GB & SS Magazine - June 2012

Green BuildinG Green & SuStainable StrategieS

& SuStainable StrategieS SUMMER 2012

Kongats Architects

Distinctive and Energy-Friendly 6

Termobuild Radiant System

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HUSH Green TM

sustainable.TO

Fifthshire Homes

REVERSOMATIC & THE INDUSTRY’S FIRST SELF-BALANCING HRV

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CONTENTS Green GreenBuildinG

spring 2012

& SuStainable StrategieS SUMMER 2012

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KongatS aRchitEctS

Distinctive and Energy-Friendly 6

Termobuild Radiant System

10

16

25

HUSH Green TM

sustainable.TO

Fifthshire Homes

REVERSOMATIC & THE INDUSTRY’S FIRST SELF-BALANCING HRV

On the cover: Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Centre. Architecture by Kongats Architects.

Photo by Shai Gil.

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3 Kongats Architects Distinctive and Energy-Friendly

25 The Sultan of Steel

31 A Carbon Calculator for Wood Buildings

6 Say “No� to Man Against Nature The Harmony of the Termobuild Radiant System

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10 Hush: Seeing Green Through the Customer’s Eyes 14 The Living City Campus hosts Canada’s Outdoor Photovoltaic Test Facility 16 Making it Look Easy in Toronto and New Orleans The three-step Dowsett Design System

33 Reclaimed Lumber - t’s not all the same 34 Newmarket Family Makes ‘Green’ their Favourite Colour 37 Life in the Trenches: How Solar Projects Really Work (or Don’t) 40 Cogeneration Efficiencies Conserve Energy 42 With Small Steps Towards Energy Independence 44 The Power of Content Marketing

20 Reversomatic Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation

by Launching Self-Balancing HRV and ERV

46 Storage: An Essential Part of the Grid Equation

23 TD Greening from Inside Out

48 NapoleonÂŽ Wins Two Prestigious Vesta Awards at Hpbexpo

rHVCA Residential Heating Ventilation Contractors Association

23 summer 2012

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42 Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

From the Publisher’s Desk

GreenBuildinG

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

& SuStainable StrategieS

International Green Construction Code IgCC Offers a New Code Baseline for Greener Building Construction

T

he 2012 International Green Construction Code (IgCC) was released in late March in Washington.

It will provide specific direction for governments during oversight of green design and construction, according to the International Code Council, the code’s author and one of several U. S. Green Building Council (USGBC) partners in the effort. This is a very positive release that provides another signal to the international construction industry and a practical tool that can be adapted for use by governments anywhere.

The USGBC, which created the LEED green building rating system and were co-authors of ANSI/ASHRAE/ IES/USGBC Standard 189.1, says the new model code serves as a key policy option for local governments looking to codify green building practice. Communities have been calling for a regulatory tool that complements voluntary rating systems by offering jurisdictions minimum safeguards to protect against building-related risks to human and environmental health. Several jurisdictions have already implemented early versions of the IgCC that were released during the development process.

“The IgCC was developed during the last three years with input from code and construction industry professionals, environmental organizations, policy makers and the public,” said Richard P. Weiland, CEO of the ICC that developed the new code. It was authored in partnership with the American Institute of Architects, ASTM international, ASHRAE,

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

the Illuminating Engineering Society, and USGBC. “(It is) adoptable, usable and enforceable, but also flexible and adaptable. We expect this new model code...to be adopted across the country and (adapted for use) globally.”

“As the IgCC begins to inform building codes and (minimum) building practice across the country, LEED is (also) evolving,” said Roger Platt, senior vice president of Global Policy & Law, USGBC. “We need public policy that rewards this beyond-code leadership.” LEED Version 2012 will be released in November this year.

Although controversial in some regions, LEED is the world’s foremost rating program for the design, construction, maintenance and operation of green buildings. More than 45,000 projects are currently participating, comprising 8.4 billion square feet of construction space in 50 states and 120 countries.

The IgCC offers a new code baseline that can be tailored by local governments to mandate the benefits of green buildings, regardless of whether they are engaged in LEED, a similar program, or none at all. Federal, provincial and local Canadian governments are already making progress with greener building codes. Now they have an additional tool and impetus for accelerating our transition to the new energy age.

GreenBuildinG GreenBuildinG Volume 1, Number 3 • Summer 2012

& SuStainable StrategieS

2109-256 Doris Ave. Toronto, ON M2N 6X8 PUBLISHER: Giulio Marinescu & SuStainable StrategieS 416-250-0664 publisher@gbssmag.com

Contributing photographers: Shai Gil • Tom Arban • Stephanie Tracey GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Tony Lomuto Graphic Designs Unlimited LTONY@sympatico.ca Contributors: Marylene Vestergom • Saul Chernos Paul Luukkonen • Derek Satnik Benjamin Fuehr • Jan Buijk Adam Robertson Gregory J. Marsh • Laura Paul Mark Wessel • Paul Valenta Submit articles, event, news to publisher@gbssmag.com Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement number 42332013 Undeliverable mail return to: 2109-256 Doris Ave. Toronto, ON M2N 6X8 Printed in Canada by: CoFax Printing © 2012 Green Building & Sustainable Strategies.

No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any means, in any form, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the respective authors and not necessarily those of this publication.

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies does not specifically endorse the editorial, products or services presented in this magazine.

Kongats Architects

Distinctive and Energy-Friendly

Subscription Rates Canada: 1 year $24, 2 years $40, single copy $6 United States: 1 year: $32 International: $36 Plus applicable taxes

Until next time, Giulio Marinescu Publisher gbsspublisher@rogers.com summer 2012

summer 2012

T

he inertia of the creative and social forces that make us human have resulted in a dominance of the planet in ways that are inevitable, sometimes destructive, and eventually, we hope, ways that are moving toward the ecological middle ground.

Designs by Alar Kongats delineate this evolutionary struggle.

They navigate the delicate balance between distinctive and dynamic visual statements, and integration with natural and historic environs.

Winner of two Governor General’s architecture awards, four Ontario Association of Architects (AAO) awards, and other honours; Alar Kongats is accomplished and inspirational.

His Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Centre at the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto appears on the horizon as a stunning landmark in glass and stainless steel, while accommodating academics inside with natural light, gardens and warmth; and minimizing its intrusion on our ecosystem.

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

MANAGING SOLAR GAIN The most visually striking exterior feature is a series of vertical stainless steel panels arranged artistically as an outer skin and also as a set of intricately planned window baffles.

The latter are set at 30 o, 60 o and 90o to reflect and deflect light and manage solar gain for a positive interior effect and a remarkable exterior aesthetic achievement.

The challenge was to meet the needs of the new Mississauga Academy of Medicine, the Department of Biomedical Communications and the Department of Anthropology and Forensics. These would include video conference-ready lecture theatres, classrooms, seminar rooms, offices, and laboratories.

The building is designed like stack of slim gift boxes in different sizes, creating a multi-level complex of terrace gardens and green roofs. Behind the Semple Gooder stainless steel and Pilkington glass of the exterior is an airtight interior envelope planned by Brook Van Dalen & Associates, which partners with a modern mechanical design by Crossey Engineering to conserve energy and optimize comfort.

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

DISTRICT HEATING & COOLING The campus district heating and cooling system combined with the window reflectors, heat recovery ventilators, radiant delivery, operable windows, individualized temperature controls, green roofs on the terraces and a white roof on top control energy demand and make interior spaces bright and invigorating.

The design also incorporates occupancy sensors for lighting and a storm water collection system that supplies toilet flushing throughout the building.

The Governor General jury commented that, “Interiors are luminous and civilized with ample natural light, and...stacked volumes create terraces for encounter and engagement. The quality of detailing is exceptional and the sophisticated use of materials lifts the building into a class of its own.�

Congratulations to Alar Kongats for inspirational work that distinguishes itself artistically while delighting the people for whom it is designed and respecting our natural environment. GB Photos by Shai Gil

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

Say “No” to Man Against Nature

The Harmony of the Termobuild Radiant System

Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies at Sheridan College

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nglish students learn that stories are usually about man against man, man against himself or man against nature. In designing systems to heat and cool buildings, it seems like for hundreds of years it has been about man against nature. We expend a lot of energy creating heat quickly to defeat extreme cold, or creating cool air quickly to defeat hot temperatures outside. But what if humankind could work more in harmony with nature? Is there a way to reduce the level of conflict and thus the amount of energy required?

Architecture by Diamond Schmitt Architect.

Photography by Tom Arban

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

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That’s what Jack Laken wondered back in 1979 when he began designing HVAC technology and working towards what is now called the Termobuild System. How can we slow down the process of preparing for cold or warm conditions and get ready in a more natural way? Forced air just didn’t seem to be heading in the right direction, and although Termobuild moves ventilation air through its system, it is a cross between forced air technology and a radiant system and built in and free energy storage, taking advantage of the somewhat slower moving principle of thermal mass.

With Termobuild, air moves through high performance ductwork linked with hollow cores in concrete building panels, but in a far less ‘forced’ fashion. That’s because 70% of its heating or cooling is achieved through the radiant effect of the concrete. This means that warm air can be created by heating it during the nighttime, when energy is less expensive, and storing it in the hollows and slab of the concrete for calculated, gradual, daytime release.

During periods with high-temperature daytimes, the same process permits the storage and calculated release of cool night air. The result is significant energy savings for many buildings now benefitting from Termobuild holistic radiant comfort. Projects have tended to be school, colleges and university structures, medical and office buildings which adapt well to this type of construction, and can save between 35% and 50% on energy for cooling and heating.

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Enerlife independent survey has rated one such high performance building as #1 out of more than 500 surveyed.

What’s more integrated solution outperforms radiant wet as well as water-cooled variable refrigeration flow systems from initial capital as well as maintenance and operating costs.

The system consists of conventional heating and cooling linked to hollow core slabs that were already being used for such buildings. Rather than having to increase ductwork, Laken recognized that these existing concrete panels could be slightly modified to serve the purposes of his more harmonic HVAC system. His company doesn’t even sell the panels themselves, strictly speaking; although they work with suppliers to re-brand and modify them into radiant heating and cooling kits without wet systems for Termobuild projects.

