Home heating and hot water savings from midrise apartment retrofit

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

Download Report

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

January 2024. City of Toronto. In April 2021, TAF joined project partners to retrofit a nine storey 1963 apartment building in Toronto. The objectives were to reduce electricity consumption by 23% by introducing the Innova 2.0 heat pump system into the living room spaces. The project also aimed to reduce gas consumption by 53% by introducing the Vicot gas absorption heat pump (GAHP) for the domestic hot water load. In total, we aimed to reduce site-wide emissions by 32%. Resident satisfaction for the project was high.

The GAHP system has not been operational for long enough to report on savings. However, the related gas savings are critical to reaching our 40% emissions reduction goals.

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.