THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF AIRAH NOVEMBER 2019 · VOLUME 18.10 RRP $14.95

PRINT POST APPROVAL Ecolibrium NUMBER PP352532/00001

AIRAH HVAC&R SALARY

SURVEYSPECIAL

Analyse this The brave new world of big data and analytics. FEATURE Warm reception The Reliable Controls Headquarters Annex in Canada’s Victoria (British Columbia) boasts a raft of impressive sustainability elements. Indeed, the building is rated LEED Platinum, the equivalent of 6 star Green Star. A world leader, in other words.

Main image: Franc D’Ambrosio. Inset images: Jesse Moore. FEATURE FEATURE

The Annex has achieved 56 LEED sustainability credits. Image: Franc D’Ambrosio.

In late 2012 Reliable Controls opened its BACnet integration of the HVAC, Ecolibrium: Where did the Headquarters Annex in Victoria, a city lighting, and security systems inspiration come from for a boasting a population of about 350,000 allows occupied comfort settings LEED Platinum headquarters? to be enabled, which is designed and located in the Pacific Northwest. Tom Zaban: We needed to expand to maximise energy savings. our facilities, and the architect we “The Reliable Controls Headquarters Individual control of temperature, had worked with on previous projects Annex is a demonstration of our collective light, sunshades, and occupancy is recommended we shoot for LEED commitment to sustainability and provided via LAN or wireless access. resilience,” says the firm’s Tom Zaban. Platinum. At first this seemed like “It effectively demonstrates leadership Ecolibrium chatted with Zaban about an overly ambitious idea, but after in our own field, showing we can work the building and its performance. learning more about the commitments together to implement a reality that involved, we felt we could overcome minimises pollution, waste, and provides the challenges and meet the goal. a lasting benefit to our community.” Eco: Could you provide an overview Home to the firm’s R&D, sales and of the building’s sustainability marketing, and administration features, and why these departments, the facility includes design particular ones were chosen? elements such as rain gardens and TZ: planters, bioswales, green roofs, cisterns, In LEED New Construction 1.1 and trees. The building consumes (the scorecard we were registered 60 per cent less potable water than under) there were 70 LEED credits a baseline equivalent. possible, and this facility was awarded 56 (Platinum required a minimum of Naturally vented, the Annex design 52). All the credits and details of how relies on 57 trickle vents and hydronic we achieved 56 points are explained heating and cooling to keep the in our Green Facility website at occupants thermally comfortable and www.reliablecontrols.com/corporate/ the overall energy consumption low. facility/leed.php

