avoid it.

[@LakeLotBuild]

They do make hard stock ducting in a rectangular form that will fit in 2x4 walls. It will cost quite a bit more unfortunately. You can run them in the ICF Litedeck but it makes a hell of a mess cutting out the insulation.

[@purpleblueunicorn]

Great video! Have you finally balanced the system? I have the same version for cold climate and didn't do the ducting yet. I'm wondering how did you manage to synchronise all dampers to provide the required static pressure yet have a similar CFM. Did you use dampers on the outside ducts or only indoors? Did you also use the diffusers for indoor stale air intakes? Did you use any backdraft dampers?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Internal dampers on the ERV for air coming in and out. We have a damper at each location for supply and return on the inside. It gets balanced by those dampers in the system by adjusting the dials according to the instructions of our Panasonic unit.

[@Tienlinhho]

Great video! I just moved into a brand new condo with this model. I still don't understand quite how it works. When I first moved in the bathroom fan would be on 24/7 which is required by code. But there is the timer/on switch also beside the light switch but when i turn it on, the fan power level doesn't seem to change at all. So i opened up the panel and they have this model installed. I turned it all the way down to 60cfm for both supply and exhaust, it was at 100cmf. Then finally i was able to hear the difference when i turn on the fan switch. question I have is since i switched it down to 60cfm when i turn on the fan to override, which CFM does it go up to? back to 100cfm or does it just go up to 10cfm increment to 70cfm? Thanks in advance!

[@LakeLotBuild]

It should go exactly to where you have it set at 60.

[@patrickcowan8701]

The C stands for the cold climate model, below -10 it runs a defrost cycle.

[@michaelbartholome1373]

Per the manual, the boost option requires wiring with a capacity of 120v at 3a. This is different then most erv unites. Did you find this to be the case when installing the switches in the bathrooms and kitchen? Or was it the typical dry contact system to engage boost?

[@LakeLotBuild]

We haven't put the switches in yet, so we will let you know. Fingers crossed!

[@alejandrovanags4948]

John great video. Question who did you work with for engineering design? I am looking to build an ICF pool house on my yard and in Houston not many engineers do this kind of work, and those who do do it for large commercial properties.

[@LakeLotBuild]

Our builder worked with Litedeck for all the engineering on our garage slab and roof. He worked with a steel company for the engineering for the deck. That was the only engineering design we needed. John worked with an engineer for several years doing HVAC, plumbing,and electrical design, so he had a lot of that knowledge already. Perhaps a good ICF builder in Houston has those connections? A good HVAC company could do the engineering for ERV.

[@mattweisz]

The instruction manual says you need a 2 foot straight run of pipe on the connections to the ERV(albeit not really clear imo). I believe this is needed to prevent turbulence in the fans, which will also confuse the intellibalance feature. I have the same unit and initially had a 90 degree bend coming out of the unit like you, and have noticed it works better after putting in the 2 feet of straight run on all 4 ports. How is your filter on the unit holding up? Mine was filthy after a few weeks.

[@LakeLotBuild]

Thank you for the tip! We checked the filter and it was fine. Our air quality out here is pretty good though.

[@freddietoliver7173]

informative video. can you provide the name of the silver tape you used?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Absolutely! It is aluminum foil tape. Here is one on Amazon but they have many others. You should be able to find at a good hardware store as well. amzn.to/3nECkmn

[@jimcorbett752]

Hey John. I’ve installed the same ERV with a similar set up independent of my HVAC. I saw you ran low voltage wiring as I had done originally for a different unit, but wondered what switches you went with and how you wired up your system.

[@LakeLotBuild]

We found switches on Amazon and they are working great! BN-LINK Heavy Duty 60-Minute... www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVTGKBR?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[@611Fraser]

And these switches are working with thermostat wire? The manual is terrible on this detail.

[@billon2wheels]

How has the how has the web held up? Is it enough for the exhaust fan over range? Thanks

[@LakeLotBuild]

So far so good! We added an ERV switch in the kitchen so we can turn it on when we turn on the exhaust over the range.

[@freddietoliver7173]

John because you built an ICF house did you have to order your HVAC, windows, doors trusses etc before you would have building a stick frame house?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Great question. The trusses were ordered after the walls went up in order to get exact measurements. We ordered the windows prior to walls being up so that we could establish rough openings. We bought regular outside doors and then had extended jams built for them. HVAC was ordered after the walls were up. We used mini split system and had cores drilled through concrete for the penetration points. Some of our earlier videos cover the windows, trusses,and HVAC.

[@ozarksethic]

I'm really glad I found your channel. You are way ahead of us on construction but are doing most of the same things we have planned so it's nice to see how you are tackling the project. A bonus is that you are just a little north of us so the climate influence piece is there.

[@geode232]

Is there any way to Ramp up just the supply air volume by remote switch?

[@LakeLotBuild]

No. You have to adjust the return and supply on the unit itself. We currently have ours set to be higher on the supply side to keep our radon level low to zero and haven't found any problems when using the remote switch for exhaust. It still does a good job moving the air out especially since the return are in the bathrooms and supplies are in bedrooms.

[@JoshuaMoxon]

Thanks for the walk through. Question for you. I was under the impression that these units had to be plumbed for condensation to drain away any condensation that accumulates but I don't see any instructions for that in the install manual and didn't see you mention this. Do you have to run a condensate line? Thanks for the videos!

