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Briarlane’s Benchmarking Success Story

By Lindsay McKeeman, BES, certUE and Bruce Fulcher, BES
Originally published in the Federation of Rental-Housing Providers of Ontario’s Fair Exchange November/December 2020 Magazine

Property management requires a holistic approach which looks at more than just the bottom line to determine success. In 2016 a multi-year GHG reduction and utility benchmarking plan was implemented by Briarlane Rental Property Management Inc. producing impressive results. The effectiveness of Briarlane’s management strategy is not based on guesswork or who has the best new innovative product; it is all about real numbers; as Brad Smith of Briarlane noted, “if you don’t track your utilities, you can’t manage them”!

Briarlane Rental Property Management Inc. is the largest pure third-party property management company in Ontario managing more than 16,000 units and greater than 2 million square feet of commercial space in the GTA and surrounding area: north to Bobcaygeon; east to Bellville; and west to Chatham. After much consideration, they selected Watershed Technologies Inc., a Toronto based science and engineering firm, to assist with implementing their water and energy management strategies.

Initial benchmarking of their portfolio identified 36 buildings as having an opportunity to significantly reduce water consumption. These opportunities showed savings from 11% to over 50% with resulting savings adding up to greater than $1.1 million per annum with a corresponding reduction of more than 5,000 tonnes of GHG (and a 261% ROI)!

Covid-19 Changes & Water Benchmarking Assessments

Only by benchmarking one’s portfolio, (comparatively looking at each building’s utility consumption, not costs, over a given period), can you truly assess how your buildings are performing. Costs increase routinely and hide what is actually happening with water consumption. Additionally, and particularly relevant today with social isolation, is the substantial increase we see in water consumption. Since March 1^st 2020 multi-residential water consumption has increased substantially (between 5% and 50%!) as more people are staying at home, cooking more, and working from home.

The question posed by Briarlane was one that many owners and property managers are posing: are all of the observable water increases attributable to Covid-19 lifestyle changes, or are some of these increases due to leaks, deterioration of parts and faulty fixtures? It’s impossible to tell just looking at your invoices. Therefore, detailed water use profiles are now more important than ever to see how your buildings are performing.

If you can’t see how your buildings are performing, how do you know what to do and when?

For Briarlane, Watershed’s “Energy Brain” is used to track real time water use and compare it with historical water consumption within their buildings. Even though access to real time water use is available 24/7, typically a monthly report on each building provides enough timely insight to make informed decisions on whether or not any changes need to be made at any particular building. It removes the guess work and provides hard numbers.

However, in these times the standard hard numbers can be misleading. A clear example of this can be seen when evaluating completed water retrofit projects: with savings of 21% in January 2020 and an 18% social isolation related increase in water consumption since March of 2020, the numbers would indicate that water savings are only 3%. But this would be inaccurate. The current actual savings are, of course, masked by the Covid-19 related increases. In-depth evaluations are required to determine savings performance.

Figure 1: An example of a typical increase observed due to social distancing protocols

In order to stay on top of consumption, Briarlane is continuing to rely on the accuracy of Watershed’s Energy Brain system which deciphers the difference between water usage and water leakage, identifies water use anomalies, graphs out each building’s water consumption profile, and produces a monthly financial and performance report for their evaluation and to determine what action, if any, needs to be implemented. These tools are proving essential for effectively managing the uncertainty surrounding water use during a global pandemic.

Benchmarking for Increased Comfort and Decreased Cost

A significant amount of time and money is invested in managing both the comfort and cost of multi-residential buildings. Benchmarking for comfort is a little out of the ordinary, but it goes hand-in-hand with assessing which heating systems are operating at increased gas-guzzling levels. A proper evaluation of each of the building’s heating profiles will demonstrate comfort levels within the building.

Having done this, Briarlane has begun to incorporate an advanced building automation system, (ABAS), which uses off the shelf components integrating a customized software and control strategy that is building specific. This system uses a patented Interval Data Optimization (IDO) custom designed control strategy. It allows a standard atmospheric boiler systems to operate without overheating the tenants, operating much akin to a high efficiency boiler system.

Through this course of action, Briarlane has reduced heating costs by an average of 20%. Where IDO was combined with a new boiler plant, the average savings increased to 33%. The first 24 buildings identified and modified will have savings that total over 2 million dollars over 5 years, and will effectively eliminate over 13,000 tonnes GHG emissions!

