Panasonic FV-04VE1 WhisperComfort Balanced Air Solution ERV - Quiet, Long-Lasting Ventilation Fan

Updated review: We have moved this to a permanent installation in our ceiling after using it temporarily mounted in a window. The new exterior vents exit under the soffits up high, whereas the temporary vents were about 4’ off the ground. Grabbing higher air has made a notable difference in the indoor air quality, and this combined with sealing of cracks in the attic sealing giving air paths into the house with many cans of foam has made for a notable reduction in interior radon levels. The 40cfm this unit provides in this configuration has made a notable improvement inside our home, and most of the time we leave it running on the lower 20cfm speed. My preference is now that any energy efficient, reasonably sealed home would have one of these. There’s a few reviews about difficult manufacturer support. This is one of the more complicated units with multi speed fan, electronic damper, temperature monitoring. I hope it lasts. Original review: After installing this HRV I must say I am impressed with the quality of engineering. I installed this in the basement of a 3600 sq foot house and the whole house air quality is improved. The home does not smell as stale upon returning home. It is not effective at radon mitigation, though it’s lowered that number by about a third. This hrv has a computer controlled fan and a servo controlled damper, and it regulates air speed based on outside temperature and air flow. It will sense restrictive piping and increase the motor speed to compensate. Below 37 degrees in enters a slower mode of operation and fiddles with the damper to prevent ice buildup in the core. It really does scavenge heat out of the inside air as it brings in cold outside air and warms it up. On high speed (40 cu ft/min) it’s essentially silent. As temperatures drop, it will reduce the fan speed to ensure efficient thermal transfer as a priority over blasting cold air. The owners manual describes its cold air program. While it’s not designed to support an entire house, I am pleased with the difference it’s made in ours.

This ERV is a great buy for quick installation as a retrofit or new construction. Our project was an extension of the existing house, and we built it really tight with spray foam and caulk on all of the joints, so an air exchange method was absolutely necessary. Being that we built the house really tight for energy saving reasons, we also wanted to retain that energy when exchanging the air. This is where the Panasonic WhisperComfort ERV comes in. I have tested the machine at 33 degrees outside, 66.7 degrees inside and the air being brought into the house is coming in at 54 degrees. Given that this machine is more efficient in the summer, I am impressed with the results so far. The machine is as quiet as a whisper, even our fridge from 2011 is louder than it. Installation was generally very easy, but the installation manual contains quite a bit of useless information, and thus makes it somewhat confusing. I was able to find out how to install the machine, with two separate switches, one for on off, and one for high and low power. Also the manual notes that the power in should not be connected to the control switches. Make sure of this when installation the machine. During installation I discovered that it had two power options that you can choose from, 40/20 cfm and 20/10 cfm. This is selected by plugging the control wires to respective slots. I wish that the machine had a better way of controlling this, such as having separate switches under the decorative plastic cover. Note: Underneath the decorative plastic cover, there is a hard shutoff in addition to the control wire shutoff. Pros: quiet efficient Cons: Installation manual confusing Not dynamic enough to switch between 40, 20 and 10 cfm without messing with the electric junction box Overall this machine has been great this past week, and I am very happy with it so far. I will update when summer comes around when I get to see how it handles humidity.

This is the second one I have purchased. The first one went into a standalone 180 square foot office outside over a year ago, and it works great for keeping the air fresh. I put one in my bedroom recently because I have a CO2 meter that registered 1200 ppm when I was sleeping in there. With the ERV running it keeps the CO2 levels down to 500-700 ppm. The air feels fresher and I think I sleep better. It isn't very noisy for a bedroom, I can watch TV with it on. I had a contractor install it and bought the pipe and Y adapter with hood that is sold separately, just as I did before. He didn't have any problems installing it, but I wouldn't want to do it myself since it means cutting the exterior wall, cutting a hole in the ceiling, running wires, etc.

Installed in small office. We have a bunch of dogs and the c02 readings were crazy high after install it is down to less than half and no noticeable increase in electric cost or ac usage in Texas. Using autopilot c02 monitor. Installed it myself.

It’s supposed to help remove VOC’s but it emits a ton of VOC’s. I took the core out and determined it is the problem. They use some type of epoxy inside of the core that blows out. It gave me a sore throat. Also, unit arrived dented and no returns. I did get a refund however. :) Still, no worth 0 dollars lol. Threw it away.

