Sustainable Community - Real life example

I came across this presentation on TRU site and could not miss to share it!

Okotoks Sustainable Community

I think it is a great example of the system approach to sustainable community development !

Air Heat Pump performance

As part of the sustainability efforts in general, and the energy-efficiency upgrade proposal for Sun Peaks fire hall in particular, I was trying to find the performance of the split systems we have chosen for that upgrade under low temperatures, which are common here. Not being able to find this information readily available, I contacted Daikin directly and was pleasantly surprised by their prompt response and their providing me with all the information I asked, and even more, including complete Engineering Reports on their units. As a result, I was able to chart these graphs, which give visual indication of the COP vs. outside temperature performance.

 

The first one is multi-split MSX18, the second is commercial VRV-III-S. Both graphs are for the 20C indoor temperature. They show that, although decreasing, the performance is still high enough to supply heat even at -15C and probably down to -20C. When indoor  temperature can be allowed to be lower (like in the example of the garage for fire trucks), or if it can be supplemented with back-up source (e.g. infrared radiant heaters), the performance will be dropping even slower, remaining at or above 2.5 COP even under -20C.

 

Back to the Future ?

I did recently report on the newest UBC building - Glimpse into the Future  
BCIT also opened its newest building recently, called Gateway.

With eye-appealing curved shapes and nice accents of coloured glass, it presents
somewhat different view of the future.

Very modern-looking, 70s style, lots of glass, steel and plastic ..

Building sustainable community at Sun Peaks - part 2

On November 17, 2011 within the effort to make  Sun Peaks Resort a sustainable community,
I presented a report to the Sun Peaks Resort Municipality Council: Sustainable Upgrade of the
Fire Hall facilities.  The report based on the analysis of the existing energy consumption, calls
for the adding efficient split systems for heating and cooling, solar thermal system to replace
the electric boiler with the excess of the hot water used for the snow-melt system built in at
the entrance of the garage, migrating to LED lighting fixtures and installing photo-voltaic
panels to offset electricity drawn from the grid and serve as a back-up system instead of the
currently used diesel. The proposal was received quite positively by the Council, with the plan
to include it in the 2012 budget and possible phasing it in.

Solar installation

Completing upgrade of the residential house in Richmond with solar thermal system, which would provide domestic hot water needs for the house, replacing currently used natural gas boiler.

The system consists of two 20-tube vacuum UV collectors mounted on the south facing roof of the garage. The Spanish tile presented a bit of unexpected challenge - due to its curved shape it required special flashing. 

making steps in the right direction

On November 9th I attended BC Home builders Association meeting in Kamloops BC.
A couple of interesting presentations :

Sun Peaks Resort corporation real estate manager Peter Nixon talked about the development
approval process at the resort. I liked the idea of "the theme" (in this case, Sud-Tyrolean) being
strictly adhered to throughout resort. It gives it that very special, almost fairy, flavor to the village.

Another one was from Telus - about theirs "star configuration", which suggests each home would have
a conduit for all the cables - electrical, telephone, TV, data fiber-optic etc - pulled not only from the
property line to the house, but also through the house. The central box, allowing to fit in all the
equipment, which the customer-homeowner may potentially want.
Good idea, why only not to extend it to the "solar ready", as it is done inn Richmond BC and many
other cites, to allow also pre-wiring for roof-mounted photo-voltaic panels and pipes for the solar
thermal system ? This would require slightly bigger conduit, but kill two (or more) birds with one stone.
     
   

My favorite professor

Edward Crawley

 









http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/