Retrofitting RJ Smith Apartments: a TowerWise Case Study

66 Walpole Ave, Toronto

Type

Town house complex, owned by Toronto Community Housing Corporation

Old System

Electric baseboard radiators, electric hot water tank, 7.6 LPF toilets

New System

LG multi-split cold climate air source heat pumps, Rheem Air Source domestic hot water heat pumps, and low flow toilet retrofit.

Partners

Toronto Community Housing Corp. | Ecosystem

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Project Details

66 Walpole Ave, Toronto: Town house complex, owned by Toronto Community Housing Corporation

Old System: Electric baseboard radiators, electric hot water tank, 7.6 LPF toilets

New System: LG multi-split cold climate air source heat pumps, Rheem Air Source domestic hot water heat pumps, and low flow toilet retrofit.

Partners: Toronto Community Housing Corp. | Ecosystem

October 2019. From 2015-2018, TAF partnered with Toronto Community Housing to undertake retrofits in seven buildings on three sites. This case study looks at one of those sites, RJ Smith Apartments. The buildings were constructed in 1965 in Etobicoke; 101 and 121 Kendleton Drive are identical 7-storey buildings of predominantly studio suites and 111 Kendleton is an 11-storey building with some multi-bedroom suites, primarily home to seniors. In total there are 471 suites at R.J. Smith Apartments, with a total gross building area of 25,950 m2.

This site had numerous energy challenges, like old, over-sized, inefficient boilers and inefficient lighting and ventilation systems.

A key result: We reduced overheating in the winter by 59 per cent by installing correctly sized, high-efficiency boilers.

Gallery

Recommendations

Create a mock installation to test new technologies.

Understanding sequencing and interaction of trades, and troubleshooting issues without disrupting residents prior to a full building rollout improves results and resident satisfaction.
Enable cooling

to increase resident comfort and satisfaction, reduce peak demand, and protect against health impacts of extreme heat.
Lengthen cycle times and reduce return temperatures to allow GAHP to reach maximal steady-state efficiency.

Increase the deadband of the GAHP controller to keep it on for longer periods, installing the heat exchanger in a counterflow configuration to promote better heat transfer (and likely reduce the temperatures in the GAHP glycol loop). And, add more intelligent control to the recirculation loop such that it is not unnecessarily mixing hot water with the cold city water prior to the GAHP heat exchanger.