Long Term Service Awards

Yesterday, we celebrated the long term service of 3 Provident Energy Management employees...

Dave Muffitt, Operations Manager, 20 years

Craig McIntyre, Engineering Manager, 5 years

Jason Schembri, Technical Sales Representative, 5 years

Congratulations Dave, Craig, and Jason!

Provident Energy In The News

Our Commissioning Agent, Chris Wong, recently had his re-commissioning and retro-commissioning article published online in Condo Business Mazagine.

The Article: Effective Energy Savings Solutions For Existing Buildings: Re-Commissioning And Retro-Commissioning. To read the article, please visit the Condo Business Magazine website --> Link To Article

2011 BILD Awards

Provident Energy was a finalist of this year's BILD Awards!

P2G COMMUNITY OF THE YEAR – HIGH-RISE

• Concert Properties, The Berczy – Provident Energy Management
• Liberty Development, World on Yonge – Kirkor Architects and Planners, Montana Steele Advertising, Brandon Communications **WINNER**
• Tridel, West Village – Hefele Makowka Design Associates, Drive Agency

For complete summary of the 2011 BILD Awards, please visit http://www.bildawards.com/

Incentives Paying You to Save Energy

The number one ongoing cost for any condominium corporation, is the cost incurred through the consumption of energy. The OPA (Ontario Power Authority) is providing the funding for local utilities to provide a new set of incentives to help multi-unit residential dwellings facilitate energy efficient retrofits. This incentive program will be available from March 2011 through to 2014. The new Save ON Energy program follows many of the same guidelines of previous incentive programs, except for a few key differences. Instead of providing $0.07 per kWh or $400/kW in demand reduction for lighting retrofits they will be providing the greater of either $0.05 per kWh or $400/kW with a maximum of 50% of the retrofit cost being covered by the incentive, which is up from the previous cap of 40% (for custom and engineered track). For non-lighting retrofits an incentive of either, $800/kW or $0.10/kWh of first year electricity savings to a maximum of 50% of project costs.

The Provident Post Is Moving Online

Provident Energy is committed to conservation and sustainability. We will be slowly phasing out printed copies of the Provident Post – by the end of 2011, we will only be sending the newsletter through email. Although the Provident Post is printed on recycled Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved paper stock, manufacturing paper still requires energy. The paper and envelopes used to distribute the Provident Post releases approximately 500lbs of carbon dioxide annually into the environment – and this does not include the transportation energy of the mail couriers. By going electronic, Provident Energy will be reducing its carbon footprint. To all property managers and board members – if you would like to have the quarterly Provident Post sent to you, please send us your email to info@pemi.com.

Tech Corner: Air Balancing

In virtually all condominiums, fresh air is introduced into the building from the outside through one or more main air handlers, typically located on the roof or in the basement of the building.

The fresh air is air-conditioned at the central source and is then ducted to individual floors terminating at a grille or supply vent located in the hallway.

The typical supply vent will have one or more components. In all cases, the vent will include a directional louver, designed to direct the air down the hallways in a horizontal stream. On the majority of condominiums built within the last 25 years, a set of balancing dampers will be found immediately behind the directional louvers. There may also be a fire damper located behind the balancing dampers, designed to close on a rise in temperature (using gravity or a spring loaded arrangement held in the open position by a fusible link). The fusible link is simply two pieces of metal that are fused together with a metal that has a low melting point. The fire dampers may also be equipped with a damper actuator or motor that is engaged when the fire alarm system sends a signal to the actuators or motors.

Since the air going to individual floors comes from central air handlers, it is necessary to balance the amount of air that is delivered to each floor.

The balancing dampers are equipped with an adjustment screw to control the amount of air delivered to the floor.  Specialized companies provide these air balancing services. Using a measurement device called a velometer, the technician can check the speed of the air coming out of the vent and using a calculation based on the size of the vent can determine the volume of air delivered in litres per second (l/s) or cubic feet per minute (CFM).

Fresh air is used to pressurize the building (to prevent infiltration of outdoor air through the building envelope). It is also used to ‘make up’ for air that is exhausted from the building (bathroom and kitchen exhaust) and to provide fresh air for respiration.

Provident Energy recommends air balancing every two to three years.

~~ Dave Muffitt, Operations Manager