Changeover Time is Coming

After one of the coldest winters in recent memory, the heating to cooling changeover is right around the corner. Here are some tips for making the changeover this year.

 

1)      During the shoulder season when heating may be required, Make Up Air units that are fed by Primary Boilers can be left in a heating mode while the fan-coils in the suites are switched over to cooling. With a cooler Spring appearing likely, this will allow you to provide some heat in the corridors while providing cooling insuite.

 

2)      Glycol – make sure that when draining coils of glycol to recover all of the glycol in clean storage containers. Do not let the glycol flow into the building mains.

 

3)      Basement Loops (Miscellaneous Heating Loops) that are fed from the Heating / Cooling Mains need to be manually shut down during the summer to prevent condensation in enclosed spaces.

 

4)      Do an inspection of the Cooling Tower well before your changeover date. With the ice storm, it is possible that parts of the Tower may have experienced some damage due to heavy ice.

 

5)      Make sure that outside, electrically heated areas are shut down for the summer or that the controlling thermostats are set to a minimum set-point a couple of degrees above freezing.

 

6)      Remember to call Provident Energy during your changeover. Unless the Energy Management System is commanded to the cooling mode, HVAC systems will not operate properly.

SpringFest 2014

SpringFest 2014 is less than a month away!

The annual educational seminar and tradeshow expo will take place Thursday April 10 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre – South Building. Be sure to drop by and see us at Booth #318! For more information, including FREE registration, please visit their website. http://www.springfesttoronto.com

Tech Corner – Even Buildings Need Exercise!

In operating a building, there is a phrase that is often used – “exercise the valve”. What does this mean? It simply means to operate a valve to check for proper operation. Over the last year, we have had a number of instances remind us of why exercising valves is important.

In one case, as part of an overall building improvement program, all of the gas lines in the building were re-painted yellow, the colour indicating a natural gas line. It looked great. However, when we went to exercise the emergency gas shut-off valves, we discovered that the valve had been painted as well, and the valve was well and truly stuck in the open position. Fortunately this was discovered during a routine inspection and corrected. Imagine if this had been the case during an emergency!

In another case, we operated some needle valves on the Domestic Cold Water Booster Pumps in order to do some testing. These valves had not been exercised in years. The result was a failure of the Low Suction Pressure Limit on the system and resulted in a loss of water in the building for a number of hours.

There have been countless cases over the years where work has been delayed or re-scheduled because isolation valves that were supposed to allow work to be done on the plumbing systems did not “hold” (work as designed and “hold” back the water).

Exercising valves is a good maintenance practice and should be done on a regular basis. It only takes a few minutes to exercise a valve, but it can mean hours or days on a job when it is suddenly discovered that these valves don’t work.

The same “exercising” principal can be applied to lead / lag equipment. For example, a pump system may be set up where if the lead pump fails, the lag (or back-up) pump will kick on. If the lag pump is not exercised periodically, the seals on the pump can deteriorate, ‘dead-spots’ in motor windings can develop, and couplings can fail when first started.

A good building exercise program begins with a list of priority valves in the building. These include, main water shut off, gas valves, riser isolation valves, and builds from there. A little exercise can go a long way.

CO Monitoring Systems for Your Underground Garage

Presently, exhaust fans in the underground garage of your building should be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week if you do not have a Carbon Monoxide Monitoring System installed. Contrary to popular belief, it is a violation of the building code for exhaust fans to be cycled or shut down at any time during the course of a day unless there is a CO Monitoring System in place. Section 6 of the Ontario Building Code states that an enclosed storage garage should have a) a mechanical ventilation system to limit the concentration of carbon monoxide to not more than 100 parts per million of air or b) provide, during operating hours, a continuous supply of outdoor air at a rate not less than 3.9L/s for each square metre of the floor area.

