December 2023
A former Toronto Hydro energy consultant shares his experiences after visiting hundreds of buildings.
Some condominium managers and boards are professional and seek the best for their communities. They work well with consultants, ask questions and come to reasonable conclusions. Others are unwilling or unable to consider either facts or reality.
Here are two stories from local communities.
Tin Hat Peter
Tin Hat Peter (THP) was on the board of a property that had two tall condo buildings and a common parking area. This required three boards, one for each building and one for the common area.
THP was on the board of one building and the common area board. Parking lot lighting was in need of replacement and I offered financial incentives to encourage their upgrade to efficient lighting. THP, an engineer, wasn’t convinced and didn’t trust Toronto Hydro. Incentive money provided by the Province of Ontario was irrelevant. This “chemical” engineer had no knowledge or ability to judge an energy-related project yet felt it was a ploy by Toronto Hydro to control and monitor lighting in the parking garage.
It took nearly two years for the board to approve the parking lot lighting upgrade and receive the financial incentive. They lost thousands of dollars in annual savings and had a payback of 2.5 years.
The Old Man
Building recommissioning is a complex process of resetting and realigning the chiller systems with the building operating systems and pumps. This is similar to an automobile tune-up. It ensures systems are working together so they achieve an optimal level of efficiency and financial savings.
In one building the chiller was a good candidate for recommissioning rather than having it replaced. The system was in overall good condition. The cost of this work would be repaid through financial savings in about seven months after including financial incentives accounting for over half the cost of the work. When presented to the board and on hearing this, one 80+ year old board member who fell asleep during part of the presentation loudly said “NO! This is bullshit, nothing is less than a year!” And that was it. No amount of explanation could convince this individual or the other directors. The director stated “I’m an engineer, this is a lie. It will not work!”
The following summer the condominium corporation purchased a new chiller at more than double the cost of the proposed recommissioning.
Thank you to Iain Robertson at Grey Matter Energy for sharing his experiences when advising condominium corporations on how to improve their energy utilization and saving money.
