R E N TA L E X E C U T I V E S N AT I O N A L T H I N K TA N K
RENTT LOOKING BACK (& FORWARD)
AT ENERGY-SAVING INITIATIVES In this month’s issue, we asked our esteemed RENTT (Rental Executives National Think Tank) panelists to share their experiences with past energy-saving initiatives. They evaluated and ranked their best and worst investments in energy-saving technologies and projects, and discussed the benefits related to performing an energy audit, criteria required to make a future investment, the tenants’ experience, and future plans. The goal was to gain a better understanding of where you—the building owner or property manager—should invest your time and money to improve your buildings’ energy efficiency and get the best return on investment.
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RENTT PANELISTS:
Jason Ashdown Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Skyline Group of Companies
Leslie Bessey President and Chief Operating Officer, Gateway Property Management
Randy Daiter Vice President, Residential Properties, M&R Property Management
Dennis Kalish General Manager, H&R Property Management Ltd.
rentalhousi ngbusi ness. ca | 1 5| rentalhousingbusiness.ca
RHB: Welcome, everyone, to RHB Magazine’s RENTT panel. Thank you for taking the time to participate and share your insights and experience. We are sure that our readers will learn a lot from your responses. Today we’d like to take a look back (and forward) at energy-saving initiatives. To begin, what energy-saving initiatives and purchases have you made for your buildings over the last five years?
Randy Daiter: To lower our hydro costs, we’ve installed submeters, CO2 sensors and controls in parking garages, time controls and sensors for exterior lighting, variable frequency drives on fans and HVAC pumps, ramp heating controls, optimized our chillers and scheduled the locker room exhaust fans. To reduce natural gas usage, we’ve replaced the buildings’ boilers, installed radiator heat reflectors, installed variable frequency drives on make-up air units and air handling units, replaced single-pane windows and wood balcony doors, upgraded roof insulation and insulated bare pipes, reduced parking garage heating set-points, and lowered the domestic hot water primary water temperature. To reduce water usage, we’ve installed ultra-low-flow toilets and shower heads, installed automatic pool covers, purchased front-loading washers, moved to low water landscaping with less irrigation, and launched a water-saving marketing campaign.
RHB: Wow, that is quite impressive. How about the rest of you? Dennis Kalish: We’ve taken on a number of projects in our buildings, such as retrofitting older toilets with low-flow toilets, retrofitting existing lighting with LED bulbs, installing energyefficient heating and domestic hot water boilers, installing energy-efficient booster pumps, replacing single-pane windows with double-glazed windows, and installing in-suite heat deflectors. Jason Ashdown: We’ve replaced lowflush toilets with even lower flush toilets, switched from incandescent to CFL to LED lighting, upgraded thousands of windows, installed rooftop solar PV systems on 60 buildings, and replaced refrigerators. We’ve also invested in combined heat and power systems, which took more than two years of product research and trials. Leslie Bessey: We’ve replaced light fixtures with LED fixtures in common
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areas, parkades, emergency exit lights and exterior HPS lighting, and replaced shower heads and toilets with low-flow fixtures. We’ve also installed energy-efficient condensing boilers and heating systems.
RHB: I see a lot of overlap in the projects and technologies you’ve implemented in your buildings. In your opinion, what has been your best energysaving initiative or purchase? Randy Daiter: Replacing single-pane windows with doubleglazed, argon-filled, low-e, air-tight windows and balcony doors has produced a number of benefits. It has resulted in savings on ongoing plaster and window repairs, produced double-digit cost savings and ROI, electrical savings in portable heaters and simple payback in approximately ten years. It has produced a number of qualitative benefits, such as improving tenant comfort by eliminating cold drafts and excess noise, reducing the need for portable electric heaters, and improving interior and exterior aesthetics, which all help to support our marketing efforts. It has also produced significant environmental benefits. We save 226,826 cubic metres of natural gas per year for a 20-storey building, and reduce greenhouse gases by 429 metric tonnes per year.
RHB: That’s quite impressive. Leslie, what about you?
Leslie Bessey: Several of the LED fixture replacements were very successful because the capital cost was largely covered by Hydro rebates and the electricity savings we realized immediately. LED lighting does not require maintenance and it has 100,000 hours of life expectancy. I am also very content with free installation of the low-flow shower heads, as it was an incentive from BC Hydro/Fortis BC.
Jason Ashdown: Lighting is simply a no brainer. Reducing the amount of kWh makes the math very simple. The paybacks are generally very short term so even if the technology changes quickly – which it does – there is little risk. Unless someone believes energy cost will be going down in the next two years.
Leslie Bessey: Several of the LED fixture replacements were very successful because the capital cost was largely covered by Hydro rebates and the electricity savings we realized immediately. LED lighting does not require maintenance and it has 100,000 hours of life expectancy. I am also very content with free installation of the low-flow shower heads, as it was an incentive from BC Hydro/Fortis BC. Dennis Kalish: The LED lighting retrofits were easy to install, reasonably priced and the savings are instant.
RHB: It sounds like you’ve had some success with your energysaving initiatives. Which project do you wish you would have done differently, or not at all, and why?
