The Grange, located at 551 The West Mall, in the heart of Etobicoke had, since the building was completed in 1970, depended on a bank of wet-cell lead batteries for electrical back-up. Not only was the near half-century old battery back-up system inefficient and costly, it was only capable of providing emergency lighting power for twenty minutes, leaving many of the residents of their 305 unit, fifteen floor complex with no alternative but to tread up and down the emergency stairs during prolonged power outages.
But, no more. Once The Grange’s cogeneration system is commissioned, Toronto Hydro estimates the board will realise an estimated $110K in yearly savings. “The energy savings and efficiency make a solid business case for CHP, but for a building like The Grange, the overarching issue is resilience (e.g., emergency power),” says Rob Detta Colli. For boards just now mulling over the idea
of converting to cogeneration, Toronto Hydro points out, “Typically, companies that purchase the (cogeneration) equipment can expect a seven to twelve year simple payback, electricity cost savings of 30 to 40% and an internal rate of return of between 12 and 20%, based on current electricity prices.” This does not take into account the added costs of incorporating backup power for “emergency power” and “sustained occupancy power Keep in mind however that the MURBs with the greatest potential energy savings are ones comprised of one hundred units or more and that have both high electrical and heating usage for at least sixteen hours a day, six days a week. Although massive in scale and scope, The Grange’s cogeneration project is not the sum of the board’s greening initiatives. • In 2008, The Grange converted their outdoor pool’s heating system from propane to a heat pump system – resulting in a yearly savings of more than $9,000. • In 2012, The Grange replaced all the single pane windows with energyefficient double pane units. • The Grange is currently well into their eighteen week, $1.8 million ‘Corridor Project’, which involves not only replacing the carpets, refinishing and reinforcing the suite doors but replacing the CFL lighting with LED. • Sometime in the fall of this year, they will be replacing the T8 bulbs in the garage with LEDs. • The board will clad the entire brick façade in 2018-2019 to improve the building’s thermal performance and lessen The Grange’s environmental footprint. It would be a stretch to cite the names of Robert Uhrig, Donayle Hammond, Remus Zorlescu, Dave Thomas, and Quentin Jobs – The Grange’s Board of Directors, in the same breath as Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, who discovered electric current, or Sir Charles Parsons, who invented the turbine, yet we would be remiss for not giving a nod of recognition to boards like The Grange’s whose leadership and foresight provides a modern context to the honourable title of ‘Pioneer.’ C V
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CONDOVOICE SUMMER 2017