HRV replaces Kitchen exhaust?

I recently inspected a 5 year old house in Ontario. I noted the Kitchen exhaust fan was not vented to the exterior. Later that week the seller called me and advised that the builder and the local city inspector advised that since the house was constructed with an HRV the recirculating kitchen fan met code at the time of construction 2008/9.
This was news to me. If you can quote the OBC yes or no please, but don’t provide me your opinion as of course this is a technical issue that requires exact quotation to prove one way or the other.
The buyer accepted the deal and will install their own fan but since the seller was a realtor I really would like to show them the truth and if I am wrong then other inspectors can learn from this issue.
Thanks Allan

It is in part 6 section 6.2.3.8 sentence (9) and (10).

:smiley: Good call Yuri!

Any chance you can quote this so I can save it?

Thanks ahead of time Yuri

Building code refernce for that kitchen exhaust is [FONT=Times New Roman][size=3]part 6 section 6.2.3.8 sentence (9) and (10) of the Ontario Building Code:[/size][/FONT]

**(9) **Except as provided in Sentence (10) and except for self-contained systems serving individual dwelling units, exhaust ducts serving rooms containing residential cooking equipment shall be independent of other exhaust ducts.
**(10) **Two or more exhaust systems described in Sentences (8) and (9) may be interconnected or connected with exhaust ducts serving other areas of the building provided,
(a) the connections are made at the inlet of an exhaust fan, and all interconnected systems are equipped with suitable back pressure devices to prevent passage of odours from one system to another when the fan is not in operation, or
(b) the exhaust ducts discharge to a shaft that is served by an exhaust fan having a capacity that is equal to or greater than the combined capacity of the exhaust fans discharging to the *plenum *multiplied by the operation diversity factor, provided that the exhaust fan serving the shaft operates continuously.

This means that the HRV would have to have been directly connected to the Kitchen fan and running all the time - which it was not!

Thanks Yuri

I’m having trouble with this. To me, a recirculating oven exhaust fan would be acceptable because it says “except for self-contained systems serving individual *dwelling units”.
*Isn’t a recirculating oven exhaust fan what they mean by a self-contained system?