Description:
As a result of improved construction
techniques and materials, residential and commercial buildings are becoming
increasingly sealed from the outdoor environment. Because of inadequate
ventilation in such buildings, the indoor air can contain a variety of
substances that pose a health risk to its occupants. Consequently, there is a trend toward
increasing the use of ventilation systems in order to improve indoor air
quality. Increased ventilation, however, can significantly increase the heating
and cooling loads on a building's heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning
(HVAC) system, thus driving up energy usage and cost.
To reduce the load of a building's
HVAC system, conventional ventilation systems can use compact heat exchangers to
temper incoming outdoor air with exhaust air.
However the current design of such heat exchangers tends to be too
expensive for most building applications.
The
low-cost heat exchanger
designed at UO is “cheap and big instead of small and expensive” . It is made of
a lightweight plastic membrane and designed to be installed in the crawl spaces
and attics of buildings, where it uses the outgoing stale air to heat or cool
incoming ventilation air. The product, which the inventor believes has the
potential to operate at 80 percent efficiency, is awaiting a business partner to
take it to commercialization.
U.S. Patent Application No. 10/999,604
