Total heat recovery is an effective way to decrease the total energy consumption to handle the fresh air. This paper presents a membrane based total heat recovery ventilator (HRV). The energy saving performance of the membrane based HRV used in a typical residential building is simulated by using the TRNSYS software. Five representative cities in various climatic regions in China are analyzed and the control strategies are optimized. The simulation results show that the energy saving performance of the membrane based HRV decreases from north to south. The membrane based HRV can generally decrease the air conditioning load of fresh air by nearly 60%~70%, which doesn’t change absolutely under various climatic conditions. The membrane based HRV should be optimal controlled in the northern cities in cooling seasons, and should be optimal controlled in southern cities in heating seasons. This paper shows that there is a need of control strategy optimization in various climatic conditions and the membrane based HRV can generally achieve a good energy saving performance.