Project Snapshot
Budget: $705,000
Occupancy: August 2014
Project Manager: UBC Project Services – Ryan Huffman
Project Summary
Replacing the existing absorption (steam) chiller with an electric heat recovery chiller.
This project supplies 80% of the building’s heating demand with heat recovery, saving 7,000 GJ of natural gas and reducing our total campus GHG emissions by 0.8% or 530 ton/yr while also decreasing the overall demand on the Campus Energy Centre.
Sustainable Features
Currently, ICICS supplies the building’s cooling demand with an absorption chiller fed by the central steam plant. As part of UBC’s commitment to sustainability, the university is converting to a new hot water district energy system. By 2015, UBC’s central steam plant will be decommissioned and cooling will no longer be obtained through steam.
Replacing this chiller is an opportunity for UBC to replace an old piece of equipment with a more efficient technology. At the same time, this project was also an opportunity to assess the building’s heating and cooling needs which opened up the possibility of heat recovery based on the year round cooling needs of the building. During the winter months the heat rejected by the cooling plant can be recovered and supplied to the building’s heating system.