26 NOVEMBER 2019 • ECOLIBRIUM FEATURE

The trickle-vents, wind tower, the materials, by cost. Tough credit Here’s a sample of the 56 heat‑recovery ventilator, and radiant to obtain, but sure makes for a warm sustainability credits achieved. cooling/heating hydronic system allowed and comfortable environment to work in. us to earn eight of the 10 points for Sustainable Sites Credit 4 – Indoor Environmental Control this important credit. We modelled Credit 6 – Controllability of Systems Alternative Transportation the design thermodynamically to For our staff and our local municipality it make sure the comfort levels could be This was an interesting credit to obtain is very important to minimise the need for maintained in an unusually hot or cold because it demanded a high percentage parking spaces, especially for combustion- ambient condition. The final design of individual occupant control for engine automobiles. So maximising resulted in a very comfortable space temperature, lighting, and airflow. the incentives for staff to come to work that performed 50 per cent better in I would guess we have one of the highest without the need to use a parking space energy than ASHRAE Standard 90.1. density of hardpoint monitoring and for a combustion‑engine vehicle was control in any commercial building. important in our design. Our proximity to Energy & Atmosphere Credit 5 – Measurement & Verification But we achieved the credit, even though mass transit, plentiful bicycle storage and some of the LEED requirements shower facilities, and financial incentives Being a manufacturer of systems, this credit was a for interior ventilation control were to take mass transit, carpool, walk, arguably impractical for a passively or bike has been very popular for staff. no-brainer for us. However, we did not sit on our laurels. We set ourselves up for ventilated building. Forty per cent of staff use alternative some real challenges by specifying a new One of the great things that came out transportation to come to work each day. controller which we had not even finished of this credit was the use of occupant Water Efficiency Credit 1 – designing, a new wireless lighting smart phones to control the temperature, Water Efficient Landscaping technology supplied by a third party, and lighting, occupancy, and exterior We live in Victoria, British Columbia, a new exterior sunshade product which sunshades of spaces, all with a single app. a beautify garden city, so we like plants we had never integrated, and more. Occupants can even see the daily and here. But we want to be conservative on Overall, we integrated eight different year-to-date energy usage and targets wasting potable water for irrigation. So we BACnet vendors, two different Modbus for the building from their phone. decided to capture rainwater and store vendors, and one EnOcean vendor Indoor Environmental Control it in a large underground cistern, and together into a single seamless system. Credit 7 – use the cistern exclusively for landscape We automatically generate detailed The intent of this credit really speaks to irrigation. For eight or nine months of measurement and verification reports the heart of why we build commercial the year, we can irrigate with captured and post the results weekly to our buildings – so the occupants have a rainwater, and in the months of June, July, Green Facility public domain website. thermally comfortable environment and August, we supplement the rainwater After working out the bumps and that is safe and productive to work in. irrigation with potable water. kinks for the first couple of years, the Water Efficiency Credit 2 – performance of the building proved I like the ASHRAE Standard 55 because it promotes actually surveying the Innovative Wastewater Technologies outstanding, with an Energy Use building occupants on a regular basis to With wastewater we implemented a Intensity well below our aggressive goal of 58.8 kWh/m2 per annum. “verify” and trend comfort. We survey two-pronged approach, in an effort to our staff twice a year using a hybrid minimise our impact on municipal Materials & Resources Credit 2 – method of ASHRAE 55 and others in infrastructure. Similar to our Construction Waste Management the industry. The employee comfort irrigation cistern, we built a second This was an area that really surprised survey shows the staff give the facility underground cistern to store captured many people, and really exemplified the an 84 per cent satisfaction rating. rainwater for flushing toilets in the need to have a good general contractor We are pretty happy with that. Headquarters Annex. with excellent experience with LEED Innovation & Design Process new construction. It’s not unusual to In conjunction with this effort, Credit 1 – Innovation in Design we installed waterless urinals in the have 50 per cent or 75 per cent (by weight) or more of the construction waste The facility earned exemplary men’s washrooms. We were a little bit performance credits in two separate apprehensive about these ideas, but generated from the site to be recycled to avoid landfills and incinerators. areas: Sustainable Sites for committing to after working out the kinks with the relocating all the surface vehicle parking system it worked out surprising well. For this project over 98 per cent of to 100 per cent underground parking; Approximately 70 per cent of the water the construction waste was diverted. and Water Efficiency for exceeding the used to flush toilets comes from rainwater. This benefit alone speaks volumes next three logical increments above the Energy & Atmosphere Credit 1 – for justifying LEED. WEc3.2 credit, demonstrating the facility Optimise Energy Performance Materials & Resources Credit 7 – uses more than 60 per cent less potable water than a typical efficient building. As a LEED Platinum facility we Certified Wood needed the building design to perform This was a very challenging credit to The facility received further credit exceptionally well from an energy obtain. When you look at the amount of by committing to Green Building perspective. We were very fortunate to certified wood used in the construction Education, which is demonstrated by be located in a temperate climate on the of this building most people think it our Green Facility website, updated Pacific Northwest of North America, and comprises the large majority of the performance reporting, and public this allowed us to implement a passively structural materials. In fact it only tours. We also committed to Green ventilated design. amounted to just over 56 per cent of House Keeping practices.

NOVEMBER 2019 • ECOLIBRIUM 27 FEATURE

There are many benefits to full integration, but the one with the most value is that when an employee presents their access card to enter the building in the morning, the individual light(s) in their office turns on and modulates to their preferred setpoint, the exterior blinds rotate to the last position from the previous day, and their trickle vent opens and controls to their preferred setpoint. In addition to BACnet, we have Modbus integrations to a weather station and power meters.

