CENTRAL CONDOMINIUM : HRV

Central 1 is registered with the Canadian Green Building Council as a LEED Silver building. As such, a LEED consultant also works on this project, meeting the trades on a regular basis to check the progress of the building. One of the main LEED features is the presence of a Heat Recovery Ventilator (also known as an HRV or Air Exchanger) in each unit. The HRVs, which will be hidden in the ceiling, contribute to making the building eco-friendly, by reducing energy consumption.

Having access to fresh air is very important in a home, but in Ottawa, fresh air is rather cold most of year. Opening the windows in the winter to let fresh air in and stale air out, also means that the space inside will get cold and will have to be heated again, which wastes energy. Enter the HRV which is essentially a box that "recycles heat" so that you can get fresh air without having to reheat it too much.



Here's how it works: In the winter, we know that the fresh air outside is cold and the stale air inside is warm. By having both streams of air passing through the HRV, the heat from the stale air leaving the unit is transferred to the cold fresh air entering the unit. The two air streams don't get in direct contact with each other but there is a transfer of heat that occurs. The heat from the exiting stale air is transferred to the entering fresh air. As a result, the heating system doesn't have to work as hard to heat keep the indoor temperature at a comfortable level and the occupants pay less in energy bills.

There are a lot more eco-friendly features in this project. Stay tuned for more.