Your Equipment
Your Blatchford home is unique in many ways. Unlike a house with a traditional furnace or air conditioner or natural gas hot water tank, your house is instead equipped with heat pumps that are connected to the Blatchford District Energy Sharing System.
Let’s get to know your equipment!
Fee-Simple Townhouses
Your Equipment
Fee-Simple townhouses include townhouse units that are not part of a condominium corporation.
Heat Pumps
You will have two heat pumps in your home that are connected to the District Energy Sharing System.
The first heat pump is responsible for heating and cooling your home. The second heat pump is used for heating domestic water (for example, heating up your water to shower or to do laundry). This specialized heat pump is designed to deliver water at the high temperatures required for domestic hot water use.
Heat Pump Backup Equipment
Each heat pump is designed with a backup electric heater. This electric backup heater is designed to maintain a minimum level of comfort in your home in case there is an issue with the heat pump or with the District Energy Sharing System. Under normal circumstances, the backup heater should not be required. The heat pump is designed to provide the full heating requirement of the building without the need for this auxiliary heater.
Each system may be slightly different, but generally, all backup heating elements will be controlled by a relay connected to the heat pump alarm signal AND a thermostat. If the heat pump locks out or goes into alarm, then the relay provides power to the backup electric heater. Once powered, the thermostat controls the element to maintain the room air temperature or hot water tank temperature.
Energy Meter
Your home has an energy meter to measure the heating and cooling energy used by your heat pump. This meter helps us establish how much energy you have used for billing purposes. This energy meter is calibrated in kilowatt hour and will be read once each billing period.
Thermostat
A thermostat device controls the elements in the heating/cooling system to maintain the room air temperature or hot water tank temperature. Your home will have a smart thermostat that efficiently keeps your home comfortable while saving energy. Please contact the thermostat manufacturer for further information on your specific model.
Important: You are responsible for taking care of and protecting all service connections, heat pumps, energy meters and related equipment in your home. Please notify us immediately of any damage to any component of the District Energy Sharing System at blatchfordutility@edmonton.ca If any damage is caused by installing, connecting, moving and/or tampering with this equipment, the costs incurred to remedy any unauthorized changes on our property will be charged to the account holder.
There is insufficient heating or cooling
- Check the circuit breaker in your electrical panel to ensure that the breaker has not been switched out of the ON position. If the breaker has been switched out, reset the circuit breaker by switching the breaker out of the OFF position and back to the ON position.
- Check the thermostat and heat pump controls settings. Refer to the equipment manual for details.
- Check the heat pump for fault codes
- Contact a qualified service technician (review the sticker attached to the heat pump to find the manufacturer, make and model of the heat pump and then search online to find service technicians with experience working with the equipment). Have a service technician check that the District Energy Sharing System (DESS) control valve is working properly, DESS auto flow valve is not obstructed, and DESS flow rate is normal through the heat pump HP (2.8 gallons per minute gpm per nominal ton).
- Refer to the heat pump manual for additional troubleshooting suggestions.
There is no hot water
- Check the heat pump that is responsible for heating the domestic water for an alarm. If there is an alarm, refer to the manufacturer’s manual for resetting instructions and/or other troubleshooting suggestions.
- Contact a qualified service technician for troubleshooting and repair if needed. You can contact a technician by reviewing the sticker attached to the heat pump to find the manufacturer, make and model of the heat pump and then searching online to find service technicians with experience working with the equipment.
My heat pump is locked out or showing an alarm
- Check for any service interruption notices on our website.
- Try resetting the heat pump. Refer to the manufacturer’s heat pump manual for instructions specific to the heat pump model.
- If the heat pump locks out again, contact a qualified service technician (review the sticker attached to the heat pump to find the manufacturer, make and model of the heat pump and then search online to find service technicians with experience working with the equipment).
My energy usage appears to be high
- Review your thermostat settings—a temperature setback of 2-3°C at night or while occupants are away can help reduce energy usage.
- Contact a qualified service technician to review your heat pump operation and confirm that the heat pump is operating normally. Confirm that the heat pump control valve closes fully when the heat pump stops running to avoid unnecessary energy use.
- If you suspect that there is an issue with your energy meter, please contact EPCOR at 310-4300 to request meter testing or click here; if no issues are found, a meter testing fee will apply.
Operations & Maintenance Manual
Need more details or tips?
Download the Townhouse Residents Operations & Maintenance manual.
The Townhouse Residents Operations & Maintenance manual provides you and service technicians with additional information and an overview of the overall system, your equipment and troubleshooting tips. It should not be relied on for specific requirements to maintain or operate the equipment inside your home.
For any requirements specific to your equipment make or model, please refer to the manuals provided by the manufacturer. If you are unable to find the heat pump manual, please check your heat pump for a manufacturer name and visit their website to find the operations manual for the specific brand and model of your heat pump.
Condo Buildings
Your Equipment
Blatchford Renewable Energy will design and construct the Energy Transfer Station (ETS) in condo buildings.
The ETS is a centralized mechanical room that will house all the equipment needed to provide the entire building with heating, cooling and hot water. The equipment in the ETS room replaces most of the equipment (such as boilers, pumps, hot water tanks, and chillers) commonly found in a building mechanical room.
The ETS and the equipment in it, are the property of Blatchford Renewable Energy. The equipment will be maintained, serviced and replaced at the end of its life cycle by Blatchford Renewable Energy. Building residents or property managers cannot access this mechanical room. For assistance, please contact us at blatchfordutility@edmonton.ca