Energy savings

Charlottetown installs automated heating system that should make one of its bigger buildings more energy-efficient

Charlottetown installs automated heating system that should make one of its bigger buildings more energy efficient.

The City of Charlottetown is trying to put the chill on one of its biggest heating bills.

It has had an automated heating system installed at the public works garage on MacAleer Drive.

Ramona Doyle, sustainability officer with the city, said they hope to save 20 per cent on the cost to heat the building.

It costs the city $140,000 annually in oil to heat the public works garage.

“This is a pilot project and one of our higher use buildings, very high for oil in particular. This is where we’re starting,’’ Doyle said. “We’re looking for efficiencies in all our buildings.’’

The city hired an energy efficient co-ordinator for a 15-week contract to complete audits of city facilities and oversee improvements to the efficiencies of its buildings.

Nic Cahill, a recent graduate of the Holland College energy systems engineering technology program, said the automated system controls the heat inside by monitoring the temperature outside.

“It takes information and decides how to run the system based on that. It triggers all these different kinds of inputs based on these parameters,’’ Cahill said.

“It’s all tied to a computer which is where you can say is (the outside) is a certain temperature we want the supply to be at this temperature.’’

Prior to the change, the two boilers in the garage had two switches, on and off. The oil truck was coming to fill the tank almost every day. The public works garage, like any garage, has a series of bay doors that open and close numerous times in any given day.

“This allows us to set up set points of where we want the heat to be so that we’re using energy in the most cost-efficient way and we’re not using space that we don’t need to heat,’’ Doyle said.

The city received funding from Career Development Services through its Career Pathways program to help cover Cahill’s wages. The funding program aims to provide young graduates work experience in their field of study and support employers in hiring new graduates under 30 years of age.

Scott MacLean with Memco Controls, which is based out of Dieppe, N.B., says the heat can be monitored from any computer.

“Instead of the boilers running full blast all the time we can control them based on outdoor air temperatures,’’ MacLean said. “The boilers don’t work as hard and you get a better lifespan out of them; better control.’’

Memco has the same system in operation at the provincial government offices at Rochford and Kent streets in Charlottetown, Prince County Hospital in Summerside and at least a

dozen schools across the Island.

“Instead of the boilers running full blast all the time we can control them based on outdoor air temperatures. The boilers don’t work as hard and you get a better lifespan out of them; better control.’’ Ramona Doyle, sustainability officer, City of Charlottetown

DAVE STEWART/THE GUARDIAN Nic Cahill was hired recently to complete energy audits on all facilities owned by the City of Charlottetown. He oversaw the implementation of an automated heating system at one of its largest buildings, the public works garage on MacAleer Drive. This complex maze of circuits and wiring could reduce the building’s heating costs by 20 per cent.

DAVE STEWART/THE GUARDIAN Scott MacLean with Memco Controls Ltd. says the automated heating system that they set up at the City of Charlottetown’s public works garage will reduce the toll on its two boilers. With its wide open spaces and bay doors opening and closing numerous times every day the heating system was pushed hard.