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Case Study #1

North End Women’s Centre

The North End Women’s Centre is committed to future-proofing their new facility to meet emerging climate change realities and to minimize future operating costs. The intent of the NEWC project was to base the design of the project on energy simulations and benchmark metrics. that create a healthy building and one that optimizes energy (including embodied energy), water and material conservation. We also explored the possibilities to deliver net-zero carbon and net-zero energy ready facility with an emphasis on passive design solutions. The ECO Matrix analysis help the project team explore a wide range of the energy impacting variables, their pros and cons, optimization analysis, payback periods, and much more; which unlocked the capital cost savings of up to $50,000.

Project Highlights

Project Type

Women’s Resource Center

Area: Approx.

23,000 sq.ft

Client

North End Women’s Center

Architect

Prairie Architects, Winnipeg

M/E Consultant

SMS Engineering

Contractor

M Builds, Winnipeg

Project Brief & Objectives

Early Design Optimization

Feasibility for net zero carbon/energy facility

Deep retrofit and major addition Building

Energy & Cost Optimization

Variable Selection for ECO Matrix Analysis

Upon receiving the final Architectural layouts for the design from the Architectural team, rather than arbitrarily selecting from a small number of design combinations assumed to yield the greatest benefit for the project, scope for the ECO Matrix analysis was derived from ample variation of each of the following variables: walls, roofs, floors, windows, shading devices, window-to-wall ratio, lighting, daylight sensors, HVAC systems, heat-recovery device as seen in this image.

Attributing Cost Index to Each Variable

The cost analysis and optimization on the project could be only as good as the correct cost values, derived and assigned for each variable. The general contractor and cost consultant on board for the project analyzed all the construction materials, details, technology and methodologies to calculate cost for all the variables which were attributed to each variable in ECO Matrix analysis to derive capital cost for every design option.

ECO Matrix Simulation Process

ECO Matrix’s proprietary methodology was utilized to run thousands of actual energy simulations and interpolation/extrapolations, to derive energy results for every design option formed by permutation and combination of all the defined variables. All these results were projected on interactive ECO Matrix dashboard for further analysis.

Establishing Baselines for Results Comparison

ECO Matrix allows for setting up multiple baselines for results comparison to compare results with different benchmark indices. Following baselines were set for the project for result comparison.

ASHRAE 90.1 2010 – To see possibility of LEED points which could be achieved

MECB 2013 (Manitoba Energy Code of Buildings) – MECB 2013 is currently enforced for all Part 3 buildings in Manitoba

Custom Baseline – Based on RFP (Request for Proposal) document which already had predefined variables to be used as a starting point

Optimization Workshop

A robust energy and cost optimization analysis was run on the project using ECO Matrix proprietary methodology. A live workshop was conducted in the presence of Prairie Architects, Client (NEWC representatives), Structural disciplines, MBuilds (Contractor), and SMS Engineering (E/M Engineers on the job). Decisions were made with regards to the selection of cost-efficient envelope, electrical and mechanical systems to help the client save thousands of dollars to achieve cost-optimized design option, while at the same time achieving high energy savings against the National Energy Code of Canada

Analysis

Envelope Optimization

ECO Matrix provided the specialized insight that allowed for identifying the unique design solutions, from multitude of design options available the ‘North End Women’s Center’ project, that minimized the cost impact of achieving its energy performance target.

All the design variables were looked holistically and in isolation to see their collective and isolated impact on energy and cost. Payback analysis was run on all suitable variables to select or discard any variable as shown below

Above analysis helped find the point of diminishing returns and select the most optimum variables based on cost benefit analysis performed.

HVAC Systems Comparison

The most optimum design option utilizing all the design variables except HVAC systems was filtered to compare energy and cost of different HVAC options as below. The analysis was performed against ASHRAE, NECB and Custom Baseline. Below image shows comparison for custom baseline.

Cost Optimization performed for HVAC systems helped uncover the least cost premium to achieve maximum energy savings. When HVAC systems were compared with ‘custom baseline’ (built based on RFP – an already efficient design option), it was seen that there was potential to further save energy and optimize on cost.

Through above analysis, it was observed that ASHP and WSHP systems further saved ~ $54,113 and $13,987 to achieve 9% and 3% energy savings over already efficient custom baseline option.

Finalization of different variables was not simply done based on their energy efficiency or cost savings potential, but also based on practical operational and maintenance aspects of design. This led to selection of ‘Water to air heat pump’ system being the most suitable system for the building, due to the reasons indicated in the below table.

Final Optimized Design Solution

Following was the most energy and cost optimized design option finalized for the project.