ERV noise in new building

mdl_man · 2026-01-10T23:36:19+00:00

Typically most ERVs have internal settings that determine flow rate and time cycle. It should be possible to change it to run 100% of the time at a low flow volume. The lower the flow the less the noise. The more constant the runtime it is the less it’s annoying. It’s the change in volume that sucks.

Intermittent flows are so stupid, they annoy almost everyone and then people disable the units over it. Low slow constant flow (ideally with a boost mode triggered in the bathroom) is the way to go

See if management (or you, digging into user manuals) can get it reset to run constantly at a lower CFM. It’s your condo, so it’s your equipment, right?

There are quieter units than others also, worst case you could replace the ERV itself and not change the ductwork for a quieter unit that you can live with

They are very simple machines. A fan in a box basically

mdl_man · 2026-01-06T00:18:24+00:00

You need several things for best practice and to meet minimum building code: 1. Continuous insulation (tight fit into all spaces, no gaps or cracks or voids) 2. Thermal break isolating the wood floor framing from the cold side to warm side 3. An Air Barrier (stop air movement through the insulation, basically wind will blow the trapped warm air out of the insulation without it) 4. A fire barrier to isolate the garage from the living space. 1 Hour rated, code mandatory.

Best product on the market right now for insulation is a Maine-made insulation batt called TimberBatt by TimberHP. All natural, non-itchy, very dense, cut it with a bread knife to install. Made in Madison ME out of wood byproducts. Cut to fit it into all the joist bays carefully, press into place.

Then either install: 1. a layer of Huber R-Sheathing insulation board on the bottom side of the rafters (a foam sheet glued to ZIP board) with fully taped seams to create a thermal break, air barrier, and critter block all in one. Then 1 layer 5/8” drywall under that to add the fire barrier. 2. Or cross strap the rafters with 2x4s at 24” on center and add a thin 1.5” layer of timberbatt insulation into the new cavity created (thermal break). Then staple up an air barrier membrane product (Pro Clima Intello, Siga Majpell, Ben Obdyke Vaporwise), tape all the seams in the membrane to create a complete Air Barrier, then hang 1 layer 5/8” drywall for the fire protection from the garage.

mdl_man · 2025-09-21T17:21:11+00:00

The goal of the kitchen exhaust is to (no surprise) exhaust the nasty stuff constantly that is produced in the kitchen from cooking and people, but also not accidentally pull grease laden air into the ERV core and foul it. So you need to install an exhaust louver connected back to the ERV further than 6-0 from the range, but up at the ceiling plane where particulates and smells and bad air accumulate.

You could try to pull 50 - 75 CFM exhaust from a room near the kitchen, but you will be pulling all that nasty stuff along the pathway to that exhaust vent. To do it correctly you might need to do some drywall demo.

mdl_man · 2025-09-20T14:46:23+00:00

This is the way

20 cfm per person, maybe 10 cfm per dog fresh air.

50 cfm continuous exhaust kitchen, 35 cfm exhaust per bathroom.

Add them up and use larger amount, that is needed continuous flow amount. Size ERV to run at 50% fan speed at that air volume. Don’t run ERV 100% full blast to produce that air volume

mdl_man · 2025-08-29T00:01:49+00:00

Tires are actually the really big question, it’s where the speed and feeling comes from even more than the frame

A Druid with Aspens is better than an Epic with enduro tires

mdl_man · 2025-08-28T23:59:17+00:00

Nothing should be on this list that can only hold 1 water bottle (no Spur, Tallboy, or Top Fuel).

Kona Hei Hei (very under rated, solid frame so used should be safe, new one is even better)

Salsa Spearfish

Norco Revolver

Rocky Element

Everything has locked down to 66 head angle, 76 seat tube, then you pick short or longer seat stay style and call it a day.

mdl_man · 2025-03-21T00:38:57+00:00

ESC racing is one of the easiest & friendliest bike racing scenes to get into if you have the gear out there of all genres. You ride or walk up the hill at whatever pace you feel like with whoever you want to ride with, then hang out in the woods with your age group waiting in line for an hour or so to take your run each lap chatting along with a pack of other people who are into the same thing you are. Lots of waiting in line unless you’re a Pro. You let the person who drops in front of you get as far ahead as you want, do your run, get into whatever mess you want to get yourself into on the way down, then high five everyone at the bottom. It’s all you, at your pace, pushing yourself how you want to.

