March 12, 2010

FOCUS | Concrete & Masonry

Centre for Energy Innovation in Windsor, Ontario built using Termobuild HVAC system

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

Low-tech precast concrete hollow core slabs will converge with leading edge sustainable technologies at a high-tech research and innovation centre now being built at the University of Windsor.

Considered to be the largest facility of its kind to be built in Canada, the $160-million 300,000-square-foot Centre for Energy Innovation will be the flagship facility for the university’s Faculty of Engineering.

Locally-based PCR Contractors Inc. is the general contractor overseeing the project which will be delivered in two phases.

The first-phase research component will open in March 2011, with total facility completion by September 2012, says Kevin Stelzer, senior associate, B+H Architects.

With features that include flexible high-tech classrooms, specialized research labs, and student study and activity spaces, the centre will focus on research and development in partnership with industry.

“The university will push the boundaries of academic progress with this facility as it houses the most advanced research labs,” says Stezler.

Some examples include a structural analysis, fluid dynamics, environmental, robotics and extensive computer laboratories. At its heart of the facility will be an industrial courtyard where experimental research will be carried out by university officials and their private sector partners.

In addition, a variety of materials including concrete, wood and steel are being used in different sections of the complex to promote student interest in those construction methods, says the architect.

As well as fostering educational, research and industrial innovation, the centre also has a strong environmental agenda.

Registered and targeting LEED Gold, it will be a showcase for environmental and energy sustainability with features that will include various green roof systems, and a biofilter wall, he says.

Although they won’t be as visually attractive, the concrete slab floors in the north half of the centre will be a critical component of that environmental package.

B+H ARCHITECTS ARCHITECTS

The Centre for Energy Innovation at the University of Windsor will be the largest building to date to use the Termobuild HVAC system.

While a central plant will deliver chilled water and steam heat to the centre, the panels will be the primary method of providing low-cost heating and cooling through the Termobuild HVAC system.

This is a technology which harnesses the thermal mass of a building to heat and cool it.

The centre will be the largest complex in Canada to date to incorporate it.

Instead of a large maze of HVAC equipment and ducts, body, equipment and lighting heating is pushed through the concrete slab’s hollow cores by variable air fans on a continuous basis during cold weather months, says TermoBuild Canada president Jack Laken.

In the summer, the system cools buildings with cool outside night air. Not only is the air cooler at night, the quality is much better because there are fewer cars on the roads, explains Laken.

“In most of Canada, for at least half the summer, we experience what are basically chiller-like temperatures at night.

“One unit of fan power can draw in two, three or four units of coolant.”

When precast hollow core slabs are used as structural floor elements they provide a resource that evenly distributes heated and cooled air. “The entire floor acts act as a radiant panel,” says Laken.

“As a result, energy costs are lower, the carbon footprint has been reduced and there is a lot less sick buildings.”

While describing the system as “a dumb plank put to a smart use,” the slabs are installed in the same way they would be only other building, says Laken.

During the last 25 years hundreds of commercial and institutional buildings in Europe have been built using this thermal storage method, says Laken, who introduced the technology into Canada in 2003.

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