When used correctly, thermal mass located in a building can significantly reduce the requirement for active heating and cooling systems and the consumption of energy. “The idea is to do more with less,” says Laken, it’s like turning the building into a big energy storage battery.” In addition to the active heating and cooling of the panels, surplus heat, generated from human bodies, lighting, computers, the sun’s radiation, etc., can increase slab temperature by 2‐3°C during the day, without affecting the comfort of the occupants.

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

What you should demand from your hvac contractor

Mundy’s Bay Public School in Midland; Ontario’s most energy efficient public school This extremely efficient system is continuously monitored by computer sensors located in the hollow core slabs. They direct the flow of heated or cooled air to each room, and increase fresh air in occupied rooms by reading CO2 level fluctuations.

Flexmaster Platinum Flow™ HVAC Green Impact

Flexmaster Platinum Flow quality HVAC products in Termobuild designed projects create energy efficient air duct systems ™

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

FLEXMASTER CANADA ÂŽ

Termobuild combines well with renewable technologies. It was used with a solar wall at a fire training institute near Pearson Airport and also with a scaled down geothermal system in Mundy’s Bay Public School in Midland; Ontario’s most energy efficient public school. “That school is achieving HVAC at 53 cents per square foot,� says Laken, “...compared with about $1.00 for newer schools and $2.00 for old schools. And at Mundy’s Bay some further optimization of the system could still be done.�

Because the whole Termobuild cycle is slower, 24 hours vs. a few hours, the system can use more fresh air, improve indoor air quality and still save energy. In addition, standard hollow core slabs available through CPCI member manufacturers work seamlessly in an integrated design that skillfully combine there mechanical systems in one that help achieve 9 to 12 points in LEED certification.

They are locally manufactured and modified through design into heating and cooling kit can be recycled in a conventional way. They reduce the expended energy needed to manufacture, transport and erect materials, which are LEED requirements.

Combining the re-emerging benefits of concrete with contemporary control systems, renewables and an integrated approach to design has made the Termobuild system an attractive, environment-friendly and cost-effective option for many institutions. In all Termobuild is now in place at about 30 locations in Ontario including Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies at Sheridan College and is beginning to expand into California, Latin America, and the Caribbean. “We are trying to be in harmony with nature,� says Laken “We are using conventional wisdom in previously unconventional way.

Re-thinking from commodity to value packed energy saving kit hollow core slabs are converted to build in and free radiant comfort, energy storage and enhanced energy efficiency.

Architects and developers can benefit from re-branded hollow core slabs and cope better with 2012 Building Code requirements.

Integrated solution using hollow core slabs makes it easier than ever to turn a conventional building into a high performing one. GB summer 2012

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

Hush:

Seeing green through the customer’s eyes

10 10 Green GreenBuilding Building&&Sustainable SustainableStrategies Strategies

“I wanted to change the way business was done in our industry,” explains Suleman, Hush’s sole owner and founder. “The idea was to create a new type of home-building company that was focused not on houses or the buyer but, instead, on the buyer’s experience.”

To that end, Hush has come out with what Suleman and his own marketing materials call the Hush Methodology. This literal branding of the company’s approach seems like common sense, and no doubt it is.

However, it’s also a philosophical positioning.

By Saul Chernos

H

ush and its president Naheel Suleman have enjoyed early success building luxury houses in the Toronto area.

The Ontario Home Builders’ Association decreed one of the company’s projects, at 6920 Second Line in Mississauga, best model home of the year in 2009. Then, just 12 months later, the OHBA named The Avalon and The Gardens in Oakville project of the year and The Brownstone on Birch best new townhome.

Born in Tanzania, he was one year old when his family moved to Canada in the early 1970s. His father is a chartered accountant, and Suleman followed in his footsteps. Over time, as he worked with developers, Suleman developed an appreciation for architecture, and gradually shifted into home-building. Married with two young children, he’s decidedly private. It’s his business and the methodological, customer-conscious approach he takes to it that he wants to talk about. He founded Hush in 2005 as a builder of high-end, custom houses, and he keeps busy, with 10 to 20 low-rise residential projects on the go at any given time.

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Suleman insists he doesn’t want to put down other builders. Yet, he acknowledges that the time he spent in building circles before launching Hush taught him that houses are more than just a product and that people don’t buy homes just to live in them but, rather, that homes are central to peoples’ lives. “A house to a home-owner is very different than a house to a builder.

For the owner it’s their everything. It’s where they live, it’s family, it’s personal. The home is the by-product – it’s how we make our customers happy.”

Green GreenBuilding Building&&Sustainable SustainableStrategies Strategies

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The Hush methodology plays out, then, in the nature of the relationship the company and its personnel set out to form with each customer. The first step with any potential customer is to meet with them, and learn about their lifestyle, and then to work with them to determine what they want in their new dwelling.

As far as environmental features are concerned, Hush is reluctant, as Suleman puts it, to “shove green down their throat.”

Hush doesn’t seek independent, third-party environmental certification through bodies such as the Canada Green Build Council. However, the company devises and presents potential attributes, including environmentally-minded components, from an experiential point of view.

The company’s literature includes a green glossary, with basic information about options such as air-source heat pumps and paints and stains that are low in volatile organic compounds. But this information is presented in terms of benefits such as health, safety and long-term savings – in other words, a home that heats and cools efficiently and respects the health and wellbeing of occupants.

“To us, green isn’t about saving the world, it’s about having a better built home that contributes to a buyer’s health, comfort and economics,” Suleman says. “That’s how we jump to green.”

In order to give customers what they want, and yet maintain organizational sense and consistency, Hush breaks its green home offerings into categories, each with an array of features. But, one of the categories is à la carte. Suleman says Hush is flexible. If solar panels or geothermal systems are desired, Hush will provide.

The methodology continues as work proceeds. From initial planning and design through to construction and completion, there’s frequent walk-throughs and meetings with Hush’s in-house personnel, including the architect, engineer, interior designer and Suleman himself, with thought 12 12

Green Green Building Building && Sustainable Sustainable Strategies Strategies

and consideration to what life will eventually be like for the occupant.

“If we follow that process properly it will ensure that the buyer receives the best-in-class experience,” Suleman says. “We want our home buyers to tell us that this is a house they want to live in as opposed to us telling buyers that this is the home they should live in. The look and feel has to be about who lives in the house.”

Hush employs a client concierge, who liaises directly with customers and is available as a key point of contact should any questions or issues arise, and to ensure consistency and continuity in the flow of information.

Separately, Hush also offers a virtual concierge, whereby all customers have password access to a private, dedicated web portal that contains up-to-date and ongoing information about the home, including legal documents, owner manuals, floor plans and a schedule of meetings with Hush personnel. Photos capture and document the entire construction process, and Hush uses the portal to offer post-occupancy services.

Providing this degree of customization might, at first glance, seem uneconomical. However, Suleman says Hush restricts itself to approximately 50 projects a year. All are in the million-dollar-plus market, and in an area largely bounded by Toronto, Mississauga and southwest Oakville, so the economics work for Hush.

“We are an elite home-builder that limits the number of homes that we build, and we allocate staff to properly handle that load,” Suleman says, adding that the sub-trades Hush works with come from the custom world and are used to this level of work. As well, he adds, Hush also wants its partners also enjoy a positive experience and feel respected.

At the end of the day, all the pieces fit together for Suleman. “We want to be forefront,” he says. “We know it’s important to be ahead of the curve.” GB

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

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The Living City Campus hosts Canada’s Outdoor Photovoltaic Test Facility

By Paul Luukkonen

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hrough Ontario’s Green Energy Act and the Ontario Power Authority’s (OPA) Feed in Tariff (FIT) program, clean energy producers receive guaranteed rates per kWh of solar energy sold back to the grid, for the lifetime of a 20 year contract.

Due to a domestic content requirement in the program, the photovoltaic modules for every installation must undergo some manufacturing process in the province of Ontario. This has brought an influx of PV module manufacturers that have invested and set up facilities in the province. A third party quality assurance program located in Vaughan puts Ontario made modules to the test in its outdoor performance verification program.

The Photovoltaic Performance Verification Program (PVPV), operated by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority is located at the Living City Campus, Canada’s hub for emerging developments in renewable energy. The Campus is Canada’s most established green building and sustainable technology research and education centre (www.thelivingcitycampus.com).

This outdoor quality assurance and energy yield test of Ontario made modules conforms to international test standards and provides unbiased, open source data that helps industry determine

realistic expectations for photovoltaic performance.

The program and test facility are monitored by the Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP) (www.sustainabletechnologies.ca) and provide valuable unbiased information to residential and commercial property owners. With the launch of the FIT program in October 2009, there was an onslaught of sales professionals looking to impress customers with impressive paybacks based on energy yields that were not historically substantiated. This program helps provide accurate information with which consumers can make informed decisions regarding photovoltaic yields and realistic Returns on Investment (ROI).

PVPV’s one-of-a kind research facility monitors the performance of Ontario’s PV modules from numerous manufacturers under real outdoor test conditions. The program informs consumers and industry professionals about the true value of PV products by monitoring and recording their annual energy yield. While panels are generally sold according to their power values determined in a lab or manufacturing facility under simulated or Standard Test Conditions (STC), it is the actual energy produced in the field that translates into revenue from the OPA for the renewable generation

of the solar system.

Standard test conditions are based on a 25 °C module temperature and 1000 watts per meter² (W/m²) of irradiance. While this standard condition provides some means of module to module comparisons, the (STC) conditions do not represent the standard operating conditions of the modules. Modules operating during the summer, the peak production season, regularly operate 30 degrees C above ambient temperature. With this increase in temperature above STC, comes a decrease in performance. While calculations can be performed with the temperature coefficients provided by the manufacturer, there is always a preference for real world data over system models.

New microFIT rates will pay the generator 54.9 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). Potential annual generation is approximately 1161 kWh of energy per kilowatt (kW) of PV in Toronto. This reference is provided by a Natural Resource Canada study investigating photovoltaic potential in Canada (Pelland et al. 2006). While this model is useful as a general guideline, the PVPV data will provide energy yields for each of the Ontario manufacturers on test. This information is of great significance not just for solar industry professionals but also consumers and end users contemplating their own system.

