Trial / Demo
Congratulations to Eoghan, who won VE User of the Year in Canada for Edge Sustainability. This project stood out for sheer scale, both in terms of physical size, data management and for the energy demand at the site. Edge facilitated the reduction of over 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, through partnership with their clients, contractors and design teams. The final design resulted in over 90% of the annual thermal heating energy being provided by heat recovery chillers.
Energy Modelling for New St. Paul's Hospital Design, Vancouver
The New St Paul’s is the largest hospital redevelopment in British Columbia, Canada. Located in downtown Vancouver, it’s a full-service acute care facility located on a new integrated health campus.
The energy model developed by Edge reflects a sophisticated integration of the latest design refinements in lighting, HVAC systems, chiller efficiencies, controls and the building envelope, achieved through close coordination with multiple stakeholders including BC Ministry of Health, Providence Health Care and PCL Construction.
The main building is an 11-storey, 1.7 million ft2 (158,480 m2) state-of-the-art acute care hospital with 550 beds and close to 100 negatively pressured isolation rooms, plus 15 Outbreak control zones for isolating infected patient groups and two helipads. The building parkade is over 600,000ft2 (55,741m2).
Designed to CSA Z317.2-2019 standards, the HVAC system contains over 64 air-handling units, 11 chillers (8 heat recovery) with a combined capacity of just under 6,000 tonnes (21 MW).
The main electrical service is just under 9 Megawatts and is designed to provide the majority of the facilities’ heating space on a net annual basis.
Key highlights:
· 6,000 zones, 64 AHUs, heat recovery chiller plant
· Analysis: loads, energy, carbon and cost
· Energy Use Intensity: < 300 kWh/m2.yr (95 kBTU/ft2.year)
· Carbon: < 1,574 metric tCO2e/year
· Annual utility costs: $4,000,000 CAD (estimated)
Edge Consultants have played an integral role in the sustainable and complex design stages of the New St. Paul's Hospital project, using the IESVE software suite.
The maximum number of spaces (6,000) was reached when completing the energy simulations, generating results files in excess of 20 GB of detailed hourly data.
The HVAC design, VAV (Variable Air Volume) with re-heat and containing over 64 AHU units, was custom built to the actual final mechanical design drawings.
The final design results in over 90% of the annual thermal heating energy being provided by heat recovery chillers at an average heating COP above 4.5. Edge facilitated the design by running simulations using the detailed coil methodology in the ApacheHVAC application to determine heating and chilled water reset strategies, which were then incorporated into the final control sequences of operation for the facility. ApacheHVAC proved invaluable to ensure the system design and control strategies were optimised, in addition to trouble shooting spaces with low relative humidity in winter.
Edge continues to utilise the IESVE model to cross-check and approve shop drawings for equipment throughout the project’s construction process. Edge will also utilise the IESVE software as part of the Measurement and Verification process and will monitor the facilities’ energy end uses for a year post-construction; this will ensure energy systems are optimised and operators are fully trained on all overall energy related systems and their associated strategies and goals on a monthly basis. The IESVE model will serve as a construction commissioning digital twin that will be utilised for the first year of building operations and beyond.