Benchmarking analysis is more than determining how much money you’re spending and where. It is the creation of a roadmap which outlines the greatest opportunities and how to get from point-A to point-B. Briarlane’s openness to exploring these possibilities has been rewarded with huge utility savings, ultimately allowing them to invest further in improving each building and providing greater returns for each owner. According to Brad Smith, President of Briarlane Rental Property Management Inc. “These projects are substantially increasing the building’s profitability and real-estate value in less than one year’s time”.

By developing and engaging in a holistic strategy to manage their properties, Briarlane removed the guesswork out of utility management. They have shown that the potential for effective, fiscal, and environmentally responsible business is not only possible but immediately attainable.

Reviewed by: Pat Brawn, V.P and Brad Smith, President of Briarlane Rental Property Management Inc.

Helping building owners reduce energy use and utility bills

By Nate Hendley
Originally published in Construction in Focus magazine July 2020

Watershed Technologies Inc. offers a suite of services and solutions designed to conserve energy and lower utility bills in multi-residential buildings. This Toronto-based firm uses audits and technological tools to measure and monitor a building’s water and energy consumption, and the data is then presented to clients along with cost-reducing energy conservation measures.

Very often we find savings in the range of twenty to forty percent… In four of [a group’s] buildings that we worked on, they’ve saved over half-a-million dollars in water bills, and their total project costs were about $140,000 to $150,000. That’s not an unusual story.
Doug Hart Founder and President, Watershed Technologies

“We are able to save people quite a lot on gas and water. Very often we find savings in the range of twenty to forty percent [in terms of] gas and water consumption,” states Watershed Founder and President Doug Hart. “There’s one group we started working for a couple years ago. In four of their buildings that we worked on, they’ve saved over half-a-million dollars in water bills, and their total project costs were about $140,000 to $150,000. That’s not an unusual story.”

A patented proprietary system called Interval Data Optimization (IDO) is central to the company’s work with natural gas heating. Years in the making, IDO “is a new methodology we developed for controlling building heating and cooling systems. It’s largely applicable to multi-residential buildings,” he notes. “It’s a control methodology that uses interval data. Instead of just looking at temperatures, we look at gas consumption every day. We use this energy monitoring to guide the control of the building.”

IDO technology allows Watershed to fine-tune building automation controls. This approach can “radically improve building performance and eliminate or reduce overheating which is common in older apartment buildings,” Hart continues.

The company’s water conservation services, meanwhile, blend scientific analysis with common-sense observations. “At three o’clock in the morning, you don’t expect too much activity going on with water consumption. Normally we should see quite a drop in water consumption in the night. If we don’t see that, it gives us a good idea we’re looking at leaks. We have a parameter called a leakage ratio,” says Hart. “We track that variable over time. If we see the leakage ratio gradually increasing over months and years, then we know there’s an opportunity for conservation. By going into the building and fixing all the leaks, you can save a lot of water.”

Other services include energy auditing, utility monitoring, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system recommissioning. The company conducts intensive research and development and manages some renewable energy and co-generation projects as well.

Energy audits are geared toward clients who want a broad picture of “what the building is doing,” he says. During an energy audit, Watershed staff members “go through all the mechanical, electrical, and water systems in the building.”

Energy consumption is measured and data compiled. Watershed employees will then sit down and determine the expense of implementing specific energy conservation measures (such as replacing or repairing old infrastructure) versus costs incurred by doing nothing. Results are passed to building owners to give them “an idea of what the return on investment is,” says Hart.

With this information in hand, building owners will have a better sense of whether potential savings outweigh the initial expense of implementing energy conservation measures.

Utility monitoring, meanwhile, is a service that the company has offered for over two decades. It has developed an online software program called EnergyBrain to enhance its utility monitoring capabilities. The program links utility meters in a building to the Internet, so information can be transmitted online and examined on computers at Watershed headquarters.

Hart describes EnergyBrain “as kind of a repository for data.” This includes hourly information about building energy consumption and weather reports from local airports. Weather data gives the company more insights into how a building is performing, energy-wise.

Clients can access the system to view utility use statistics. Watershed uses the data from this and other sources to create predictive models.