[@LakeLotBuild]

Great question. Our ERV does not require a condensate line because it matches the humidity in and out. There are several models of HRV that do require condensate lines. So it is brand and function specific on whether or not a unit needs a condensate line or not.

[@JoshuaMoxon]

@@LakeLotBuild thank you!

[@Gamblor2000]

Great info! I am installing one of these in my home but I can’t find any information on what kind of switch or wire to use for the boost override function you talked about. Could you please tell me what kind of switches and wire you used? Thanks.

[@LakeLotBuild]

We searched and searched for this information as well. We finally found to use thermostat wire. You can buy at any home improvement store.

[@Gamblor2000]

@@LakeLotBuild Thanks a bunch!

[@johnwhite2576]

@@LakeLotBuild sorry your sentence is incomplete/unclear ? do you mean you found one (a switch) and used thermostat wire ???

[@LakeLotBuild]

Thanks for watching! We are using a timed switch on the wall in the bathrooms with 30-60-90 minutes option. You can find these switches online. We then ran solid-copper thermostat wire to those switches..

[@LuisLarreaJr]

Phew, I bought one not realizing there were two models. 50/50 chance, luckily I picked the right one.

[@Trident_Euclid]

@ 16:05 Yup we use that type of tapes in the middle east.

[@jt4510]

Great video. Can you explain how you wired two timers to the single boost input? Thanks

[@mikeyazel8725]

Do you have any heat other than the mini split? I am getting ready to do an icf house on a small lake in northern Indiana and am looking at my heating and cooling options.

[@LakeLotBuild]

No we just have the mini split system. Ours have the reverse heat pump which is supposed to heat pretty well down to single digits. I think they have other units that can heat at temperatures even lower. I will tell you that it has been in the teens here in Missouri the last couple of weeks and every time we walk into the house it's nice and toasty warm.

[@LakeLotBuild]

We also have radiant floor heating in the basement, but we haven't set that up or started using it yet.

[@mikeyazel8725]

Thanks for the reply, I was looking at doing radiant heat in my basement floor and main floor but not sure I would need it.

[@LakeLotBuild]

For me (Leslie) I just love the feel of a warm floor on your feet.! I don't know that we'll need it for alternative heat source but I'm interested to try it and see how well it does heat the house.

[@arvidjohansson3120]

I would never trust myself or any guest visiting me to turn on a button. A timer triggered by a motion sensor is the way to go. I would also try and hardwire the kitchen fan and make up air. It’s easy to forget about the button. If you don’t press the button and are unlucky, your waste water pipes can become make up air and spread a nice smell in the house.

[@LakeLotBuild]

Good idea. We haven't bought the switches yet, so motion could be something we do.

[@cameronarndt]

John, great videos! I'm excited to see how you build in the network for the house, I hope you choose to run a bunch of ethernet!

[@LakeLotBuild]

We ran a bunch of CAT 6. Our buddy who knows a thing or two about networks is helping us figure out the system!

[@cameronarndt]

@@LakeLotBuild Cool!

[@volt1505]

You probably need a separate closed system for the kitchen hood. Your kitchen exhaust hood fan is probably north of 400 cfm's. You won't have enough 'in' to balance the 'out' Check out Matt Risinger's youtube channel.

[@LakeLotBuild]

Love his channel! I have watched most of his ERV episodes. I saw he has a recent range hood exhaust, so I probably need to watch that one too.

[@chilipepperz06]

What type of vent or attachment did you use on the outside of the house where air is brought in and also sent out?

[@LakeLotBuild]

We purchased black vent covers from Menards. Any outside vent cover similar to dryer vent will work.

[@chilipepperz06]

@Lake Lot Build ok thank you. Nice project. Does the outside vent on the air intake have a flap or does it need to be open? Maybe just a screen?

[@LakeLotBuild]

The intake is open with screen and the exhaust has flaps with screen. The ERV itself though has internal closers so air isn't let in or out of the system.

[@GaddarKerim1]

Does it have moisture removal feature?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Not our model, but other models do.

[@bmunk6206]

Do you think it would be cost efficient to upgrade to 6"?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Yes. It depends on your SQ footage and the size ERV you need for the space.

[@davidbruce5377]

Is it 120v? Did you install an outlet for the unit?

[@LakeLotBuild]

Yes and yes. We love it and it is working well.

[@davidbruce5377]

@@LakeLotBuild Thanks. We have a conditioned attic - considering Zehnder, we need 160cfm plus. I wondered where you landed for positive pressure? Is your kitchen make up air working well.

[@bchilva]

What kind of flex duct is that?

[@LakeLotBuild]

amzn.to/3Nnc1fO

[@LakeLotBuild]

I included a link to what we used above. Thanks for watching!

[@georgevail4825]

John, here is the link to Matt Risinger’s video where he talks about make-up air for your kitchen exhaust fan. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qISson59qKtlkKM

[@LakeLotBuild]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@RomanDoes]

You broke main rule with this installation - no bent ducting within 3ft of connection to ERV. The rest looks goods

[@holymoly8718]

how does an erv work? "i don't know" ....

[@LakeLotBuild]

Magic! 🪄🪄🪄

[@mayakovski]

Since this device needs electricity to work, it would have been useful for you to cover that as this is supposed to be a install video.

[@andriussimutis573]

The unit has a regular plug, so it just needs a standard household receptacle within 3' of the unit.