21 March

Termites solved the problem of how to heat or cool your home, while at the same time keeping it full of fresh air. (Important in Covid times.) Air constantly flows through a termitarium wall, heating/cooling as it does, the walls act as a heat exchanger. Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) does a similar thing for a human house. Basically a fan installed through a wall, with a heat exchanger between the two ends to heat/cool the air as fresh air comes in and stale air is sucked out. Or it can be done as a full ducted system. So in winter for example stale warm air from inside is sucked out, leaving its heat in the heat exchanger to warm the fresh cold air coming in at the same time. And vice versa in summer. Passivhaus designs use MVHRs. They’re not expensive, and cost almost nothing to run.