Author: Kirsten Nielsen

Low and zero carbon energy presents a substantial opportunity for the world. It will deliver significant benefits to the human health, well-being and prosperity, while improving the environment and sustainability of our planet.

The promise of harnessing emission-free energy is an engineering and economic opportunity that is hard to pass on. While eliminating carbon emissions has its health benefits to humans as we reduce air pollution and improve air quality in cities, the transformation to renewable and emission-free energy will help achieve a truly sustainable energy future for the world. This zero carbon energy revolution is coming. It will deliver jobs and reduce the impact of global warming on a wide variety of other important aspects of life. A Low Carbon Energy Transformation is a key component for an effective strategy to reduce greenhouse gases and boost energy security.

The Issue: Climate Crisis

Climate change took centre stage in 2019 as advocates around the world organized events and demanded government action to address the climate crisis. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommended to the United Nations that the world limit global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid adverse effects on both humans and the environment. This target is possible, but would require the world reaching zero carbon emissions by the year 2050, as well as fast-tracked and extensive changes in all aspects of society.

Looking to the future, the global population will reach 10 billion by 2050, according to the World Bank. In parallel, the world’s demand for raw materials could double by 2060, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. These factors, among others, introduce substantial pressure on the path to zero carbon energy. In order for the world to reach its climate targets, the main sources of emissions to be addressed are human activities related to transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and buildings. For the latter, achieving near-zero/zero carbon emissions involves tackling multiple aspects, such as building construction and retrofitting activities, building envelopes, and building energy systems.

Photo of Group of demonstrators on road

Challenging the Status Quo

Across Canada, one of the primary approaches to building heating is through fossil fuel combustion. Natural gas and fuel oils are burned to produce steam or hot water which are used for heating, or fuel is burned to heat air and sending it directly into buildings. As for cooling, buildings traditionally use refrigeration systems that rely on electricity from the grid, which may/may not use fossil fuel to generate electricity. In addition, when it comes to electric vehicles (EV), most buildings have yet to install EV charging infrastructure.

Reducing building emissions requires a focus on building energy systems, efficiencies, and strategies in order for buildings to achieve true zero carbon emissions. While ASHRAE standards 90.1 and 90.2 address building efficiencies, new smart and innovative building systems for heating and cooling must become mainstream in order to make tangible progress toward a zero carbon world.

Engineering Solutions 

The good news for building emissions is that there is a wide variety of engineering solutions and strategies available to provide emission-free heating and cooling.  Building owners, collaborating with engineering consultants, face the critical task of establishing evaluation criteria for each proposed emission-reduction solution or strategy, in order to determine which is most appropriate under constraints such as budget, time, and performance, and other practical considerations.

Heat Pumps
One solution is heat pump systems that can be used to satisfy both building heating and cooling loads. While heat pumps are typically powered by electricity, it is worth noting that, in Ontario, approximately 90% of electricity comes from low/zero greenhouse gas sources and has one of the lowest annual average emissions factors in Canada (31 g CO2eq/kWh electricity consumed). Heat pump systems commonly have a wide range of capacities. For heating, such systems are capable of providing heating capacities up to 30,000 MBH (8792 kW) per heat pump, and hot water of temperatures as high as 150°F (65.5°C). For large cooling loads, heat pumps have cooling capacities from 250 tons of refrigeration (TR) (879 kW) up to 1800 TR (6330 kW) per heat pump. These capabilities make heat pumps suitable for simultaneous heating and cooling of buildings in the shoulder seasons. 

Heat pump systems are also capable of providing full building heating in winter when they operate in conjunction with an appropriate heat recovery system. For peak heating loads, these heat pump systems can operate side by side with low emission condensing boilers in a low carbon scenario, or coupled with thermal energy storage (TES) systems in a zero carbon scenario. It is worth noting that, for colder climates, supplemental heating may be required to satisfy peak winter loads in order to achieve zero carbon building heating. This may be achieved with other zero carbon heating alternatives. For peak cooling loads, heat pump systems work in conjunction with high efficiency centrifugal peaking chillers or thermal TES systems. Heat pumps that use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant (R744) can provide both heating and cooling emission free, and could be a promising solution if they become mainstream.

photo of Modern boiler room equipment for heating system

Solar Photovoltaic
Regarding on-site electricity generation, low/zero carbon electricity generation can be achieved by using solar photovoltaic (PV) systems coupled with battery storage in a zero-carbon scenario, or by utilizing small-scale low emission natural gas engines for electricity generation, which can also be coupled with battery or thermal storage in a low carbon scenario.

