CASE STUDIES

EVALUATING THE FEASIBILITY OF DEEP RETROFITS FOR MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS

In 2022, ReCover initiated a series of studies to understand the requirements for implementing panelized deep retrofits for six municipally owned buildings across Canada. The participating municipalities included Halifax Regional Municipality, Town of New Glasgow, Colchester, Burlington, Oakville, and Saskatoon. This effort led to a series of Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies, which helped us evaluate the feasibility and long-term impacts of a panelized deep retrofit approach for the selected buildings.

These studies were made possible through the contributions of our partners: Efficiency Canada, Efficiency ONE, Habit Studio, RSI Projects, McNeil Consulting, Passive Buildings Canada, and QUEST Canada. We are also grateful for the support of The Atmospheric Fund, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, City of Burlington, Municipality of Colchester, Halifax Regional Municipality, Town of New Glasgow, City of Oakville, and City of Saskatoon.

HALIFAX

ReCover studied the Harrietsfield Williamswood Community Centre in Halifax, a two-storey building with a gross floor area of 581m². The upper level houses a day care centre with after-school and full-day programs during summer and March Break.

The facility also includes a multipurpose room for community recreation services, fitness classes, meetings, art classes, workshops, and private event rentals.

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NEW GLASGOW

In New Glasgow, we worked on the New Glasgow Municipal Operations Building, a one-storey steel structure with a gross floor area of 7,430m². The building includes a 5,670m² unoccupied retail space and a 1,760m² area used by the Public Works and Engineering Department.

The facility serves as a maintenance shop for the storage and servicing of trucks, snowplows, and other machinery, among other uses.

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COLCHESTER

The Debert Water Utility Building, located at 251 Lancaster Crescent, Debert, Nova Scotia, was studied in Colchester.

Debert is a rural, predominantly agricultural community in Colchester County. The Water Utility Building is situated in an industrial area surrounded by woodland.

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SASKATOON

The City of Saskatoon's Access Transit service provides on-demand transportation for individuals with disabilities within Saskatoon's city limits. The service operates out of two buildings located at 422 and 510 46th Street East, connected by a pedestrian link. Both buildings are single-storey, prefabricated steel structures.

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BURLINGTON

We studied the Burlington Seniors Centre in Burlington, a one-storey structure with a gross floor area of 2,000m2 (21,526 sq.ft). It has an irregularly shaped footprint with many 135-degree angles.

The Burlington Seniors Centre was built in 1979 and it underwent a renovation and expansion in 2005. It offers a variety of recreation services for people aged 55 and older, including fitness and art classes, social events, church services, and workshops. It is also rented out for events.

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OAKVILLE

The Sir John Colborne Centre, a one-storey building in Oakville constructed in 1989, has a gross floor area of 852m². The facility offers daily social, recreational, and health programs for seniors. It includes an auditorium for fitness classes, social activities, music, games, and private events. Smaller rooms are available for arts and crafts, woodworking, and billiards.

The central corridor functions as a lounge, with a café in the kitchen operating during all working hours. The building also contains administration offices for staff.

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LOW RISE MURBS

The pilot building is a four-storey residential structure in Halifax, Nova Scotia, constructed around 1980. Each floor consists of a dwelling unit and common stairwells. The first floor has a two-bedroom unit, while the upper three floors each have a three-bedroom unit. Additionally, the first floor includes a garage, laundry room, and mechanical room.

The dwelling units on the first and second floors are currently occupied by a single family. This is important for energy modeling interpretation, as the building is utilized as a three-unit rather than a four-unit structure.

All spaces in the existing building are heated using hot water baseboard heaters, supplied by an oil-fired boiler set at approximately 180 °F. Domestic hot water (DHW) is heated through an indirect tank from the boiler.

Cooling is provided to the living rooms and master bedrooms via mini-split heat pumps. These heat pumps are not used in heating mode, likely because doing so would increase tenant energy costs, whereas heating from the boiler is included in their rent.

LAWRENCE STREET

This 4 unit MURB in Halifax was built in 1980, and could clearly benefit from a meaningful retrofit. Our team reviewed the possible solutions that would be feasible for this building and discovered that a panelized deep retrofit would be able to deliver Net Zero Energy results, while being minimally disruptive to occupants.

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TORONTO COMMUNITY HOUSING

This study was conducted to support the development of a plan to retrofit TCHC's townhouse portfolio. Performance upgrades were designed and their associated financial impacts assessed for a TCHC townhouse block located at 22-32 Scarletwood Court.

The study was supported by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). We would like to thank Noah Slater, Senior Director of Capital Planning, Design and Engagement, for his forward-thinking vision in endorsing this study, and Anna Kazmierska, Design Manager of Multi-Disciplinary and Special Projects, for her creativity in implementing this innovative project at TCHC. Special thanks also go to Adam Cohen for initiating the early conversations that led to this project.

While technical solutions for deep retrofits are complex, they are achievable. The primary barrier to implementing deep retrofits at scale is cost.

SCARLETWOOD

Designing the optimal deep retrofit solution involves balancing many important, often conflicting, variables. Performance targets and evaluation criteria to inform decision making for the project were developed collaboratively by the design team, its advisors and the staff of TCHC.

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