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Comment by amluto | Hacker News Reader

Some questions:

What is the HEPA for? Is it on the fresh air intake or are you actually HEPA-filtering the recirculated air? If the latter, why not MERV 16? HEPA media is probably more expensive, and it definitely has much higher pressure loss, and there is no actual need for it outside of healthcare.

How are you humidifying?

Can you control the coil temperature in cooling mode and thus control the sensible/latent cooling ratio? (i.e. can the amount of dehumidification be adjusted on the fly as needed?)

Can you integrate with some kind of HRV or ERV?

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Good questions.

We have a way of running HEPA with not unreasonable pressure loss, and then dialing back the amount of filtration when PM2.5 levels are reasonable. Separately a homeowner can request a high filtration mode.

Humidifying is though a system similar to a whole home humidifier - a small bypass from the supply side of the furnace evaporates water off a media.

Yes, through a combination of reheat and coil temperature control we can change the sensible/latent cooling ratio.

HRV/ERV only makes sense in certain applications. We're looking at making one integral in the system, but it will come down to minimizing total cost for homeowners. Comfort metrics will be unaffected.

Do you have a diagram of the system (with water connections, duct connections, fresh air connections, exhaust, etc)?

I would like a standard air filter to be used. a lot of individuals don't require HEPA, but I do. I would like to be able to source my own filters from anywhere, and put them in. just like my current furnace. let people pick their level of air filtration they are comfortable with

How standard? The hardware store products are fundamentally pretty poor because they’re at most 2” deep. But Aprilaire, Lennox and some others have nice 4” filters at reasonable prices.

4" is standard. plenty on amazon and other places. hardware stores don't usually carry it because people probably don't understand that 4" is better from one side, and from the other not all filter boxes/supplies can accommodate > 1"

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