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.

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.

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

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.