|
Energy Innovation Preview for the Building Sector
April, 2009
By Barbara Carss
Sustainable Development Technology Canada is an arm’s length federal agency created to support the development and demonstration of emerging innovative technologies related to climate change, air, water and soil quality and renewable fuels. It administers two funds – the $550-million SD Tech Fund and the $500-million NextGen Biofuels Fund – and has allocated $376 million dollars to 154 research proponents over 13 rounds of funding since 2002.
Most recently, in March 2009, SDTC awarded $53 million for 16 new projects. This federal money represents a portion of the funding for each project, with the remainder contributed by consortia of private and public sector supporters affiliated with each research and development effort. SDTC estimates consortia members have contributed $905 million during the past seven years.
The following report highlights three projects with specific applications for the real estate sector.
Flexible Configuration for Energy Recovery IAQ and Freeze-Thaw Concerns Minimized
A polymer membrane initially developed for fuel cells could see wider service as a resilient medium for the transfer of heat and humidity within energy recovery systems. Vancouver-based DPoint Technologies Inc. recently received funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to support continued development, testing and field demonstration of its energy recovery ventilator (ERV) core and decentralized approach to reducing heating and air conditioning loads.
Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) are a generic name for equipment that exchanges heat and moisture between the air intake and exhaust outlet of a building’s ventilation system. Both intake and exhaust airstreams travel through the ERV and membranes in the core of the equipment serve as the conduit for the energy exchange.
During colder months, heat and moisture are captured from the exhaust system and transferred to the intake system so that less energy is needed to warm the incoming air. In the summer, heat and moisture are drawn out of the incoming air so that less energy is required to cool it.
Until now, most ERVs have relied on a paper-based membrane, which can be damaged in the freeze-thaw cycles inherent to the Canadian climate. Paper membranes can also be a venue for mould and other bacterial growth, which could cause indoor air quality and health concerns in a building’s air intake system. Researchers at DPoint recognized a fit for the non-organic polymer membrane they were already using in the company’s fuel cell development initiative.
“With fuel cells taking so long to become commercialized, we looked at how to use our membrane in other applications that might involve heat and humidity transfer,” says Brian Roth, the company’s ERV Product Manager. “We’ve got several benefits from using a polymer-based membrane versus a paper-based membrane, and indoor air quality may be as big a driver as energy savings.”
Unlike heat exchangers, which use simple conduction for the transfer of heat, energy recovery has traditionally required moving parts because moisture must be physically driven from one airstream to another. Nevertheless, energy recovery offers other advantages. “You get greater energy savings during the air conditioning season because the air conditioner uses a very large portion of its energy to knock moisture out of the air,” Roth notes.
In DPoint’s ERV design, incoming and exhaust air moves in alternating directions across layers of membrane. Heat and moisture is transferred from the warmer, wetter stream to the cooler, dryer stream, but the membrane prevents the air itself from crossing over.
The polymer membrane core is the innovative focus of the SDTC demonstration project, but developers participating in the project consortium are simply interested in potential energy savings and operating efficiencies. The first demonstration projects will be targeted to small decentralized or in-suite HVAC systems in new single-family and multi-residential construction.
Consortium member Windmill Developments has installed heat recovery technology in past developments, including in a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum mixed-use development in Calgary, a LEED Gold mixed-use tower in Ottawa and in the early phases of a 1-million-square-foot mixed-use waterfront redevelopment project in Victoria. The company now plans to test the new ERV core in a 30-unit green cottage development on the Ottawa River.
Tridel Corporation, one of Canada’s largest condominium developers, is also part of the consortium, and will test the ERV core in its research and development program. The developer has already implemented several innovative heat recovery approaches in recent development in Toronto.
“We remain technology-neutral until we have an understanding of what the best technology is,” asserts Jamie James, a Principal with Windmill Developments and a sustainability advisor to Tridel. “We find that in our climate, heat recovery offers the biggest bang for the buck. What we like about this technology is that it’s an enclosure that could fit into any number of heat recovery devices, which is also important because it provides design flexibility. It’s just a core that improves the efficiency of any heat recovery system.”
Since the SDTC study period covers three-and-a-half years, technology developers plan to gather, assess and compare data on how the system works in different applications, including a retrofit of a commercial or industrial building, and in different climatic conditions. Payback is expected to be in the three- to five-year range across much of Canada.