If your fans are running 24 hours a day for seven days a week it is possible that the implementation of a CO Monitoring system could generate savings for the corporation. In this case paybacks are generally between 2 to 4 years. The incentive is double that of lighting retrofits - CO Monitoring systems garners an incentive of $0.10kWh. To book a garage assessment, please contact the sales department at Provident Energy at 416-736-0630, extension 5.

Building Automation System Take–Overs

Not all Building Automation Systems (also known as Energy Management Systems) are the same. There is a wide range of manufacturers and installers with different control abilities.

As part of our free energy assessment, we often inspect existing Building Automation Systems. Regardless if the Building Automation System was installed during the construction of the building or if the System was installed as a retrofit, there are often areas that are either not controlled or not controlled very well. In many cases, the existing Building Automation System can be upgraded via the implementation of additional Variable Frequency Drives and leak/flood detection.

Provident Energy utilizes a Siemens Apogee Building Automation System that can be remotely accessed via the internet. Most Building Automation Systems are owned by the Condominium Corporation and they are free to choose any Energy Management company to monitor their system. The take-over should not involve a full re-installation of the Building Automation System. For any System, the main control panels can be replaced and in most cases the existing wiring, sensors and conduits can be re-used (the initial wiring is generally the most costly and labour intensive step).

As mentioned earlier, we find many existing Systems leave room for improvement. For example, the Domestic Hot Water System may have a flat temperature set-point for the entire day and night. Or, the make-up air handling units may have VFDs that fluctuate only between 85% and 95%, 24 hours per day – whereas these units could be slowed down during non-peak hours. Provident Energy can implement additional control algorithms for existing Building Automation Systems and we can usually enhance overall energy savings by 4%-7%.

Another important feature of Provident Energy’s Building Automation System is our Monitoring Service. Your building’s system will be monitored 24/7 offsite by Provident Energy’s team of highly skilled technicians for both critical systems alarms and overall system optimization. This ensures that any issues that may arise within the buildings critical components will be diagnosed by technicians and relayed back to the site staff. Early diagnosis of such issues helps to prolong the life of your critical components, and also helps to ensure that the residents comfort isn’t compromised in the process.

What incentive rebates are available for common area retrofit projects?

(Excerpt from Condo Business Magazine Online (part of the REMI network). Click here for the full article.)
 

There are several electrical and natural gas incentives available for energy-saving retrofits. Some of these incentives can provide a condominium with a rebate of up to 50 per cent of the project costs.

If a condominium is interested in electrical savings, the saveONenergy programs are offered through local utilities and are funded through the Ontario Power Authority (OPA). A wide variety of retrofits qualify under saveONenergy, including lighting, carbon dioxide monitoring systems, controls, building envelope, variable frequency drives and building automation systems.

There are three different streams for the saveONenergy retrofits. The prescriptive option allows a condominium to simply select from a list of measures that come with a matching per-unit incentive. Through the engineering and custom tracks, lighting retrofits are generally eligible for $0.05 per kilowatt-hour saved and non-lighting retrofits are eligible for $0.10 per kilowatt-hour saved.

If a condominium is interested in natural gas savings, Enbridge offers incentive rebates for retrofits such as variable frequency drives or building automation systems. Upon the successful implementation of an eligible project, customers may receive an incentive payment based on a rate of $0.10 cubic metres of natural gas saved.

The incentive application process for saveONenergy and Enbridge are similar: the retrofit project must be approved prior to implementation. A condominium’s application and specifications will be reviewed by an incentive program technical advisor to ensure the retrofit meets the program requirements. Once the retrofit project is complete, additional documents and site visits are required.

Understanding all the fine print of the incentive programs can be confusing but most energy efficiency contractors will assist with the incentive application process as part of their scope of work. Make sure to ask the contractor to estimate the anticipated incentive and clarify who is responsible for the applications. Although incentives have been available for years, it is surprising how many condominiums are still not taking advantage of them.

Building Automation System Take–Overs

Not all Building Automation Systems (also known as Energy Management Systems) are the same. There is a wide range of manufacturers and installers with different control abilities.