Results to date have been positive with regards to the general quality of modules made in Ontario as noted in consistent performance across all the manufacturers taking part in the test. PVPV is evidence of a technologically sound, and mature photovoltaic industry in Ontario, producing megawatts of quality modules for the province’s Feed-In-Tariff program.

PVPV’s state of the art data acquisition system has also yielded valuable insights that have ramifications for module and system performance, and to local distribution companies, tasked with distributing the inherently intermittent generation to the grid. PVPV produces its monthly energy yield reports on-line at http://pvpv.ca.

Through its STEP program the TRCA publishes reports and guidelines for industry best practices, including contributions to the (CSA) F900 guideline: Solar PV Rooftop Installation Best practices, and numerous case study evaluations of PV sites through the Solar City Partnership (www.solarcitypartnership.ca).

To help ensure the adoption of safety and best practices, the Campus provides training for numerous colleges and universities; trades associations and professionals throughout the GTA. The Campus is home to Ontario’s leading Photovoltaic Training Program and various other renewable energy workshops for the public. Every year over 120 000 visitors pass through the campus to see the latest demonstrations in sustainable technologies and green buildings.

The Campus hosts two research and demonstration homes (LEED platinum), (www.sustainablehouse.ca), the Restoration Services Building (LEED Platinum), and the Earth Rangers Centre (LEED gold), showcasing Green Building technologies and systems integration for the residential and commercial sectors.

For more information visit the following websites or visit the Campus in Vaughan. www.thelivingcitycampus.com www.pvpv.ca www.sustainabletechnologies.ca www.sustainablehouse.ca www.solarcitypartnership.ca References Pelland, Sophie (2006) Yves Poissant, Robert Morris, Kevin Lawrence, Kathy Campbell. The Development of Photovoltaic Resource Maps for Canada. 31st Annual Conference of the Solar Energy Society of Canada (SESCI). August 20th - 24th, 2006; Montreal, Canada http://198.103.48.154/fichier.php/codectec/En/2006046/2006-046_OP-J_411-SOLRES_PV+map.pdf Paul Luukkonen, HBSc, is a Sustainable Technologies Coordinator at Kortright Centre for Conservation in Vaughan, ON GB

PVPV performs third party performance monitoring of Ontario made modules and provides unbiased, open-source data to consumers and energy professionals through monthly reports at pvpv.ca

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SUSTAINABILITY

Rachael Street Residence

Making it Look Easy in Toronto and New Orleans The three-step Dowsett Design System

O

ne: Start with conservation to reduce the energy demand of a building. Two: rely on passive sources of energy, supplied freely by nature. Three: consider active technologies to provide the balance of the renewable energy required.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

At least that’s how Paul Dowsett, Principal Architect at SUSTAINABLE.TO, explains it. He is one of those larger-than-life Torontonians who works hard at making things look easy.

Daniels Residence

Last month he was honoured under the CMHC Healthy Housing Recognition Program; in September he was nominated for a Heritage Toronto Award and last May he won the coveted first prize in the international competition to design a Passive House for New Orleans. Dowsett has been in the green building business for about 25 years; and we all know it’s not actually easy.

Sustainable technologies can have 40 or 50 years of performance under their belts and still be obsessively scrutinized for payback and described by the unenlightened as ‘unproven’ or ‘new.’ Renewable energy generation, the world’s fastest growing business and currently the most popular investment opportunity, is routinely described by myopic politicians as damaging to the economy even as they subsidize economic fossils like fossil fuels. In Canada it would be generous to describe progress on green building regulations as a bit like a roller coaster.

ENTHUSIASM Meanwhile Paul Dowsett and many others persevere and even flourish, because they believe strongly in what they are doing. Standing in front of his project in Willowdale, Ontario with CMHC officials and the obligatory framed certificate, Dowsett seems restless to complete the photoop. Moments before he was full of life, enthusiastically leading the assembled journalists and industry representatives through the building, pointing out each thoughtfully planned feature that conserves energy and optimizes efficiency.

In 2010 he completed the restoration, renovation and additions to David and Kate Daniels’ 1935 “eco-deco” (Art deco) mansion in

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Toronto’s South Hill neighbourhood.

Mechanical systems were replaced with a geothermal radiant heating and cooling system that employs highly efficient zoned heat pumps, reducing reliance on fossil fuels in winter and the municipal power grid in the summer. Says Dowsett: “There is enough thermal mass under a single house to heat a city block and geothermal offers an energy co-efficient of 3.9:1, compared to 1:1 for electric heat.” In other words it is about 4 times more energy efficient.

A solar thermal panel system was added for radiant heating and domestic hot water pre-heating. The building is also solar-photovoltaic-ready, which means PV panels can be easily added in the future to reduce reliance on the municipal power grid.

High albedo white roof reflects sunlight, minimizing solar gain and reducing cooling load.

Solar shades on the south facing windows reduce summer solar gain.

Interior reflective light shelves increase natural daylight penetration in winter.

Existing windows were replaced with high efficiency, Low-E, argon filled, double pane, non-glare windows.

Windows for the addition were bigger and even more efficient, triple pane and made from vision and translucent glass to increase natural daylight penetration.

Existing brick, wood studs, joists and flooring were re-used, reducing landfill waste and project manufacture and transport energy. The existing plumbing and light fixtures were salvaged by Habitat for Humanity. Some of the original steel frame windows were salvaged for re-use in the interior of the building.

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slag in cement and concrete, industrial waste wood chips in block foundations, mineral wool insulation made from industrial waste slag, waste sugarcane-based spray foam insulation, 33% recycled drywall and new floors made of upcycled crushed walnut shells, a commercial waste by-product, cast in water-based epoxy resin.

New Orleans Passive House A rainwater system will collect rainwater from the roof and terraces into underground cisterns for landscape irrigation, reducing stormwater runoff and demand on the municipal water supply. A green roof is designed, again to reduce runoff as well as cooling loads. On the roof and surrounding the house, native vegetation relies mostly on rainwater and does not require the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

Energy efficient interior and exterior lighting includes LED, xenon and compact fluorescent. Kitchen and laundry appliances are Energy Star rated.

Plywood sub-floor material is urea-formaldehyde-free and Forest Stewardship Council certified. Stone terrace slabs from a local Ontario source reduce transportation energy. Other materials sourced within 800 kilometres of the project include fly ash and

BRAD PITT DIDN’T WIN Similar features and philosophies have been incorporated into many other Dowsett buildings along with wind power, straw bale walls, rainwater re-use, and community features.

His competition-winning Passive House design for New Orleans was also airtight, thermal-bridge free and super-insulated, with passive shading in the summer and solar heat gains in winter.

He included a concrete floor topping for thermal mass to radiate the heat into the space, the corrugated galvalume wall and roof cladding; and a balanced energy recovery ventilation system and split-zoned high-efficiency heating and cooling units with an ultra high-efficiency on-demand water heater and supplemental radiant floor heating. As per the post-Katrina building codes the house is raised 7 feet above grade, securing its safety during flooding and providing shaded parking, storage, and outdoor living spaces.

Brad Pitt and his team are also designing and building houses in New Orleans, but Dowsett thinks they might not be quite as affordable, nor as sustainable in the long-term. “They might be focussing on sexy new high-tech energy systems, rather than on what can be done with conservation and passive principles.�

In other words if you want it to be as easy as 1-2-3; start with 1 and 2. GB

Evaporator Coil

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The Quiet Breeze™ side discharge condenser is a 13SEER R-410A unit that is available in the Canadian marketplace. It operates as low as 54dba and is available in 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0ton models. The compact design allows for more flexibility for installation: townhouses, condos, balconies, narrow lot lines or just about any place where space is limited. This condenser can be combined with any furnace, air handler or fan coil system.

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

summer 2012

summer 2012

t www.quietbreeze.ca t info@quietbreeze.ca Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

19

The new patent pending Deluxe Series from Reversomatic is the only HRV and ERV line in the marketplace with what the company calls built-in True Automatic Electronic Air Balancing and Constant Flow Technology.

“The efficiencies claimed by all heat recovery ventilators in the market are based on the assumption that once installed, the system is properly balanced,” says Reversomatic founder Joe Salerno. A HRV or ERV in every unit can represent hours of balancing. Our Deluxe series makes this process automatic and it remains balanced at all times.”

Reversomatic Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation

by Launching Self-Balancing HRV and ERV

Innovative, Fast and Customer Sensitive Forty years later, Reversomatic is one of Canada’s largest fan manufactures, with four manufacturDeluxe Series Self Balancing ing plants in Ontario, a sales office in South HRV/ERV Line Florida and distribution all over North The slim-design 55 lb. units meet all America. Yet it is still family owned, with standards and building code requirements Joe’s son Peter and two sons-in-law workand all approvals, feature a tilted core for ing in the business. It is responsive and horizontal installation, permanently lubrivery nimble. cated PSC motor for continuous operation, a “There is no huge corporate deciunique electronic control board that allows sion-making structure here,” says Joe the unit to return to the last memory mode Salerno. “If a customer asks for something Reversomatic self-balancing HRV/ERV when power restores after failure, washable special to be customized for a particular job, foam filter and an enthalpy core tested at our competitors might take six months just to -25°C. with air flow of 45-95 CFM (normal operation)and up to 150 come to a decision. Long before that Reversomatic product would be cfm at high speed ratings of 115V / 1 / 60 Hz, 1.10 Amps. already installed in the building.”

“Our newest products help minimize frustration, solve problems Cutting Edge Ventilation Products Since 1972 and prevent costly callbacks; just like we rarely discontinue parts for In the early 1960s Joe Salerno emigrated to Canada from Mondalto our older products, so that installers aren’t faced with a headache

T

hey said it couldn’t be done, but we did it. Reversomatic made life much easier for the building industry, especially in the high-rise field. It has released the industry’s first self-balancing HRV and ERV series, to save time and automatically adjust the flow of the unit on different levels or floors of a building. The HRV or ERV has to be balanced to realize the efficiencies designed into the unit.

Still family owned, innovative and customer responsive, this leading North American fan manufacturer continues its run of some four decades, setting the pace with exciting new and sustainable product offerings.

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

Uffugo, Italy. He was employed by a sheet metal heating firm, and in 1965 when the owner retired, Joe bought the tiny company, convinced that he could build something special.

