The City of Vancouver’s New Continental Residence, a 15-storey senior supportive residential building at 1067 Seymour St, underwent a domestic hot water (DHW) retrofit and building re-pipe. This consisted of decoupling the domestic hot water system from the building’s gas fired boilers with a 100% electrified CO2 heat pump – one of the first of its kind in BC – and a full domestic water re-pipe in a fully occupied building.
The CO2 DHW heat pump uses cutting-edge technology, it is 2.5 to 4 times more efficient than traditional electric resistance systems and provides a system with a low global warming potential of 1. This technology and system aligns with Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan and is estimated to reduce the emissions of the building by 1,500 tonnes of CO2e over the equipment’s lifetime, as well as reduce operational costs by 66%.
AME, the Prime and Mechanical consultant on this project, led a multi-disciplinary team consisting of Architectural, Structural and Electrical consultants throughout the design and execution of this DBB project while being on-budget. This retrofit was completed without disruption to the tenant services. It also avoided major and costly electrical and structural upgrades by repurposing three parking spaces to house a new mechanical and sub-electrical room.
Completed in March 2025, the system reliably met all domestic hot water needs during the winter. AME also acted as the Commissioning Agent, overseeing smooth project handover and optimal system performance.
