To meet Canada’s C-2000 building certification program, Mountain Equipment Coop had to be at least 50 percent more energy efficient than a building design following Canada’s Model National Energy Code for Buildings. Frederic Genest’s design resulted in 68 percent energy savings.
Genest, Eng., was honored during the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers‚ (ASHRAE) 2005 Winter Meeting. The award recognizes the most outstanding project receiving a first-place Technology Award.
The ASHRAE Technology Awards recognize outstanding achievements by members who have successfully applied innovative building design in the areas of occupant comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy conservation. Their designs incorporate ASHRAE standards for effective energy management and IAQ. Performance is proven through one year‚s actual, verifiable operating data.
Genest, project engineer and associate, Pageau Morel and Associates, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, received first-place in the new commercial buildings category.
The building features a geo-exchange system using ground-source heat pumps, radiant slabs for heating and cooling, a combination hybrid ventilation system and dedicated outdoor air unit, a high performance envelope and natural lighting. The building also includes thermal energy storage with night pre-cooling and heating, heat recovery from exhausted air and rain water harvesting.
Three other projects received first-place awards:
• Jeffrey Paul Blaevoet, P.E., received first place for Big Rock Ranch, Lucasfilm, Nicasio, Calif., in the new commercial buildings category. Blaevoet is president, Guttmann and Blaevoet Consulting Engineers, San Francisco, Calif. The project is the first significant geo-exchange system for a non-residential project on the West Coast, and the first in the United States to use a ground loop heat exchanger with central chillers and chiller heat pumps to generate chilled water and heating hot water. The project is 38 percent below California‚s Energy Code, with air distribution via a raised floor.
• Nicolas Lemire, Eng., received first place for Concordia University Science Complex, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the new institutional buildings category. Lemire is project engineer and associate, Pageau Morel and Associates, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The project includes some 250 fume hoods designed to achieve 45 percent energy savings over the Model National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings. It also features heat recovery from hood exhaust air as well as a closed loop steam condensate system with flooded vertical stacking heat exchanger eliminating steam losses, a variable volume control tracking all lab exhausts, and a heat recovery low temperature water loop to collect energy from the gas flue of the existing boilers and from heat recovery chillers.
• Gilles Desmarais received first place for Jean-de-Brebeuf College, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the existing institutional buildings category. Desmarais is project engineer, Dessau-Soprin, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Desmarais‚ design for the college’s heating plant included two new high efficiency hot water boilers, a new high efficiency steam boiler, a direct-contact water heater, a heat-exchanger that using new efficient technology that optimizes the use of steam to heat the building during low demand periods and the automation of plant controls.
For more information, go to www.ashrae.org.