He knew that installers faced innumerable problems and he was determined to create a company that cared. In 1972 the company expanded and began specializing in the manufacturing of fans, related products and listening to customers.

summer 2012

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instead of a minor repair. Everything we do is based on understanding the daily needs of the industry. We are centrally located and we are focussed on the fastest growing segments of the market, like highrise condominiums.”

“That’s why we’re number one in the market. We supplied most of the prestigious buildings in Toronto and throughout Canada. We have distributors all over North America and are expanding into other countries too. One recent project was in Puerta Vallarta in Mexico.”

In-House Research Lab and Testing Facilities Reversomatic developed self-balancing ERVs and HRVs to support the construction industry as it moves into the new energy age. Energy savings might be designed into products, but they should also be assured during installation and commissioning. This has long been the philosophy with a company that continuously designs new products for a changing industry and a changing world.

To ensure products exceed standards such as ASTM E547-00, Reversomatic has developed research, design and testing facilities including an in-house air chamber to conduct performance tests and in-house water penetration and wind testing for wallboxes and accessories.

It maintains membership in HVI and AMCA and is an Energy Star partner. All products are UL and CSA approved, most are HVI approved and AMCA approved.

Fans and kitchen range hoods are Energy Star efficient. Products, parts and accessories are precision manufactured using state-of-the art equipment, which allows the team to respond to customer requirements quickly. Custom-made products and parts can be manufactured to exact specifications.

Happy Birthday “After more than 40 years of manufacturing fans I am pretty happy,” says Joe Salerno. “They said we couldn’t design an electronic self-balancing HRV and ERV, but we did it. They said we couldn’t grow as big as we have and still remain privately owned and responsive to customers, but we did it. They said we couldn’t specialize with condos and do customized work and still offer everything needed in the ventilation industry, but we did it. They said it couldn’t be done, but Reversomatic did it.” GB

TD Greening from Inside Out

W

hile some ‘green’ businesses do little more than changing light bulbs and focus on greening their reputations, TD Bank take a long term view and green themselves slowly and steadily from the inside out. In this exclusive interview, TD Chief Environmental Officer Karen Clarke-Whistler explains how this long-term approach is applied to real estate management and energy conservation.

One-Stop Shop for Ventilation, Especially in Condos With US customers still experiencing a soft market, Reversomatic has redoubled its focus on Canada. Many of the newest products solve problems that are unique to high- rise buildings in the Canadian market.

Unlike manufacturers who split their focus between trade and retail products, the company deals in job specifications and unique challenges. “Some of today’s buildings are trying to achieve all kinds of goals including sustainability goals,” says Joe Salerno, “They might come to us with a special size of a product. They know we will help them. We’re probably the only company who can quickly respond that that kind of custom-design request.”

The company manufactures a complete line of residential, commercial and industrial fans. As well as accessories such as lint traps, wall boxes and wall caps. It also manufactures custom louvers and dampers to exact customer specifications in extruded aluminum or formed steel.

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

By Derek Wong

summer 2012

summer 2012

TD is the second largest bank in Canada and sixth largest in North America. Their long-term goal is to embed environmental thinking into all aspects of the business from internal operations and supplier relationships, to lending practices and investment.

An approach to reach that goal—which I find very commendable—is to gain the knowledge internally first and then spread the best practices outwards.

This approach is used in their current program on net-zero energy building. This is an ambitious challenge to retrofit or construct buildings like their bank branches to consume the same amount of energy that they produce.

With more than 1,100 branches in Canada and 1,250 branches in the U.S., TD operates a lot of buildings. Like other financial institutions, buildings are where much of the energy is consumed and therefore much of the carbon footprint is generated. And that is where lessons on energy conservation in buildings can be learned and best Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

23

practices formed before the knowledge is applied to TD’s real estate lending practices and spread to their clients.

How does TD learn about net-zero energy building? As Karen Clarke-Whistler tells me, they put substantial resources into constructing two pilot branches. “Our first step is to construct a new build in Fort Lauderdale to test out the concept. This was built to LEED platinum standards and began operation in May 2011. However, most of our existing facilities require retrofit. Our 25-year-old London, Ontario branch is the pilot for retrofit.”

The two sites allow energy performance data to be collected under two different climates. A number of other factors were also considered.

“We selected the London location by first identifying the TD sites across Canada that would be able to house the amount of solar panel capacity needed. We then looked at which of those sites had the ability to include a community-focused component, such as an amphitheatre. Finally, we considered how power may be connected to the local utility’s electrical grid.”

The retrofit system in the London branch began operation in October 2011. It has a ‘Green Energy Park’ available for the public to use. The local school next to the park can use the amphitheatre in the park to learn about sustainability. TD also provided the school with TV monitors to allow students to track the power generated by the solar panel.

The knowledge gained from the pilot branches will be used in other facilities.

“We are assessing the pilots for performance. TD’s in-house architects will use this experience to develop our internal green building design standards which are used for building our facilities and learn how to scale these best practices for our operations.” In the future, the knowledge may be used in TD’s real estate lending practice and help clients make greener buildings themselves.

TD, who is part of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment Images of TD Fort Lauderdale branch used with permission from TD. 24 Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

Initiative (UN PRI), takes a long term and large-scale approach to going green.

Looking back, TD reached carbon neutral in 2010. At that time, TD was the first North American based bank and among the few banks in the world to reach that status. These days more and more financial institutions declare reaching carbon neutral, which is great. But many reached the goal primarily through purchasing carbon offsets. In 2010, 51% of TD’s carbon footprint was neutralized by carbon offsets. It is encouraging to see TD did not rest there but are investing significant amount of time and resources

to learn how to lower their long-term energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The learning from the net-zero energy building program should help TD reduce their greenhouse gas emissions further and therefore reduce the need to purchase carbon offsets in order to achieve carbon neutral.

Deep learning does take more time than changing light bulbs. TD devotes the time and resources to do it right.

Derek Wong is a Toronto based sustainability consultant. A recognized expert at Siemens Sustainable Cities, Toronto Sustainability Speaker Series, ShareGreen

by Walmart, and a member on the advisory board of Sustainable Business Forum, Derek helps businesses use sustainability as a driver for growth, employee engagement, and customer experience. GB

summer 2012

The Sultan of Steel

E

ven after decades of award winning projects under his belt, Joe Vella doesn’t easily relax. He is in a hurry. He has site visits to complete, estimates due and customer meetings to attend. He doesn’t really have time to help with this story, but he will make time because the message is important.

“In terms of sustainability,” says Vella, President of Fifthshire Homes, “...steel is the ultimate.” He explains that with a durable life of hundreds of years, compared to the considerably shorter expectancy for wood frame buildings, steel makes sense both economically and ecologically.

Most of his projects today are framed in steel. “This steel has a recycled content as high as 87% and can be credited with the maximum number of points for the material and resource credits aspect of the LEED Rating System.” It minimizes health problems and investment decline caused by mold and rot, termites, shrinkage, expansion and warping. It doesn’t move or will not contribute fuel to the fire, and creates a straight surface for finishing.

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With steel there is very little waste. The joists, studs, lintels, and so on are all pre-cut and the few waste off-cuts we have are picked up and recycled.” Vella says it’s about the same labour cost for framing, and about 20% more for material that lasts about four times as long. Within the total project budget, the premium for steel usually amounts to just 2%. The return on investment with repair issues and reduced insurance costs will soon mitigate the additional costs.

Vella loves steel and sustainable architecture. He started building R-2000 homes in the 1990s and was named Central Ontario Builder of the Year back in 1998. Some people might have relaxed, but Vella kept going strong. He won an R-2000 Hall of Fame award in 2000, in 2001 EnerQuality Pioneer Award for the First Certified all Steel Framed R-2000 Home in the World, an Award of Excellence in 2006, two CMHC EnviroHome Designations in 2008 and R-2000 Builder of the Year again in 2009,

176 Rivermede Road, Unit 9 Tel: 905-760-1311 Concord, ON L4K 3M7 Fax: 905-760-9736 Email: info@altima-kitchens.com www.altima-kitchens.com 26

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

after completing more than one hundred and fifty R-2000 certified homes.

PORT CARLING SUSTAINABILITY “I say save the trees and build it with recycled steel. It would take more than an acre of trees to build this home if it was made from wood.” He is referring to a four-bedroom+ 5600 square foot house (and outbuildings) just completed in Port Carling.

It was designed by Boyd Montgomery and built into the rock with heavy structural and lightweight steel framing from Bailey Metal Products in Concord, Ontario.

It’s an R-2000 energy rated home with R-34 insulation in the exterior walls and Loewen Triple-glazed, low E argon-filled windows; with spectrally selective window glazing technology called Heat Smart T Glass.

When the sun hits it in winter, the low angles increase solar gain, but higher angle summer rays are reflected away, keeping things cool inside.

Thermal bridging is minimized by insulated exterior sheathing; and most of the windows are operable for natural ventilation when appropriate. The house also features Sylvania LED pot lighting and a top quality custom Altima Kitchen.

The design has been warmed up with elegant 10” wide oak pre-finished engineered Hardwood flooring over in floor radiant heating system. Exterior finishes feature low maintenance Cape Cod siding and is made from Canadian Lodgepole Pine with a factory applied, low maintenance finish. The wood is slowly kiln dried and then two coats of fine quality acrylic are applied (in any of a range of colours). It comes with a 15 year warranty against peeling, chalking and blistering.

summer 2012

RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES The Port Carling project is heated and cooled using renewable energy technologies.

These include geothermal and solar thermal.

summer 2012

The building site in Muskoka consisted of granite bedrock. The geothermal wells were drilled over 300 feet deep into the bedrock. When the piping had to be run

from the wells to the building mechanical room, the pipes had to be protected with clean imported sand. Foundation footings involved blasting requiring the use of special

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

27

Uponor Radiant Floor Heating Systems

Viessmann solar thermal collectors

rubber blast mats to protect workers and the surroundings. Footings are quite irregular in their configurations to accommodate the peculiarities of the geography. Blasted rock from the site was processed locally into crushed product and used as slab fill for the foundation and the larger boulders used to construct retaining walls on site.

