Article by Shaun Delamere, Operations Officer, RPOU(W) Calgary
As part of the federal government's commitment to reducing greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiencies, The Military Museums (TMM) in Calgary was one of two DND buildings in Alberta to be selected for the Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) program. The aim of the program is to assess the current operation of the building equipment and systems, and to provide recommendations to all stakeholders regarding reduced energy consumption and GHG emissions. The TMM was built in the 1950s as the base school for CFB Calgary. Since then, there was an expansion in 1988 along with multiple other renovations and expansions. It is now a two-storey building with a footprint that has grown to a gross area of 15,634 square meters. A building of this size and age with its emissions and energy usage made it an excellent candidate to help develop the program.
The program mainly focused assessing the building envelope and the HVAC system via infrared imaging during different seasons. The imaging helped identify areas where there is either infiltration of hot air into or out of the building. Both known and unknown issues with the roofing were also identified. Recommended solutions ranged from simple repair of weatherstripping and window joint seals to major renovations. On the HVAC operation side, building mgt/automation systems (BMS/BAS) controlling the daily operations of the eqpt were checked to ensure the systems are working with the intended inputs and outputs. Each major piece of equipment and the ancillaries was physically checked to ensure operating condition and correct sequencing. The solutions for these findings ranged from tweaking the set points on BMS, recalibration to more thorough physical PMIs to identify mechanical breakdowns.
The information gathered in the field reports of the program has been enlightening and provided a great lessons-learned document that will provide energy-saving opportunities at other sites and buildings. Additionally, the program highlighted the value of an unbiased, 3rd party being used to commission or re-commission building systems that will help us further tailor FMC preventative/corrective maintenance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiencies.