May 30, 2018
Construction is well underway at the Apartments at Kingsridge, a 72-unit, new multifamily complex in Henrico County, where Community Housing Partners (CHP) is incorporating innovative construction techniques on the building’s mechanical systems.
Kingsridge, which is one of several CHP projects in development in 2018, lies just east of the City of Richmond and west of Laburnum Avenue, a four-lane street with easy access to the area’s largest highway system, shopping, pharmacies, and public transportation. CHP is bringing together the various best practices and design principles of high performance building and integrating them into a comprehensive mechanical system.
The property was designed similarly to CHP’s Overlook Terrace Apartments in Fredericksburg and will benefit from lessons learned during the previous project.
“Kingsridge is basically a rebuild of Overlook,” said Jimmy Holland, Construction Project Manager at CHP. “Only this time, we’ve taken what didn’t work well and made it better.”
One of the notable improvements addresses the overdesign of the traditional HVAC systems that were installed at Overlook.
“At Overlook, oversized heat pumps do not ventilate the apartments in the most effective way. The pumps pull fresh air from the outside with limited conditioning or dehumidification before introducing it into the apartments,” said Holland.
To combat this issue, CHP is installing a 1-ton Fujitsu ducted mini-split, RenewAire GR90 Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV), and on the ground floor units, an Ultra-Aire MD33 dehumidifier (with rough-ins on the second and third floors). The mini-splits replace the traditional heat pumps and are sized based on meticulous calculations of the apartment’s heating and cooling loads. The ERV provides increased conditioning and dehumidification of outside fresh air prior to introducing it into the apartments. These mini-splits include two-inch deep air filters designed to create improved air quality for CHP residents and to operate efficiently and at a low cost.
“This is truly an amazing milestone for us at CHP,” said Holland. “We are filtering the air in these new apartments at nearly hospital levels, we’re better poised to handle humidity and moisture issues in apartments, and we’re doing this at a comparable capital cost with diminished operating and energy expense for our residents. This means better health, less waste, and no cost impact.”
The property is expected to open in the fall of 2018 and will be a superb housing option for low-income families in the greater Richmond area.