Tag: HH Angus

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!  

High Oxygen Demand

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the high oxygen demand by ventilators and related equipment can create high flow rate demands on a bulk liquid oxygen system, in excess of flow rates for which they were designed. This situation has been reported overseas where increases in flow have in cases exceeded 1000% of design capacity.

Bulk oxygen systems are owned by the medical gas supplier. They consist of a storage tank, a vaporizer, and a gas pressure regulator station as well as a reserve supply.

Bulk oxygen is stored as a cryogenic liquid at approximately -183°C, and then is vaporized to a gas by use of ambient air vaporizer(s), which uses ambient atmospheric heat. Due to the cold liquid temperature, ice does form on the vaporizer (from condensation of atmospheric humidity onto the cold vaporizer surfaces) irrespective of the outdoor conditions. 

The photo on the left illustrates a partially covered surface of a vaporizer; the photo the right shows a vaporizer fully encapsulated with ice (in the middle of the photo). Both photos were taken at different hospitals in southern Ontario during the week of 30 March 2020, when outdoor temperatures were above freezing.   

As ice build-up increases on the vaporizer, the ice acts as an insulator, thereby reducing the available heat transfer surface area; this reduction in surface area reduces the capacity of the system to deliver gaseous oxygen. Vaporizers are sized to allow for certain accumulation and still supply 100% design flow with some degree of safety but, past this flowrate, ice can incrementally accumulate. 

During periods of unusually high oxygen demand, with reduced heat transfer capacity, this can reduce the production rate of gaseous oxygen and can also cause liquid cryogenic oxygen to be introduced into the distribution pipeline downstream of the gas pressure regulators. When this liquid evaporates in the pipeline, the very large change in volume from a liquid to a gas can create significant pressure fluctuations in the pipeline oxygen pressure. 

Removal of Ice from Vaporizers

At all times, but especially at times of unusually high oxygen demand, it is important to keep vaporizers clear of ice. Contact your bulk supplier who will recommend and oversee specialist cleaning companies to perform this maintenance procedure.

Current High Oxygen Demand During COVID-19

It is recommended that a supplemental management plan during this COVID-19 event be established to monitor ice formation on the vaporizer and for ice removal, and to plan for additional high flow rate demand contingencies: 

  • Discuss with your medical oxygen bulk supplier if the LOX tank is being monitored daily by the supplier; if not, monitor the liquid level gauge at least two to three times a day
  • Discuss with your medical oxygen bulk supplier any necessary requirements to deal with a sudden significant step change in flow demand (e.g. keep clear access to the pad for extra deliveries, be ready to support emergency technical service access, etc.) 
  • Discuss with your medical oxygen bulk supplier how much of the surface area can be covered with ice before the evaporator needs to be cleaned; establish response times from the supplier to have a representative on site when the vaporizer(s) need to be cleaned 
  • Do not attempt to remove ice. Contact your bulk supplier who will recommend and oversee specialist cleaning companies to perform this maintenance procedure 
  • Establish daily monitoring of ice build-up; initiate cleaning response as necessary
  • Maintain the area around the evaporator clear of obstructions to airflow, for approximately 3 m if possible
  • Frequently monitor the medical gas pipeline pressure for significant and unusual pressure fluctuations; this may be indicating liquid gas being injected into the pipeline, meaning inadequate vaporizer performance
  • Locate (where provided) the facility emergency oxygen inlet station on the facility façade and verify the shut-off valve is operational.  While the outdoor air temperature is warming, the amount of moisture in the air is also increasing, which can still pose an ice build-up problem over the next few months.

If you would like to learn more about this topic feel free to reach out to:

Ed Hood, P.Eng.,B.Eng.
Mechanical Technical Leader
edward.hood@hhangus.com

Kim Spencer, P.Eng., LEED AP
Principal | Division Director, Health
kim.spencer@hhangus.com

Voir ci-dessous pour des informations en français

In light of the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in North America and the announcement by the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic, HH Angus is taking reasonable precautions to ensure the safety and security of our employees, clients, vendors and guests across all our office locations while maintaining a consistent level of client service. We are executing our Business Continuity Plan that covers maintaining office operations, remote working for all our staff, and delivering service to our clients during weather, natural disasters, and other emergency situations where our offices are shut down for extended periods of time. Our Senior Management Team is meeting daily to respond promptly to the latest conditions and to ensure that we continue as best we can to deliver on our commitments to our clients.

Highlights of our plan include:

Remote Working

We have been closely monitoring this situation and have made the decision to instruct our staff to work remotely beginning March 16, 2020 until further notice. We have technology implemented that enables our employees to provide service remotely for all our clients and projects if they are unable to be in our office physically or report to the project site. This includes access to our design software, network, email, audio and video conferencing, and other communications technologies. Our remote working protocols and equipment are being implemented to enable our employees to continue to deliver service to our clients. All our communication channels related to on-going projects remain unchanged. If you have any questions or concerns about a project we are working with you on, please reach out to your HH Angus contact. We will coordinate with you to make arrangements specific to your project including replacing, where possible, in-person meetings with tele/video conferences. If you require information but do not have an existing contact at HH Angus, please email info@hhangus.com, or reach out to one of the key HH Angus contacts listed at the end of this announcement.