Mechanical consultant David Gallagher notes that the 7-ton geothermal system consists of four wells drilled 325 feet through bedrock, and Geosmart Q series multi-function all-season ground source heat pumps; water-to-water for DHW, radiant floor heating and water-to-air for cooling.

The compressor can either reject heat to the water side or absorb heat through the air

coil. Two Viessmann Vitosol 200-F solar thermal collectors supplement the geo system and a high-efficiency Viessmann Vitodens 200 propane-fired condensing boiler serves as an emergency backup, season-startup supplement and domestic hot water (DHW) top-up.

Radiant is used on all levels, slab on grade for the main floor and high mass slab down below. A 120-gallon SME60 SmartMulti-Energy tank by Triangle Tube for the hydronic system contains an internal coil for heat exchange and a 60-gallon stainless steel DHW preheat tank. During heating season the Ground source pumps maintain supply to the SME tank at about 40oC (105oF) which supplies the radiant floors during the heating season and preheat the internal DHW tank.

The DHW preheated inside the SME60, then moves into a Viessmann Vitocell-V 300 79 gallon solar storage tank, which can boost the water to about 70oC (160oF) on a good solar day. DHW then moves through the final Viessmann Vitocell-V 300 79 gallon indirect DHW tank fueled by the Viessmann Vitodens 200 propane condensing boiler.

The propane heated DHW load is substantially reduced by the solar and ground source contribution.

Two zones of coils are used for cooling.

One serves the master bedroom lower level, great room, dining room and kitchen. The other air zone serves the family’s bedroom area and a loft guest room over the garage.

Building systems are managed by Uponor

CCN controls, with web server-based access that allows for remote monitoring via computer and mobile devices, troubleshooting and alarms to trades.

“David’s mechanical systems are wonderful because they are based on renewables, but they don’t have to work too hard,” says Joe Vella. “That’s because we start with a very

solidly built, well insulated steel building.”

“I’d like to talk more about this, but I have another meeting,” he says on his way out the door. Joe Vella is in a hurry. GB

Environmental stewardship is one of the core values at Loewen. We are a socially responsible company recognized for our leadership in energy conservation, environmental protection and sourcing of materials derived through sustainable methods.

For more information about our commitment to sustainability, contact: Loewen window Center of oakviLLe 2650 Bristol Circle, Suite 400 Oakville, ON L6H 6Z7 Phone: 905-829-1310 Discover the world’s most inspiring windows and doors at www.loewen.com

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

summer 2012

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A Carbon Calculator for Wood Buildings

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nvironmental issues such as climate change and global warming are continuously at the forefront of public policy discussions around the world. There is a growing need and desire for building stakeholders (designers, owners, regulators, etc.) to quantify the potential climate change impacts of a construction project. The calculated reductions of environmental impacts, including minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, are increasingly a mandatory requirement of policymakers, building owners, and occupants.

In order to aid building designers with the quantification of GHG emissions associated with wood building products and systems, the Canadian Wood Council, along with FPInnovations, and U.S. WoodWorks recently developed a carbon calculator for wood buildings.

The natural process of photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide (CO2) as a primary input. The CO2 and water absorbed by a growing tree is transformed into a simple sugar. This sugar, in turn, forms cellulose, an essential building block of wood. This carbon is then locked up in the biomass fibre and kept out of the atmosphere throughout the lifetime of the wood product. Wood building products, such as lumber, panels, and decking, continue to store carbon absorbed by the trees during their growing cycle.

Bio-based building products have the ability to mitigate climate change effects, by acting as carbon stores during their service lives; retaining car-

bon that was removed from the atmosphere as part of the natural carbon cycle. The mass of carbon stored in wood products is calculated based upon the fact that on average, wood fibre is composed of 50% carbon by dry weight. The final value provided in the carbon calculator is an estimate of the equivalent mass of CO2 removed from the atmosphere during the growth of the tree and stored as carbon in the chemical structure of the wood building products.

Bio-based building products have been shown to emit less GHGs throughout their life cycle (raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, transportation, use, and end-of-life) when compared to other building materials [1]. In addition to storing carbon, substituting wood in place of other more fossil fuel-intensive materials also â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;avoidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; GHG emissions that would have otherwise been emitted during the production of these non bio-based materials. The online Carbon Calculator for wood buildings gives users the ability to quantify both the carbon storage and wood product substitution benefits in terms of GHG emissions (CO2 equivalents).

The online tool contains two options; the Carbon Estimator or the Carbon Calculator.

The Estimator is used if information regarding the volume of wood in a specific building is unavailable. It allows the user to select from a list of typical wood building types (e.g. institutional, commercial, etc.), enter the construction location, and the gross floor area.

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

31

The Carbon Estimator will then approximate the carbon stored in the wood products as well as the GHG emissions avoided by using wood instead of other, more emission-intensive building products. The second option, the Carbon Calculator, is used when a detailed list of building materials is available. Users are asked to enter nominal wood volume information and the tool then performs the necessary volume conversions, making corrections for moisture content to arrive at a total mass oven-dry wood contained in the building. This total dry mass of wood is then used to calculate both the carbon storage and GHG emissions avoided.

The Calculator allows for the input of different types and quantities of wood products in the building. Users have the flexibility to enter quantities of wood products as imperial, metric or industry specific units, such as board feet. As carbon content is proportional to wood density and density is directly related to wood species, it is necessary for the user to input the species or species combination (S-P-F, D.Fir-L., etc.) of the wood products, in order to determine their relative carbon storage capacities. There are several different wood building products contained in the Carbon Calculator, these include: dimensional lumber, oriented strand board (OSB), plywood, engineering I-joists, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), oriented strand lumber (OSL a.k.a. PSL), glulam, crosslaminated timber (CLT), wood decking, siding and roofing (shakes or shingles).

The Carbon Calculator also contains an algorithm that estimates the forest growth rates in North America. The forest growth rates are a conservative estimate for the time taken to grow the given volume of wood products, as inputted by the user. The forest

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Tel: 519-654-9600 www.ecoharvestwood.com Save the HST on orders placed by July 31/12 - Promo Code: 3107

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

Carbon Calculator Results for Library Square (U.S. WoodWorks)

growth rate estimate is based on several factors, including the volume of logs needed to produce different wood products. This volume of logs is then converted to a volume of trees needed after accounting for woody debris, which is purposely left in the forest after harvesting, as it is important for soil productivity, conservation of biodiversity, and other forest management considerations.

This tool is an estimator and results are approximate, not exact, and will vary based on building size, occupancy type, and geographic location. This applies in particular to the calculation for avoided emissions. By definition, a calculation based on ‘what-if’ scenarios is uncertain. Important factors in this calculation include: (1) assurance that the building would have logically been built with a non-wood material; (2) the exact type of alternate material(s); and (3) the fate of the wood materials at the end of the building’s service life.

It should be noted that averages have been used in the calculation of ‘avoided’ emissions which may not apply to the specific application being studied by the user of this tool. More information on the assumptions, limitations, and calculation methodologies is included with the tool as a downloadable PDF. The Carbon Calculator tool was used to estimate the total wood mass and the associated carbon impacts for several wood building case studies in both Canada and the United States. More detailed information and results related to these case studies can be found at the following website: (www.woodworks.org/publications/casestudies-design-examples/). The shows the results generated for the six-storey, 35,000 ft2, Library Square project, located in Kamloops, British Columbia.

The online carbon calculator for wood buildings is publically available on the Canadian Wood Council website (www.cwc.ca) or the U.S. WoodWorks website (www.woodworks.org).

References Sathre, R. and J. O’Connor. 2010. A Synthesis of Research on Wood Products and Greenhouse Gas Impacts, 2nd Edition. FPInnovations.

Reclaimed Lumber -

It’s not all the same

By Gregory J. Marsh

U

ses for reclaimed or salvaged wood are as varied as the species available, because it can be re-cut, engineered or used in its natural state. There are a surprising number of recovery sources including existing or old structures, rivers or even hurricane disaster zones. Salvaged wood reduces demand on the environment, cuts waste and decreases our carbon footprint.

When a high-end (low VOC) finish is applied, old growth material can provide a unique natural warmth and beauty. Aesthetically unparalleled, reclaimed woods can be exotic and can offer an historic or sentimental snapshot of the past.

Reclaimed lumber is generally lower in moisture and fairly stable, when compared to green lumber. This reduces the possibility of it pulling apart or shrinking. In addition, as wood dries out, surface oxidation occurs; which is why older wood offers a charming patina, an effect which is difficult to simulate in a shop, or on site during installation.

Salvaged lumber can contain nails, bolts, mortises and other evidence of the original joinery when removed from a building. While these can be machined out and removed to some degree, many people like to leave a few in, maintaining some of the history of the wood.

Reclaimed species are often used for flooring in both residential and commercial applications. Older wood usually has dense grain, making it harder and more durable than modern lumber. These floors are very well suited to high traffic areas or areas where there is high humidity, such as below grade over a concrete subfloor. Sometimes recovered wood comes in large pieces, which can be re-sawn into different widths and lengths and engineered perfectly for the new project.

The Eco Harvest Wood Company is a unique Canadian firm that imports reclaimed lumber from countries where hurricanes and flooding occur frequently; and can also provide engineering and installation services. It has developed a couple of lesser-known, plentiful species.

By creating a market for example, for Red Laurel lumber from Nicaragua, it provides local people with a fair wage, pays a royalty to the government and participates in a process that can help restore destroyed areas to normal. Proper FSC certified management of the chain of custody is implemented to ensure an ethical result. The process involves completing an environmental assessment and an impact study to determine the damage, determining how many and what types of trees need to be replanted, and carefully adhering to a detailed extraction plan.

Red Laurel is cost-effective alternative to African Mahogany. It is beautiful in appearance, very hard and stable with a versatile grain. It is an excellent choice of wood for fabrication of premium floors, stairs, railings, mantles, doors and trim. This elegant and unique species of wood can also be used to create furniture and decor. Bending strength is 16818 psi; density is 769 kg/m3; hardness is 730 kg; stiffness is 140/1000kg/cm3; and Janka hardness is 1700.

Eco Harvest engineers hardwood floors from Red Laurel as the elegant finished surface (lamella) built on top of several layers of Baltic Birch substrate, to give it strength, reduce cupping, warping, bowing and twisting, and to make it more resistant to moisture than a solid hardwood floor. It is truly unique in the Canadian marketplace.