“Vancouver, where we are situated, is probably one of the worst locations because it so temperate,” Roth says. “In areas in the southern United States the payback can actually be immediate because of the ability to select and install smaller air conditioning equipment.”
Payback will also be quicker in new construction. “There are retrofit possibilities, but it is simpler in new construction because you will be able to plan ahead in terms of the ductwork,” Roth says. “Probably the easiest retrofits would be in commercial and industrial spaces where installers can get better access to the ductwork.”
Solar Technology Casts Light on Buried Spaces Energy Savings and Improved Office Ambience
Research begun in the University of British Columbia’s physics department now adorns a modest three-storey building on the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) campus. It’s the first full-sized demonstration of technology designed to deliver more natural light into the floor plates of similar conventional office buildings, which typically contain a sizable core of artificially lit workspace within an encircling band of outer offices that block access to the windows.
Lightweight canopies on the south façade of the BCIT building enclose a solar optic system that collects and directs light through the nearby window. From there, sunlight enters a distribution system – called a light guide – fashioned from advanced new reflective materials that can carry it as far as 80 feet (20 metres) into the interior space.
“When the sun is shining outside, the entire light guide is glowing uniformly. Any time there is direct sunlight during the day, the fluorescent lights are completely off,” says Michele Mossman, a research associate at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and manager of the laboratory developing the solar canopy illumination system project.
Funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), the British Columbia Innovative Clean Energy Fund and additional support and in kind contributions from the 11 companies and/or public sector entities that make up the solar canopy project consortium will extend system testing to five more demonstration sites across Canada during the next three-and-a-half years. To begin, researchers will complete the first year of monitoring on the system that now illuminates half the upper floor of the BCIT building, and install new canopies and light guides to cover most of the floor.
The technology proponents foresee applications in both new construction and existing buildings. In new development, it could be a lower-cost alternative to atriums and other architecturally based approaches for increasing the amount of daylight entering the building. “We are really targeting the systems of the standard office building,” Mossman says.
“I think the main proof of the concept is to be able to retrofit it into the existing building stock,” observes Donald Yen, who heads the Sustainable Urban Development program at BCIT’s School of Construction and the Environment. “We’re kind of at version 1.0 today, but we’ll be at version 8.0 in two or three years.”
Research efforts thus far have focused on a functional design that could be integrated into an existing structure relatively easily. “As far as we can tell right now, there aren’t many structural limitations,” Mossman says. “The canopy is very lightweight. From a structural point of view, there are a number of ways it can be tied into the building. The only other thing required [on the façade] other than having the canopy mounted, is a window.”
Inside the building, the light guide is a hybrid fixture that also contains fluorescent lamps that come on when sunlight is not entering the distribution system. This must be connected to sensors and building controls that will turn the fluorescent lighting on and off as needed. In its initial configuration, the light guide runs perpendicularly from the window sunlight source on the building’s south façade to the centre of the building, but researchers will assess the effectiveness of other possible fixture styles during subsequent phases of the research.
Within the light guide, the new reflective materials recently developed by 3M (which is part of the project’s consortium) are key to the system’s cost effectiveness. The project’s leader and principal investigator, Professor Lorne Whitehead of UBC’s physics department, first began working on the design concept about 30 years ago, but rejected it as uneconomical at the time. “With the advent of the new materials, his interest was rekindled,” Mossman reports.
Even so, capital costs for the demonstration project are higher because the components have been specially designed for a single installation. These costs are expected to fall with wider scale production.
“The payback depends on the sunshine probability and the cost of electricity. In some places that are really sunny, the payback time can be less than five years, but, in Canada, in most places it would be longer,” Mossman notes.
Researchers also point to other possible paybacks in a naturally lit environment. From a design and aesthetic perspective, daylight delivers a fuller rendering of the spectrum with more vibrant and truer colours.
From a psychological perspective, research suggests that workers are more content and possibly more productive underneath natural light. “Our payback figure is calculated solely on energy savings, but there is a lot of research going on right now on the benefits of daylight from a human factor point of view,” Mossman says.
Unobstructed sunlight is crucial, making it more challenging to find suitable locations in densely developed urban areas where surrounding buildings cast shadows. “It is the same issue that solar photovoltaics would face,” she adds.
