April 24, 2008
COBALT ENGINEERING
The three-storey Regent College building is located largely below ground and takes advantage of natural lighting, while a local aquifer provides radiant cooling. A specially-designed tower helps to draw air through the building, creating natural ventilation.
Point-Counterpoint
Net zero approach can earn best results
When choosing a building envelope or façade, designers can work with or against the surrounding environment. The initial choices in designing the building envelope determine the degree to which mechanical systems and excess energy are required to facilitate human comfort, says Albert Bicol, a partner with Cobalt Engineering, a design company with offices in British Columbia and Toronto.
Bicol says half the world’s energy is expended on building lighting, heating, ventilating and air conditioning and 65 per cent of that energy is lost in transmission. A net zero approach to building design eliminates dependence on outside energy sources while optimizing comfort.
“The main goal in net zero design is to look at reducing or eliminating electrical and mechanical systems as much as possible,” says Bicol. “The idea is to reduce the load of the building itself. We shouldn’t be relying on high-tech solutions, but low-tech and passive solutions that will ‘future-proof’ the buildings we put up today.”
Traditionally, building designers look at the climate a building project is to be located. “By studying micro-climate data in the immediate vicinity of the building, we get much more accurate data than if we relied on data collected at an airport 100 miles away,” says Bicol.
“We can look at the way local plants and animals adapt to the environment and mimic what they’ve done. We can look at the way sunlight strikes the building. In Vancouver, wind blows in from the inlet and accelerates above buildings to a degree that we can take advantage of wind turbines, but the airport data doesn’t show that wind acceleration — we had to measure that ourselves.”
Human comfort also relies more on radiant energy from sources such as the sun, than convection systems, for example. “We don’t have an energy problem,” says Bicol. “We’re not taking advantage of the opportunities to use the energy all around us.”
Informed choices in glazing, building fabric and envelope type can help to work with environmental factors to take advantage of low quality energy. If solar energy provides human comfort, then buildings should be designed to take advantage of it, rather than converting it to electricity.
“Photovoltaic panels are perhaps only 20 per cent efficient in transforming the lowest quality of energy — sunlight — into the highest quality of energy — electricity.”
Buildings in Vancouver generally provide large windows to expose occupants to a western view. “We’re giving them a western view and by afternoon all of the blinds are down,” says Bicol.
“We should be designing a fa Cobalt Engineering provided the mechanical engineering for the new Regent College Library in Vancouver to use low-grade energy. The three-storey building is located largely below ground and takes advantage of natural lighting, while a local aquifer provides radiant cooling. A specially-designed tower helps to draw air through the building, creating natural ventilation.
“We had initially designed the system to use solar panels to create the hot water for radiant heating,” says Bicol. A high-efficiency boiler was used instead. “While we were aiming for a net zero building, we still have a building that heats, cools and ventilates on one kilowatt per hour.”
| MOST POPULAR STORIES |
- New technology allows concrete to come clean
- Ontario architects, general contractor associations issue joint HST bulletin
- WSIB report a clear response to ideas we submitted, Ontario General Contractors Association chief says
- Ground broken on the Cathedral Centre in Toronto
- Highway construction crew uncovers ancient B.C. glacier
- 20 Most Popular Stories
| TODAY’S TOP CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS |
These projects have been selected from 342 projects with a total value of $2,911,425,288 that Reed Construction Data Building Reports reported on yesterday.
SUBWAY STATIONS, BUS TERMINALS, SUBWAY EXTENSION
$500,000,000 York Reg ON Prebid
$112,000,000 Ottawa ON Prebid
CONDOMINIUM, RETAIL & HOTEL DEVELOPMENT
$100,000,000 Burlington ON Prebid
| CURRENT STORIES |
- Fraud charges laid against former head of Quebec labour union
- Pursuit of LEED could result in professional negligence, insurance executive warns
- Province holding information sessions on new Ontario accessibility standard
- Work continues on Market Wharf condo in Toronto
- Chilliwack Cultural Centre project sets tilt-up concrete record
- WSIB report a clear response to ideas we submitted, Ontario General Contractors Association chief says
- SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Profac under scrutiny over federal contract billing
- As prices surge, China may raise interest rates
- Canadian soldiers repair blown-up bridge in Afghanistan
- Canadian Mechanical Contracting Education Foundation offering Gold Seal course for supervisors
- Slovak construction minister sacked amid corruption scandal
- Historic Kingston Dry Dock restored, enhanced
- Centre for Energy Innovation in Windsor, Ontario built using Termobuild HVAC system
- Canadian Standards Association parking garage standard gets tougher
- Accelerated schedules a challenge for vinyl flooring
- Good materials, shoddy workmanship produces poorly performing floor
- Government takes over Northwest Territories P3 bridge project
- Canadian construction experts visit earthquake-ravaged Haiti
- Winnipeg gets new water treatment plant
- Weighing in on the Tercon Contractors appeal decision
- Construction restarting on hospital in Fort St. John, British Columbia
- In new movie, Hamilton construction worker becomes ‘Defendor’ at night
- ‘Quality product cannot come from cutting corners on safety’
- Shop owner suing VANOC over pre-Olympics road construction disruptions
| ALEX’S ECONOMICS BLOG |

Reed Construction Data Chief Economist Alex Carrick discusses current developments in the North American economic environment with emphasis on the construction industry.
- A dozen incredible measurement sets on Canada’s changing ethnic mix (March 9, 2010)
- How fragile is recovery around the world? (March 3, 2010)
- The world financial crisis goes into extra innings (February 25, 2010)
- More