It is important to note that PV system capital costs have been falling dramatically in the past few years, with solar panel efficiencies up to 23%. In addition, battery storage system prices are becoming more competitive. They continue to decrease in cost and are destined to play a significant role in this market.These economic factors will significantly contribute to the zero carbon transformation for reducing building on-site emissions, as they will help to make projects financially viable.

For large-scale integrated applications, such as neighborhood-scale heating/cooling systems or institutional campuses, buildings can utilize an ambient water loop that operates between 50°F and 75°F (10°C and 20°C), or a resilient redundant thermal grid. This system uses an underground pipe network to supply a heat source/sink capability, which is then coupled with individual heat pumps in each building to either draw heat from the loop or inject heat into the loop. One caveat is that this may require retrofits for some buildings in order to accommodate lower water temperatures for heating. These retrofits may involve implementing measures such as re-insulation of the building envelope, high performance glazing, and upgrading the heating and cooling systems in the buildings.

Solar panel against blue sky

Energy Storage
On-site energy storage systems, such as battery storage or TES, assist both electrical and thermal grids in satisfying peak demand and increasing overall system reliability. Heat recovery is a similar solution that helps achieve zero carbon. These systems work by reclaiming/dispensing thermal energy from/to sources like wastewater, storm water, and open bodies of water.

Geo-exchange
For building heating and cooling, geo-exchange thermal energy is supplied to or extracted from the earth’s surface. The advantage of geo-exchange is that the earth’s temperature is stable over time; for example, in some regions of the world, soil temperature below the frost line remains a constant 45°F-50°F (7°C - 10°C) year-round. In other words, geo-exchange uses Earth’s outer layers as a rechargeable thermal battery. This strategy works best in specific climates and involves geotechnical, civil works, and landscaping considerations.

Geothermal Energy
Another promising solution is Geothermal Energy (which differs from geo-exchange). It uses thermal energy from deeper layers of the earth (2500 meters+) to provide higher temperature heat that could be used for process heat or to distribute thermal energy for heating on a larger scale.

Small Modular Reactors (SMR)
SMRs can be safely deployed in remote areas and would provide carbon-free electricity up to 600-1200 MWe per unit, in parallel with high-grade process heat (up to 1112°F (600°C) for capacities up 1.5 Billion BTU), or heat that can be used for city-wide heating.

The Challenges Ahead

Implementing any of the above-mentioned solutions carries challenges, the main one being economics. Any zero carbon solution has to deliver a competitive return on investment for cost per unit of energy, total capital cost, operational cost, and marginal cost for system reliability for mission-critical applications. These emission-free solutions may, however, offer future economic advantages when compared to traditional methods. 

The advantages become clear when considering economic risk factors such as carbon pricing, cost of depreciation of assets due to regulation, and legislative risk, as well as cost savings of new zero carbon technologies arising from future technological disruption. For example, the heat pump market has been changing rapidly in the past two years (2018-2020), introducing large-scale heat pump systems at lower cost which makes them financially competitive. 

Other challenges to zero carbon energy solutions may prove more problematic; for example, the challenges of business repositioning for some energy stakeholders, such as fossil fuel energy producers, distributors, resellers, and equipment vendors. Repositioning businesses to benefit from the zero carbon transformation can induce substantial resistance to change, perhaps due to accelerated time frames, as well as human capital problems, or due to changing demands for skills in the job market.

Planning and deploying an effective energy strategy, including creating and implementing resilient and adaptive energy roadmaps that can actively respond to changing economic and environmental conditions, is a solid start to a zero carbon energy transition.  