Gregory J. Marsh is the Principal of Eco-Harvest Wood Company www.ecoharvestwood.com GB

Adam Robertson, M.A.Sc., EIT is a Technical Services Specialist with Canadian Wood Council (CWC), where he is involved in the CWC’s building code and standards initiatives, the transfer of technical knowledge to the wood design community, and the revision of CWC’s design tools and publications. GB summer 2012

summer 2012

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

33

The great room boasts floor to ceiling windows to bring the outdoors ‘in’.

1867 Confederation Log and Timber Frame Cottage built for Derek Zoldy

Rick Kinsman, owner of Confederation describes some of the company’s Eco Wise practices. “Our entire Production Facility is totally Green and waste free. Our cut offs are used as firewood, scrap logs are used for boat blocks at local marinas and even our sawdust is donated to a local farmer for animal bedding.”

Another was the fact that Confederation is one of the few log and timber frame

During the winter, the primary source of heat is the high efficiency wood burning fireplace

builders in North America with experience building Energy Star-rated log and timber frame homes. In light of these details and the fact their home was already an energy efficient and sustainable choice, taking their home off-grid seemed a logical next step, says Derek.

“I saw the potential right away,” he says. “It made a lot of financial sense right out of the gate.”

For about $30,000 – representing a $10,000 savings on the cost to clear the right of way and bring hydroelectricity to their six-acre property – the Zoldys installed a starter solar system that includes a backup propane generator. Using four roof-mounted solar panels from Sharp, they currently generate one kilowatt of energy that is stored in a DC battery bank and then converted to AC for consumption

Newmarket Family Makes ‘Green’ Their Favourite Colour Off-Grid Log Home Saves Money, Helps Form New, Energy-Friendly Habits

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

H

ear the words “family meeting” and you might think it’s time to discuss homework, computer use or chores. But when Derek Zoldy and his wife Casey sat their two teen-aged sons down for a group discussion, there was a lot more than that on the table.

The Newmarket, Ontario, family was planning to take their new 1867 Confederation Log & Timber Frame vacation home “off-grid” and they needed to know everyone was onboard.

“You really have to have the mindset that you are going to live with the choices you make,” says Derek, a professional engineer and Canadian Ski Patrol volunteer.

“A few habits had to be reformed but in the end, the savings are tremendous.”

The Zoldys’ log home is their ‘dream cottage’ at the base of Sir Sam’s Ski Hill in Haliburton, Ontario, with access to Eagle Lake. Logs were the family’s first choice of building material not only because wood blends in with the natural beauty of the land, but also because of the high level of energy efficiency of 1867 Confederation’s construction.

After visiting several construction sites and investigating a number of builders, they opted for 1867 Confederation Log and Timber Frame and designed a custom 1,400-square foot floor plan that includes vaulted ceilings on the main level, a walkout basement and a loft.

From an environmental standpoint, one of the factors that swayed the Zoldy’s in favour of Confederation is the fact the company uses carefully harvested FSCcertified logs, that are air dried on-site at the Bobcaygeon, Ontario, manufacturing facility, and that any un-used wood is recycled. summer 2012

Derek Zoldy in front of the battery bank that stores energy produced by the cottage’s solar panels summer 2012

A Winco propane generator is used for back up power Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

35

as required. This summer, they plan to add an additional four panels for a total of two kilowatts.

Primary heat during the winter months comes from a wood-burning fireplace in the great room and is supplemented by a propane stove in the basement. Water, meanwhile, is pumped from a deep rock well using a highly efficient 110-volt pump that consumes less energy on start-up than a 220-volt pump and yet supplies the same amount of water. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even if we were on-grid, the lower voltage pump would have made the most sense in terms of energy conservation,â&#x20AC;? notes Derek.

Other environmental considerations up for discussion and winning family approval included using LED lighting as opposed to conventional lighting, installing economical low-flush toilets, and replacing electric or gas kitchen appliances with propane appliances.

The on-site septic system is gravity fed and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require a pump. And every window in the home comes from

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Confederationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy-efficient Standard Package and is wood framed to fit in with the aesthetics of the log home. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Much like when we manufactured the first Energy Star Certified log home in Canada,â&#x20AC;? Rick states, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to change any component of our Standard Package or our Manufacturing Process.â&#x20AC;?

Even with the savings they are now realizing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Zoldys only receive one bill for consumption of propane which Derek considers a clean and efficient fuel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the choice to go off-grid wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily an easy one. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At first we were getting some complaints from the boys,â&#x20AC;? says Derek.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;But what it really boiled down to was equipment issues.â&#x20AC;?

For example, the Zoldys have a rule at their cottage that phones and computers canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be recharged at night or on days when thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no sunlight. That means they need to rely on batteries and one son, who was in the habit of leaving his computer plugged in all of the time, found that he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t getting enough battery life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He had to get in the habit of only plugging in when his battery is low, but now heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s even doing it at home in Newmarket,â&#x20AC;? says Derek.

Other new habits include making sure lights are off and that the toilets have finished their flush cycle before they leave the bathroom â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a small price to pay for the satisfaction of being green. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all very comfortable with the choices weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made, and one of the best was our decision to work with 1867 Confederation Log & Timber Frame,â&#x20AC;? says Derek. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even my wife is now talking about moving up here permanently as soon as she retires.â&#x20AC;? GB

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The truth is that many well intentioned players from all sides of the industry had no idea what to expect. It was as if we knocked down the first domino in a long chain, and I think to some extent that we’re still watching other dominos fall, and we’re learning how to clean up the mess.

Solar projects are exciting. They’re great for the environment, they’re good for social ethos, and thanks to the FIT programs, they’re affordable to farmers, faith groups, municipalities, and average middle-class laypeople.

But like everything that’s exciting, there’s a bit of a mythology that’s built up around solar energy projects, and some of those myths need to be cleared up.

FIT: Contract, not Subsidy For example, FIT contracts are not subsidies, and they won’t help anyone get rich quick. Subsidies by definition are intended to help “subsidize” something: they do things like reduce or offset construction or other development costs, like the way we pay for the construction of new gas or nuclear energy plants. FIT contracts are quite the opposite: they only pay for delivered energy. Project proponents absorb 100% of the project risk up to the day when energy is sold to the grid, and the only payment they ever get comes later, for electrical kilowatt hours (kWh’s). Nuclear energy plants will typically have special contract provisions that ensure they get paid even when they have down-time. FIT contracts offer no such luxury: payment is only made for kWh’s delivered to the grid. This is a great thing for the ratepayer and taxpayer, but it poses an interesting challenge to the project team: the project needs to be designed right and implemented precisely as planned, or all the losses fall to the project owner.

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

Solar Skate park Picton

Outside Perth

Pemboke Ontario Common Project Pitfalls At Mindscape we consult on a variety of solar energy projects.

Our clients are spread across Ontario, and range from home owners to farmers to commercial developers or industrial factory operators.

They have many different needs, but they tend to struggle with the same things when considering solar energy projects. Like any project, solar energy projects succeed or fail based on planning. As the proverb goes, if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail, or at least to learn some hard lessons along the way.

The single greatest project killer we’ve encountered repeatedly is when project teams neglect to contact all their approving authorities before they start the project. You may need approvals from the any or all of the local municipal building department, the Ontario Power Authority, the Electrical Safety Authority, and sometimes even a local Conservation Authority. Any one of these can stop a project in its tracks, regardless of how much money you’ve spent before you call them. The most tragic case we’ve seen was nearly 200kW of solar panels fully installed, but unable to connect to the grid, because the owner neglected to get approvals first. There are more than a few homeowners across Ontario currently attempting to connect microFIT systems, less than 10kW in size, who similarly neglected to talk to their local electrical utilities first, and who now may not be able to get connected at all. Some have even withdrawn their retirement savings to finance their projects. That’s a tragic and costly mistake to make.

We’ve watched other projects get hung up in the fine print. In this market it happens all too often that contractors get hired in good faith based on a talented sales call and a thin purchase agreement, and the fine print doesn’t include some of the important details that the property owner doesn’t understand, like securing the FIT or microFIT contract to sell the electricity to the grid. Sometimes in larger projects this falls between contracts. For example, when a general contractor delivers a “turn-key” system design and installation, hires engineering consultants to do the design and electricians and roofers to do the install, but forgets to clearly spell out who will apply for the FIT contract. Without a FIT or microFIT contract, solar panels can be very expensive decorations. Especially in progressive and exciting new markets, one cannot overstate the importance of having clear contract documents, and of making sure that the whole project team has a complete and clear understanding of each other’s responsibilities, and that nothing falls through the cracks.

And even when you do everything right, sometimes projects still summer 2012

get jinxed over the most unexpected things. Most contractors don’t think to check for CSA certifications on the products they install, but I’ve seen equipment arrive on site that was not CSA certified, and that ultimately needed to be torn out and replaced with something that was. Unless products are certified to CSA or equivalent standards, the Electrical Safety Authority will not let them be connected to our grid, and with good reason. None of wants to be the project that caused a fire or worse, a fatality.

write-offs in your project: proper use of class 43.2 depreciation allowances can double the returns on your investment, and are sometimes the key element that makes a project possible.

Plan early, get help, do some research, and solar energy projects will consistently come out right. Failure to plan is planning to fail, and as simple as these projects seem, they can break just as easily as my brother and my lego fortresses if you don’t plan them properly.

Public Misinformation One of the most unexpected challenges that our projects sometimes face is social friction. One of our clients was chastised by a neighbour because “my taxes are paying for your [expletive] panels you thief!” It is remarkable how little Ontarians know about how our energy markets work, and how hypocritical some uneducated or miseducated people can be. False information is free and widely available. Good information takes effort to compile, and often costs money. And although any bigot can level heavy accusations with little effort, the “good guys” have to work hard and invest heavily to give solid answers to those accusations.

Derek Satnik is a Professional Electrical Engineer, and Managing Director at Mindscape Innovations Group Inc: a wind and solar energy consulting company with offices and projects across Ontario. www.mi-group.ca GB

Where to Find Help If there’s any one key lesson we’ve learned about solar energy projects, it’s that they’re not as simple as they seem. Thankfully there is good help available, and a properly implemented project can be a dream when done… if you plan it right!

