All posts by Giulio

HVAC

Reversomatic & Industry’s First Self-Balancing HRV

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Reversomatic Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation by Launching Self-Balancing HRV

They said it couldn’t be done, but Reversomatic has made life much easier for builders, especially high-rise builders. It has released the industry’s first self-balancing HRV and ERV series, to save time while addressing stack-effect inefficiencies in condominiums and other tall structures.

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.

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 other heat recovery ventilators in the market are based on the assumption that once installed, the system is properly balanced,” says Reversomatic founder Joe Salerno. “But savings are sometimes not realized on tall buildings, because the pressure varies between the upper and lower floors. An HRV in every unit can represent hours of balancing. Our Deluxe series makes it a breeze.”

Deluxe Series Self Balancing HRV/ERV Line

The slim-design 55 lb. units meet all standards and building code requirements and feature a tilted core for maximum efficiency, permanently lubricated PSC motor for continuous operation, a unique electronic control board that allows the unit to return to the last memory mode when power restores after failure, washable foam filter
and an enthalpy core for -25°C. They are ideal for horizontal or vertical installation, with air flow of 45-95 CFM (normal operation)
and power ratings of 115V / 1 / 60 Hz, 1.10 Amps.

Cutting Edge Ventilation Products Since 1972

In the early 1960s Joe Salerno heard about the land of opportunity overseas and dreamed of a better life in North America. He packed up and left his beloved hometown of Mondalto Uffugo, Italy in 1963, sailing for Canada with a lot of hope and not much money. He got a job working for a sheet metal heating firm, and when the owner decided to return to the UK, 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 began specializing in the manufacture of fans, related products and listening to customers.

Innovative, Fast and Customer Sensitive

Forty years later, Reversomatic is one of Canada’s largest fan manufactures,with four manufacturing plants in Ontario, a sales office in South Florida and distribution all over North America. Yet it is still family owned, with Joe’s son Peter and two sons-in-law working in the business. It is responsive and very nimble.

“There is no huge corporate decision-making structure here,” says Joe Salerno. “If a customer asks for something special to be customized for a particular job, our competitors might take six months just to come to a decision. Long before that Reversomatic product would be already installed in the building.”

“We only sell to the trade, not to the retail market, because our customers don’t want us to compete with them and they want us to be focused on developing new products for the changing technology landscape,” says Peter Salerno.

“Our newest products help minimize frustration, solve problems and prevent costly callbacks; just like we rarely discontinue parts for our older products, so that installers aren’t faced with a headache instead of a minor repair. Everything we do is based on understanding the daily needs of the trade. We’re centrally located and we’re focused on the fastest growing segments of the market, like high-rise installations.

“That’s why we’re number one in the market. We just did installations in Donald Trump’s new building and at Shangri La in Toronto. We have dealers all over America and we are expanding into other countries too. One recent project was in Puerta Vallarta in Mexico.”

In-House Research Lab for New Green Tech     Reversomatic developed self-balancing 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 with an in-house air chamber to conduct performance tests such as wallbox water penetration and wind tests. It maintains membership in HVI and AMCA and is an Energy Star partner. All products are CSA approved, most are HVI approved and some are 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 machined to exact specifications

One-Stop Shop for Ventilation, Especially in Condos

With US customers still experiencing a soft market, Reversomatic has redoubled its focus on Canada and high-rise builders in particular. Many of the newest products solve problems that are unique to these kinds of structures.

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 and say this design means the cavity for an HRV is only 9 inches instead of 10 inches. They know we will help them. We’re probably the only company who can quickly respond that that kind of custom-design request. But at the same time, we’ve been doing it for so long, we also make everything else they need for a condo.”

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.

They’re all CSA Approved, UL Approved or both.

It supplies custom louvers and dampers to exact customer specifications from extruded aluminum or formed steel; a whole line of commercial grade fans; wall boxes and balance boxes that are weather proof and super quiet; and sensors and controls for more control and less worry: Pressure sensors, heat sensors, amp sensors, humidistats and time delay switches.

Happy Birthday

“After 40 years of manufacturing fans I am pretty happy,” says Joe Salerno. “They said we couldn’t design an electronic self-balancing HRV, 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 custom work and still offer everything needed in the ventilation business, but we did it. They said it couldn’t be done, but Reversomatic did it.”

Style

Hush Homes

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Hush: Seeing green through the customer’s eyes

By Saul Chernos

Hush 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.

“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. 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.”

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 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

 

Ideas

With Small Steps Towards Energy Independence

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With Small Steps Towards Energy Independence

By Benjamin Fuehr

Several 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 non-renewable 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 narrow-minded 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 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 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.

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

Green Energy

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

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

By Paul Luukkonen

Through 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/2006-046/2006-046_OP-J_411-SOLRES_PV+map.pdf

Paul Luukkonen, HBSc, is a Sustainable Technologies Coordinator at Kortright Centre for Conservation in Vaughan, ON  GB

 

 

 

 

Sustainability

TD Greening from Inside Out

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TD Greening from Inside Out

by Derek Wong

While 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.

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 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 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

Images of TD Fort Lauderdale branch used with permission from TD

Green Energy

Life in the Trenches: How Solar Projects Really Work (or Don’t)

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Life in the Trenches: How Solar Projects Really Work (or Don’t)

By Derek Satnik, P.Eng., LEED® AP

When I was a kid I used to love lego. My brother and I could build anything when we set our minds to it. We had adventures with castles, nights and monsters, drove trains on the moon, made our own transformers… and never needed a building permit, or a utility connection agreement, or an ESA approval.

The Solar industry is not new in Canada, but it has certainly grown over the past decade. The advent of Ontario’s Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) in 2006 was heralded globally, and Ontario was thrust into the forefront of global solar media. When 2009 turned RESOP into the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), Ontario became North America’s renewable energy policy leader, and a global model for other jurisdictions to follow. Ontario’s solar industry blossomed, and regulators scrambled to put processes in place to keep us all safe and to help projects move forward.

Help. That’s an interesting word.

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.

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 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.

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

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.ontario-sea.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 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.

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

Architecture

Kongats Architects

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Kongats Architects

Distinctive and Energy-Friendly

The 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.

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.

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.

Technology

Say ‘No’ to Man Against Nature

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Say ‘No’ to Man Against Nature

The harmony of the Termobuild radiant system

English 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?

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 air through its system, it is a cross between forced air technology and a radiant system, taking advantage of the somewhat slower moving principle of thermal mass.

With Termobuild, air moves through 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. Projects have tended to be school and university structures, which adapt well to this type of construction, and can save between 35% and 50% on energy for cooling and heating.

The system consists of vents, fans, fittings, sensors and controls, plus hollowed out concrete 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 modify them 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 making the building into a big 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.

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.

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.”

Depending on outside temperatures, many buildings using extreme forced air heating actually exceed allowable CO2 limits between the hours of 10AM and 2PM. 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. And because the building, often a school, is constructed largely from concrete, fire safety is enhanced, noise and vibrations are controlled.

In addition, concrete panels can help achieve LEED certification in a variety of ways. They can be recycled and locally manufactured; they provide thermal mass and an insulating core. 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 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 an previously unconventional way. We are using existing materials in a different application. It’s like being a conductor of an orchestra. We are taking people with instruments and existing talent and helping them to harmonize; helping them to make beautiful music together.”

Uncategorized

Cogeneration Efficiencies Conserve Energy

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CHP Efficiencies Conserve Energy

With 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 today’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.

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.

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.

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 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

Ideas

International Green Construction Code

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International Green Construction Code 

IgCC offers a new code baseline for greener building construction

The 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, 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.

Giulio Marinescu

Publisher