Purchased the unit with hopes to reduce ac use and assist with indoor air circulation. Unfortunately, Panasonic used a poor quality filter for incoming air filtration, a production design flaw in my opinion. Should have spent a few extra bucks and used a hepa quality filter. After 3 days of continues use suffered an asthma attack. Intake filter is a nylon mesh style commonly used as a pre-filter for register intakes. These decrease dirt, dust and pollens but are poorly suited for this application. Posted a similar review on the Panasonic's website but review was rejected. Positives: unit is fairly quiet, does help eliminate indoor odors and is very energy efficient. Take away: if the goal is to circulate clean air, best to install whole home erv with media style filter system to ensure air is thoroughly scrubbed and virtually all pollutants are eliminated. Thanks

Unit arrived promptly and well packaged in the original box. Intended purpose was to improve air quality in a partial basement under a small house. Total basement size is around 200 square feet of a 6ft ceiling knee-walled basement, and another 500 square feet of 3ft ceiling dirt floor crawl hole. Installation was a breeze. Unit installed between two joist in only a few minutes. The provided screws were of poor quality, I used heavy duty construction screw with the provided brackets. Unit mounted solidly and the adjustable brackets made mounting simple. The hardest part of the installation was getting the vents installed on the exterior of the home, it was mostly because of space constraints, not the unit. Due to constraints I chose to drill two 4" vent holes, they are at least 36" apart with the exhaust straight out and the intake with a 90 degree elbow pointed away from the exhaust hole. Each hole was covered with a louvered 4" diameter exhaust grill which insert direct into the pipe. Piping was done with 4" insulated flex and the runs are mostly straight and less than 10 feet in length to reduce restriction. In total from start to finish installation took 1 day. Prior to install a Radon gas meter showed 3+ pc/L of Radon, An indoor air quality meter rated the air quality as "poor". An ERV is not the preferred method of radon reduction however due to the dirt floor crawl hole a traditional radon reduction fan system was deemed to be ineffective, and installation of the plastic wrap and ventilation normally required was too difficult and costly for the crawl hole. Also the basement needed a fresh-air intake and humidity reduction. Space limits and cost made using a HRV impractical. This unit provided a solution to provide a complete air exchange for the basement roughly once every hour when set on high, and has very little energy consumption. According to Panasonic manual the climate is in Zone B. 48 hours after installing. a radon meter showed a 1 day average of 0.65 pc/L, a reduction of over 75%. The air quality meter read "average". Overall temperature in the basement remained within 2 degrees of the original temperature. The unit is so quite you can not even tell it is on without putting you hand over the exhaust port. I am extremely happy with the purchase and effectiveness of the unit thus far. The reasons for the 1 star off are the poor quality of screws provided with the unit, the shortness of the 4" flanges for attaching duct to, and the lack of installation instructions in the box. These are not huge problems and do not effect the overall operation of the unit.

I installed this ERV in my roughly 1200 sqft basement that had previously had dehumidifiers running around the clock. The Basement is new construction with very dry soil composition and waterproofed "rubber"walls, however once the building envelope was closed, spray-foamed and sealed the Basement began to "sweat" or be a collection point for interior condensation. The smell was unpleasant and the Dehumidifiers helped but used too much energy, made too much noise, and required my time to maintain. I had always planned to put in an ERV but the basement wouldn't be part of the main system, so I gave panasonic a try. Short story, installed in october here in NY and the moisture and odor are completely gone. The energy usage is minimal and the sound is non-existent. The temperature isn't really affected which is a bonus. If something changes midsummer with the added exterior humidity I shall bring report!

I installed myself in one bedroom in basement. C02 level at night dropped from 1300 to 700.Also improves VOC and somehow humidity. I have AIRTHING wave sensor so I could see the difference in real-time. Very quite even on Max. Makes more difference on Max. I don't think one is sufficient for the complete house it is a spot one as described. Make sure to use isolated ducting because of condensate even if the duct is in heated area.(also recomended in manual.) I did not purchase any installation kit just bought some isolated flex ducts and connectors and made 2 holes in exterior wall. What I did not like is the manual - specially the switch connection had to decode what they trying to say.Hint- follow the diagrams don't try to make sense of what is written. Note you can install it on the wall as well as on the sealing. So if you thinking of installing some air remover from basement like humidex - may be this one is better and cheaper option. Again I am not professional just thinking out loud.Do you own research. Installation is pain so before purchasing have clear plan how to install it. Figure out ducting and also electrical. Also they do not provide the electrical switch - had to purchase additional 2 switches. It is cheap but you have to figure out what you need and as I mentioned manual is confusing on the switch part. You will also need wires for power and switch. Might install another one. Installation feasible over weekend. Effort is based on your situation.

Easy to install with only one hole in the wall.

This product works exactly as described. I used it in an older home where a convential HRV would be difficult to integrate. In an 1800 sq/ft home with four occupants, it brought CO2 levels from 1200 ppm, to as low as 500 ppm unnocupied and typically below 700 ppm occupied. We run it at 40 CFM.

Have worked for a couple of years. So far so good