Multifamily Central Ventilation: A Tale of Two Cities

Central ventilation systems in multifamily buildings are a vital building system with significant implications for energy, sustainability and occupant health and safety. In this session, we compare and contrast the building stock in Boston and NYC and explore a variety of techniques for restoring and improving these systems. We consider how to evaluate candidates and how to structure the project from commissioning back through design to achieve results based on optimizing energy savings, complying with finance-related and building owner requirements, and how to get these things to just plain work. We build on lessons learned from 10 years’ experience and offer practical recommendations for designing and constructing both new and retrofit systems.

Session Speaker(s): 

Session Chair(s): 

Event Time: 

Friday, August 14, 2020 - 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Room / Location:
Harbor III

Experience Level: 

2 (some prior experience/knowledge helpful)

CEU Information: 

AIA 1.5 LU/HSW
BPI 1.5 hours
GBCI BD+C, ID+C, O+M, WELL 1.5 hours
MA CSL 1.5 hour, Energy

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe system design considerations, equipment tolerances and field conditions that impact how central ventilation systems actually work
  • Identify good candidates for this work and understand how to balance performance, energy savings and project costs
  • Specify and set performance objectives during the design phase that will reliably and cost-effectively be achievable
  • Understand techniques that can be used to inspect, evaluate, commission and recommission projects such that building performance objectives are achieved and sustained

Session ID: 

BOS20-115

Session Documents: