Can the exhaust duct of an ERV vent *into* the garage?

Question

I am looking to install an ERV in my house and am currently trying to determine good locations for the intake and exhaust vents. While I have identified other candidate locations for the exhaust vent, by far the easiest candidate location is to vent it into our attached, unfinished garage.

I have not seen anything in my building code (Western NY, USA) that explicitly prohibits this, but I am by no means an expert. My local township has advised me that they place no additional constraints on ERV installation save to follow manufacturer guidelines.

Is there anything I may have missed that makes venting the exhaust into the garage a poor idea or not allowed?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: For clarity, the intake vent will run outside, only the exhaust vent will run to the garage.

Answer 1

I am sure it would be against code.

If it isn't always running and your ERV doesn't have a damper on the exhaust then you've introduced a nice path for CO to enter from your garage into your house. I'd say for that reason alone it would violate whatever the code is that requires some kind of air tightness from the garage to the house. Code is often about protecting against the dumbest user and someone could just un-install or unplug the ERV and then you've got ducting from the garage directly into bathrooms and kitchen ( ERV exhaust vent locations ).

Answer 2

Unless your ERV also exchanges humidity, you are putting relatively humid air into the cool space of the garage. Even in my dry climate (Alberta, 16" of precip/year) the aphorism "rust never sleeps" runs true in my garage. And it has an open garage door most of the time.

Clearly you don't want to have your intake in the garage. Run your car, and poison the house.

Can your continue the duct across the garage and exit the other side of the garage?

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Responses to comments.

Jmac My limited and dated experience with heat exchangers of any kind is that 70% is the sweet spot in terms of economics. Which means that there is still a fair amount of water in the exhaust air.

Tiger Guy Mostly on the underbody of the car. It's common to come in with 40-50 lbs of slush on the bottom of the car. Warm engine warms up the body enough for most of it to fall off. I live outside Edmonton, Alberta. Most years we have snow on the ground for 5-6 months.

If the ambient temperature in the garage is -20C, it takes very little additiona water vapour to saturate the air at that temperature.

Screwtop My garage doors don't fit well. My brother-in-law has an insulated heated garage. While garage doors don't fit as tightly as most houses' front doors, they are tight enough to make the garage heatable. Most people will heat them to between 45 and 50 F.