“We have a model that predicts how much energy a building should be using, and we compare that on an ongoing basis to actual energy use. Things should be pretty much in-line. If there’s a deviation, that means something’s gone off the rails a bit or maybe a lot. We can raise an alarm and go find solutions. It could be a water leak or a control sensor that failed. We track data hourly to get a very good handle on what’s happening in the building. It brings in a level of science to the whole area of building management,” Hart explains.

Watershed also recommissions HVAC systems. Staff will test these systems for factors such as flow rate and investigate if all the valves and parts are working properly. Tweaks and upgrades are performed, and HVACs are returned to a state of optimal performance.

The company primarily serves customers in the Toronto area; however, it does make exceptions. “Some property management groups have properties across Canada, and they send us all over the place. We work from coast to coast. We’ve worked in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. I would say eighty to ninety percent of our work is in Ontario and mostly in Toronto, but [we’re willing to do jobs] even if we have to fly to Halifax and get accommodation there for a little while,” he states.

Hart founded Watershed in 1977 as a solar thermal panel manufacturing and installation company. His timing was good; a few years earlier, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced oil output to Western nations in response to warfare and political unrest in the Middle East. This caused fuel prices in Canada and the U.S. to soar and greatly increased the popularity of energy alternatives such as solar power.

For a time, business boomed. Then, in the late 1980s, oil prices fell to new lows, and interest in solar power declined. Climate change was not on the public’s radar as people happily turned back to using oil and gas.

In response to these developments, Watershed transitioned. Instead of selling solar systems, a decision was made to focus on energy conservation. The company would become a leader in measuring and monitoring energy use in buildings and offering energy-saving solutions. It was a solid business strategy; regardless of whether a residence is powered by oil, gas, electricity, or solar energy, all building owners have an interest in reducing utility bills.

It no longer makes solar panels, but thanks to its experience in the sector, the company is sometimes called on to fix or manage solar systems.

At present, over ninety percent of Watershed’s work is conducted in the multi-residential building sector. Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC), the agency responsible for social housing in the city, is a regular client. The firm also works for a wide variety of property management companies and occasionally takes an assignment at a shopping mall or public venue.

It does not typically provide services for private residences, and Hart advises homeowners who want to lower their utility bills should contact a company that specializes in house-based energy audits.

Watershed is at a critical moment in terms of its future development. It wants more people to use its unique Interval Data Optimization methodology but worries about becoming a corporate behemoth.

“We feel there is a huge opportunity for gas reduction and water saving. The big challenge now is how do we get our [IDO] technology out there so other people can benefit from it without growing into a big company ourselves? I think it is going to be through licensing or relationships with other groups,” says Hart. “We’ve been thinking about licensing the patent or having joint operations with another group, for example, a company in Montreal or New York or somewhere. Someone interested in this technology who has a customer base in a geographic area. We could help enhance their offering through our technology,” he says.

“We kind of like the small company environment. We’re about eight to ten people. It’s not too hierarchical. We’re all friends who work together. It’s a nice kind of management environment,” he adds.

Watershed does not do a huge amount of promotion. It does a bit of advertising and attended trade shows in the early days but finds itself too busy to visit trade events now. The company also does not want to diminish its reputation for quality service by taking on more work than it can handle.

“We also have a good revenue flow, good cash flow, and workflow. So, we’re not worried about increasing our size at the moment. We’re basically a small business,” states Hart.

In addition to “looking at licensing [IDO technology] with people in geographically different areas, the company plans to “look at potentially developing technology to integrate with other types of building automation systems. But this will take time. We’ve got a lot to learn,” he admits.

For now, Watershed will continue to do what it does best: use science and skill to reduce building utility bills and energy use. “It’s always nice to help people save on gas or water,” notes Hart.

The heating challenge

by Lindsay McKeeman, BES, certUE
Originally published in Building Blocks magazine February 2016

Heating a building can be quite the challenge. There is much talk in the industry about the importance of upgrading windows, sealing cracks, improving insulation, and overall preventing heat from escaping from the building, but what about allowing this heat to permeate the room in the first place? Often times boilers are turned up in order to accommodate for a few cold suites, but this may not be the best solution. Despite being one of the most important parts of the heating system, baseboard radiators are out of sight and – all too often – out of mind.

Although commonly referred to as “radiators” or “rads”, baseboard radiators are in fact also convectors, using thin metal fins to transfer heat to the air via convection. These metal fins absorb heat from the hot water pipe which runs through the center of each fin and transfers this heat to the cool, dense air which is pulled in and up from the floor. This circulating air is heated, effectively warming the room (Figure 1). How well a radiator functions therefore depends directly on air flow around the fins inside the unit.