Our highly skilled energy consultants are available to discuss low/zero carbon energy options and the transformation solutions best suited to your needs.
For more information, contact lowcarbon@hhangus.com

Resources:

Summary for Policymakers – IPCC
https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/

A Clearer View on Ontario’s Emissions - The Atmospheric Fund, 
https://taf.ca/publications/a-clearer-view-on-ontarios-emissions-2019/

Deep Lake Water Cooling System - ACCIONA https://www.acciona.us/projects/construction/port-and-hydraulic-works/deep-lake-water-cooling-system/

 Geothermal energy - IRENA https://www.irena.org/geothermal 

Author:

Mike Hassaballa, MASc., P.Eng.
lowcarbon@hhangus.com

COVID 19-Response: Creating Healthcare Spaces for COVID-19 Patients

Image of modern hospital patient room with beds

HH Angus invites you to join The Canadian Centre for Healthcare Facilities’ (CCHF) webinar, featuring a panel of healthcare leaders from across the country, including HH Angus’ Nick Stark. The panel will be discussing how they are addressing patient needs in this new environment, some challenges and solutions, and offering opportunity for insights and discussion.

Date: May 1, 2020

Time: 10:00 – 11:00 am Vancouver | 1:00 – 2:00 pm Toronto

Register in advance for this FREE webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yS8tlKOfQJSs9jghRYu5yA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Panelists:
Miriam Stewart, Regional Program Director Critical Care Vancouver Coastal Health/Providence Health Care, Chief Clinical Planning Officer, St. Paul’s Redevelopment, British Columbia

Nick Stark, Vice-President, Knowledge Management, HH Angus

Scott Olsen, Provincial Lead, Asset Management & Safety, Clinical Engineering – Centre of Expertise, Alberta Health Services

John Switzer, Strategic Capital, Space Management and Real Estate

Pierre-Marc Legris, Director Technical Services McGill University Hospital, Quebec

Michael Keen (TBC), Vice-President of Facilities and Planning and Chief Planning Officer, Unity Health Toronto, Ontario

Lynn Wilson Orr, Principal, Parkin Architects Limited

Moderator:
Gordon Burrill, Teegor Consulting, Fredericton, New Brunswick and CCHF Board President

Rita Patel joined HH Angus in 2010.

What is your favorite thing about working at HH Angus?

For me, it is the people and the interaction, and the general atmosphere in the office. It’s almost familial – everyone gets along, everyone is open, super nice and very helpful. You can walk into any VP’s office, or the President’s office, talk to them about anything, whether work-related or not. And the fact that, at least for me in my role, it is not a desk job – I get to go to site.

How do you contribute to design and construction of the built environment?

I do everything from initial concept design to detailed design, to seeing the project through construction and handover to the owner. So, all of it!

Why did you become an engineer?

I was applying to university and selecting courses, thinking the whole time that I wanted to go into some sort of bio-med or airline pilot program. But, the courses were all business courses and geographical courses – there was no math involved – and I began thinking, “I’m not going like any of this”. So, when we started picking the courses I liked, I was advised that I should be an engineer, because the courses I selected were all math related, with definitive answers and some challenges. That’s how I ended up in engineering.  So, a pilot was not what I wanted as a career after all!  I ended up doing that on the side instead.

My two mentors have taught me a lot; for example, how to behave in a meeting and how to interact with clients. They’ve always kept me involved and have helped me build client relationships.

What projects that you are most proud of?

I mainly engineer hospital renovations, and I am proud of most of those projects because they are so challenging to deliver within the space. In healthcare facilities, you can’t just go in and disrupt everyone.  The fact that we are able to do renovations in functioning operating rooms or operating theatres is great! I recall one OR project where we had to replace all the medical gases in eighteen suites over two weeks, and it went really well. I was quite nervous about that project, because it was an OR suite, so it would be very critical if anything went wrong. But, it turned out great and went exactly as planned.

You worked elsewhere before HH Angus - was that also in consulting?

No, it was in aerospace, where I was doing a lot of computational aerodynamics. I realized I wasn’t satisfied sitting at a computer doing essentially the same thing over and over. My sister was familiar with HH Angus and put me in touch with managers here, and that’s how I started working here.

So the big sell was that you wouldn’t be sitting at a desk?

Yes! Just the fact that I get to go to Sunnybrook Hospital, which is only 5 km away, made it exciting – I get to see construction, I get to see things actually getting built, which I didn’t get to do before.