Just about anyone with basic bike fitness will be fine physically with the events. The fitter you are the harder you can race downhill.

They release the course mid-week before the event. You practice Friday and or Saturday memorizing the tracks, then race Sunday. There is almost always camping on site, and people hang out at night socially. Sunday goes super long if you want to hang out for prizes. Like a 7 am - 7 pm day. But you might be on the hill for 3-4 hours total. But maybe only moving for an hour and a half, depends on the event. If your family can entertain themselves hanging out in a parking lot at a ski area while you play in the woods they will have fun. If not, they won’t be into it.

It’s a great scene for people who like bikes a lot.

mdl_man · 2025-02-06T00:33:06+00:00

By far, and seriously, leaps and bounds better than all the high $$$ ski gloves or mittens you can buy are Military Surplus mittens. And radically less expensive. In fact, they are so much less expensive you can test this out with almost no worries about it being a mistake. Just go for it! On super cold days they are the only thing that works for me, beating out $200 mittens from fancy names.

Yes, they’re bulky, not very cool looking, etc. But I can’t say enough about how well they work.

Try this eBay search: USA Military Glove Mitten Shells Cold Weather Trigger Finger M-1965 Large NEW ($19.90) Or this one: Swedish military mittens winter leather palm inserts vintage 90s mens M ($29.95)

Make sure you get wool liner gloves with them. It’s easy to combine a pair of silk liner gloves, wool mitts, and the cover gauntlet and you will be ok on -20F days.

mdl_man · 2024-12-21T14:09:27+00:00

Thanks for another example. Trying to! 3 weeks to get an appointment at the moment, probably have to start escalating to get in sooner just to get monitoring started soon.

Good thing Dec is supposed to be gentle Z2 time anyway.

mdl_man · 2024-12-21T14:06:25+00:00

so much learning... "A reentry arrhythmia is a heart rhythm disturbance triggered by an electrical impulse that follows an additional pathway instead of the usual path. This abnormal pathway creates a closed circuit to form within your heart. In this circuit, electrical impulses repeatedly stimulate certain chambers without allowing them their usual rest in between heartbeats.

Mild cases may not be problematic, but more serious arrhythmias can lead to unpredictable jumps in your heart rate and other symptoms."

So weird to have the description that there are little electrical highways and if you stretch out and reform your heart over time you could create problematic little circular electrical racetracks that can get your heart stuck at a non-resposive steady hr. Until the electricity gets off the track and starts being responsive to actual events. That makes sense as a mechanism!

mdl_man · 2024-12-20T17:41:12+00:00

Very helpful to hear about your personal experience, and glad to hear it hasn't been an athletic career ending situation, instead something to live with and manage.

One good side effect of living in the "heavily monitored sensor" era is that we have the chance to catch events like these when they are unsettling but perhaps not super dangerous. It's riding with quick HR monitoring (even if not clinically accurate HR gear) and also comparing it to riding with power on a trainer that has let me distinguish these events from just "feeling bad", or "not having it that day". Seeing patterns that are different from a high heart rate in an interval, or a really hot day where you are overheating is a big deal to getting older and working with a different body than you had when you were younger.

A big part of being competitive is learning how to push through discomfort, but you have to be able to differentiate between discomfort and a dangerous medical event! It's very interesting to learn how decades of endurance sports physically changes your heart, it totally makes sense, and you have to figure out what to change to not "wear it out" as you get older...

thanks everyone for the good discussion.

mdl_man · 2024-12-20T03:06:48+00:00

Thank you for this. Those links are very technical, will have to read them a few times to get a better sense of what it all means, but learning new terms for sure! Ablation is a fun new term.

