The owners of one of Ottawa’s largest sustainable, affordable housing units are suing all those involved in the building process after its much-touted “green” heating system left tenants feeling hot and cold.
Beaver Barracks, located near the intersection of Catherine and Metcalfe streets, is experiencing issues with heating, cooling and water temperature in some of the apartment’s units.
The building is equipped with a geothermal heating system that relies on the steady temperature deep underground to heat and cool the units.
But the system is flawed – some units are having issues regulating temperatures, according to a statement of claim filed by the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation.
The CCOC is suing the building’s contractors, the architect, the project developer – ZW Project Management – and the City of Ottawa for $2 million.
“It’s about five units out of 254, which have mechanical heating and cooling issues, which has been difficult to solve,” says Gordon Lorimer, the project architect.
Ray Sullivan, CCOC’s executive director, declined to speak to Centretown News.
But, he told the Ottawa Citizen the issue has forced Beaver Barracks to provide those tenants with electric heaters and air conditioning, which is at odds with the building’s sustainable energy policy.
And it seems the problem isn’t an easy fix. The statement of claim says there are defects in the design and construction of the geothermal distribution system.
It also states the tenants have tried to fix the problems themselves, but haven’t had much success.
Besides, Sullivan said, the CCOC isn’t even sure yet what it will take to fix the problem.
Lorimer says he thinks the CCOC chose to file a claim without knowing the exact issue because he believes there is a statute of limitations to when the corporation could file.
But Sullivan says the CCOC is figuring out who should fix it.
“We’ve got a specialist team working on that right now,” he told the Citizen.
Lorimer says there are issues with hot water.
He says the five units, which he believes are all in a row, don’t get very hot water.
Terry Walker, the chairman of ZW Project Management Inc., said in an email that the company has not received any notification of legal action.