Describe a typical day.

They’re never the same. Sometimes I come into the office, sometimes I go straight to a site. For me, that’s the great part – you never know what is going to happen from week to week, or even day to day. It is not a monotonous job where you just come in and do the same thing again and again.

What’s a special moment you’ve enjoyed recently?

Being promoted to Manager, Construction Services is a good one. I’m now working in both healthcare and construction. The great thing about construction is that I was already working closely with the inspectors, so it wasn’t much of a change for me. I already understood what they do, and being able to help them even more now is a good thing.

How have senior managers helped guide you?

My two mentors have taught me a lot; for example, how to behave in a meeting and how to interact with clients. They’ve always kept me involved and have helped me build client relationships. Now, they trust me with their clients. Technically, my mechanical mentor has provided the best guidance I could ever ask for. He just knows how to get things built, and he can solve any problem I have ever faced.

What advice would you give to somebody applying to work at HH Angus?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, because you don’t know what you don’t know. I see younger staff, especially new grads, being hesitant to ask questions because they think they should know the answer already. But there are literally no dumb questions, and no one will judge you for asking.

What is it about design that drives you?

It’s fun! Let’s say you are renovating a space - how do we get air supply to this space? We have to figure out how we are going to do that. It’s a challenge, especially in existing facilities. And then you get to roll it out and see that it works! I like going through the entire process because you know that you did the whole thing, from start to finish. Also, because I work in the healthcare sector, it is nice knowing that you are helping people.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. My other favourite line is – you don’t know what you don’t know. I see younger staff being afraid to ask questions because they think they should already know the answer. But, literally, there are no dumb questions, and no one will judge you for asking.

What trends are you excited about?

I am a member of the CSA HVAC Committee. We are constantly developing new clauses or new standards to help improve the quality of HVAC in healthcare facilities. Being part of this committee is really exciting. Also implementing those new standards; for example, providing extra air filtration for patients with immune system challenges - if you have low immunity, you need greater filtration of the air being pumped into the room. Also, implementing technology that helps reduce airborne infections. Hospitals risk many healthcare-associated infections, and we want to do all we can to minimize those risks, so we specify equipment such as copper toilet seats or UV lighting. Copper kills bacteria, so if you have a copper-infused toilet seat, airborne infectious matter in the vicinity will not survive.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

I flew small planes for two or three years. It was fun, but probably gets more fun when you get to bigger planes.

What skills or traits help you most in progressing through your career?

People tell me that I am pretty efficient, and self-sufficient. If you give me something to do, I will find a way to get it done. And, most of the time, 99.9% of my work will be done on time and of good quality.

If you could change one thing how hospitals are constructed, what would it be?

I would tell hospitals to stop putting patients in buildings that are over 40 years old, where there are no HVAC systems. Regarding new builds, the biggest challenge we have is space – said every engineer ever! All the space tends to be taken up for clinical use, and mechanical/electrical infrastructure is often an afterthought. We are always struggling with service distribution. So, I would ensure there was adequate space allowed for these essential building services.

Creating intelligent, responsive and flexible spaces allows building owners to improve occupant comfort, productivity, health & wellness and security, while also increasing the value of the asset. By leveraging data from connected building automation systems, IoT devices and other applications, we can design ‘smart spaces’ that optimize the built environment – from workplaces to hospitals and more.


Benefits of smart spaces

  • Optimize work flows and processes
  • Realize operational and energy efficiency
  • Improve tenant/occupant experience
  • Increase the value of your property assets

Unlike new construction, where it is easier to design and implement smart building technologies,we wanted to better understand the process and pain points around retrofitting an existing structure into a smart space. HH Angus has launched a Smart Spaces pilot project to explore smart building technologies within our own office environment, with the goal of supporting our clients’ interest in similar initiatives.

The Smart Spaces pilot will evaluate technologies that can benefit our clients in a real-world setting. We are installing sensors in selected conference rooms and volunteered workstations that will anonymously monitor occupancy and environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity. We’re excited to be collaborating with Argentum Electronics, a Toronto-based start-up that is providing the sensors (Spacr.ai Smart Building IoT Platform).

