Odd sales pitch for home ventilation systems?

**Paul in NZ** · 19th February 2007, 19:30

Apparently it's a new family record - I'm the rudess person this door to door salesman has ever met in a year of doing his job!!

Anyway - thats not quite fair because we did accept the appointment from the telemarketter regarding the product. Just his bad luck to turn up on a monday night when my blood sugars are low I expect? Pffft! Or maybe - just maybe when faced with some genuine questions from an engineering type - he spat the dummy...

So. Home Ventilation...

http://www.hrv.co.nz/default.aspx

No doubt it has SOME good things going for it and it will live up to some of the claims for sure BUT. Our problem is we live in a bit of a gully and loose the sun early in the winter and gone completely by the time we get home so we won't get much heating. Not so he reckons as it will be hot enough to provide heat (note that they never quite claim it will replace your heating system and to be fair he stressed that - and then told us we would probably never have to use our heaters 'cos we were not that cold in winter...). The question is - do the benefits outweight the costs?

Then he tells me it will cool the house in the summer? Eh? Apparently when the sun goes down it gets cold in the ceiling and it will cool the house on those hot summer evenings. Um - that seems to contradict what he is telling me above. Nice but frankly there are 5 of those evenings a year in Kapiti?? How much will it cost?

All the time he is drawing REALLY silly diagrams on his piece of paper suitable for a 5 year old and pulling random figures out of the air. I challange and couple of his facts. (It forces air out of your home - erm no it does NOT - the air escapes because of the positive pressure in the house provided there are always leaky bits but it does not actively force or duct OUT the air. How much does it fucking COST!!!!

It dries the air.... No it fucking does NOT. A de humidifier dries the air, this sucks in drier air and (hopefully) displaces damper air but it does NOT actively dry it (which is EXACTLY what I asked). If it's very humid outside or raining it will suck in damp air too.... How much does it cost..?? PLEASE.

Then he shows me his switch thing which frankly is pretty ordinary with a clever label that looks nice...

I'm examining cloely because I have an interest in such things and he gets shitty...

Hmm - I tell him I've designed a few air cond systems for telephone exchanges ver the years and was well trained in the basic function of these things and have a good grounding in basic physics so I KNOW how it works - its a bloody fan in the roof that blows air into the house. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

All I found out was....

A filter cost $250 and I need 2 and the last 2 years (alarm bells going off)

He does not want me as a customer (mutual by now) and would never sell a system (it's a fucking fan ffs) without explaining how it works (groan - I KNOW HOW IT WORKS BUT EVERY TIME I ASK YOU A DIRECT TECHNICAL QUESTION YOU HALF ANSWER IT AN AVOID IT)

Apparently I'm the RUDEST person he has ever dealt with and he stomped off??? What? I agree - I'm VERY direct but I'm not rude, he just was not able to answer my questions...

Bit of fun I thought but...

Do these things work? It's financed by GE Money (alarm bells REALLY going off) and this idiot was a waste of space (lets not talk about the body odour problem - guess he has a fan in his car)

Paul N

Rudeest man in Kapiti and still wanting to know if these things work (apparently they do cos he out sells the competition 4/1)

**Madness** · 19th February 2007, 19:46

Sounds like you missed a bloody bargain there Paul.

I know a guy who had a DVS (gotta love that bit) franchise a while back. He was boasting about the growth & revenue & blah blah. Funny thing is, the time I last saw him before this day he tried to sell me on Amway. Go figure.

**Oakie** · 19th February 2007, 19:59

We bought a DVS 3 or 4 years ago. Brilliant! Wiped out our condensation problem literally overnight. No mould in the house now. Warms the whole house in winter and on those really hot days in summer you flick it into 'cold' mode and it puts a nice chill in the air ... as long as you remember to close all the windows and keep the doors closed.

**Motu** · 19th February 2007, 20:25

I think our wives have a lot in common - I sure they will have endless discussion comparing the rudest man south of Taupo with the rudest man north of Taupo.My last outburst was with the Yellow Pages salesman,I ranted and raved in an obnoxcious manner before hanging up.My wife had to ring him up the next day and appologise and say just do the same as last year.I just hate salesmen - lucky I can't ever afford to buy a new bike,I'd be banned from this site.

**Paul in NZ** · 19th February 2007, 20:25

Originally Posted by Oakie

We bought a DVS 3 or 4 years ago. Brilliant! Wiped out our condensation problem literally overnight. No mould in the house now. Warms the whole house in winter and on those really hot days in summer you flick it into 'cold' mode and it puts a nice chill in the air ... as long as you remember to close all the windows and keep the doors closed.

Sweet - roughly what did it cost? DVS have been around for yonks I thought? This guy reckons his was better?

