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The University and its partner, Enermodal Engineering, were recently honoured as a champion by Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency for “creating Canada’s most energy-efficient building” – the new biology facility on campus.
The 5,200 square-metre structure was praised for using 73 per cent less energy than a conventional building of the same size, making it one of the most efficient in the country. Such a performance is especially impressive because of the building’s numerous laboratories, which have a greater demand for constant fresh air flow and exhaust than in typical offices or rooms.
According to Herb Dean, senior engineer with the University’s Physical Resources Service, the new biology building is benefiting from the energy efficiency gains knowledge acquired through other campus projects, such as the retrofitting of Colonel By Hall. The biology building takes advantage of several features that produce even better results when newly constructed, such as enhancements to the window curtain wall assembly to balance heat gains and losses from outside, as well as systems for recovering waste heat from equipment and exhaust fans.
Such innovations added some $440,000 to construction costs, but ultimately, they will save the University upward of $270,000 a year, meaning that this additional expense will be paid back in less than two years. Dean adds that the project benefited from the interaction of Enermodal Engineering Ltd., Shore Tribe Irwin architects, R.J. McKee Engineering, and Cole & Associates, who together ensured that a wide range of expertise and ideas would be presented, resulting in a truly “integrated design.”
“We’re very serious about energy efficiency,” he says. “It’s a combination of a number of things, as well as what you get when you put together a very good team.”
