Engineering students and faculty at McMaster have completed a two-year energy
audit of
Hamilton schools that could help save almost $2.4 million in energy costs annually.

The audit findings have been presented to officials from the Hamilton-Wentworth
District
School Board and the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. Conservation
measures identified by the audit range from recaulking windows, adding insulation and
using more efficient lighting to new investments in advanced heat recovery systems
and
boilers, and solar and wind generating systems.

“We found that the school boards are already involved in implementing many of the
more
achievable energy conservation measures at their schools,” said Samir Chidiac, professor
of
civil engineering at McMaster and one of the lead organizers of the audit. “But they
need
support and decision tools to install the technologies that will generate the greatest
savings over the long term that involve longer payback periods.”

The energy audit, which was sponsored by Union Gas, was conducted by seven
mechanical
and civil engineering students working on co-op terms, supervised by two McMaster
research engineers.

“Through the Union Gas EnerSmart program, we help our business customers make
smart
investments in energy-efficient equipment and technologies,” said Mel Ydreos, vice-
president of marketing and customer care at Union Gas. “The McMaster students and
their
advisors have clearly demonstrated investment opportunities for Hamilton schools to
significantly reduce energy costs while also reducing their environmental footprint.”

The students first classified all the schools into groups with similar characteristics,
referred
to as archetypes. The criteria for establishing archetypes included the school size,
operation, building envelope and electrical, heating, cooling and ventilation system
properties. The students then visited a subset of the schools representing the various
archetypes to conduct full energy audits. The findings for each school were applied to
the
rest of the schools in their archetype to calculate savings potential. The use of
archetyping
reduced the time that would normally be required to fully audit all schools by six years.

“This archetype system can very easily be applied to any school system in a similar
climate
zone to calculate energy savings potential,” said Jim Cotton, associate professor of
mechanical engineering. “The opportunities for reduced energy consumption and cost
saving are tremendous.”

If all the audit's recommendations were implemented in Hamilton-Wentworth's schools,
natural gas consumption could be reduced by more than 5 million cubic meters, or
enough
to heat more than 2,140 homes, and electrical consumption would be reduced by
almost
2.8 million kWh.

“We are very appreciative of the work done by McMaster,” said Tim Simmons, vice-chair
of
the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board of Trustees. “It is not something we
could
have done on our own. The findings reaffirm that our current programs are moving in
the
right direction. They will also help us assess opportunities for energy savings requiring
larger investments for both existing schools and schools that will be built in future.”

“This initiative builds upon our system's commitment to the efficient use of all resources
and good stewardship practices,” said Catholic School Board Chairperson Patrick Daly.
“We
are looking forward to further developing our relationship with McMaster in assessing
energy reduction programs, particularly where students can be involved. We have found
that energy consumption in our schools decreases when students are actively engaged
in
helping to save energy.”

The engineering students have also given talks to science and physics classes
regarding
their work. One high-school student also became involved in the energy audit.

“One of the greatest benefits of this program is the hands-on experience gained by our
students,” said David Wilkinson, dean of McMaster's Faculty of Engineering. “They are the
ones who will be designing our schools and energy systems in the future so this work
is
invaluable for them and for all of us.”

The students who worked on the energy audit were: Leslie Cantar, Leith Hossein and
Roy
Xing from civil engineering, and Jordan Mansfield, Lorenzo Melfi, Jordan Lee, and Teng
Guo
from mechanical engineering. The research engineers were Eric Catania, civil
engineering,
and Alaa Hassan, mechanical engineering. The faculty were Samir Chidiac and Mike Tait
from civil engineering and Jim Cotton and Mohamed Hamed from mechanical
engineering.
Sahar Najm was the high school co-op student who worked on the audit.