The Renewable Energy Facilitation Office (REFO, www.energy. gov.on.ca/en/renewable-energy-facilitation-office) within the Ontario Ministry of Energy is tasked with the role of facilitating renewable energy projects as they navigate their way through the various government approvals required. They handle inquiries about everything from biomass to hydro to wind and solar, and compared to the rest of what they do, solar is blessedly simple. Don’t hesitate to call them for advice.

The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA, www.ontariosea.org) is the non-profit agency whose efforts brought together all the stakeholders and leaders that first gave us RESOP, and then the Green Energy and Green Economy Act with its FIT programs. OSEA is at the heart of the Community Power sector in Ontario, and loves nothing more than to help local community groups (farmers, coops, churches, or even private land holders) to plan and implement their own energy projects.

The Community Energy Partnership Program (www.communityenergyprogram.ca) has several grants available to help local community groups navigate the government approvals process.

And any good accountant will be able to help you plan the tax summer 2012

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ENERGY

CHP systems usually generate power behind the meter, used by the building itself, while less power is being purchased from the utility. The heat that is recovered from the CHP system is typically in the form of hot water and used for space heating as well as domestic hot water heating. In summer months CHP heat can be used for absorption cooling.

Cogeneration Efficiencies Conserve Energy

Guelph Community Centre A recent example is the West End Community Centre (WECC) in Guelph, Ontario. WECC recently completed the installation of a 400 kW CHP system supplied by European Power Systems Ltd. (EPS). EPS specializes in CHP systems with natural gas reciprocating engines as well as micro-turbine technology.

Reciprocating engine-based CHP systems are supplied by 2G and GE Jenbacher. Micro-turbine-based CHP systems are supplied

by Capstone. Systems range in size from 30 kW to 10 MW. In just its second year of existence EPS has secured more than $8M in projects across the country.

West End Community Centre (WECC) in Guelph, Ontario

W

ith a decrease in natural gas prices, and the possibility that lower prices will continue in the foreseeable future, there has been an increased interest in the implementation of cogeneration in buildings where there is a simultaneous demand for power and heat (or cooling). Cogeneration is also referred to as Combined Heat and Power (CHP).

By increasing efficiencies CHP can provide an attractive return on investment and a contribution

to reduction of greenhouse gases.

Buildings that use a significant amount of heat and power represent an opportunity for an on-site CHP system. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market, where the price of power paid by the consumer is often higher than 10 ct/kWh and the price of natural gas is lower than $6/GJ, smaller CHP systems (<250 kW) can achieve a simple payback that is better than 7 years, where larger systems (>500 kW) often see a simple payback that is better than 5 years.

Technology Options Site requirements drive the decision regarding which would be the better fit for a specific project opportunity between reciprocating engines and micro-turbine technology. Micro-turbines have a smaller footprint, have significantly lower exhaust emissions, do not require radiators and no vibration is transmitted to a building. This makes them attractive for installation in upper floors of apartment buildings and office towers.

Reciprocating engines tend to be larger, may require additional emission controls and are more difficult to integrate in a typical apartment or office building. If the system will provide emergency

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341 Bloor Street Cogeneration with Emergency Power power in the event of a utility outage, the Canadian code that governs emergency power does not permit micro-turbine technology for this purpose, so the reciprocating engine would be the technology of choice.

Efficiency Natural gas -based CHP systems reduce fuel consumption by more than 30%, when compared to the separate production of power and heat. In addition, CHP systems can be driven by biomass and other forms of renewable energy through sophisticated new control technology.

For more information about EPS, please visit www.epsenergy.ca GB

Green GreenBuildinG & SuStainable StrategieS

Fall

2012

BUILDING ENVELOPE

By Jan Bujik

Ă&#x2026; Ă&#x2026; ?DIKB7J?EDĂ&#x2026;7D:Ă&#x2026;7?HĂ&#x2026;I;7B?D=Â&#x2026;Ă&#x2026; <H7C?D=Â&#x2026;Ă&#x2026;M7BBIĂ&#x2026;7D:Ă&#x2026;9;?B?D=IÂ&#x2026;Ă&#x2026; M?D:EMIĂ&#x2026;7D:Ă&#x2026;:EEHIÂ&#x2026;Ă&#x2026; >;7J?D=Â&#x2026;Ă&#x2026;L;DJ?B7J?EDĂ&#x2026; 7D:Ă&#x2026;7?HĂ&#x2026;9ED:?J?ED?D=Â&#x2026;Ă&#x2026; M;7J>;HĂ&#x2026;87HH?;HIÂ&#x2026;Ă&#x2026; CE?IJKH;Â&#x2026;Ă&#x2026;M7BBĂ&#x2026;7II;C8B?;IÂ&#x2026;Ă&#x2026; VD?I>;IĂ&#x2026;7D:Ă&#x2026;CEH;Â Â Â

360 Enford Rd. Richmond Hill, ON L4C 3G1 Tel: 905-737-1262 â&#x20AC;˘ Fax: 905-883-6214 pave@bellnet.ca

Capstone Turbine CHP Project Office Tower 40

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

summer 2012

summer 2012

EĂ&#x2026;FB79;Ă&#x2026;7DĂ&#x2026;7:Â&#x2026;Ă&#x2026;JEĂ&#x2026;IK==;IJĂ&#x2026;7Ă&#x2026;IJEHOĂ&#x2026; EHĂ&#x2026;>7L;Ă&#x2026;OEKHĂ&#x2026;9ECF7DOĂ&#x2026;<;7JKH;:Ă&#x2026; 9EDJ79J FK8B?I>;HÂĄ=8IIC7=Â 9EC Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

41

Tracker But the long term goal for all of us can only be an intelligent exit strategy out of our current fossil energy crisis. For that we need the enduring support of provincial and federal governments and the understanding of the Canadian population, that not only do we need to change our attitude towards energy consumption, we also need effective energy policy changes in our political system.

The Green Energy and Economy Act in Ontario is only the first small step on our journey to a sustainable energy world.

Benjamin Fuehr is a Marketing and Sales representative with Green Sun Rising Inc.GB GM Volt being charged by solar carport

With Small Steps Towards Energy Independence

S

By Benjamin Fuehr

42

everal factors are driving a worldwide growing interest and demand for green energy, not the least of which is skyrocketing energy prices. Whether it is oil, coal, natural gas or nuclear power, it is a well known fact that we are rapidly depleting these nonrenewable energy resources. That drives the prices for energy to record levels and will continue to do so in the coming years.

Renewable energy sources are the only feasible alternatives to our current expensive and narrowminded energy policy. Green energy is clean and safe – unlike the environmentally disastrous oil production from the dirty Alberta tar sands or the highly dangerous and ridiculously expensive enrichment of uranium.

There are several options for home owners wanting to invest in renewable energy systems and make their first steps towards a sustainable and environmentally-friendly future.

Most common for home owners in Canada are solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. In Ontario, where

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

the provincial government introduced the Green Energy and Green Economy Act in 2009, it is not an uncommon sight to see solar panels mounted on homes or garages, or to see ground mounts or trackers installed in fields.

But what other options are out there if you want to go green?

“There are many opportunities available in Canada”, explains Klaus Dohring, founder and president of Green Sun Rising Inc., a renewable energy company in Windsor, Ontario and one of the pioneers of green energy in Ontario.

“Geothermal and solar thermal systems, solar hot air systems and biomass boilers for domestic heat and heating water – making your house more energy efficient, potentially even energy Net Zero is absolutely possible,” says Dohring.

To achieve this, Green Sun Rising’s engineers constantly work on new ideas and products. Their latest example for an innovative product is the Solar Bikeport. With electric bikes, so called E-bikes becoming more and more popular, the company’s summer 2012

GM Volt with solar carport and Solar bikeport

designers developed a device to protect these trendy gadgets from the elements – and simultaneously charge them for their next trip!

How does that work? Green Sun Rising’s solar experts have installed three flexible solar modules on the curved roof of the Bikeport. These thin-film modules, with a combined rated output of over 200W, produce enough power to fully charge an E-bike battery during the course of one sunny day.

But it doesn’t just charge E-bikes. Combined with a small bench, it can also serve as a simple and effective lounge that can be used as a bus stop or a covered seat in a park. The electricity could be used for charging smart phones or laptops while waiting or resting.

Green Sun Rising also offers carports covered with solar panels, in case customers want to protect their cars. With many major automakers now selling electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, these carports are also available with an integrated level-2 charging station for electric vehicles.

These are just two examples of creative products and applications discovered when one starts exploring the growing fields of renewable or green energy. It can start with very small steps, with saving energy, installing a new furnace or a small solar photovoltaic or solar thermal system. summer 2012

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

43

MARKETING

“Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that provides industry intelligence.”

Joe Pulizzi, Founder of the Content Marketing Institute

W

Content f o Ma r e w

ith so many marketing options available to target B2B customers, how do you effectively employ your advertising dollars to reach your audience? How can you ensure you’re having a dialogue with your target, the decision maker?

Consider the power of content marketing.

“Content marketing aims to build a relationship of trust and loyalty with the sponsor’s customers, so they regard the sponsor as the vendor of choice when they make purchases.

This is accomplished by providing information and, often, advice that meets the needs and suits the preferences of the sponsor’s target market. It serves the interests of the audience, rather than overtly plugging products and services the way ads do. “(Wilkipedia) 44

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

ting rke

The P o

By Marylene Vestergom

Content marketing is networking in writing. Instead of the one-size-fitsall solutions like radio, television and other types of advertising, engaging in a targeted approach using custom content is a way that you can convey your unique story in a non-interruptive forum. Imagine being able to have a conversation within the context of peer-generated content.

The key, of course, is delivering content that is relevant and current to your target market. In return, your vehicle becomes a trusted resource that will be recognized as a voice of authority. By using narrative content to communicate a new product, an innovative idea or a case study, the content marketing vehicle quickly becomes a reference tool. You begin as a source of information and continue as a source of roducts and services. summer 2012

Content marketing is actually the best thing to happen to the marketing profession in decades. Instead of creating ads, consider communicating impactful ideas to your audience using content marketing with articles that are underwritten with an editorial presence, positioning your business as an authority on the subject covered. Remember, most people read magazines not for the ads but for the content. So why not create what they really want -- content that can be trusted and targeted to your customer.

