Footprint Chiller and Boiler Analysis

Smith + Andersen (S+A) is one of the leading Electrical-Mechanical engineering consulting companies in Canada. In fact, S+A recently worked on the Pan American Aquatics Centre for the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games. Footprint, a new sister company to S+A, works in collaboration with architects, engineers, developers and project managers in order to ensure that all S+A projects are sustainable. In 2014, Footprint was asked to investigate the chiller and boiler system for an existing 25-story office building in Toronto that was constructed in 1970. Mechanical systems such as chillers and boilers represent a significant proportion of the building’s energy demand, more than half for this building as shown, and need to be periodically audited and inspected. Since newer technologies are generally more efficient, these inspections provide an opportunity to assess if the replacement of the existing system with newer technologies is worthwhile both environmentally and financially.

Adam Romano, a fourth year mechanical engineering co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked by his supervisor at Footprint to determine whether it was advisable to replace the building’s current cooling and heating system with more efficient equipment.

Energy consumption breakdown for the 1970 office building