EndoTherm® Reduces BC Housing Carbon Emissions
Obstacle
BC Housing has a mandated target to reach carbon neutral. This means reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption as much as possible and then purchasing carbon credits to offset the remain emissions. The public housing portfolio consists of 7,800 housing units in buildings across the province, with the number one cause of emissions is caused by the consumption of natural gas for space heating these buildings.
Solution
After the successful small-scale pilot of EndoTherm®, BC Housing contracted Morrison Hershfield to provide a 3rd party audit and report of a multi-building application of EndoTherm® within its portfolio. The goal was to examine if EndoTherm® would be a viable solution to reduce energy consumption and ghg emissions, to help BC Housing reach its emissions targets. The project included basic water treatment for corrosion control and the EndoTherm® treatment to improve hydronic heat transfer and energy efficiency.
The entire portfolio was evaluated and twelve multi-unit residential buildings were selected to receive the EndoTherm® treatment based on the consistency of their historical energy consumption and that no other changes would be made to the building. FortisBC (Gas Utility) partially funded the project as part of its Innovative Technology Demonstration Program. Upon completion of the second heating season the energy data was sent to Morrison Hershfield, a third-party engineering firm, for analysis.
Result
Morrison Hershfield concluded that, once all variables were isolated, EndoTherm provided a clear and measurable reduction of building gas consumption by at least 5%-8.4%. While this falls below the EndoTherm® average performance of 12-17%, public housing buildings have in suite temperature control, sporadic heat loss from open windows, which leads to greater variability in building energy consumption than typical residential buildings. Having verified significant energy and emissions savings with no issues, BC Housing is now applying EndoTherm® and the PACE Eco Program to its portfolio of applicable buildings.
BC Housing Builder Insight 18 – Improving Efficiency in Hydronic Radiant Heating Systems
As part of the FortisBC Innovative Technology Demonstration program, the BC Housing results have formed part of FortisBC’s review of EndoTherm®. The successful results at BC Housing and other demonstration led to the creation of a new FortisBC rebate category for “Hydronic Additive” of which EndoTherm® is the first approved technology. FortisBC clients can email sustainability@pacesolutions.com to find out more. EndoTherm® helps reduce associated energy cost and GHG savings from our buildings. Along with being relatively simple to install, it averaged greater than 5% savings in natural gas with a simple payback period of 2.7 – 4.5 years.
EndoTherm® helps reduce associated energy cost and GHG savings from our buildings. Along with being relatively simple to install, it averaged greater than 5% savings in natural gas with a simple payback period of 2.7 – 4.5 years.
SADIA AFRINCOMMISSIONING MANAGER, DEVELOPMENT AND ASSET STRATEGIES - BC HOUSING