**Paul in NZ** · 19th February 2007, 20:27

Originally Posted by Motu

I think our wives have a lot in common - I sure they will have endless discussion comparing the rudest man south of Taupo with the rudest man north of Taupo.My last outburst was with the Yellow Pages salesman,I ranted and raved in an obnoxcious manner before hanging up.My wife had to ring him up the next day and appologise and say just do the same as last year.I just hate salesmen - lucky I can't ever afford to buy a new bike,I'd be banned from this site.

Ha ha! I suspect you might be right and whats more the discussion will happen in a room with the bloody windows open and no phone book!

**Toaster** · 19th February 2007, 20:28

Originally Posted by Oakie

We bought a DVS 3 or 4 years ago. Brilliant! Wiped out our condensation problem literally overnight. No mould in the house now. Warms the whole house in winter and on those really hot days in summer you flick it into 'cold' mode and it puts a nice chill in the air ... as long as you remember to close all the windows and keep the doors closed.

Dude... "cold mode" do you mean "winter" mode? My place is North Auckland, new, very well insulated, lots of glass, with DVS and flippin' hot!!

**James Deuce** · 19th February 2007, 20:37

We've got a Drivaire system (Fisher & Paykel's model) with five outlets and a filter. It's a positive pressure system and it really has eliminated mold and dampness in Winter. We never used to be able to see out our windows in Winter, and our Vertical blinds needed specialist cleaning twice a year. We get all day sun so the roofspace gets quite warm, even in Winter. It's usually 4C above ambient minimum, so we get the benefits of that. It will pickup air either from the lounge or the roofspace in Winter, depending on what is warmer and it will change the direction of airflow if necessary.

However, to cool in Summer, Drivaire requires a Heat Pump (Heat exchange Air-Con), which we'll be getting in a couple of months, plus it will provide the extra heat we need in Winter to avoid having to use a heater at all.

Don't worry about being rude. I gave the DVS guy and the Drivaire guy the same sort of grilling. The Drivaire guy passed when he said you needed a heat exchanger to get cool air in Summer. The DVS guy got shouty with me too, so you're not the only rude guy South of Taupo. Interestingly, DVS was half the price with only a single outlet supposedly doing what the Drivaire does with 5.

**Paul in NZ** · 19th February 2007, 20:42

Ah - this would be the competition he claims he does not have - keep em coming guys - any KB's sell them - recommend brands?

**sedge** · 19th February 2007, 20:49

My thoughts... Mrs wanted one of these... Talked to the guy and read the stuff.

It still costs the same to heat your house with DVS HRV etc as it does to run a heater...

So, why not buy one of those 1 to 4 room heat transfer kits with thermostat ($400 ish) and just heat the lounge...

In fact you could buy this and get a heat pump installed that would heat or cool the whole house for less than the cost of DVS... It would also dehumidify and purify the air... And cost a 1/3 to run !

We put a transfer kit in and use our woodburner in winter. Fill up the burner at night, set the lounge temp to 28 and the excess heat gets pumped around the house... Toasty and dry for eight hours.

Ah, FYI, I'm not affiliated with the transfer kit manufacturers association, just with the sceptical cheap bastards who don't like getting ripped off association.

Sedge.

**Paul in NZ** · 19th February 2007, 20:53

Originally Posted by sedge

Ah, FYI, I'm not affiliated with the transfer kit manufacturers association, just with the sceptical cheap bastards who don't like getting ripped off association.

Sedge.

See you at the next meeting mate....

**Drum** · 19th February 2007, 20:54

Consumer looked into the various systems last year. Here's some free info from them.......

http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp...tion%20systems

Edit: I can scan the magazine article and email it if you want.

**geoffm** · 19th February 2007, 20:58

You are right - it is a fan in the attic. You coudl always DIY - get a 150mm centrifugal fan (Temperzone AXC150 or sim), a filter (Ipsco or some others) some insulated flexiduct and a grille and a thermostat.

**James Deuce** · 19th February 2007, 20:58

Originally Posted by sedge

It still costs the same to heat your house with DVS HRV etc as it does to run a heater...

.

That may be true, but the associated costs of dampness and mold more than offset the cost of running a positive pressure system.

Our power bill dropped from $300-$420 a month in Winter to $180-$250 after we installed the Drivaire, so I reckon it is cheaper than a bunch of heaters, plus I can look at the view and don't have to pay a man to take our verticals away and clean the mold off them every couple of months in the Winter.

**Paul in NZ** · 19th February 2007, 21:09

Originally Posted by Drum

Consumer looked into the various systems last year. Here's some free info from them.......

http://www.consumer.org.nz/topic.asp...tion%20systems

Edit: I can scan the magazine article and email it if you want.

Please do.. I'm interested now! I'll bet a hat full of farty arses that if his had come out on top he would have mentioned it eh?