In the past, consumers didn’t have much of a choice – if they wanted more information, they were at the whim of the advertisers. Today’s consumers are in complete control, with their 24-hour-a-day electronic devices. They are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily. B2B marketers can now drive profitable customer action by tailoring their message within a vehicle like a custom content magazine and speak strategically to the end user.

Consider the following figures from Roper Public Affairs: 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles instead of in an advertisement 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company 60% say that company content helps them make better product decisions.

How would your business be different if your customer looked forward to receiving your marketing? If they spent between 15 and 45 minutes with your material? If it became a resource tool that they saved and reread?

“Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute, and that there has

to be a better way,” says Pulizzi. “Thought leaders and marketing experts from around the world have concluded that content marketing isn’t just the future, it’s the present.”

Content marketing is an opportunity to deliver your personal message and build brand awareness to your customer -- a targeted vehicle that you can tailor to meet your needs. GB

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Content marketing is the fastestgrowing and effective form of marketing after the Internet, because of its ability to deliver relevant, compelling and engaging content to a defined audience in a manner that delivers results.

summer 2012

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

45

Storage

An Essential Part of the Grid Equation

Energy Storage

For the Future… and Beyond energy storage is a…

BIG DEAL

Recently, a manufacturer began offering a pre-engineered ice storage enhanced air cooled cooling system than includes controls to simplify design, installation and operation while lowering implementation costs. Subsidies are not needed unless the utility industry wants quick adoption. The subsidy helps overcome market barriers of unfamiliarity and experience. The TES industry is surviving with only a small percentage of cooling systems using storage today. ASHRAE 90.1, LEED, and Demand Response revenue opportunities are causing TES applications to increase.

By Paul Valenta

S

torage is an essential part of the grid equation. SmartGridNews states that energy storage is generally considered a critical tool for integrating intermittent renewables into the electric grid and maximizing their value. The Economist points out that time-shifting would compensate for the intermittent nature of wind and solar power. And everyone agrees that the Smart Grid will require storage as a large piece of the generation mix moves away from fossil fuels in order reduce demand and to capture intermittent renewable energy when it is available for use when it is needed.

The debate is around how exactly that storage will be implemented and utilized on the grid side. “The next five years will be critical and provide enormous opportunity to move storage technologies to full commercialization,” says Brad Roberts, executive director of U.S.-based Electricity Storage Association.

Ok, but what about THERMAL energy storage?

While there is a broad discussion about energy storage taking place in the local and federal governments, thermal energy storage (TES) seems to be largely left out of the conversations. According to a recent Pike Research report, $122 billion will be invested in energy storage projects between 2011 and 2021, with a bulk of the spending going toward new forms of compressed-air energy storage (CAES). Prominent websites report that large-scale energy storage is making renewables even more cost effective. While other news claims that grid-scale energy storage is still cost prohibitive and large amounts of research money is going into developing new forms of energy storage.

Thermal energy storage (TES) is hardly mentioned in the same breath as chemical storage or pumped hydro or CAES. While TES is distributed energy storage, according to KEMA, TES accounts for 46

Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

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Efficient Nighttime Grid Electricity

almost one GW of current storage capacity. That’s more than twice the capacity of pumped hydro, and more than pumped hydro plus all other technologies combined. TES is proven, reliable, dispatchable, made to last, and the least expensive of all energy storage systems. Many systems last for over thirty years. In fact, one system available is 99 percent reusable or recyclable at the end of its service life.

TES used in buildings creates a hybrid cooling system similar to today’s hybrid cars. A standard midsized car has a relatively large engine to provide enough power for all situations, even though the car is lightly loaded most of the time. Hybrid cars use smaller, more fuel-efficient engines. When the boost is needed to merge, for example, or the load is heavy, or when traffic is at a crawl, the stored energy is used to optimize performance and efficiency.

On the other hand, conventional HVAC systems have a “big engine” to handle highly variable cooling needs. All support equipment is sized for this big engine even though cooling systems rarely operate at peak capacity. Hybrid cooling systems with energy storage use a smaller “engine” and smaller support equipment. The capital saved is used to purchase and install TES. The stored energy is used when cooling loads are high, electric demand is high, or when prices are high. Typically less source energy is consumed which produces lower GHG emissions, and cooling costs can be cut 20-40 percent.

Thermal energy storage should be part of the solution To combat limited investment capital, siting issues, demand summer 2012

½ Price Nighttime Electricity

Distributed Stored ENERGY

growth, the switch to renewable energy, and the smart grid, more utility companies are relying on demand-side management such as variable time of day or real time pricing. The price of electricity is set based upon market prices and the laws of supply and demand.

During daytime hours, when the power grid is reaching maximum capacity, prices are higher. On the other hand, the price of electricity is lower during the nighttime hours when demand on the power grid is at its lowest. Furthermore, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has said that the only form of energy not to increase in cost, when converted to today’s dollars, is off-peak electricity. The next logical step for commercial buildings is to shift energy usage to off-peak hours when utility demand is lower and rates are less expensive.

Summertime demand is almost completely caused by air conditioning, a load that can easily be shifted with thermal energy storage. According to the New York Times Green Blog, prices peak when the sun is high in the sky, because that is when the demand for power, mostly for air-conditioning, is highest. Although TES is not on the grid side of the meter, its combined impact can add up to significant capacity in the summer months. Energy is stored at the building in the form of ice over night so that TES can essentially act as a battery for wind power closer to the point of use for better round trip efficiency.

Think of the infrastructure that is saved by the residential use of water heaters that store hot water! Yet many in the commercial building industry and HVAC designers still follow traditional rules of thumb and choose to provide over-sized, just-in-time cooling systems. Work is being done to simplify implementation of TES. summer 2012

Generate your own electricity for less than 5 ct/kWh?

With an EPS Cogeneration System you can!

Pre-engineered, super-silent, packaged cogeneration systems 30 kW up to 4.4 MW For more information or to request a pre-feasibility study, please contact: info@epsenergy.ca or visit: www.epsenergy.ca Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

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Case in point One example of a successful TES application is the Yardmen Arena in Ontario, Canada. The aging mechanical system needed to reflect Ontarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to increased sustainability.

Rather than just replacing the old system with an updated version, city officials looked for a more energy efficient solution, ultimately settling on thermal energy storage. Built in 1978 and home to the Ontario Hockey Leagueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (OHL) Belleville Bulls, the Yardmen Arenaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing chilled water system needed to be replaced to meet forthcoming regulations. The city sought an innovative green solution that would comply with the new regulation as well as lower annual energy expenses.

The installation already exceeds expectations by 25 percent.

The city of Belleville is now anticipating a three-year payback instead of the estimated four-year payback. Even on the hottest days in the summer, where temperatures often exceed 90°F, the electric chiller remains off. Cooling is supplied from the ice storage tank and a 30 horsepower pump operating at half speed.

Prior to this retrofit, Yardmen Area was the biggest energy consumer of all the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assets. The CALMAC ice storage system and Trane Tracerâ&#x201E;˘ chilled water system plant and ice controls, which provide additional savings from Demand Response rebates from Ontario Power Authority, have enabled the Yardmen Arena to see unprecedented energy savings.

A large part of the Demand Response conversation Commercial buildings use a large portion of the current generation capacity. One-third of the power grid load is consumed by commercial buildings. Even as our economy has slowed,

demand remains high and grid traffic can be congested, especially during high demand hours. Reducing demand as much as possible during peak consumption periods is the premise for demand response (DR) technology. Demand response is a voluntary change in electricity use by a participant at specific times of the day. Peak demand hours are most commonly between 12:00 am and 7:00 pm. Using demand response technology can reduce the stress on power grids, while providing benefits to the building, the power grid and the environment.

If most buildings, such as 1500 Walnut, were equipped with Demand Response technology like thermal energy storage, power consumption could be evenly distributed throughout all hours of the day, creating better load factors while reducing demand and the need for more investment in generation, transmission and distribution. Reducing demand can also minimize the use of older peaking power plants. These older peaking power plants create greenhouse gas emissions that are released into the atmosphere and result in poor local and regional air quality.

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Thermal energy storage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talk about it!

Thermal energy storage systems are reliable, affordable, and a viable solution to this countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy needs. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to rethink energy storage and bring TES more fully into the energy storage conversation.

Paul Valenta is Vice President of Sale and Marketing for CALMAC. For more information, visit http://www.calmac.com GB

NapoleonÂŽ Wins Two Prestigious Vesta Awards at Hpbexpo

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apoleonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HMF200 and 9600 Wood/Gas - the only gas furnace made In Canada - won two prestigious awards at the HPBExpo Vesta Awards in Atlanta Georgia, Furnace Combination was honored with winning the Central Heating Systems Category Award and went on to win the prestigious Daniel J. Melcon Award for Best-in-Show â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hearth Products.

The HMF200/9600 Combo Furnace won for its industry first design, green technology and fuel saving capabilities. When the fire in the wood furnace dies down, a second thermostat calls for heat and the gas furnace starts. As an added bonus, the ultra efficient gas furnace also features a DC motor that can save up to 80% on electricity bills. NapoleonÂŽ manufactures both the wood and gas furnaces in their Barrie, Ontario facility and unlike other manufacturers, the entire combination is backed by a warranty as a system â&#x20AC;&#x201C; another first in the industry. The Vesta Awards were created to recognize and honor companies for their innovation in product design and technology in the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Industry.

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For more information visit napoleonheatingandcooling.com

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Green Building & Sustainable Strategies

summer 2012

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Savings

by Design Helping you maximize the energy efficiency of your new buildings.

With our comprehensive Savings by Design program, builders participate in an Enbridge Integrated Design Process (IDP). The IDP brings together experts in energy efficiency and sustainability to identify ways to maximize energy performance in your new construction buildings. In addition to covering the cost of the IDP, Enbridge also provides incentives to help you implement the IDPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendations to achieve 25% or more above Ontario Building Code (2012).

To qualify for the program, your project must be a minimum of 100,000 square feet.

To learn more, call Mary Harinck at 416-753-6258 or email mary.harinck@enbridge.com