Travel
HH Angus has suspended all international and all non-essential domestic travel until further notice. Personal travel is discouraged and any staff returning from travel outside of Canada must self-isolate for 14 days.

Meetings
We have encouraged our employees to not participate in large gatherings such as conferences or networking events and, where possible, to utilize video/teleconferencing or similar communications technologies for external and internal meetings. Our technical staff will continue to visit project sites but will contact the client in advance to ensure that the site is still open and inquire as to health and safety precautions that are in place to ensure that there are no restrictions preventing their visit. We will assess each site meeting on a case-by-case basis to assess compliance with our firm’s existing protocols to protect the health and safety of both HH Angus staff and client staff.

Office Environment
We have intensified cleaning standards for our offices. We have installed hand-washing signage based on best practices in all washrooms and have increased hand sanitizer stations, where products are available, across our properties in order to help minimize the spread infectious agents.

As mentioned previously, we have asked our staff to work remotely as of March 16, 2020. However, certain staff will be on office premises to facilitate deliveries and perform network maintenance. If you require coming to our Toronto office in person, please speak with Reception by telephone (416-443-8200) in advance. Our Vancouver, Montreal, Dallas and Chicago staff will not be available in their respective offices. Please get in touch with your contact in each region for any inquiries, or call Toronto Reception (416-443-8200).

Reporting procedures
We have established a reporting protocol with our employees, should anyone be exposed to coronavirus directly or indirectly, or is feeling unwell for any reason. Any employee travelling out of the country for any reason is required to self-isolate for 14 days upon return to Canada. We will continue to monitor the situation closely, and adjust our response as required.

For more information, we encourage you to review the following resources:

Health Canada
World Health Organization

We will update this information page as the situation evolves. We are committed to helping our staff, clients and communities manage through this crisis to the best of our ability.

Key HH Angus Contacts:

Paul Keenan, President – paul.keenan@hhangus.com | 416 209 4374

Tom Halpenny, Vice President Operations & General Manager – tom.halpenny@hhangus.com | 416 580 0811

Sameer Dhargalkar, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development –sameer.dhargalkar@hhangus.com | 416 904 4592


COVID-19 – Réponse de HH Angus

Compte tenu du nombre croissant de cas de COVID-19 en Amérique du Nord et de l’annonce de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé déclarant la pandémie mondiale de COVID-19, HH Angus prend des précautions raisonnables pour assurer la sûreté et la sécurité de nos employés, clients, fournisseurs et invités dans tous nos bureaux tout en maintenant un niveau de service constant pour nos clients. Nous mettons en œuvre notre Plan de maintien des activités, qui assure le maintien des activités de bureau, le télétravail pour l’ensemble du personnel et la prestation de service à nos clients en cas de désastres météorologiques ou naturels, ou de tout autre situation d’urgence, dans les endroits où nos bureaux sont fermés pour des périodes prolongées. Notre équipe de direction se réunit quotidiennement pour répondre rapidement aux dernières conditions et pour s’assurer que nous continuons du mieux que nous pouvons à respecter nos engagements envers nos clients.

Les points saillants de notre plan comprennent: 

Travail à distance 

Nous suivons de près cette situation et avons pris la décision de charger notre personnel de travailler à distance à partir du 16 mars 2020 jusqu’à nouvel ordre. Nous avons mis en œuvre la technologie qui permet à nos employés de fournir un service à distance pour tous nos clients et projets s’ils ne peuvent pas être physiquement dans nos bureaux ou se présenter sur le site du projet. Cette technologie donne accès à notre logiciel de conception, aux lecteurs réseaux, aux courriels, aux conférence audio-vidéo, de même que d’autres technologies de communication. Nos protocoles et équipements de travail à distance sont mis en œuvre pour permettre à nos employés de continuer à fournir des services à nos clients. Toutes les voies de communication relatives aux projets en cours demeurent les mêmes. Si vous avez des questions ou des préoccupations concernant un projet sur lequel nous travaillons avec vous, veuillez contacter votre contact HH Angus. Nous vous aiderons à prendre les dispositions propres à votre projet, notamment le remplacement, si cela est possible, des réunions en personne par des conférences audio-vidéo. Si vous avez besoin d’informations mais n’avez pas de contact existant chez HH Angus, veuillez envoyer un courriel à info@hhangus.com, ou communiquer avec la personne-ressource de HH Angus donnée à la fin de ce communiqué.

Voyages
HH Angus a suspendu tous les voyages internationaux et nationaux non essentiels jusqu’à nouvel ordre. Les voyages personnels sont déconseillés et tout membre du personnel qui revient de l’Étranger doit s’isoler pendant 14 jours.

