HRV unit - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

gregferd · 03-10-2007, 10:19 PM

Hi, I got a shop where I do a lot of work in and it is heated by a ventless natural gas heater. Sense it is a shop it is also has saw dust in the air a lot of the time and does stink at times. I don’t want to get into why it stinks but I am considering installing a good sized hrv unit to battle these problems. The biggest problem is carbon monoxide from that ventless heater. An hrv unit should be able to solve the CO problem me thinks. Any good opinions here. Thank you

mdshunk · 03-10-2007, 10:21 PM

If you've got a CO problem from your ventless heater, have it serviced.

gregferd · 03-10-2007, 11:33 PM

I heard from some HVAC guys that ventless heaters are not good. Even if they are doing what they should be doing it isn’t good enough. Don’t know. Maybe there is a different opinion around here. Reading articles online you will find a lot of them saying negative things about them as well. Thanks.

Hurley · 03-11-2007, 08:18 PM

Ventless gas heaters are nice units but very restricted as to where they can be installed. I don't know of any that can be installed in a shop (though that don't mean there aren't any). Check the instalation manual for clearences and positioning requirements. More importantly check locale gas code to be sure.

p.s. Not sure where ya are but up here ventless units fall under the title Decrative Appliances. Read the code carefully. Probably won't speak direcly to what you've got but something in there will apply.

gregferd · 03-11-2007, 11:04 PM

According to the instruction manual the area I installed it in is just fine. This is because the building structure isn't tight at all. Somewhat old, got a lot of leaks in it. Maybe I am just being paranoid. Just kinda freaked me out when those HVAC guys told me that they were unsafe. Also stating that they have been banned from certain states because of health reasons. If I am reading it right the opinion here is just to do as the instruction manual states. Thanks

Hurley · 03-12-2007, 09:07 AM

wouldn't hurt to have a couple co2 detectors in there just to safe.

gregferd · 03-13-2007, 12:49 PM

Already got one in. It is a good digital one. Still I didn’t think they would register those lower numbers. I got a spike reading of 46 ppm on it. Essentially it records the highest CO reading in its memory for future viewing. Must not have been that high for that long. Digital display always is 0 when I look at it. Maybe cars etc. caused it to go that high for a moment. I think I am just being over cautious. I’ll keep an eye out for problems though. Thanks