Foothills County is putting its large facilities under the microscope for energy efficiency.
The County received funding for a municipal energy manager position for this year, and Adeniyi Adeaga hit the ground running in January to complete an energy audit on Scott Seaman Sports Rink to determine where losses may be occurring and what could possibly be done to make the building more efficient and cost-effective.
“I’m trying to do this so we can meet the target of five per cent greenhouse gas emission reductions by the end of the year,” Adeaga told council on March 4.
He found several measures the County could implement to help reduce emissions, beginning with no-cost items like unplugging walk-in fridge and freezer units during low-use periods between March and October, setting back the ice plant ammonia refrigerant temperature by one or two degrees Fahrenheit during hockey season, and ensuring thermostats are operating with their “occupied/unoccupied” settings to adjust building temperatures based on usage.
In addition, the building’s humidifier, which was installed five years ago, was found to be running 24-7.
“It was an error and it shouldn’t be running all the time,” said Adeaga. “It should have cycled when it was needed, so they’ve corrected that.”
He also reported on measures that would cost minimal dollar amounts, some no more than $500 or $600, to implement. These included replacing some of the rink’s light sensors that are not functioning properly and installing low-flow faucet aerators.
The larger capital projects included major investments like installing co-generation systems that would combine heat and power generation, as well as designing and installing a liquid-cooled heat exchanger that would recover most of the heat currently escaping the building from compressed ammonia.
This project would involve removing electric heaters to be replaced with hydro units, because water could be heated using the recovered heat, said Adeaga. He said that change would be the most important energy conservation measure the County could undertake at Scott Seaman.
“If you look at the condenser outside, the removal of the heat from the ice plant and releasing to the atmosphere, the size of that condenser is 1.4 million BTU per hour,” he said. “Why are we venting out all this heat?”
He said reusing the duct heat to heat water could make the building more effective as far as reducing emissions and reducing utility costs for the County.
Currently, Foothills pays about $5,000 per month in utility bills for the facility, he said.
An engineering study is necessary to determine which potential conservation measures are feasible, and whether the County should implement both the heat exchanger and the co-generation units, or only one or the other.
Deputy CAO Ryan Payne said the next step is asking for bids from a list of vendors provided by the Province for conducting the engineering study.
The information would come back to council for approval before moving ahead with the study, he said.
“This would be a staged process, where there would be check-ins with council all the way along,” said Payne. “We’re not going to do anything or commit financially to anything until council gives us the authorization to do that.”
However, he said time is of the essence because the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre, which is funding 75 per cent of the emissions reduction work being conducted, has indicated the money is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We’d like to get in right at the start of the queue so we can get this underway and hopefully have a couple of successful projects,” said Payne.
