Nine projects across North America, including a Quebec-based complex and a recreation facility in British Columbia, have won an ASHRAE Technology Award.
The awards recognize building owners who have successfully applied innovative building designs and integrate ASHRAE standards for effective energy management and indoor air quality.
Dollard-des-Ormeaux Civic Centre
Winning in the existing other institutional buildings category, the 225,000-square- foot Dollard-des-Ormeaux Civic Centre in Quebec is packed with three National Hockey League skating rinks, the town’s city hall, swimming pools, a library and a cultural centre.
The design team incorporated a unique energy-efficient program to boost the performance of the refrigeration system for the rinks.
They then recovered energy from the centre compressors to heat the building, using a system with a direct carbon dioxide heating and dehumidifier desiccant wheel.
The system has accomplished many firsts. Not only is it the first time such a system has been used in North America, but it’s also the first system to use carbon dioxide in a multi-rink complex and the first to use carbon dioxide to cool the brine, avoiding any re-do of the rink slabs.
Annual electricity savings for the project totalled $247,000 or a 31 per cent cost reduction from the previous baseline.
Recovery and energy-saving measures decrease overall consumption by 4.7 million per kilowatt hour.
Ville de Dollard-des-Ormeaux owns the building. Kateri Héon is the project manager and Pietro Guerra is the mechanical and electrical director.
Westhills Recreation Centre
Other system firsts in North America were evident in a Canadian project out of Langford, B.C.
In the new public assembly category, Art Sutherland, president of Accent Refrigeration Systems, won first place for Westhills Recreation Centre.
The project developed for the Langford-owned 75,000-square-foot recreation facility featuring indoor and outdoor National Hockey League rinks, a bowling alley, offices and a restaurant, turned the arena sub-floor heating system into an enhanced geothermal field.
The system for the three ice surfaces is integrated into the building’s HVAC system to the extent that no fossil fuels are used inside.
Only 40 per cent of waste energy is needed within the complex. The other 60 per cent is pumped to the Westhills housing development as an energy source for heat pumps.
The system is the first to use new ultra high efficient reciprocating compressors, the first to amalgamate an ice facility with an entire housing community and the first to use ammonia heat pumps in the process.
The awards will be presented at the ASHRAE 2015 Winter Conference next January.
