Spray foam does a great job of creating an airtight home and also acts as a vapor barrier as it is waterproof. It has a really high R-value—that’s a material’s resistance to heat loss. So your home will stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer using very little energy. This is great for energy efficiency because there’s minimal heat loss. But every home needs to breathe. And when a home is airtight it can’t. So you need to bring in fresh air and get rid of the stale, indoor air. If you don’t you will have condensation issues. That means moisture, which can lead to mould.

So whenever we install spray foam in a basement we also install a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV). What an HRV does is that it exchanges indoor air with fresh outdoor air. But it also pre-heats the air that comes in using the air that’s going out. That recovers up to 88 percent of the heat that’s going out. And thanks to an Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM) in the HRV, the amount of electricity needed to run the HRV is minimal.