Typically, solar canopies would be affixed to one of the east, west or south frontages of a building, although they could be practical on all frontages in some cases. New construction provides more flexibility to fit the light canopy into a recessed space in the building façade and minimize its obtrusiveness. Researchers are also confident that the design will be refined.
“I am an architect by profession and we certainly recognize that the aesthetics of the enclosure of the solar optics are going to be an architectural issue,” Yen acknowledges. “They look boxy at this point, but this is just the first stage of development.”
Load Levelling Logic Quick Payback from Peak Demand Reduction
Peak demand can significantly increase commercial consumers’ electricity costs. Local utilities in Ontario – and in many other North American jurisdictions – collect demand charges that add a premium to the electricity bill based on the highest level of consumption during any 15-minute interval within the billing period. This can represent 20% to 30% of the total bill.
Customers could potentially save thousands of dollars by reducing their peak loads and better coordinating the timing of energy-intensive activities. Beyond that, electricity customers may be able to make money if they participate in programs like Ontario’s demand response (DR) initiatives or Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP), which pay consumers for load reduction during periods of high demand that could destabilize the electricity system.
In both scenarios, building managers and operators need a load profile to understand how and when electricity is consumed, and the flexibility to adjust the electricity load without compromising safety, security or the quality of the space for building occupants. Toronto-based REGEN Energy Inc. has received funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to support commercialization of a low-cost, wireless technology that enables a building’s various electricity-consuming elements to communicate and devise the most efficient operating sequence.
“Our wireless controllers do not turn things on or off. It really rides on top of other control systems and constantly calculates every minute what the appropriate load levelling of all the loads is,” explains Chris Beaver, REGEN Energy’s Executive Vice President.
The wireless controllers can be installed on electrical heating, cooling or other discretionary loads – typically equipment like air conditioners, compressors and pumps. Built-in self-configuring radios forge a wireless mesh network that synchronizes all the controllers within a facility and seamlessly assimilates new controllers as loads are added and the system expands. This is monitored and controlled off-site so that no personnel within the facility has to be trained, but building managers can also monitor the system through a secure web portal if they choose to do so.
Each controller separately becomes attuned to the duty cycle of the equipment it monitors, and re-computes this cycle every minute to adapt to changing conditions. The controllers then use what is known as swarm logic to calculate the building’s optimum electricity load profile and communicate on a network-wide basis.
“The science behind that is really an algorithm,” Beaver says. “It allows the loads to coordinate with each other. It works with the equipment so the equipment gets the energy to satisfy the load’s needs, but it might be asked to wait for a minute here or there.”
The developers of the technology project it might reduce peak electrical demand by 25 to 30%. Beaver advises building owners and managers in Ontario to further explore incentive opportunities through the Electricity Retrofit Incentive Program (ERIP), which the province’s local distribution companies (LDCs) administer on behalf of the Ontario Power Authority. Installation of the wireless controllers could qualify as a custom project – which provides a onetime payment of $150 per kilowatt saved or 50% of project costs, whichever is the lesser amount – potentially reducing the payback period for the technology to less than one year.
“Because our system is wireless, we can also send information to it, so if one of our clients wanted to participate in a demand response program, that would be easy to facilitate,” he adds.
Levelling peak demand doesn’t necessarily translate into overall consumption reduction since the electricity will still be used at a different time, but it does contribute to resource conservation. Indeed, demand charges exist because local utilities must fund required investment in system capacity to ensure that the transmission/distribution system can deliver the maximum conceivable loads during high demand periods. Lower peaks can reduce and/or delay the need for system expansion and related financial, environmental and social costs of building and maintaining infrastructure that is rarely required.
Since each customer’s peak demand period is generally in sync with system-wide high demand, reducing that peak can be particularly critical when soaring demand increases the risk of brownouts or rolling blackouts. These are also the typically the times when peak demand presses more fossil-fuel fired generating plants into service.
“As part of the SDTC project, we will be fine-tuning our greenhouse gas calculator, which, to our best knowledge, is the only greenhouse gas calculator that measures peak demand in kilowatts rather than kilowatt-hours,” Beaver reports.
Currently, the wireless energy controllers are installed in Toronto office buildings, apartment complexes, convention centres and retail stores. The SDTC funding will support a number of demonstration projects and further research over the next two-and-a-half years.
|