OAA Webinar Series – Renewing Low-rise Community Housing Towards Zero Carbon

Session Abstract:

Ottawa Community Housing (OCH) has a large portfolio of 1970s-era residential buildings that require significant retrofits. To prepare for Canada’s low-carbon economy, reductions in operating energy and carbon savings are required. JLR’s Energy Systems Engineer group led conceptual design studies of deep-energy retrofits (DER) for four townhouse communities in Ottawa. OCH plans to implement the initiatives in phases.

Their professional engineers and architects worked together to provide:

• A review of existing plans, site investigations, and envelope evaluations
• Development of building energy models.
• Design of energy-efficient envelope retrofits with structural considerations.
• Electrification designs for HVAC systems.
• Site electrical upgrades.
• Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system designs
• A community-wide electric vehicle charging station assessment.

Utility data and calibrated energy models were used to estimate the energy savings of building envelope and HVAC retrofits. Energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings were compared to client targets and funding requirements. JLR’s multidisciplinary engineers and architects developed the design concepts and opinions of probable construction cost estimates for each element. The DER studies highlight the possibilities of climate and housing leadership that can be achieved in residential neighborhoods and sustainable action in architecture to extend the life of existing buildings.

Learning Outcomes:

• Comparison of new build to renewal option.
• Increasing site and house electrical service.
• Structural considerations for Ontario Building Code and PV.
• Low carbon materials and technologies.

About the speaker:

Mitchell Niles, Energy Systems Engineer, mniles@jlrichards.ca (Point of Contact/Lead Presenter)
Mitchell has close to 10 years of experience as an energy systems designer working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams to achieve sustainability targets for high-performance buildings. He is an experienced energy modeller, creating full building energy simulations for net-zero energy and net-zero carbon new construction projects. Mitchell is a practiced energy modeller and he can analyze unique customized scenarios such as unconventional heating/cooling systems. He is JLR’s in-house expert on the Zero Carbon Building standard, the City of Ottawa’s High Performance Development Standard, the Toronto Green Standard, and various other municipal energy performance standards.