Réunions
Nous avons encouragé nos employés à ne pas participer à de grands rassemblements tels que des conférences ou des événements de réseautage et, dans la mesure du possible, à utiliser la vidéo / téléconférence ou des technologies de communication similaires pour les réunions internes ou externes. Notre personnel technique continue de visiter les sites de projet, mais doit d’abord communiquer avec le client pour s’assurer que le chantier est toujours ouvert et s’informer des mesures de prévention mise en place pour la santé et la sécurité afin de s’assurer que rien n’empêche la visite. Nous évaluerons chaque chantier au cas par cas afin de vérifier la conformité aux protocoles existants de notre firme en matière de protection de la santé et de la sécurité du personnel de HH Angus et du client.

Environnement de bureau
Nous avons intensifié les normes de nettoyage de nos bureaux. Nous avons installé une signalisation de lavage des mains basée sur les meilleures pratiques dans toutes les toilettes et avons augmenté les postes de désinfectant pour les mains, où les produits sont disponibles, sur nos propriétés afin de minimiser la propagation d’agents infectieux.

Comme mentionné précédemment, nous avons demandé à notre personnel de travailler à distance à partir du 16 mars 2020. Cependant, certains membres du personnel seront dans le bureau pour faciliter la réception des livraisons et l’entretien du réseau informatique. Si vous avez besoin de venir à notre bureau de Toronto en personne, veuillez parler à la réception par téléphone (416-443-8200) à l’avance. Nos employés de Vancouver, Montréal, Dallas et Chicago ne seront pas disponibles dans leurs bureaux respectifs. Veuillez communiquer avec votre contact dans chaque région pour toute demande de renseignements ou la réception de Toronto (416-443-8200).

Procédures de signalement
Nous avons établi un protocole de signalement avec nos employés, si quelqu’un est exposé directement ou indirectement au coronavirus, ou se sent mal pour une raison quelconque. Tout employé voyageant à l’extérieur du pays pour n’importe quelle raison que ce soit est tenu de s’isoler pendant 14 jours à son retour au Canada. Nous continuerons de surveiller la situation de près et d’ajuster notre réponse au besoin.

Pour plus d’informations, nous vous encourageons à consulter les ressources suivantes :

Santé Canada
Organisation mondiale de la Santé

Nous mettrons à jour cette page d’information à mesure que la situation évolue. Nous sommes engagés à aider notre personnel, nos clients et les collectivités à traverser cette crise au meilleur de nos capacités.

Personne-ressource de HH Angus :

Mohamed Kamel, Directeur du projet – mohamed.kamel@hhangus.com | C 514 863 9202

Is your facility and its electrical infrastructure prepared?

As electric vehicles (EVs) become more prevalent, they present a challenge for institutional-type facilities that have significant on-site parking, in terms of how to address the charging requirements of EV owners. Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (SHSC) is one such facility. With a three million ft2 campus and 4,535 parking spots, vehicular traffic exceeds 10,000 cars per day.

In 2018, SHSC was experiencing power outages in parking lots due to EV owners using adapters and extension cords to charge their vehicles from housekeeping receptacles. Recognizing the growing demand for on-site charging and wishing to promote green initiatives, SHSC investigated available incentive programs for an EV charging project.

HH Angus was engaged to assist SHSC in delivering this project. The first decision was to identify the type and number of charging stations that would best meet the needs within the established budget. One of the first decisions was which charging level to provide of the three levels available. Level 2 was selected, offering a full charge in four to six hours.

Key considerations for the supply of EV charging stations included physical construction and design features (for example, retractable charging cords were an important feature); service agreements; built-in wireless connectivity; and warranty coverage. It was also necessary to address the increased electrical load for the parking lots through power distribution upgrades and modifications to existing switchgear.

An important decision with direct impact on the installation design was the selection of dual-head EV charging stations, which allow two adjacent vehicles to be serviced by a single charging station. SHSC eventually installed 20 dedicated EV charging stations.

The entire project was successfully completed in approximately four months. By undertaking the necessary project planning, institutional facilities can help ensure their parking areas are ready to meet the requirements of EV owners and further support of green initiatives.

Read the full article in MRO Magazine August 12, 2019  

 

Authors :

Philip Chow, P.Eng., P.E., was the lead engineer on the project and is a senior project manager at H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd. He specializes in electrical projects and construction in critical facilities and can be reached at philip.chow@hhangus.com.

Bavan Poologarajah,EIT., was the senior electrical designer on the project and worked on the project from initial concept design to final commissioning. Bavan has worked on a number of electrical projects in critical facilities and can be reached at Bavan.Poologarajah@hhangus.com.

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Sending you our very best wishes for a healthy and happy holiday season!

From your friends at HH Angus

This year we turned our card into a delightful set of DIY desk decorations with special holiday messages.

Some assembly required.
(Because we’re engineers and you know how much we like that!)

Click here to download DIY desk decorations

As another year draws to a close, we particularly want to thank you – our clients, project partners and industry friends – for your role in helping HH Angus achieve the milestone of 100 years in business, which we celebrated this year. We’re grateful for the opportunity to build long-standing relationships and to deliver the kind of dedicated client service that builds trust and respect.  

Over this holiday season, we wish you and yours the very best, and look forward to another great year ahead as we begin our second century – Happy Holidays!