As part of our free energy assessment, we often inspect existing Building Automation Systems. Regardless if the Building Automation System was installed during the construction of the building or if the System was installed as a retrofit, there are often areas that are either not controlled or not controlled very well. In many cases, the existing Building Automation System can be upgraded via the implementation of additional Variable Frequency Drives and leak/flood detection.

 
Provident Energy utilizes a Siemens Apogee Building Automation System that can be remotely accessed via the internet. Most Building Automation Systems are owned by the Condominium Corporation and they are free to choose any Energy Management company to monitor their system. The take-over should not involve a full re-installation of the Building Automation System. For any System, the main control panels can be replaced and in most cases the existing wiring, sensors and conduits can be re-used (the initial wiring is generally the most costly and labour intensive step).

As mentioned earlier, we find many existing Systems leave room for improvement.  For example, the Domestic Hot Water System may have a flat temperature set-point for the entire day and night. Or, the make-up air handling units may have VFDs that fluctuate only between 85% and 95%, 24 hours per day – whereas these units could be slowed down during non-peak hours. Provident Energy can implement additional control algorithms for existing Building Automation Systems and we can usually enhance overall energy savings by 4%-7%.

Another important feature of Provident Energy’s Building Automation System is our Monitoring Service.  Your building’s system will be monitored 24/7 offsite by Provident Energy’s team of highly skilled technicians for both critical systems alarms and overall system optimization. This ensures that any issues that may arise within the buildings critical components will be diagnosed by technicians and relayed back to the site staff. Early diagnosis of such issues helps to prolong the life of your critical components, and also helps to ensure that the residents comfort isn’t compromised in the process. 

 

 

 

For more information or to book a free energy assessment, please contact the sales department at Provident Energy at 416-736-0630, extension 5 or visit our website www.pemi.com

Lighting - Where to Begin?

Many Condominium Corporations think of lighting as the easiest way to attain savings on a large scale. The obvious reason being the fact that the majority of the lights in a Condominium must remain on at all times, or do they? This question and several others will be addressed in this article.

 

Tech Corner: Alarm Monitoring – When, Why and How?

Energy Management Systems installed by Provident Energy are designed and programmed to generate alarms that are sent over the internet to servers located in our offices that sort, prioritize and relay these alarms to our Technicians.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of alarms: Critical and Non-Critical Alarms. Critical Alarms are those alarms that are classified as affecting in-suite comfort. This would include things like Chiller Operation, Heating System, Domestic Hot Water, and Leak Detection Alarms. In these cases, these alarms are relayed to a primary Technician who is responsible for responding to these alarms.

When the Technician receives these Critical Alarms, they immediately start to investigate. This is needed to determine the nature of the Critical Alarm – has the building recently recovered from a power failure, or was the water shut off to the building for repairs, are storm and wind creating problems for boilers? After determining the nature of the alarm, the Technician will often need to contact your site staff in accordance with the contact procedures Property Management has put in place. Usually, this is a call to Security, who also has a contact procedure in place. 

Non-Critical Alarms are for those conditions which do not immediately affect in-suite comfort. An example of this might be a corridor fan. There is little advantage to calling in contractors on over-time to fix something that can wait until the next business day. In these situations, we do just that – wait until the next business day to contact your office.

Many alarms come into our servers that are used by our Technicians to help diagnose and repair problems in your building. Examples of this might include Coil Temperature Alarms. While the building might not be feeling too hot or too cold, an alarm could indicate that an Air Handling Unit is struggling to maintain the proper air temperature or that a supply water temperature might be too low. In these cases, our Technicians will take the steps necessary to tune your building and work with your contractors and building staff to optimize operation.

 

Provident Energy is Toronto Hydro's featured ARI

We were recently featured by Toronto Hydro for our Applicant Representative experience and success as we have helped many clients with incentives for energy saving retrofits.

Toronto Hydro works with contractors and dealers to help you apply for the RETROFIT PROGRAM.

