One of our Favourite Energy Management Stories

For the City of Saskatoon Light and Water Energy Management project, the Quality of the Indoor Environment was the biggest challenge and a top priority.   

The large open spaces were experiencing a glare problem from the direct T12 lighting system and from solar glare. The south side of the building presented the biggest challenge as every summer the glass temperatures rose to more than 50°C, making it very uncomfortable for occupants in the space.

The existing 50-ton direct-expansion roof top air-conditioning unit could not provide enough cooling capacity to satisfy the demand of the south side of the building while the north side of the building was being overcooled by the constant-volume system.  

After testing indoor window film, evaluating awnings and quoting a bigger cooling unit, the city decided to go with Integrated Design Inc.’s initial recommendation, which was to plant mature Green Ash trees along the south perimeter of the building.

Once the trees were planted, the cooling load on the building dropped and the cooling unit could maintain the building load.

This simple GREEN solution helped to avoid a major capital expenditure to purchase a new 60-70 ton cooling unit.  The money saved by this simple solution was redirect to install VAV controls to further reduce energy consumption and to improve occupant comfort, and to purchase indirect lighting to resolve the lighting glare problem.

It can be COOL to be GREEN!