Furnace Direct installs heat-recovery and energy-recovery ventilators across Savage and the rest of Scott County. We stock no exchangers for over-the-counter sale, so this worksheet is the whole sales process: answers in, one flat installed price out.
Check 1 — Count the exhaust fans that actually move air
- FLAG (damp column): one working bath fan for two or more bathrooms, or a range hood that recirculates through a charcoal filterUndersized spot ventilation is the single most common reason a tight Savage two-story holds cooking and shower moisture into the evening. Damp flag.
- CLEAR: every bath has a fan that pulls a tissue flat against the grille, and the kitchen hood ducts outdoorsYour spot ventilation is doing its job, which means whatever complaint remains is a whole-house air problem and belongs to the exchanger decision.
Check 2 — Look at the glass on the coldest morning you can remember
- FLAG (damp column): condensation beads or ice on the lower sash in bedroomsMoisture is condensing because it has nowhere to go. Damp flag, and a strong one.
- FLAG (dry column): glass stays bone dry, lips crack, and a comb throws sparksYour house is already parched in January. Dry flag — pulling in continuous outdoor air without recovering moisture will make that worse.
Check 3 — Find the build year and any envelope work since
- Built 1995 or later, still on original windows and sheathingMost of Savage falls here. These houses came out of the ground tight enough that the code-required ventilation system is doing real work — and it is old enough now to be failing quietly. Note it, no column yet.
- Older village-core or pre-1990 house with new windows, siding, or attic air sealingYou just converted a leaky house into a semi-tight one without changing how it breathes. This check almost always pushes a damp flag on the next question.
Check 4 — Basement and slab moisture
- FLAG (damp column): sump runs most of spring, or the walkout level smells earthy by AugustBluff-side and low-lying lots near the river flats and the fen feed groundwater moisture upward. That load sits on the exchanger all summer. Damp flag.
- CLEAR: dry finished lower level, sump idle, no musty cornerGood. Your humidity story is driven by occupancy rather than the ground.
Check 5 — People, pets, plants, and showers per day
- FLAG (damp column): five or more occupants, long back-to-back showers, aquarium or a dozen houseplantsBodies and hobbies generate pounds of water daily. In a sealed 2000s floor plan with an open stairwell, that lands on second-floor glass first. Damp flag.
- FLAG (dry column): two adults, travel often, wood stove or fireplace running most winter eveningsCombustion and low occupancy both strip humidity. Dry flag.
Check 6 — What the existing air exchanger is doing right now
- FLAG (either column): the box exists but the breaker is off, the wall control is unlabeled, or nobody has opened it since closingWe treat this as a replacement scope, not a repair. Open the door — a frost-caked or lint-matted core tells us more than any brochure.
- CLEAR: no exchanger at allSimpler quote. We route fresh supply and stale exhaust from scratch and size to the square footage and bedroom count.
Check 7 — What would make you call this a win next February?
- FLAG (damp column): "clear windows and no clammy upstairs"You want moisture removed with the stale air. That is heat recovery.
- FLAG (dry column): "stop the nosebleeds and static without running humidifiers in three rooms"You want moisture kept in while air still turns over. That is energy recovery.
Tally your columns
More damp flags than dry: HRV. That is where the bulk of sealed Savage houses land, especially full-house occupancy in post-1995 subdivisions with limited bath ventilation. More dry flags than damp: ERV — typical of low-occupancy homes, deep remodels, and anyone already fighting a humidifier war. Dead tie or both columns loaded: send the worksheet and we adjudicate, because a split tally usually means a duct or spot-fan fix belongs in the same scope.
What to include when you send it
Your tally (damp count versus dry count), the build year, and whether you are on the bluff, in the older core near Highway 13, or in one of the newer plats toward County Road 42. If an exchanger already exists, a phone photo of the label and the core is worth more than a paragraph. We come back with one core recommendation, the duct routing we intend to use, and the installed number — never a link to buy a box yourself.
Worksheet questions we get from Savage homeowners
Do walkout basements on the Savage bluff change the worksheet result?
They change where we terminate, not which core you need. A walkout gives us a clean below-grade wall for intake and exhaust hoods with short duct runs. Core selection still comes from your tally of damp-side versus dry-side flags.
Our subdivision was built in 2004 and nobody ever touched the air exchanger. Is that a flag?
Yes, an important one. A lot of early-2000s Scott County builds got a basic exchanger wired to a timer that later got switched off because it felt drafty. An unused box for twenty years usually means a dirty core, a seized damper, or an unbalanced pair of ports — all things we assess before quoting a swap.
Does the Savage Fen area or the river flats mean more outdoor moisture to worry about?
Groundwater-fed wetland and river-bottom air raise summer dew points near those low pockets, which is an argument for a core that limits how much latent load you drag inside during July. It is not an argument for skipping winter ventilation.
How many of the seven checks have to flag before you recommend anything?
None. The worksheet exists so the conversation starts with facts about your house instead of a generic pitch. Even an all-clear result gets a real answer, which is sometimes 'add two bath fans and a fresh-air damper first, revisit the exchanger next year.'