{"id":96796,"date":"2025-08-06T09:46:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T13:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=96796"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:18:21","slug":"carleton-lab-supports-energy-efficiency-retrofits-in-social-housing-community","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/carleton-lab-supports-energy-efficiency-retrofits-in-social-housing-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Lab Supports Energy Efficiency Retrofits in Social Housing Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton Lab Supports Energy Efficiency Retrofits in Social Housing Community\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

At the Carver Place townhome community in east Ottawa, more than 60 units of rent geared to income housing for families are undergoing major energy efficiency retrofits \u2014\u202fone of the most ambitious projects of its kind in Canadian social housing. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These upgrades \u2014 which include the installation of air source heat pumps, energy recovery ventilation systems, hot water heat pumps and new insulation as well as air sealing \u2014\u202faim to reduce the carbon footprint of the community while making residents more comfortable. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot project is a collaboration between the \u200bMultifaith Housing Initiative, the charity that manages Carver Place, and Ottawa\u2019s EnviroCentre, a non-profit that designs and delivers practical solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To assess the impact of these retrofits on energy efficiency and air quality, researchers from Carleton University\u2019s <\/span>Centre for Advanced Building Envelope Research<\/span><\/a> (CABER) have been enlisted to set up monitoring equipment and analyze the data they collect.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAs an engineering student, my goal is to help improve people\u2019s lives by doing work like this,\u201d says <\/span>Sara Sadeghi<\/span><\/a>, a PhD student at CABER whose research focuses on energy performance. \u201cThis job can be very challenging at times, but also very rewarding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"Researchers<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carleton\u2019s Unique Expertise\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This project is unique for several reasons, foremost the fact that while some social housing providers have the resources for major energy efficiency retrofits, many organizations, including the Multifaith Housing Initiative, do not. In this case EnviroCentre serves as a bridge between planning and implementation by securing funding (via federal government grants) and bringing in partners like Carleton and other universities to gauge the technical and quality-of-life results.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is expected that the work will not only reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 40 and 80 per cent respectively and improve the lives of locals, it will also establish a formula that other communities can follow.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the project will showcase \u201chow targeted energy-efficiency measures can deliver substantial benefits for affordable housing, setting a new benchmark for future initiatives,\u201d according to EnviroCentre.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Prof. Cynthia Cruickshank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe climate crisis demands practical, scalable solutions. In Canada, home heating and cooling are\u202fa major source of emissions, and retrofitting one house at a time just won\u2019t cut it. We need to retrofit whole neighbourhoods. It\u2019s complex work that takes the right expertise.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThis project works towards making high-quality and comfortable housing available to lower-income Canadians,\u201d says CABER director <\/span>Cynthia Cruickshank<\/span><\/a>, a <\/span>Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering<\/span><\/a> researcher at Carleton.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cOur team\u2019s goal is to allow stakeholders to draw from the project\u2019s results easily and accessibly in future decision-making, such that building retrofits not only minimize building energy consumption and emissions but also promote occupant comfort and well-being. In this way, we\u2019re aiming to have a tangible socioeconomic and environmental impact across the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Researchers<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Reducing Energy Use and Emissions\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The two dozen or so researchers at CABER \u2014\u202fa group that includes grad students, faculty and staff \u2014\u202fare accustomed to participating in projects like this.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lab has work lined up for the next couple years, with support from funders such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, to help reduce energy use in in residential and commercial buildings (which is currently responsible for 27 per cent of Canada\u2019s energy consumption and 22 per cent of the country\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions).<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Carver Place, Sadeghi and CABER postdoc Shawn Somers-Neal installed sensors in several of the units to monitor interior temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels and the amount of electricity being used to power the heat pump, water heater and other systems.   <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Carleton postdoc Shawn Somers-Neal installs a sensor as part of the Carver Place energy efficiency retrofit project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sadeghi developed an energy model of the townhomes before the retrofits began and simulated their post-upgrade performance but needs to calibrate her model with real-world data, accounting for variables such as the size of each unit and occupant behaviour.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early results suggest that the air sealing has been effective, she says, reducing energy loss through the building envelope. This will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower bills for tenants, who now have more comfortable air-conditioned homes thanks to the dual-purpose heat pumps.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cSome data can be predicted by our software, but we need to take actual measurements to see how effective these retrofits really are,\u201d says Sadeghi, who will be watching the monthly data downloads closely for the next year and a half. \u201cWe need to understand the gaps between our simulation and the actual building performance with people living in these units to help us refine our models.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with CABER on monitoring the post-retrofit work will be invaluable for us as we look to accelerate the retrofitting of social housing units across Eastern Ontario,\u201d says Melanie Johnston, EnviroCentre\u2019s Director of Energy Programs. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting project and a great example of climate solutions being put to work on the ground here in Ottawa.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the Carver Place townhome community in east Ottawa, more than 60 units of rent geared to income housing for families are undergoing major energy efficiency retrofits \u2014\u202fone of the most ambitious projects of its kind in Canadian social housing.   These upgrades \u2014 which include the installation of air source heat pumps, energy recovery ventilation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":96802,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28,13,31],"cu_story_tag":[1918,1925],"class_list":["post-96796","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_type-sustainability","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design","cu_story_tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/96796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/96796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99213,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/96796\/revisions\/99213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=96796"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=96796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}