Eco: “What isn’t measured isn’t managed.” How does this apply to the Annex and to buildings in general? TZ: Good question. We know who badges into the building and when, and we know which rooms are occupied. But we don’t know “where” individuals are in real time. It would be nice to know Certified timber is used throughout. an individual's location in real time so Image: Jesse Moore. that the BAS could automatically provide comfort conditions specific to the Eco: Have the trickle vents and and EnOcean wireless. There are individual's location or to the number hydronic heating and cooling currently 181 devices networked of occupants in a zone. That would be performed as expected? into a single BACnet internetwork a nice feature to have. comprising eight different vendors TZ: Yes, the hydronic system performs (see breakout box). So it’s a pretty decent admirably. We use internet data services Eco: The Annex was awarded its (IDS) to obtain tomorrow's predicted demonstration of the integrability of LEED rating in 2013. How has it high and low outdoor temperatures. multiple vendors on one internetwork. performed over the past six years? We then use that information to set slab We have full integration of HVAC, Have any refinements been made? temperature setpoints for the following lighting, security systems using BACnet, TZ: The Energy Use Intensity day. A roof‑mounted weather station and the BAS directly controls irrigation, certainly tells the story on energy. provides local wind speed and direction, exterior blinds, and domestic water And the potable water usage tells allowing the BAS to control the wind components. the story there. And our alternative tower and trickle vents to minimise transport charting clearly shows the drafts, control thermal comfort, and INTEGRATION dynamics of how people come to the maintain an exceptionally high air building. These are all chronicled quality throughout, even during A range of monitoring in our LEED Performance reports. stormy days. A number of refinements were There are not a lot of vendors who and control devices from certainly made after occupancy. specialise in manufacturing trickle vents, different manufacturers Toilet flushing – The original design so we felt like we were on the bleeding had VFD pumps directly in line with edge of the development when the were used onsite at the the water supply. This meant the pumps building was being designed. We had the Headquarters Annex. would run every time a toilet would flush. contractors create a full‑scale mock‑up Not optimal. So we added a pressure tank of an entire window assembly with the ▲ BACnet Devices: Badger Meter, downstream of the pumps, and now the trickle vent below so we could fully Carel S.p.A, Critical Environment pumps only operate if the water pressure appreciate what we were all getting into Technologies, Danfoss, drops in the tank, and this reduced the before going into mass production. cycling of the pumps significantly. It was worth the effort. They work great! Grundfos, Remsdaq Ltd, Reliable Controls, Water Trickle vents – We did a decent job Eco: How do the controls pretesting the trickle vent design, ▲ Modbus Devices: Columbia, integrate with the HVAC and but missed sealing the small air gap, other systems in the building? Quad Logic which allows the shaft to come through the to the interior, to connect BAS components from different ▲ EnOcean Devices: to the damper motor. manufacturers are integrated through Echoflex Solutions BACnet IP, MS/TP, Modbus TCP, So we had to open up all 57 trickle

28 NOVEMBER 2019 • ECOLIBRIUM FEATURE

vents and insert a piece of flexible foam Lighting – Although all the exterior In hindsight we would have looked at an insulation to prevent any unwanted air lighting, parkade lighting, and pot elevator that did not use a hydraulic lift. to pass through. Then, after completing lighting are LED, lighting remains Two years after occupying the building, that, several months later, the friction the largest consumer of energy in we worked with the elevator service of the metal damper shaft against the the building, and we are looking at contractor to modify the hydraulic insulating foam starting making an retrofitting out many of the fluorescent oil , dropping the annoying squealing sound every time the tubes to be LED tubes. consumption of the elevators by damper changed position, so we had to go 50 per cent. back and coat the shaft with a compatible Eco: What have been the most coating to stop the squealing. Oh brother. important lessons from the building Cistern sizing – In hindsight we should But it’s been great for a number of and construction process? have doubled-up on the size of our water years now. In terms of sequence of TZ: sizing – Probably cistern tanks to further reduce the need operation, we learned that the trickle the biggest lesson we learned from for municipal-supplied potable water. vents had to be closed on the windward this project was to allow for a more Overall, our architect, the design side of the building during high winds. adequately-sized mechanical room. team, and the construction team did Also, we implemented additional sensors There are a considerable amount of a fabulous job and we are delighted that triggered an alarm and closed in this facility and the with the facility. trickle vents when the air flow direction constructed mechanical room design was (through the vents) was reversed due to far too small. The plumbing team really Eco: Has the Annex inspired other specific wind conditions. Most of the put their artistic skills to task in order to built environment companies? sequence of operation for the trickle pipe our super-small mechanical room. vents was determined empirically over TZ: I’d like to think so. We certainly Elevator – The elevator selection the first two years of operation, tuning promote the Annex. I’d like to think process certainly could have used more for each specific season, and according the Annex has inspired others to follow scrutiny. The existing design specified to occupant feedback. suit. We were the first LEED Platinum a direct hydraulic lift, which requires certified facility in our municipality Wireless lighting control – The vendor an enormous amount of energy for (View Royal), a suburb of Victoria. we used for wireless lighting had to ship each lift, and to keep the hydraulic us custom firmware in their product in oil tank, which is located in the lower In addition, we conduct LEED-oriented order for us to achieve the sequences we parkade, at an appropriately warm tours of our South Annex many times wanted, and unfortunately the firmware temperature. At one point the elevator during the year. Tours include our did not incorporate a real-time status alone was consuming 3 per cent of the dealers and their customers for sure, of the lighting control mode. So there entire building’s electrical energy. So we but also include groups with disciplines was a fair amount of fussing on our end advocated to staff to use the stairs as much such as education, real estate, ASHRAE, to make sure that when the occupants as possible, and that certainly has helped. green buildings, and others. asked for the lights to change state, they Outdoor rock garden. Our architect has also toured actually changed correctly. In hindsight Image: Jesse Moore. clients considering green buildings we should have made sure that real-time through the facility to help with their status was mandatory. Also, we moved decision‑making process. the PID loop for daylight harvesting from the fixture-mounted controllers to Part of the commitment of participation Reliable Controls devices. This improved in the LEED program is to provide the loop tuning and greatly improved our education, which we hope will lead ability to optimise the overall sequence to inspiration, followed by direct of operation for interior lighting. involvement with green buildings. We learned that to achieve maximum It is our intention to continue flexibility of the control of light fixtures, modifying our facilities to be a the entire sequence of operation should state‑of‑the-art BAS implementation, be located in a fully programmable so that we can demonstrate to our tour BACnet controller. Fixture-mounted groups what is possible. devices need only turn the light on and off and modulate the dimming level Eco: Has the meaning of the in response to commands sent by the word “sustainability” changed programmable controller. over time do you think? Acoustics – The Annex is an open atrium TZ: For me, personally, no. I don’t design, and for the most part that design think the meaning of sustainability works well. However, it did not include has changed. We like the Brundtland enough offices with full floor-to-ceiling Commission’s definition, which states walls that permitted privacy. So we “Meeting the needs of the present renovated a number of the spaces to allow without compromising the future for full closed‑office privacy, but still most generations’ ability to meet their own.” of the spaces are open cubicles. Pretty simple.