We are also developing a Smart Spaces dashboard and companion mobile app that will aggregate and display data from the sensors and building systems to provide actionable insights, such as adjusting environmental conditions in the space, improve the meeting room booking process, increasing efficiency of lighting systems, and more.

What’s next? The sensors installation has begun, and when these have all been deployed in our office, we will be sharing our progress - including challenges and successes - throughout the process, so stay tuned for updates!  

Jessica joined HH Angus in 2017 and is a Senior Engineering Designer in our Technology Division.

What is your favourite thing about working at HH Angus?

By far, it’s the sense of camaraderie and community - not only with my immediate colleagues, but between junior staff and management. Everybody genuinely cares about everybody else’s well-being, everyone is very open. It is always a positive working environment.  

What drew you to consulting engineering and to HH Angus coming out of school?

The summer before I graduated, I worked for ACML (Angus Consulting Management Limited) at the TD Centre in downtown Toronto. Many of my colleagues there told me I had done a great job and recommended that I apply to HH Angus next year. It helped get my foot into the door but also opened my eyes to consulting engineering. Seeing HH Angus in action at the TD Centre site attracted me to the company specifically, but also to consulting, because I had a clearer idea about what it is. 

How do you personally contribute to design and construction here at the company?

I am doing a lot of construction administration (CA) work for the Health Division during the (COVID-19) pandemic, which has been a rewarding way to give back to the company and my community. I also do CA on my own projects because I appreciate construction and find it interesting to see a project through from a design on paper to a completed installation in front of me.

What is Contract Administration?

The majority of it is attending site meetings and walking through the site. We take the drawings that HH Angus issues and, essentially, review and verify the contractor’s progress, and help when the contractor has questions or challenges along the way. We handle the RFIs (Requests for Information), shop drawings, examine change notices, review costs and make recommendations to the owner…just generally being a steward between the owner and the constructor.

I really like the company culture and how open people are. As someone who learns best verbally, I often walk over to someone’s desk and ask
a question.

How has working at HH Angus helped you grow your career?

This being my first job, I warrant an incredible amount of technical advice from my mentor as well as my manager. As you get onto different projects, you are exposed to different things. I always have an abundance of questions, so the answers add to my technical knowledge. I’ve worked on diverse projects and have had really good exposure to the construction industry and how it works from a trades perspective rather than from an engineering perspective. I feel that I have a better sense of what it actually takes to get that thing built that I am designing.  

Why did you decide to become an engineer?

I always liked science and math, but I disliked biology, so that took me out of the path of health sciences. In my Grade 12 Physics class, a former student made a Women in Engineering presentation – I was at an all-girls school. I remember thinking, ‘this is so interesting’ – I loved the idea of females in engineering and that push forward for woman getting into STEM and the varied career opportunities you can have with those skills. I remember thinking, “Oh, engineering… I could do that. I would be good at that! Let’s focus my energy there now”.

What HH Angus projects are you proud to have worked on?

I’m proud of the laboratory jobs that I have worked on, mostly because I have firsthand experience performing research during my undergrad at Queen’s University. Through that experience, I recognize how important a functional lab is to quality of research, and then how important research is for the greater good of society. I’m always proud that we can build the lab that meets a professor’s standards.  I’ve never had a happier client than a professor who gets to go in and start getting their hands dirty in their new lab.

Bright and Ultra Modern High Tech Laboratory Full of Advanced Technological Wonders, Computers, Analyzing Machines, Test Tubes and Beakers.

Which lab projects have you worked on?

I’ve worked on a small cleanroom at the University of Toronto. And I am doing CA for a virology lab at Sunnybrook that is going to be testing Coronavirus samples so, very relevant. The state-of-the-art lab was already in development, but when the hospital saw that Coronavirus was on the rise, they designated it as a testing facility. It was all hands on deck to get the project out the door and up and running; it was unusual to see everybody from the construction team completely come together. And when the owner says something “needs to be done yesterday”, the construction team responds - no questions asked - because everybody knows how important this is.

Describe a typical day.

