Minimise house heat losses: add two noses!
A simple solution of heat loss minimisation during respiration found in many animals including the Kangaroo Rat is shown to be equally simple to mimic, for example to apply in ventilation of single-family residences .
Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys merriami, source Wikipedia Commons), and the experimental design it inspired.
As Steven Vogel, a biologist at Duke University, explains, "Small birds and mammals commonly minimize respiratory heat loss with reciprocating counterflow exchangers in their nasal passageways. These animals extract heat from the air in an exhalation to warm those passageways and then use that heat to warm the subsequent inhalation."
One example is Merriam's Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys merriami), living in the deserts of southwestern USA and Mexico
This is significantly simpler than the heat exchangers, either in animals bodies or as we build them , which involve couterflow exchangers and complex systems of tubes to transfer heat or cold.
The problem is, your house can't breath, and its volume is rather constant.
The simple solution tested with a basic experimental device is to split the nose in two. And then, have these "two noses" operating antiphasically, meaning that when one "exhales", the other "inhales", thus always keeping a constant volume of air inside the house.
In essence, the heat of your room escapes, but stays in the "nose", and comes back at the next inversion of flow...
Additionnaly, it works equally to keep a room fresh!