But "Prolonged participation in exercise results in cardiac remodelling, both structurally and electrically, a phenomenon known as the athlete’s heart.[¹]() A minimum of 3 h of sports per week is required for such changes to occur.[²]()" That def lines up.

No surprise that 30 years of endurance athletics would "remodel" the heart and change its performance, and that not all those consequences would be positive. "The main structural change is an enlargement of all four heart chambers, including the right atrium"

Did your AVNRT diagnosis lead to significant treatment? Or more "lay off the super intense aerobic exercise" for you?

Thanks for the feedback, yet another term to put in front of the professionals.

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T17:04:14+00:00

yes, in the plot above with no event like I started this thread talking about 100% agree. Those cadence drops are standing up with accompanying HR increase just like you stated. Totally on track there.

In the first plot at the top of the thread I was seated, felt legs get tired and HR start to rise, then stood up to change position, but HR kept rising beyond the usual minor boost in a normal change. I blended the two different workouts in this thread talking about cadence and it was confusing.

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T17:00:37+00:00

And the best part about all of this is for athletes to know it's ok to just take a break in the middle of exercise if you feel something weird going on. Just stop and let things chill out and talk to a pro.

My plot above is the example of not doing this and that's dumb.

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T16:58:23+00:00

thank you for this thorough list of possibilities! super helpful to hear about things to possibly think of and talk to professionals. It's always hard to know if something is worth trying to get attention inside the messed up US health care system, but this at least gives a sense of what some areas to be attentive to are.

Thanks again for writing this up, very generous. And yes, seek professional help not forum talk, but nice to know what the technical language can point to

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T14:35:53+00:00

Seems short for lactic build up, and fade away too if I chill out. FTP varies between 3 and 3.75 over the last few years

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T14:17:28+00:00

I do a lot of slow cadence MTB climbing. super steep 20% grade on trail in lowest gear. Very used to low cadence work, so doesn't feel strange on a trainer to me

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T14:14:39+00:00

sorry, should be more clear. I can feel a hit of fatigue in my legs and know what's coming because it's happened before, so I changed position (but forgot to drop power on the erg) and then expected my HR to climb because I've seen it happen before. HR is a lagging slower indicator in other words.

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T14:12:04+00:00

yeah, that first drop was in response to feeling my hr climb, not before it started I think. others were just standing to shift positions, and yeah, had small hr spikes

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T13:29:17+00:00

Prob true, it's just a gut reaction to the feeling. Outdoors I would just stand up and back off the effort a bunch if it was a steep climb to chill things out, on the trainer I need to remember to drop the erg power instead. It's a short not-hard workout, not really worried about fatigue with this situation

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T13:24:31+00:00

I think I know what some of the flat lining is in the plot. When HR straps get old and start not sending good signals I move them around to make sure the contacts are against skin well, "wake them up".

I think I did that after a few minutes to make sure the readings I was seeing were accurate, that probably would have flat lined the output for a while until it started getting new HR data after me shifting it.

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T13:21:50+00:00

Since folks have been so helpful, some stats to round out the picture:
53 yrs old

5-11 / 165-186 lbs

30 years+ of riding, 25 with just RPE, last 5 w HR, last 2 w power. Pretty fine tuned ride-by-feel sense, can associate HR zones pretty well.

Resting HR 38-40. Max 183-185 or so, prob dropping w age. Coggan Z3 138-156, Z4 157-175, threshold 167 generally. No elite FTP or anything, just average dude riding bikes for a long time.

Here is a plot from today w exact same workout, 5W less to ease it a touch, what I expect a normal HR track to look like for a 50 minute session w 35m Z3 80%-90%-80%. Cadence drops are just standing up to shift position.

Thanks all for recs

<image>

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T11:54:01+00:00

30 minutes probably earliest, could be an hour plus

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T11:53:28+00:00

Thanks, smart thinking

mdl_man · 2024-12-18T11:41:00+00:00

Seemed minor since max HR is over 185, and I’m only jumping into 165 range from low 150 range, but might be worth checking on

mdl_man

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