220 Wall Street was a 3 storey plus 1.5 level parkade Core and Shell project in downtown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Service completion: Ongoing commissioning, Fall 2012 completion for energy simulation
Scope of services: Enhanced and Fundamental Commissioning (EAp1, EAc3), Minimum and Optimize Energy Performance Simulation (EAp2, EAc1) for CaGBC LEED: Core & Shell 2009
Size: 93,500 sq.ft.
Building systems: Curtainwall and brick envelope, hydronic heating and cooling with demand control ventilation, high efficiency lighting with occupancy control.
As with many Core and Shell projects, a main objective of 220 Wall Street was to build a flexible building in its mechanical and electrical systems, able to accommodate any future tenant (office, retail or restaurant). A hydronic system was chosen for its flexibility, incorporating a design feature of using a dry cooler to more efficiently generate cooling when there was still a cooling demand (in interior zones) with cool outdoor temperatures. This was modeled by an hourly report analysis to calculate savings with the increased coefficient of performance, as the modeling software could not model the exact control algorithm. Along with low flow water fixtures, an aggressive tenant lighting and equipment agreement, demand control ventilation, high efficiency equipment and insulating envelope, the building model was reviewed to be 44% better than MNECB with respect to cost, equivalent to 14 points for EAc1.
While each project comes with its lessons, there were 2 that will be carried over to future commissioning projects: 1) manufacturer’s boiler controllers can be a huge headache and should be avoided, and 2) watch those approved equals in the addendum stage. With boiler controllers, many are so proprietary that, if there is an issue, they can only be serviced by the manufacturer in the USA – this can be such a headache that, where possible, the controls contractor should be able to install its own controller. In this case, the controller did not read its own boiler or the heating pumps accurately, which created failure in the entire heating system which took far too much time and headache to rectify with the manufacturer. With respect to approved equals, a chiller was approved in the addendum stage which, shown later on, did not even have proper outputs to talk to building management control system as designed.
Beyond lessons learned, Thurston Engineering Services realized big operational headaches and savings. Unfortunately, not one system (heat or cool) passed the first round of functional performance. There was an instance where the AHU cooling coil valve did not close completely, causing simultaneous heating and cooling in the big unit (big cost!). Thurston Engineering Services ensured all were properly resolved before anyone stepped away from the project.
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