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Jason Ashdown: Well, I have been sold some snake oil in the past and that is why we always walk before we run – and pilot projects are a must to remove the risk of making a major mistake. But to answer the question, I would say gas line magnets, probably over 12 years ago, but someone actually successfully sold me on gas line magnets to align molecules of natural gas or something like that. I didn’t buy many, but I did buy some… ouch.
RHB: Wow, that is unfortunate. Dennis? Dennis Kalish: I’d say boiler retrofits. They are expensive, not as durable as the older boilers and I’m not so sure about the energy efficiency. I’d prefer installing the in-suite heat deflectors
Randy Daiter: The CO controls in the parking garage require ongoing maintenance of equipment and recertification. Also, unless the total roof area represents a significant portion of the building envelope, payback on extra insulation when replacing the roof is difficult to rationalize.
RENTT Panel Poll RHB Magazine surveyed the RENTT panel on how they would rate their energy-saving initiatives and purchases. We used a non-scientific method to assign points to each participant’s answers and calculated a score out of 20.
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Leslie Bessey: Installing condensing boilers for the domestic hot water system, as it didn’t work as promised for the large multi-residential building. Installation of the kitchen faucet aerators gave us some trouble, as there were many complains from the tenants of not enough water flow required to wash their dishes, aerators getting plugged more often and more pressure on the tap’s control valves.
coloured refrigerators. The technology industry moves very fast and you have to keep up to the speed of ever changing technology. You must weed through the snake oil and make solid, fundamental choices with partners you can trust and rely on.
RHB: It sounds like you’ve all learned from experience about what works and what doesn’t. Let’s move on to energy audits. I believe that you’ve all had them done. After performing an energy audit, what initial benefits did you experience, or what results or information surprised you?
Randy Daiter: As utility costs continue to rise, simple payback of energy initiatives accelerates. We are still monitoring the results of radiator heat reflectors, which can produce 28 to 33 per cent savings.
Leslie Bessey: The definite benefit is saving in consumption, especially with replacing old style incandescent light exit signs with new LED exit signs. One surprise was that in all the calculations I had so far, window replacement did not have significant enough return on investment to proceed with project.
Dennis Kalish: We’ve been proactive when it comes to energy saving initiatives, but the suggestion to replace the booster pumps with energy efficient booster pumps surprised me.
Jason Ashdown: Most of our energy audits have been done internally around specific initiatives. The one item that continues to surprise me is the speed of technology and how quickly new technologies can emerge. Energy efficiency is something you have to constantly keep an eye on, and you can’t wait around for the next best thing, or you would still be using 60 watt light bulbs and avocado-
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RHB: That’s a good point.
RHB: All of you have experience with good and bad energy-saving initiatives. For future energy-saving initiatives or purchases, what would you need to see or receive to go ahead with it?
Leslie Bessey: The savings need to be significant and immediate. A change to a high efficiency boiler, for example, should only be considered if a boiler replacement is required. Also I am told the R&M on the high efficiency boilers is more over time and perhaps the most efficient is not the most cost effective.
Randy Daiter: Generally, attractive business fundamentals, such as simple payback, ROI and cash-flow implications, qualitative benefits, such as improved aesthetics, tenant comfort and/or marketing advantages, and environmental benefits, such as lower carbon footprint, are all taken into consideration.
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RHB: Good points. What about you, Jason? Dennis? Jason Ashdown: Conduct a pilot project or receive data and real-time information from one of my industry peers that I trust. Dennis Kalish: I’d want to see some form of incentive or rebate from the utility companies.
RHB: You know how investing in energy efficiency benefits your buildings and the bottom line. How have you observed tenants benefitting from an energy-saving initiative or purchase? Jason Ashdown: Tenants don’t necessarily benefit from all initiatives. I won’t say a tenant has a better shower with a lowflow shower head – but the planet benefits. Residents do however enjoy new refrigerators and windows very much. There are also many things a resident should appreciate but may not realize. That money saved on wasted energy can in many ways be reinvested back into the property. Money that literally goes out the window cannot and is no good to anyone. Randy Daiter: Overall, the upgrades have resulted in better tenant comfort and interior aesthetics.
Leslie Bessey: We need more public education in low-flow faucets and especially shower heads, as there is resistance with tenants for installation of these products. Anything that directly affects them is received with resistance. Energy efficient boilers are not noticed as the effect for tenants are not visible.
RHB: Are you looking at new technologies or conservation strategies for your portfolio over the next few years? If so, what are they? Randy Daiter: Future and emerging technology include cogeneration, geothermal, wind turbines, grey water and solar for exterior lighting and walkways or polemounted lighting. Leslie Bessey: We plan to continue using condensing boilers when existing boilers are due for replacement. Continue replacing common lights where existing are due for replacement. Use energy efficient/low-flow fixtures and low-flush toilets when they are due for replacement. Any other programs need to have some benefits for the landlord such as strong incentives and savings if we want to get clients’ approval.
Jason Ashdown: Skyline is working diligently to find cost-effective ways to reduce energy consumption and improve on-site energy creation. We have been working with both CHP and solar for several years and have aspirations to take an apartment building completely of grid, at least from a hydro point of view. This is not a simple task; we are working with our partner Anvil Crawler to make this happen. RHB: Thank you all for your insight and experience. rentalhousingbusiness.ca | 25