A message from Triovest, a Colliers Company:
Regulating the interior temperature of a high-rise during Edmonton's cold winter and hot summer is a huge source of energy loss. So making ATCO Centre Edmonton into one of Canada's most energy-efficient buildings meant taking a look at its boilers and chillers.
It turned out that a lot of energy could be saved by reprogramming the heating and cooling systems. Instead of coming on in full force in tandem, the boilers are staged to get the building to the desired temperature over the course of a few hours.
Scheduled staging means the building is now able to use one boiler for temperatures that used to take three. "When it is -10C outside, two boilers used to run," said building operator Ashwin Iyer. "I've managed to run only one boiler to 70% to 80% during -30C."
The same method is used for the chillers in the summer, with the process starting well before the first office workers show up for the day.
"By reprogramming and adding these control points, we were able to do essentially the same thing as the new component would have," said Andrew Tonner, who preceded Iyer as the building operator.
Redesigned and upgraded controls for heating and cooling are among the accomplishments noted by ENERGY STAR Canada when it named ATCO Centre Edmonton one of its buildings of the year in August. It was the latest recognition of Triovest's efforts to increase the building's energy efficiency since taking over management in 2009.
Watch this space next week for more on innovative technologies that have made ATCO Centre Edmonton more energy-efficient.