Panasonic’s OASYS House: a new type of HVAC system
Panasonic has been innovating in the residential HVAC industry for a while. It makes quiet, powerful extractor fans for bathroom and kitchen, Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs), air conditioners, air purifiers, and more. Now, though, the company is putting these technologies into one place by introducing a whole-home “comfort solution” that is different from traditional HVAC.
In order to demonstrate the system in one of the toughest climates, the company built a “Concept Home” in Houston, Texas. Houston heat, humidity and urban air quality are challenging, to say the least. OASYS continuously circulates and filters fresh air about four times every hour (typical HVAC systems only change air 0.35 to 2 times per hour) to prevent mold and excess moisture. Even with this high air change rate, it uses approximately half the energy of traditional HVAC systems. (Panasonic OASYS® – a holistic home comfort solution for high-performance homes)
According to the website, OASYS delivers:
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Consistent Temperature Control consistent temperature and airflow from room-to-room, eliminating hot spots and cold corners.
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Balanced Air Circulation and Filtration constant, ongoing ventilation and filtration of indoor air help protect from allergens and pollutants while deodorizing to reduce odors.
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Humidity Control ongoing humidity control throughout the whole house with constant air movement and ventilation help prevent excess moisture and mold.
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Easy Maintenance requires minimal upkeep with maintenance of an easy-to-clean filter.
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Quiet Operation runs with whisper-quiet operation, with minimal fan noise to promote more comfort for the whole family.
Corbett Lunsford, home performance expert, reviewed the system and has even started recommending it to clients. He is enthusiastic because OASYS addresses a classic problem in new construction of airtight homes: decoupling the airflow from heating and cooling. Most traditional HVAC systems have fans included in their heat pumps, which dictates that in modern tight enclosures, a small(er) heat pump consequently gets a smaller fan to circulate air. This puts a limit on circulation, allowing micro-climates of varying temperatures and humidities to develop throughout the home.
Although the system is proprietary and the website doesn’t give a whole lot of information, Corbett explained the working parts and principles well in a video. There is a conditioning room inside the building (similar to a “mechanical room” that contains a traditional HVAC air handler). The conditioning room (blue circle below) houses a ductless mini-split (or more than one), a dehumidifier, and Panasonic bath fans mounted in the wall (there are 27 rooms in the concept house, so there are 27 bath fans). Every room gets its own bath fan, which is sized to give each room 4 air changes per hour. The bath fans are very energy-efficient and are pressure matched to monitor the rotation of fans vs. the wattage, to make sure the required airflow is delivered to every room. Amazingly, even with all these fans, the energy used is still less than a typical air handler, and they deliver more airflow in total than the typical air handler. These modular fans are also quiet and easy to replace if necessary.
Also included in the conditioning room is a wall of filters to purify the air, as well as a dehumidifier (or humidifier if in a drier climate). An ERV (orange circle above) is situated somewhere outside the conditioning room to pull humid air from bathrooms and fresh air from outdoors. The conditioned air from the ERV is returned outside the conditioning room, so that fresh, filtered air is mixed into the home before being filtered again in the wall of filters. With this system, each room gets each of the 5 requirements for conditioning according to Corbett: circulation, filtration, fresh air, dehumidification (or humidification), heating/cooling, and pressure relief.
Panasonic (a Japanese company) builds homes in Japan and other places. Although the concept home in Houston was not built by Panasonic, it was built by a builder of high-performance, airtight homes, and the technology is available for license by joining Panasonic’s Certified Contractor Training Program. This is not a system for retrofitting into homes, but if you’re considering building a state-of-the-art new home, it’s worth looking into!
