Brampton, Ontario’s City Hall is a vital hub for municipal operations and hosts numerous events, council meetings, and administrative activities. As part of an ongoing commitment to replace aging infrastructure and ensure operational reliability, the City of Brampton engaged Associated Engineering to undertake critical upgrades to the emergency power system and existing air handling units (AHUs) as a part of the HVAC systems at City Hall. The project’s scope of work also included updating the cooling and humidification systems as part of the AHUs, replacing the humidifiers serving the AHUs, and upgrading five existing drinking fountains to comply with current accessibility requirements, codes, and standards.

The City of Brampton wished to improve the reliability and efficiency of the emergency power system and HVAC infrastructure. The outdated emergency diesel generator and AHUs posed significant issues, including potential operational disruptions during power outages and inefficiencies in maintaining indoor air quality and temperature. Project Manager and Building Mechanical Lead Engineer, Azad Khamforoush, advises, “We worked with the City to develop a robust solution to mitigate these issues, provide uninterrupted operation, and meet compliance standards.”

The project team overcame many challenges during design. These included a lack of background documentation and restricted access to the generator room due to existing, large, rooftop cooling towers blocking the only entry to the room; sequencing the construction work and managing a crowded City Hall with noise and odour restrictions during occupancy hours; supply-chain issues causing delays in generator delivery and challenging design constraints that limited acceptable generator vendors; complex lifting and rigging operations required for demolishing the old generator and transferring the new one to the highly restricted rooftop generator room; and coordination with neighbouring businesses for potential temporary power shutdowns during the crane lifting process.

“The design carefully considered sustainability by optimizing the generator and AHU systems for energy efficiency. The new systems are designed to reduce energy consumption and enhance reliability, contributing to the City’s long-term adaptability and sustainability goals.”

Azad tells us, “We came up with an effective solution to use an existing exhaust damper opening on the penthouse’s exterior wall for generator entry and exit, coordinated with vendors to ensure accurate dimensions of the new generator set, and collaborated with crane consultants to confirm the feasibility of the lifting operation in a constrained urban environment. We also requested hiring of specialized millwright teams along with a crane consultant in the design documents for safe generator demolition and installation. We phased the work to avoid operational disruptions. This required extensive planning to manage constraints of working in a busy, urban environment.”

The team implemented a phased approach for AHU replacements to ensure the continuous operation of HVAC systems at City Hall. To accommodate unforeseen supply-chain issues, timelines and budgets were adjusted. Meticulous planning and coordination helped to overcome changing circumstances during construction.

The project is nearing completion, with all equipment installed and mechanical items commissioned. The final commissioning of the generator set is pending, ensuring the City Hall will benefit from a reliable emergency power system and efficient HVAC operations.

The project highlights Associated’s capability to manage complex retrofit projects in challenging environments, leveraging our experience on municipal and industrial projects. Associated’s key personnel on this project are Azad Khamforoush, Dusan Fil, Yang An, David Holyer, and Dennis Cheng.

The post Modernizing City Hall’s mechanical systems improves operational efficiency and helps Brampton to meet compliance requirements first appeared on Associated Engineering.

Geoexchange or geothermal heat pumps (GHX) are at times overlooked in the growing buildings electrification market. However, when implemented correctly, GHX can be the best solution for heating and cooling in cold climate countries.

Expand your knowledge on geoexchange alternatives at the Vancouver Heat Pump Symposium, by hearing from our Technical Specialist, Low Carbon Energy, Ruben Arellano, as he co-presents in this breakout sesson on May 30th.

The post Ruben Arellano presents at Vancouver Heat Pump Symposium first appeared on Associated Engineering.

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Located on Simon Fraser University’s campus in Burnaby, BC, Parcel 21 is a model for energy-efficient housing, incorporating Passive House principles, a rigorous energy-efficient design standard. Completed in early 2022, the residential complex consists of a four-storey wood-frame building situated on top of a concrete parkade, as well as a six-storey wood-frame building and a steel pavilion building. Owned by the SFU Community Trust, the facility includes 90 affordable rental apartment units dedicated to SFU students with families. There is also a central courtyard and community space, along with amenities such as study rooms and secure bike storage. 

Parcel 21 project incorporates Passive House principles for energy conservation

Local Practice Architecture retained Associated Engineering to provide structural and electrical engineering services on this $23 million project. Structural Lead and Engineer-of-Record, Jermyn Wong, tells us, “To meet the rigorous BC Energy Step Code requirements, our team applied many Passive House principles in our design. These included a well-insulated building envelope, a continuous air barrier to minimize leakage, high-performance windows, engineering and detailing of connections to minimize thermal bridging, a heat-recovery ventilation system, canopies and other structures that are thermally separated from the building envelope, and sunshades that help prevent overheating in the summer.”

One of the key challenges that the project team addressed was wood shrinkage, an important consideration in the design of mid-rise, wood frame structures such as Parcel 21. Jermyn says, “We carefully considered the structural detailing to mitigate vertical shrinkage of the structure. We used engineered-wood floor I joists; prescribed a moisture content limit for all wood studs and wall plates; and detailed the interface between the floor framing and masonry elevator shafts to ensure the wood structure could shrink vertically near the shaft walls.”

