The Freshening Part 5

So it's about time I got this project fully wrapped up, and a little ahead of schedule as I managed to get an early start today which meant I could burn some time before lunch, and thus before the attic turned into an inferno that would cook me alive as soon as I poked my head up above ceiling level.

Of course, the first task didn't even take place in the attic itself, but rather in my car hole, where I bent up a piece of sheet metal into a 5 inch round splice.

Fun fact: you can make round things on a sheet metal brake... Well, sort-of-round things. Round enough.

Anyway, that piece goes in between the too-short piece of duct I installed a few days ago and the new piece of duct that arrived on my doorstep.

So this area over here is no longer a hideous octopus of aluminum foil ducting.

And what did I do with the remaining 15-or-so feet of duct from the 25 foot box?

I shoved it back in the box. I'm sure I'll find a use for it at some point. It can live up here until then.

Speaking of boxes, I installed the relay box which allows me to adapt the 120v timer switches I installed last time to the 24v control lines that the HRV uses.

It's just a pair of relays with 120vac coils (which is apparently a thing) wired up exactly how you'd expect them to be.

And good news: even at full zoot with the "Taco Tuesday" button switched on, the HRV is still barely audible down in the occupied portion of the house. In fact, I think removing the duct-o-pus from the output actually made it a bit quieter than it was initially, which is pretty sweet.

So the only other question is: how efficient is this HRV? Well, it was a little over 28c outside the other day so I pointed my thermal camera at the fresh air vent.

Hmm. Well, I guess I can't really expect miracles when there's only 4 degrees difference between the inside and outside temperature. And, let's face it, this is California; the main goal here, which I achieved, was getting more air circulation inside the house without having to open the windows and let a bunch of pollen and pollution in.

But while I've got the thermal cam out, let's see how the insulation in the car hole is performing (which is still an ongoing project).

Well now that's a bit more of a dramatic difference. The face of the insulation (left) is only 25c while the underside of the roof (right) is roasting at 42c.

Now that the HRV project is done, I'll hopefully be able to wrap up the insulation project over the next few weeks before spring really kicks into high gear and the hot days become more inconveniently frequent.

But in the meantime I've got some fresh air to enjoy.