There really is no typical day! 50% of the week, I’m on site. When I am in the office, it’s answering emails, doing design-related work, etc. Often, I find a big chunk of my day goes towards coordination between the disciplines. I usually work on projects where we’re the Prime Consultant, so I make sure that the sub-consultants have all the information they need. I also look at their drawings and our drawings and make sure that when the package leaves the door the client receives a unified design.

Is what you are doing now at HH Angus what you expected to be doing when you graduated?

When I graduated, I thought, ‘I am a mechanical engineer, I’ll be working on mechanical things’. I didn’t realize that I’d also be working with architects to learn what an effective building envelope is, structural engineers to learn about load carrying, and even acoustic engineers. Not to mention that I work closely with our in-house electrical engineering group. I find that, because I am working with so many different disciplines, I have learned quite a bit about each segment of the industry such that I can hold a conversation with each party and understand their scope. That was a big surprise. 

What are some of the things that you like about HH Angus apart from the work itself?

I really like the company culture and how open people are. As someone who learns best verbally, I often walk over to someone’s desk and ask a question. I find that my colleagues will always take the time to sit down with me and go into an in-depth analysis so that I understand. I love that I’m comfortable doing that, which I think is unique and probably one of the things that is of the most of value. Everyone knows that the company has to put its best foot forward and one of the ways we do that is by senior team members helping junior ones.  

What is your proudest moment here?

I have two answers. One is fun: I’m super-proud that I won the HH Angus Limerick Contest this year! I’ve been trying to win for years. I’ve submitted an entry every year and I’ve always run them by my colleagues for a laugh. As nerdy as it is (and the limericks are always nerdy), I think they’re great! But this year I won and I was very proud.

My serious answer is that I am most proud that I can gain people’s respect at a meeting, despite being both young and female. I’m often the only woman in the room. When I first started, I found that the older contractors with a lot of experience would ask me a question and if I couldn’t immediately answer, I didn’t gain their respect. This would quickly become evident when they would later go over my head to someone more senior. So, I’m proud that in the meetings now I have people’s respect from the start, they come to me immediately and trust my judgment.

How did you get to that point?

It happened when I was able to demonstrate in-depth technical knowledge about my drawings. I find that when I’m meeting a contractor for the first time, they will always fire questions at me and if I can answer each one and they’re satisfied, I gain their respect for the duration of the project. So, it’s having complete knowledge of the drawings and being able to communicate that effectively. With clients, I’m good at taking something that is highly technical and explaining it in a way that people without technical training can understand. That was learned on the job… although it is a trait I also developed through tutoring in high school and university. 

Can you recall a time when a senior staff member helped you, maybe early in your career?

I have a vivid memory of being in a client meeting with my manager when he unknowingly taught me something important just by example. We knew going in that it was going to be a difficult meeting and there was some tension on both sides. My manager led the meeting and every time it started to get out of hand, he immediately deflated the situation and you could feel the tension de-escalate. I remember thinking, ‘wow, look at how he handled a difficult client so well’. Now, when I am in a meeting on my own and find myself in a similar situation, I think, ‘okay, well what would he do?’ and it helps my judgment.

Jessica, first from left with her colleagues

Jessica, at left with colleagues

When you’re with friends who are not in the industry, what’s the first thing you tell them about HH Angus?

That we have a lot of fun! For example, I started a staff softball team with my colleagues. Or I tell them about our annual Golf Day - I’m horrible at golf, but it is always a memorable day. The office has a relaxed environment and the entire staff gets along well. I think that is largely because the company genuinely cares about their employees and work/life balance.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by seeing other females thrive in engineering. One of our young female managers in my division really inspires me, and I am happy to see a decreasing gender gap in the industry. I have been helping my mother, who is an elementary school teacher, expose her female students to things like building robots and coding. I guess, it’s just bringing more women into this field.

What are some of the trends and tech that excite you?

I love the 3D scanner and the fact that you can put goggles on and walk around a site virtually. And I love the developing field of being able to take a 3D scan and, by clicking a button, have it to go into AutoCAD or Revit. We are not quite there yet, but the technology is going that way and that’s really exciting for our industry.

Do you have any secret talents?

I love to bake bread! And being at home during the pandemic, I am experimenting with sourdough starter and making sourdough bread. I think I have made 12 loaves so far!