• We have trained Applicant Representatives (AR) who will work with you and take care of your application. They have the experience to make it easier for you!
• The incentives can be significant, so the application process is detailed. Depending on your project, different levels of incentives are available.

For more information on the Toronto Hydro Applicant Representative program, please visit their website.

What is Retro- or Re-Commissioning?

Retro-commissioning is a procedure that can be applied to existing buildings to verify whether the main building systems are operating efficiently and as intended. The purpose of retro-commissioning may be to resolve problems that have developed during the building’s life, or to address building operating issues that may have never operated as intended. The value of continuous commissioning is to improve comfort, optimize energy use, identify potential retrofits for energy savings, and improve overall system control and operations for the building. Rather than a set of prescriptive measures, re-commissioning adapts to meet the specific needs of each building owner.  The re-commissioning process involves a comprehensive engineering evaluation that focuses on low-cost solutions to comfort and high energy use concerns. For continuous maintenance and assurance that a building’s equipment is running as efficiently as possible, it is recommended that buildings that have been newly commissioned or retro-commissioned go through a re-commissioning process every 3-5 years.

 

As part of our continuous maintenance program, Provident Energy’s Building Automation System clients enjoy continuous building system commissioning. For buildings that do not yet have a building automation system monitored by Provident Energy, a commissioning study may be something that could be considered. As part of its electricity demand reduction mandate, the Ontario government is now offering incentives for re-commissioning of existing building chiller plants. For more information and eligibility requirements please visit: www.saveonenergy.com. If you are interested in re-commissioning or building automation systems, please contact Provident Energy at 416-736-0630, ext 5.

Springfest Returns on April 18, 2013

Please visit Provident Energy’s booth (#318) at the annual SpringFest conference and tradeshow at the Metro Convention Centre on April 19, 2013. SpringFest is a free exclusive 1-day event that includes seminars, refreshments, and networking with 200+ exhibitors.

 

Talk to us about potential energy saving retrofits or book a free energy assessment of your building.

 

To register for the conference, please visit www.springfesttoronto.com

 

 

 

 

Free Energy Assessments

If your building is interested in energy efficiency retrofits, Provident Energy offers free energy assessments. The first step would be a site visit where Provident Energy will examine all common areas to indentify potential energy saving retrofits (lighting, mechanical equipment, etc). We will then send you a report which will outline the cost of the various retrofits (as installed by Provident Energy), the estimated energy savings, and the estimated incentive. This energy assessment and proposal is free. Please also note that all quotations are complete turn-key solutions: supply, installation, recycling, incentive applications, and project management by Provident Energy.

Some of our retrofit options include:

• Building Automation Systems (BAS)/ Energy Management Systems (EMS) with 24-hour a day Energy Management System Monitoring
• Variable Frequency Drive Installations on make-up air units, pumps, and cooling towers
• Lighting Retrofits (corridors, garages, stairwells, etc)
• Lighting Controls/Occupancy Sensors in Common Areas
• CO Monitoring for Underground Garages
• Individual Sub-metering Utility Systems (electrical, thermal, water)

 

If you are interested in this free energy assessment, please contact the retrofit sales department at info (at) pemi.com or 416-736-0630, ext 5 to arrange for a site visit.

Provident Energy is a Powerstream CDM Champion

Provident Energy is pleased to be featured as a Conservation Demand Management (CDM) Champion by Powerstream.

PowerStream is proud to recognize forward-thinking organizations that are making the saveONenergy conservation programs we offer a key part of their business development strategy. Each month, the CDM Champions site will profile a different contractor, consultant, distributor or manufacturer who has delivered results through the saveONenergy program.

For more information, please visit the Powerstream website.

Join us at the Condominium Conference on Nov 2 & 3!

Please join us at the Toronto Congress Centre on Nov 2nd and 3rd for the annual ACMO/CCI Condominium Conference.

Don’t miss this annual conference which incorporates two days of educational sessions for Condominium Directors, Managers and other Professionals working in the industry – with a two day trade show and numerous networking and social activities!

