Multi-family residential
Ventilation, heating and cooling combinations for apartment and stacked-townhouse projects, built around suite-level control and corridor pressure balance.
What decides the design
- Each dwelling needs its own temperature control and, in most projects, its own metering — a single central system with one control point does not satisfy the design brief.
- Corridor and stairwell make-up air has to be balanced against kitchen, bathroom and dryer exhaust, or the building runs under negative pressure and suite doors and dampers misbehave.
- Balcony, soffit and through-wall locations constrain the outdoor unit: airflow clearance, snow accumulation, defrost drainage and noise at the neighbouring suite all narrow the options.
- Riser and shaft space is allocated early in the design, so line-set and duct routing that is not coordinated with structure is changed on site on every floor.
Recommended system combination
These families are selected together, not individually — the match between them is what makes the system work.
ERV / HRV — AspireVent Series
ventilation
Per-suite or per-cluster balanced ventilation, 100 or 150 CFM, with auto-balancing so delivered airflow does not depend on site balancing keys.
Heat and energy recovery ventilators, 100 / 150 CFM, side or top port, with ECM motors and a washable recovery core.
Concealed Ducted Units
air conditioning
In-suite indoor units concealed in the ceiling void, keeping the operating equipment out of the living space.
Concealed ducted indoor units for ceiling-void installation.
Side-Discharge Outdoor Units
air conditioning
Outdoor units, 1.5–5 ton with 24V control, one per suite or per cluster, sized on the suite load and the exterior location available.
SEER2 18 inverter side-discharge condensing units, 1.5–5 ton, designed to pair with A-Coils, AHUs and field replacement of existing condensers.
Motorized Dampers — MUD Series
ventilation
Corridor, stairwell and make-up air dampers from 4" to 10", with flow adjustment and spring return to closed on power loss.
Round motorized dampers for balancing fresh air against exhaust, with a silent 24 VAC hysteresis motor and spring return to closed.
Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat — AFT533D
smart controls
Per-suite 24V control covering heating, cooling and HRV/ERV modes, with scheduling and a humidity frost-protection function.
A 24V Wi-Fi thermostat with native HRV / ERV control, dual-fuel support and humidity management — designed for Canadian homes and cold-climate performance.
Selection points
- 01
Decide the ventilation architecture before the riser layout: in-suite units give each dwelling independent airflow control, clustered units reduce wall penetrations — both change shaft and duct sizes.
- 02
Size make-up air on the total exhaust figure — kitchen, bathroom and dryer systems together — not on the supply duct, then confirm the unit can temper that volume at the outdoor design temperature.
- 03
Where the outdoor unit sits on a balcony or in a recess, confirm clearances and defrost drainage before fixing the location: top-discharge models suit restricted side clearance, side-discharge models through-wall and service-recess positions.
- 04
State at design stage whether each suite is individually metered. Separate outdoor units per suite support that arrangement, and a single central plant generally does not.
- 05
For central-plant layouts, VRF systems and modular air-to-water units are selected against the project load with system design support; suite indoor units, ventilation equipment and controls stay the same.
- 06
The residential zoning option (motorised zone dampers, zone control panel and bypass damper) is in development. For in-suite temperature balance now, use the remote zone sensors supported by the AFT533D thermostat.
Technology segments involved
Working on a project of this type?
Send the drawings or the duty requirement — we will come back with a matched configuration and the model-level confirmation.