The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority just recently built the Watershed Conservation Centre (WCC) located in the Fanshawe Conservation Area outside of London Ontario. The Watershed Conservation Building was designed by Randy Wilson Architect Inc. and is aiming for LEED Platinum label, a fitting goal for a building located in a conservation area. With its feature-rich efficiency details, the building is beautiful to see and to be in, so when Ryerson University’s Cassandra Kani-Sanchez requested our expertise to quantify the building’s air leakage, we were eager to oblige.
When designing a building’s mechanical system projected estimations on envelope air leakage and calculations on building shell efficiency are needed to size the perfect system. This mechanical system will keep the occupants healthy with a precise dose of fresh air and they will be comfortable with a more uniform temperature throughout the building.
Building shells are generally assembled to specification, however the air leakage rate in buildings is rarely confirmed by testing prior to occupancy. Given the simplicity and ease of testing, we’re always surprised that projects striving for high performance don’t confirm the air leakage rate to ensure they’ve at least made the target or beat it. Testing can also identify building envelope weaknesses that reduce the performance helping to reduce condensation or discomfort issues.
Kani-Sanchez, an engineering student working towards a MASc. with the guidance of Professor Russell Richman, Department of Architecture, have embarked on a very interesting study that will examine the actual energy performance of the high tech building by way of detailed energy modeling software. Without stealing Kani-Sanchez’s thunder, we’re pleased to report the building was air tight.
The Watershed Conservation Building was designed by Randy Wilson Architect Inc. and is aiming to get labeled as a LEED Platinum.
Standing in front of the air tightness testing apparatus, Dr. Russell Richman, Shervin Akhavi and Cassandra Kani-Sanchez pose in the entrance of the new UTRCA Watershed Conservation Building.
The blue vertical panels are solar warm-air collectors that convert the sun’s rays into heat that’s distributed throughout the building when needed. The building was conditioned with a very quiet system – a heat recovery variable refrigerant flow mechanical system – using local fan coils instead of a centralized duct system moving large volumes of air noisily. See below for corresponding wall area.
Photo 5: The blue vertical panels seen in Photo 4 above are solar warm-air collectors which are attached to the inside by the large white tubes through the wall plugged into the manifold on the ceiling of the photo above.