Please visit us at Booth #419

• You can book a free energy assessment!
• You can enter our raffle to win prizes!
• You can ask us questions about energy saving retrofits!

For more information and to register, please visit their website: http://www.condoconference.ca/NEWS/index.php

We're Hiring!

We're looking for a Building Automation Technician to join our energy management systems department. For more information on the position, including how to apply, please see the job posting on our website.

Prime Time for Cooling Retrofits

With the impending cooler weather creeping upon us day-by-day, condominiums are prepping for changeover to heating. This is a prime time to consider the retrofit of the existing cooling tower to be controlled via Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs). After change-over has occurred, the cooling tower sits idle for several months until mid-spring, when changeover back to cooling takes place.

During this time VFDs, can be intertwined with the cooling tower without any effects on residents due to the cooling tower being dormant. A cooling tower operates off, low, or high to maintain the proper condenser water temperature. The fan motor is sized for the maximum load. A variable frequency drive can instead be used to exactly match the condenser load, saving energy in the process.

For more information or to arrange a free assessment to determine potential energy savings, please contact the sales department at Provident Energy at 416-736-0630, extension 5 or visit our website www.pemi.com

2012 Green Building Festival: New Codes, Better Buildings

October 11 & 12: Evergreen Brick Works

Our Sustainability Project Manager, Adam, will be a featured speaker at this year’s Green Building Festival. Since 2005, the Green Building Festival has been Canada’s most comprehensive annual conference on green building design, operations, technologies, and behaviours. The 2012 Green Building Festival focuses on more than just showcasing good design – it’s about enabling the building industry to measurably improve the performance of the built environment.

Don’t miss this outstanding opportunity to learn from industry experts about the new Ontario Building Code and the move from prescriptive to performance-based standards. You’ll leave with practical tools to help you understand, meet, and exceed the new SB-10 energy efficiency requirements.

Presentations will include:

• Keynote addresses by recognized sustainable building experts
• Jason F. McLennan, International Living Future Institute (Living Building Challenge)
• Edward Mazria, Architecture 2030 (The 2030 Challenge)
• Informative plenary sessions
• Training workshops
• Interactive discussions
• Awards Reception

The 2012 Green Building Festival is hosted by Sustainable Buildings Canada – enabling the building industry to measurably improve the performance of the built environment.

For more information, including registration details, please visit their website http://www.sbcanada.org/gbfestival/

Green Jobs Forum

Provident Energy will be exhibiting at the Green Jobs Forum on Sept 17 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The inaugural Green Jobs Forum offers new graduates, students, and the general public an in-depth exploration of careers in the ever-expanding Green Economy.

There will be speakers presentations and a job pavillion where you can find recruitment, education, and networking opportunities with a variety of green companies.

And admission to this event is FREE. Come by and check it out!

For more information, please visit their website http://greenjobsforum.ca/
 

Free Energy Assessments

If your building is interested in energy efficiency retrofits, Provident Energy offers free energy assessments. The first step would be a site visit where Provident Energy will examine all common areas to indentify potential energy saving retrofits (lighting, mechanical equipment, etc). We will then send you a report which will outline the cost of the various retrofits (as installed by Provident Energy), the estimated energy savings, and the estimated incentive. This energy assessment and proposal is free. Please also note that all quotations are complete turn-key solutions: supply, installation, recycling, incentive applications, and project management by Provident Energy.

Some of our retrofit options include:

• Building Automation Systems (BAS)/ Energy Management Systems (EMS) with 24-hour a day Energy Management System Monitoring
• Variable Frequency Drive Installations on make-up air units, pumps, and cooling towers
• Lighting Retrofits (corridors, garages, stairwells, etc)
• Lighting Controls/Occupancy Sensors in Common Areas
• CO Monitoring for Underground Garages
• Individual Sub-metering Utility Systems (electrical, thermal, water)

If you are interested in this free energy assessment, please contact the retrofit sales department at info (at) pemi.com or 416-736-0630, ext 5 to arrange for a site visit.