Tag: engineering

Image of solar panels

In a world where energy consumption is a major concern, Justin Lau and Sabari Manoharan, mechanical engineers from HH Angus’ Energy Division, discuss the importance of energy master planning for multi-building and campus infrastructure. They highlight how an energy master plan can help achieve goals like reducing carbon emissions, lowering utility costs, and improving reliability and resiliency. Justin and Sabari explain that energy master planning provides the opportunity to consider current and future expected building uses and loads, up-front capital availability, and timelines to establish appropriate phasing of projects, level of planning and detail design, along with meaningful cost estimates and analysis. They also share some interesting examples of how they had helped clients achieve their energy goals.

Episode 8 "Energy Master Planning" – H.H. Angus and Associates Ltd. (hhangus.com)

Congratulations to Tim Zhu on being chosen as one of the ‘Top 10 Under 40’ on Canadian Consulting Engineers’ annual list of outstanding young engineers.

A young engineer standing in a suit

Tim is a senior mechanical engineer and project manager in HH Angus’ fast-paced Commercial Division. Since joining the firm in 2013, he has consistently demonstrated strong technical abilities and a dedicated work ethic, often putting in extra hours to ensure clients’ work is completed with the utmost quality and care. He has also been instrumental in developing calculation tools for HH Angus, including HVAC piping and ductwork sizing tools, ASHRAE 62.1 calculation tools and more. Tim is also member of ASHRAE and enjoys the distinction of being the first HH Angus WELL APTM-accredited staff member.

Tim expresses his passion for engineering by developing standards and protocols through his work. He is a member of the HH Angus sustainability committee, the standards committee, and the calculation tools committee. Tim is currently working on overhauling HH Angus’ drafting standards to be implemented in the REVIT platform. He is also developing template control sequences and diagrams based on the ASHRAE 36 High performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems. Tim regularly provides instruction and training for colleagues, including both new and experienced engineers and designers, and volunteers in University of Toronto’s Engineering & Strategies Practice course, working with students to provide real-world context to their studies.

We warmly congratulate Tim on this significant honour that publicly recognizes his outstanding efforts and qualities – well done!

To read more about this year’s Top 10 Under 40, please click here.

“Azure’s International AZ Awards recognize excellence and innovation in architecture and design, and celebrate the world’s best projects, products and ideas.”

This international design competition annually selects winners in the categories of design, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, experiential graphic design, interiors, concepts, student work and social good/environmental leadership. The 2022 awards saw Toronto’s Mirvish Village redevelopment project winning in the Urban Design Vision category. Click here to read more about the Mirvish Village AZ Award.

Award-winning Redevelopment

Mirvish Village is rising on the site of ‘Honest Ed’s,’ a much-loved discount store that was at the heart of Toronto’s Mirvish Village neighbourhood for almost 70 years. The redevelopment is currently under construction and spans 4.5 acres, creating nearly 1 million ft2 of purpose-built rental housing and retail space.

Mirvish Village has a focus on sustainability and affordability. To achieve this, the redevelopment is incorporating a district energy system and micro-grid that will offer a resilient means of thermal energy, power, and emergency power, enabling the project to meet LEED platinum and the City of Toronto’s Tier 2 Toronto Green Standard requirements. 

HH Angus’ Role

Our Energy Division team worked closely with Creative Energy Developments to provide mechanical and electrical engineering services for the Village’s central utility plant, which includes a combined heat and power plant (CHP), a boiler plant, and a cooling plant. The CHP plant includes an 800 KW generator set with auxiliaries and heat recovery system. The generator is expected to run continuously to provide power to the complex.

Heat recovery consists of two systems: high temperature to provide heat to buildings, and low temperature to provide additional heating for a winter snow melting system and swimming pool heating. The boiler plant includes four condensing hot water boilers, with the option for two additional boilers in future. All boilers have an output of 3.1 MW.

The cooling plant includes two water-cooled chillers, operating at 1200 tons each. One is a magnetic bearing chiller with variable frequency drive (VFD), and the other is a centrifugal chiller with VFD. As well, two rooftop cooling towers at 1200 tons each have been installed. 

Central distribution piping from the plant will provide hot water and chilled water to multiple energy transfer stations, with heating, cooling, and domestic hot water heat exchanges for each building within the complex.

A photo-voltaic solar system will have a capacity of 103KW, 480V. HH Angus provided direction for locating the installation, coordinated with the PV supplier for modeling the panel direction and angle for optimal PV output, developed technical connection requirements with Toronto Hydro, and identified requirements for parallel generation with the central utility plant. Our scope also included developing thermal and electrical metering strategies within a microgrid system, and design of operation for gas-fired emergency generators in electrical peak shaving mode.