NOVEMBER 2019 • ECOLIBRIUM 29 FEATURE

An atrium sits at the centre of the Annex. Image: Jesse Moore.

Eco: The Annex does not have a lot and I believe we have achieved that We carried a 1 per cent contingency in of glass compared to other corporate goal, while creating a complementary the construction contract, and we didn’t HQs. Could you explain this decision, structure within the neighbourhood. even use it all. That was surprising. and also how it affects indoor light? Eco: The interior fitout features It’s super comfortable and a pleasure TZ: Our facility is located in between extensive use of timber. Is this for to work in. a small shopping centre/grocery store, aesthetics, performance, or both? and a residential area, which consists of It’s a great showcase for . about 50 duplexes and condominiums. TZ: The interior fitout of timber does It’s super energy-efficient. It currently The Annex is connected to our seem extensive doesn’t it? But we has an EUI of 52.6kWh/m2 per annum. existing production facility, which barely made the credit for 50 per cent I’m very happy about that. certified wood. We wanted the credit has a tan stucco and stone exterior. It’s a great showcase for demonstrating and we wanted to demonstrate our We wanted to design the exterior BACnet interoperability. of the annex to be “subdued” and use of locally supplied and sustainably “harmonious” with the existing harvested wood. Best of both worlds. It’s a great showcase for building production facility. We specifically The aesthetics is just icing on the cake! sustainability. Of course everyone loves the look did not want an all-glass façade, But overall, I’d have to say I am most and feel of the interior space because which would be incongruent with the proud of the talented team of passionate of the atrium of wood. character of the neighbourhood. people who contributed to the design, Although it is not all glass, the design Eco: What are you most proud optimisation, construction, does receive a significant amount of of about the building? commissioning, certification, and daylight and provides a great deal of day‑to‑day operation of the building. visibility for occupants to have exterior TZ: There is plenty to feel proud about We are so very fortunate to have such views. If you review Environmental the building: a wonderful pool of local talented people who can confidently and Quality credit 8 you will notice It was actually built. 76 per cent of the occupied interior floor effectively demonstrate the art of space is “daylit” and 98 per cent of the It was actually certified. building sustainability. ❚ occupied spaces have “direct-line-of- sight” to the outdoor environment. Would you like to know more? Natural lighting and views to the outdoor green spaces was an For more info about the Annex, go to www.reliablecontrols.com/corporate/brochure/ important consideration in our design,

30 NOVEMBER 2019 • ECOLIBRIUM