Heat pumps and heat recovery chiller installations are one of the most common Low Carbon Electrification (LCE) opportunities for buildings to improve energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions, particularly when the electricity grid is relatively clean. However, organizations often end up facing the same challenges when implementing these systems.
To help provide some guidance on considerations that impact the quality of installations and their performance, Prism Engineering, with support from BC Hydro, has developed ‘Lessons Learned from LCE Projects’ – a practical document with best practices that energy managers and facilities staff can use when working on these projects.
The material was based on a workshop facilitated by Prism this past January for the BC Hydro Commercial Energy Manager Program. The session gathered input and feedback from numerous energy managers who shared their challenges when implementing LCE projects.
“There is a lot of value in learning from others,” says Robert Greenwald, P.Eng., President of Prism Engineering. “By having this initiative, we created an environment of trust, where energy managers could feel comfortable interacting with each other, sharing experiences, and learning from the expertise of our team at Prism,” he adds.
The document emphasizes the importance of commissioning properly. It is divided into different phases of LCE projects – Study, Design, Installation, Operations and Maintenance – so that users can easily identify challenges and solutions in each of them.
“Our goal was to transform the discussions into a legacy document that would go beyond the workshop. There is a lot of good and useful information energy managers can learn from this material, which is just a preliminary step to more in-depth studies in the future”, explains Robert Greenwald.
Download ‘Lessons Learned from LCE Projects’ (PDF)
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