Rendering courtesy of Westbank Corp

 

Mirvish Village - AZ Awards | AZ Awards (azuremagazine.com)

“By addressing occupant well-being, energy and greenhouse gas reductions and decarbonization targets, the AEC industry can bring existing buildings into the future.”

Akira Jones’ keynote address kicked off a recent panel discussion on Smart Buildings: Now and Tomorrow, from Canadian Consulting Engineers (CCE).

According to Akira, Director of Digital Services at HH Angus: “Understanding the intersection of technology and the built environment to deliver better business outcomes and performance will be instrumental for engineers, architects, contractors, integrators and other professionals in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry to be successful. This understanding presents a fantastic opportunity for owners to leverage technology to modernize their buildings and assets. By addressing occupant well-being, energy and greenhouse gas reductions and decarbonization targets, the AEC industry can bring existing buildings into the future.”

The CCE event provided attendees with a forum for information, knowledge and practical advice on making the buildings, facilities and structures they design more economical for owners and safer and more functional for occupants.

The panel spotlighted key aspects of creating and managing smart buildings in a variety of settings including office, institutional, mixed use, industrial and retail. The discussion focused on topics such as: Emissions, Energy Efficiency & Sustainability, IoT, Security, Life Safety and Buildings/Construction ROI when it comes to issues pertaining to utility/energy management, security and emergency response.

For a video of the keynote address, click here.

To see the full panel of speakers, click here.

Akira Jones, P.Eng., LEED AP
Akira is Director of HH Angus’ Digital Services team, which specializes in BIM processes and software, 3-D scanning and Scan-to-BIM, the Internet of Things (IoT), digital twinning and Amazon Web Services cloud consulting. He is also a Mechanical Engineer with well over a decade of experience in the AEC industry.

HH Angus is honoured to once again be named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for 2020. This is our second consecutive year being selected for this prestigious honour, and we want to thank our clients and employees for the important part they played in helping us achieve this national recognition. The award, now in its 27th year, distinguishes overall business performance and growth of best-in-class, Canadian-owned companies with revenues of $15 million or more.

Paul Keenan, President of HH Angus

“We are grateful for this acknowledgement of our firm’s forward-looking strategy, as well as the engagement of our employees and their ongoing commitment to technical excellence and innovation,” said Paul Keenan, President of HH Angus. “We were thrilled to be selected for this award in our first submission last year. Being recognized again this year is a testament to the ongoing commitment of our employees, and the confidence of our clients, who place their trust in us year over year. Our expansion to Vancouver underscores our growth strategy, with the opening of a permanent office to support our local and national clients in BC. And as a knowledge-based firm, we are investing in continuous learning for our staff, and in the emerging design and collaboration technologies that will allow us to deliver on our clients’ goals for their built environment.”

Tom Halpenny, General Manager and VP Operations

According to Tom Halpenny, General Manager and VP Operations: “Having just celebrated our 100th anniversary, being recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for a second year speaks to the stability of HH Angus, to the strength of our business strategy, and the enduring relationships we have developed with clients over the years.  Those relationships are built largely on the collaborative approach and technical expertise of our staff. This is a team win, and we all share in this award.”

About Canada’s Best Managed Companies

Canada’s Best Managed Companies continues to be the mark of excellence for Canadian-owned and managed companies with revenues over 5 million. Every year since the launch of the program in 1993, hundreds of entrepreneurial companies have competed for this designation in a rigorous and independent process that evaluates their management skills and practices. The awards are granted on four levels:

  1. Canada’s Best Managed Companies new winner (one of the new winners selected each year);
  2. Canada’s Best Managed Companies winner (award recipients that have re-applied and successfully retained their Best Managed designation for two additional years, subject to annual operational and financial review);
  3. Gold Standard winner (after three consecutive years of maintaining their Best Managed status, these winners have demonstrated their commitment to the program and successfully retained their award for 4-6 consecutive years);
  4. Platinum Club member (winners that have maintained their Best Managed status for seven years or more).

Program sponsors are Deloitte Private, CIBC, Canadian Business, Smith School of Business, and TMX Group. For more information, visit:

Deloitte Canada's Best Managed Companies 2020

 

HH Angus Contact:
Sameer Dhargalkar | Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
HH Angus and Associates Ltd.
+l (416) 443 8200
Sameer.dhargalkar@hhangus.com
hhangus.com