Home / Services / Commercial HVAC / Retirement & Long-Term Care Homes
Commercial · Retirement & Long-Term Care HomesRetirement & Long-Term Care Home HVAC
Retirement and long-term care home HVAC is regulated in ways an ordinary commercial building is not. Ontario long-term care homes must be kept at a minimum of 22°C all year, must have air conditioning working in every resident bedroom from at least May 15 to September 15, and must have heating, ventilation and air conditioning inspected at least every six months with the record kept. Retirement homes answer to the RHRA and need a documented maintenance program plus written procedures for extreme heat, extreme cold and equipment failure.
For long-term care, the numbers are in O. Reg. 246/22 under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. Besides the 22°C minimum, staff must measure and write down the temperature in at least two resident bedrooms in different parts of the home, one common area on every floor and every designated cooling area, once in the morning, once between noon and 5 p.m. and once in the evening or night. A home without central air conditioning needs one designated cooling area for every 40 residents. When any logged reading reaches 26°C, the home's heat-related illness plan takes effect.
Retirement homes are governed by O. Reg. 166/11 under the Retirement Homes Act, 2010, and it is written differently. It does not set a single temperature figure; it requires procedures for extreme hot and cold weather, including what staff do when a temperature control system fails, and a maintenance program covering heating systems, hot water boilers, ventilation and air conditioning. In practice an RHRA inspector asks to see the program and the proof it was followed. Our dated service reports are that proof.
The equipment is a mix of small and central. Resident rooms run on through-the-wall PTACs or on fan coils fed by a boiler and chiller, corridors get tempered air from a make-up air unit, and the kitchen and laundry each exhaust large volumes that need replacing. A dead PTAC affects one resident and is handled as a PTAC replacement; a boiler or corridor unit failure affects the whole home and falls under commercial boiler service or emergency repair.
Hot water is a safety system here. In long-term care, water serving residents' tubs, showers and hand basins must not exceed 49°C and must be controlled by a device residents cannot reach, while tubs and showers must still deliver at least 40°C. That is done with thermostatic mixing valves downstream of hot storage, and hard water in Halton and Hamilton scales the valve cartridges until they drift or stick. Valve testing and descaling are part of commercial water heater maintenance.
Service rules follow from the residents. People in care cannot be sent to a hotel while a boiler is repaired, so a no-heat or no-cooling call from a home is treated as an emergency on our 24/7 line. In resident areas our technicians sign in, follow the home's infection-control direction including outbreak restrictions, contain dust when ceiling tiles come down and keep tools within reach at all times. See commercial HVAC for how contracts are set up, or talk to us about your home.
Equipment we install and service
Packaged terminal units in a wall sleeve, or two- and four-pipe fan coils on a central plant. Filters, coils, condensate drains and fan motors are the routine work; a clogged drain pan in a resident room is a slip hazard and a mould source, not just a nuisance.
Gas-fired units and exhaust fans that keep corridors, dining rooms and lounges ventilated. The long-term care regulation requires mechanical ventilation to be functioning at all times except on emergency generator power, so a tripped fan is a compliance problem the day it happens.
The kitchen hood exhaust and its make-up air, dryer exhaust and the replacement air a bank of commercial dryers needs. When either is short of air, odours and heat travel into resident corridors.
Heating boilers, water heaters, storage tanks, recirculation pumps and the thermostatic mixing valves that hold tap temperature under the limit. Long-term care homes must have boilers and hot water holding tanks serviced at least annually and keep the record.
What goes wrong in these buildings
- An inspector asked for our six-month HVAC inspection record and all we had were invoices.
- The third-floor lounge reads 27°C on the afternoon log every hot day.
- A resident's room unit died on Friday night and there is no empty room to move her to.
- Hot water at the tub-room tap drifts above the limit and nobody knows which valve controls it.
- The corridor smells of the kitchen by eleven every morning.
- Contractors arrive unannounced during an outbreak and expect to walk through resident rooms.
How it works
Every piece of equipment is listed by room and tag, with make, model, serial and condition, and each mixing valve is traced to the fixtures it serves. Tap temperatures and room temperatures are recorded as a starting point.
Spring and fall visits cover filters, coils, drains, belts, burners, safeties, combustion readings, refrigerant circuit operation and controls. Each visit produces a dated, signed report per unit, filed so it can be handed to a ministry or RHRA inspector the same day it is requested.
Failures affecting heat, cooling or hot water go to the front of the day's work. Technicians report to the charge nurse or maintenance lead on arrival, work around meals and care routines, and leave a written note of what was done before leaving the floor.
Common questions
What temperature does an Ontario long-term care home have to maintain?
At least 22°C, year-round, under section 24 of O. Reg. 246/22. The same regulation requires air conditioning to be installed and working in every resident bedroom from May 15 to September 15 and on any other day forecast to reach 26°C. Temperatures are logged three times a day in set locations, and those records must be kept for at least one year.
Do retirement homes have the same temperature rule as long-term care homes?
No. Retirement homes fall under O. Reg. 166/11, which does not name a minimum temperature. It requires documented procedures for extreme hot and cold weather and for failures of temperature control systems, timely action when temperatures change, and a maintenance program for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and hot water equipment. Operators should confirm their own obligations with the RHRA; we supply the maintenance and the records.
What does the six-month HVAC inspection have to include?
The long-term care regulation says heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems must be cleaned, kept in good repair and inspected at least every six months by a certified individual, with documentation kept. It does not list tasks. Our inspection covers filters, coils, drains, belts, burners and safeties, combustion testing, cooling operation and controls, and the report records readings for each unit.
Can PTACs be replaced one room at a time?
Yes, and that is the usual way. A PTAC chassis slides out of its wall sleeve, so if the new unit matches the sleeve and the electrical supply, the change is done while the resident is at a meal or an activity. Homes with many PTACs should keep at least one spare chassis on site so a failed room is cooled again the same day.
Related
Keep the building running.
One licensed team for installs, maintenance contracts and 2 AM calls.