INNOVATION November-December 2016

f ea t ures CONFIRMING A Benchmarking Update Verifies Deep Energy Savings after a Tall-building Retrofit

Andrew Pape-Salmon, P.Eng.

In 2012, a group of Vancouver condominium owners retrofitted their 13-storey, 37-unit residential building to achieve deep energy savings. The multi-million-dollar renewal project improved energy efficiency, comfort, durability, and acoustics at The Belmont, while also modernising its appearance. (See Innovation November/December 2013 for details.) Energy benchmarking played a critical role in this deep energy retrofit project. Calibrated energy modelling and accompanying cost– benefit analyses provided a business case for energy-efficiency measures that, when implemented, led to significant energy savings for The Belmont. Energy-efficiency upgrades represented only two percent of the overall

project cost incurred by the owners. Energy savings were measured and verified following the building renewal, and are reported here. Planning for the Retrofit With one of the goals being to improve building energy efficiency, the owners of the strata corporation hired RDH Building Science Inc. to assess the building enclosure’s condition and evaluate potential upgrades to major building systems that consume or affect energy use. The research was supported by energy utilities, several local governments, and provincial and federal agencies. The research included calibrated energy modelling of the entire building’s energy performance using several years of metered