Access expert advice and rebates for your energy efficiency rebates
Contributor: Brian Jung, Program Delivery Manager, BCNPHA
Republished from InfoLINK Winter 2021
The new boiler (left) and new solar panels (right) at Baptist Housing’s Evergreen Manor.
Erich Klein, Director of Sustainability and Regional Maintenance Manager with Baptist Housing, recently replaced the aging boiler system at Evergreen Manor, located in White Rock, BC, with a high-efficiency system.
Baptist Housing used the FortisBC/BC Hydro Social Housing Retrofit Support Program (SHRSP), which provides a holistic approach to energy efficiency with three levels of support. The first level of support is a $5,000 rebate towards an energy study that can help identify opportunities. The energy study also provides the business case for each opportunity. The second level of support is a $7,000 rebate towards implementation support, which includes engineering deign and construction management support. Risk is reduced by having support from industry professionals. The third level of support is various rebates towards the purchase of new equipment.
The SHRSP energy study helped identify the boiler retrofit opportunity at Evergreen Manor, and estimated the Viessmann high-efficiency natural gas coupled space heating and domestic hot water system will save 1061 GJ of natural gas per year. A new micro-DDC system that controls and records various boiler system parameters was installed to complement the new boiler. The data allows Baptist Housing to optimize boiler operations and increase efficiency by another 5%. The energy study went one step further and evaluated replacing the existing fixed-speed HVAC pumps with Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) pumps and installing a Viessmann solar domestic hot water system.
Retrofit support program reduced costs for high-efficiency boiler system at Baptist Housing, and lowers their ongoing energy costs
The solar hot water system can help reduce costs by using free energy from the sun to pre-heat the incoming domestic water. This reduces the amount of natural gas required to heat the water to the required temperature. The savings from these two opportunities is another 468 GJ of natural gas per year.
The new system is estimated to save $13,500 per year in natural gas costs. Besides reducing energy costs, the new boiler system will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 76 tonnes of CO2e annually, which is equivalent to removing 16.4 cars off the road each year. Source
Whether this is your first or twentieth retrofit, there are benefits to having an engineering consultant on board. These professionals are on top of the latest technologies, industry best practices and construction laws and bylaws.
Baptist Housing took advantage of SHRSP’s implementation support and had an engineering consultant manage the project. Besides having a well-designed system, most engineering consultants are familiar with the various rebate programs, ensuring the final system will qualify for rebates. Baptist Housing received a rebate equivalent to 27% of the total project cost from the SHSRP.
