Your Apartment’s Green Features
If your apartment is in The Distillery North wing (455 E. 1st St.) then you're living in a certified Passive House home. This method of building is meant to be highly energy efficient while offering comfort and usability. A Passive House home is indeed different from conventional buildings in some key ways, and there may be some new things to learn. Here are the features of your unit:
Insulation (and lots of it):
Walls are insulated with cellulose (recycled newspaper) and Rockwool (stone melted and spun into wool-like fiber) to get an R-34 rating.
High-Performance Windows:
These Klearwall “tilt-turn” windows from Ireland are triple-paned and tight-sealing. They keep out noise, minimize thermal bridging to the outside, and have a thermal rating of R-10.
HRV wall control
Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV):
This one may be new to you. A Heat Recovery Ventilator supplies oxygen-rich and highly-filtered air from outside into the dwelling. Because a Passive House is so well sealed, it needs a supply of incoming air.
Your apartment has a Zehnder HRV (equipped with a MERV 13 filter) that pulls out stale air and brings in fresh air, equalizing the temperature of the two with up to 95% efficiency. This heat recovery process greatly reduces the need for heating and cooling energy. You can control the ventilation rate of your HRV with the wall control.
Note: the management will replace your HRV’s air filters when needed.
Cross-section of a Heat Recovery Ventilator
Bathroom booster:
A control panel in the bathroom ramps up the Heat Recovery Ventilator for a period of time to bring in extra fresh air and pull out odors and moisture.
Air sealing:
One of the key features of a Passive House building is a tightly air-sealed exterior (which is verified during construction with a series of “blower door” tests where the entire building is pressurized to find leaks). This sealing is a major part of the energy efficiency. To keep it sealed, the apartment can’t have openings to the outside, such as dryer vents, bathroom fans, or range hoods that vent to the outside.
Heat Pump HVAC System
For heating and cooling, your apartment is equipped with a heat pump “mini split” system that is highly efficient, reducing your energy bill and carbon footprint. The systems in The Distillery are either ducted (with vents in the walls/ceilings) or ductless (with a head mounted to the wall).
Unlike traditional electric or fossil fuel heating systems that generate heat, a heat pump extracts warmth from the outdoor air and transfers it into the system to warm your space (and runs in reverse to cool it). These modern systems use up to 60% less energy than standard home electric radiators.
These systems can also be put in “fan only” mode if you just want a bit of extra air flow.
More about Mitsubishi heat pumps
Induction range:
Induction ranges are prized by professional chefs for being extremely fast (boil water 50% faster), precise, and efficient (they only heat the point of contact with the cookware). Please note that, since they use electromagnetic energy, they won’t work with all cookware (to test a piece of cookware, see if a magnet sticks to it). Unlike natural gas ranges, they don’t release toxic fumes.
Learn more about induction on the Frigidaire site and the how-to video below.
LED lights:
Recessed lighting in your unit is outfitted with LED bulbs that use less energy and produce less heat than conventional or fluorescent bulbs.
Condensing clothes dryer:
Your dryer extracts moisture from clothes and puts it down the drain rather than venting vapor to the outside.