> Energy recovery ventilation units are not that expensive […] Adds some cost to the HVAC of a new build, but not that much.
I've recently had my (individual) house built, and it was 3-4 times more expensive than a regular system. It's not a prominent part of the entire budget for a house, but the difference still made me chose the regular one. But maybe a significant part of the price difference was just a premium for having the high-end tech, more than a real cost difference for the builder.
> are required by code for new construction here in Ontario as of 2017
Interesting. Even for individual houses? Maybe that's a good idea to make it mandatory, if the premium hypothesis above turned to be true.
I believe the requirement that came in earlier for large apartments and condos, but 2017 was the date for detached homes (sadly by far the most common form of development here)
I’m not a super expert, but I believe HVAC here in new builds is about 20-30k, split fairly evenly between parts and install. ERVs are around 1-2k for parts and another grand or so for installation (and significantly easier when done at build time). It likely helps we have such extreme climate our HVAC costs are already quite high, so an extra $1000 here or there isn’t a big deal.
Places more moderate it could easily be a much bigger percentage of the budget and come with reduced ROI. Right now over night I’m heating about 30C temperature difference and I live in one of the most mild parts of the country. Recovering energy is a big deal, as is capturing moisture to reduce load on the humidifier (evaporating water is far from free).
I've recently had my (individual) house built, and it was 3-4 times more expensive than a regular system. It's not a prominent part of the entire budget for a house, but the difference still made me chose the regular one. But maybe a significant part of the price difference was just a premium for having the high-end tech, more than a real cost difference for the builder.
> are required by code for new construction here in Ontario as of 2017
Interesting. Even for individual houses? Maybe that's a good idea to make it mandatory, if the premium hypothesis above turned to be true.