To preserve the continuity of the thermal envelope, the team specified out-board insulation to eliminate potential thermal bridging between the exterior stud walls and each level of the floor structure. The team specified insulation in the wall cavity of the first level of the residential interior walls, in combination with horizontal insulation on top of concrete slab above the parkade to minimize thermal bridging at that interface. In addition, detailing of the cantilever canopies and sunshade connections to the exterior walls was carefully undertaken to minimize thermal bridging.

Addressing the high seismicity in the Lower Mainland was another challenge. Jermyn tells us, “We used continuous tie-down rod systems at the ends of the shear walls to resist seismic overturning. These rods have take-up devices to compensate for the vertical shrinkage at each floor. The shear walls were laid out so they continue for the full height of the building, despite varying room layouts at each level.  Also, special drag strut details were necessary due to the lack of a concrete floor topping.”

Parcel 21 also includes passive heating and cooling, using a heat exchanger to transfer heat from the Burnaby Mountain District Energy Utility to generate hot water on demand. 

Project Manager, David Woo, says, “In 2019, SFU Parcel 21 was selected as one of 11 winners of the Net Zero Energy Ready (NZER) Challenge competition in BC, a provincial CleanBC incentive program for large building construction. The program provides financial support for developments targeting NZER.” 

Parcel 21 also received the Residential (Large) Award at the 2023 SAB Magazine Canadian Green Building Awards.

Our key personnel on the project included David Woo, Jermyn Wong, Esaly Wu, Louis De Lange, and Eunice Fang. 

The post Parcel 21 at Simon Fraser University provides energy efficient housing on campus first appeared on Associated Engineering.

re·li·a·bil·i·ty, /rəˌlīəˈbilədē/, noun, The quality of of performing consistently well.

re·sil·ience, /rəˈzilyəns/, noun, The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

When engineering for the built environment, Associated Engineering considers reliability and resilience for the systems we design. We include safety factors, stand-by and back-up process systems, alternative feeds, and back-up power to mitigate risks, such as climate change impacts. Adding redundancy to our systems is one way to achieve resilience, but redundancy has impacts, such as increased cost, maintenance, and embodied carbon. Designing for climate resiliency goes beyond ‘n+1’ and requires discussions with owners and operators. We need to think “outside of the box” and the facility we are designing.

Power Supply: Floods, snow, and fires can destroy critical infrastructure, leaving facilities without power for days, weeks, or longer. Fires may require the shutdown of natural-gas-powered systems. Adding a back-up power generator is a solution; however, we must consider the source of fuel for generators, the facility’s location, and the risks associated with fuel supply and transportation. Transportation routes can become blocked or damaged in flood events, blocking critical supplies. 

In the past, for cold climates, we have specified arctic-packages for outdoor generators. With the changing climate, we are experiencing +39°C temperatures in locations like Edmonton, Alberta, so we also need to consider high-temperature radiator and coolant systems so that we can operate up to +40°C. We also consider air conditioning in generator rooms. Care must be taken to consider the additional building electrical load which the generator has to power. And, the generator has to be sized to power the cooling for itself! 

Too hot to handle: In the past, when designing facilities in Canada, electrical designers didn’t worry too much about the ambient temperature; that was a consideration for the building mechanical designers. However, the Canadian Electrical Code for cable sizing is based on +30°C. Equipment that is rated for +30°C will need to be in a conditioned space.  Equipment that is rated for +40°C may also need to be in a conditioned space if there is a lot of heat accumulation in the area. 

We may need to consider multiple distribution systems and shedding power, because the equipment may get too hot or overload the generator. Maybe we need to design for full normal operation up to +30°C, only essential equipment from +30°C to +40°C, and for critical systems to operate when temperatures are over +40°C. 

Recovery: After fires and floods, we have faced questions such as, ‘How hot did the conduit get with the fire being so close?” or “Did the smoke enter the building and cover copper with soot?”  Considering potential fires, stickers can be applied to conduits; the stickers change colour if the outside temperature rises to +90°C. Then, operators and designers know the wires were compromised and need to be replaced. We can add smoke detectors in electrical rooms; if the alarms activate, we know there may be soot inside the room. However, smoke detectors are not precise, and don’t identify conduits drawing smoke directly into panels or motor control centres. After flooding, all affected electrical systems need to be replaced, which can be a significant cost to owners.

Engineers must consider future flood levels when designing new or renovating facilities. The changing climate creates impacts we must consider to reduce risks to facilities. Designers, owners, and operators need to have candid discussions so we can make informed decisions and develop reliable and resilient systems. 

About the Author:

Scott Friel, PE, P.Eng. is an Electrical Specialist in our Edmonton office. He has 24 years of experience in electrical systems design, electrical inspections, certification of hazardous location equipment, and commercial and industrial engineering studies. 

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