CASE STUDY: High-Rise Ventilation Innovation
at 20 Long Slip Solving Stack Effect at Scale – Eliminating Maintenance Access Costs
KEY TAKEAWAY
Location: Jersy City, NJAt 20 Long Slip, a 50-story luxury residential tower in Jersey City, TRV Mechanical solved extreme high-rise stack effect challenges using 530 decentralized Broan® ONE Interior Ready ERVs paired with Constant Air Regulators (CAR). The system delivered consistent LEED Gold-level ventilation across all floors while eliminating drywall access panel requirements, reducing installation time by up to 16 weeks, and saving an estimated 450,000 kWh annually.
Height: 526 ft / 50 Stories
Units: 530 Apartments
Solution: Broan® ONE Interior Ready ERV (BLP150E75NS-HWF)
How 20 Long Slip Solved High-Rise Stack Effect Ventilation Challenges
At 20 Long Slip, a 526-foot, 50-story residential tower in Jersey City, HVAC Mechanical Engineer Tarang Patel, TRV Mechanical, confronted one of the toughest challenges in high-rise ventilation: delivering consistent, LEED Gold–level indoor air quality across 530 apartments while overcoming extreme stackeffect pressure differentials and avoiding major construction costs.Patel engineered a first-of-its-kind decentralized ERV design for the region—deploying 530 Broan® ONE Interior Ready ERVs paired with Constant Air Regulators (CAR). This approach created 530 self-balancing pressure zones that passively neutralized stack effect across all floors. His technical review led him to replace the originally specified Fantech® system with the Broan® ONE, setting a new performance and cost-efficiency benchmark for this $365M project.
As the mechanical engineer overseeing an $11M HVAC scope, Patel’s evaluation resulted in one of the largest decentralized ERV deployments in the New York metro area and a scalable model now being adopted across additional luxury high-rise developments.
High-Rise Ventilation Challenges Caused by Stack Effect
- Extreme stack effect: 0.8” w.g. pressure differential across 50 making consistent IAQ delivery a major engineering barrier
- Inconsistent ventilation: Uneven ventilation with lower floors over-ventilated and upper floor under ventilated
- Energy waste: 30–40% HVAC energy waste from uncontrolled stack-driven airflow which threatened sustainability targets
- Construction impact: 530+ ERVs would typically require drywall access panels – adding cost and 12-15 weeks to schedule.
How the Broan® ONE ERV System Neutralized Stack Effect
Tarang Patel designed a decentralized pressure-control system using one Broan® ONE Interior Ready ERV and a CAR per apartment—an approach not previously deployed at this scale in the region. This configuration created 530 self-balancing pressure zones that neutralized stack effect and delivered consistent, LEED-compliant ventilation across all 50 floors.The Broan® ONE ERV’s integrated service access enabled a true No-Panel installation, eliminating the need for 530+ drywall access doors and significantly reducing construction cost and schedule impact.
Each ERV provides 84% sensible energy recovery efficiency and 2.1 CFM/watt fan efficacy, capturing waste heat and moisture to precondition incoming air—reducing heating and cooling loads and supporting the building’s LEED Gold performance goals.
Benefits of the Broan® ONE Interior Ready ERV for High-Rise Projects
- Self-balancing pressure control to neutralize extreme stack effect
- Interior-ready design with integrated service access
- Ideal for high-rise, multifamily projects
- 84% sensible energy recovery efficiency – exceeding LEED Gold requirements
- Integrated LCD screen for fast commissioning
- Eliminates drywall access panels and shortens installation time
Results: Energy Savings, Faster Installation, and Consistent Ventilation
- 530+ units: Largest decentralized ERV deployment in NY metro residential high-rise history
- Consistent ventilation: 25–65 CFM across all 50 floors; stack effect fully neutralized
- Faster installation: 12–16 week saved— direct result of Patel’s No-Panel specification
- Zero access punch list issues: reduced tenant disruption; service calls completed 40% faster
- Construction cost eliminated from access panel removal
- 84% sensible energy recovery efficiency
- ~450,000 kWh energy saved annually — est. $67,500/yr at $0.15/kWh
“The ERV is the lungs of the apartment. With Broan’s advanced recovery cores and integrated service design, we aren’t just moving air; we are preserving energy, reducing construction costs, delivering healthier living spaces.” – Tarang Patel, TRV Mechanical