Central ventilation

Central ventilation

Last updated on August 5, 2022

The table below lists buildings on the St. George, UTM and UTSC campuses where the ventilation has been assessed. It does not include buildings operated by U of T’s federated colleges (St. Michael’s, Trinity, and Victoria). Please contact the respective federated college facilities team for information about those buildings. 

As part of our COVID-19 HVAC strategy, all centralized heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system filters have been replaced with enhanced MERV 13 filters or the highest compatible with the existing HVAC infrastructure. This is the filtration level that the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommends for reopening buildings. 

In addition, we disabled demand control ventilation to avoid reductions in airflow and will perform air flushing two hours before and after daily occupancy in conjunction with regular maintenance of our HVAC systems. These central HVAC system enhancements improve building ventilation, including areas such as offices, entryways, and common spaces.

Resources

To learn more about U of T’s approach to ongoing ventilation assessments, review our COVID-19 HVAC strategy and read this U of T news story about how the University prepared for a safe return to campus.

To learn more about ventilation in classrooms, review our classroom ventilation page.

How to use this table

Select the campus you’re interested in, then search by building to review the filtration level of central ventilation systems in campus buildings.

Filtration level uses the Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) scale, which measures the effectiveness of air filters. Filters with higher MERV values capture a greater percentage of smaller particles from the air that passes through the filters.