If these fins are blocked, air is not flowing and heat is not being delivered to the suite. Air flow around the fins can be blocked based on a number of factors. The most visible include furniture or other items being pressed up against the radiators, or heavy drapes hanging over the radiator to the floor. Heavily painted radiator covers can also act as a barrier. They can prevent the heated air from moving out into the room, just as a piece of furniture in front of a radiator would (Figure 2). All of these examples will act as a blockage from allowing the air that is warmed around the fins to be transferred to the rest of the room; the less obvious issue is on the fins themselves.

A build-up of debris overtime on the fins of a radiator can be even more detrimental to heating a space than almost any other factor. Over time, dust, pet hair, and other small particles can accumulate on the fins and begin to act like a thermal blanket (Figure 3). They keep the fins so well insulated that heat cannot be transferred to the surrounding air, effectively creating a cold zone (Figure 4).

Often times the heat is turned up overall to accommodate the minimum in-suite temperature requirements, but this can lead to overheating in other areas of the building where there are clean fins. Increasing the supply water temperatures also increases distribution losses throughout the heating system. By adjusting boiler temperatures down to optimal rates and keeping the fins and radiator covers clean, the system as a whole will be able to function as it was designed. This will not only keep tenants happy, but will reduce overheating in the building, reduce the load on the boiler system, and reduce gas consumption and costs of heating the building overall.

Even with a top-of-the-line boiler system in place, ineffective radiators will prevent even and efficient heating of a building. It is easy to overlook the health of the radiators in a unit as they are almost always covered, and as such are assumed to be functioning without issue. By regularly maintaining the air circulation around the fins inside the radiator, combined with a building automation system that is able to compensate for temperature changes, the true effectiveness of the heating system in a building can be harnessed and substantial savings can be realized. Some companies, such as Novitherm, provide a service of cleaning fins and installing heat reflectors behind the radiators.

The savings from regular maintenance can be further enhanced with the incorporation of a building automation system. At Watershed we use both historic and daily data to monitor, assess, and manage the boiler system in the building, ultimately painting a very clear picture of how the system is functioning as a whole. We are able to fine-tune the boiler so that it is working at optimal levels while preventing overheating and wasted energy. Our system combined with maintaining the radiators in each suite will not only provide detailed information of how your building is doing, but it will save you time and money in the long run.

The triple bottom line benefits of utility monitoring

By Sam van Berkel, MASc, PEng
Originally published in Building Blocks magazine May 2014

As sustainability becomes an increasingly important issue, the value derived from efficient utility consumption should not be underestimated. The way utilities are managed in multi-residential buildings presents an absolute goldmine of savings opportunities by eliminating waste and inefficiency. For example, a building may have done a water retrofit three or four years ago (installing new toilets and showerheads), but consumption has nevertheless crept up. This gradual increase is often an indication of water leakage, but is difficult to detect from monthly utility bills. Hourly utility monitoring can help spot even small increases in consumption and flag inefficiencies, which can then be verified by performing a water audit. Such inefficiencies, along with the City of Toronto’s scheduled 8% water rate increase next year imply that the most effective way to minimize the financial impact of water costs is to focus on conservation. Similar opportunities exist with gas and electricity monitoring.

“There are huge financial savings to be had by monitoring your utilities carefully,” says Adam Krehm, Co-Owner and Manager of O’Shanter Development Co. “For every dollar that we can take off the operating costs of this building, almost 20 dollars are added to the value of the real-estate. From the EnergyBrain system, we can tell the kinds of operational problems we’re having. We can look at the before and after results, and monitor things very carefully in real-time. Having that kind of a handle on one’s operations is probably worth 20-25% of the annual fuel bill…it’s a large sum of money.”

These utility cost savings were most recently captured by one of Watershed Technologies’ apartment building on Lawrence Avenue East, where annual savings of $12 600 provided a quick payback, increasing the building’s profitability and real-estate value in less than one year’s time. Additional efficiency investments are now being considered for natural gas and electricity, where similar savings can be realized with the same analytic tools as used for water conservation. In addition to reducing the utility cost of existing portfolio buildings, these benefits can also be realized in the context of new acquisitions, where a key consideration is the building’s water and energy use patterns. If excessive waste and inefficiencies are identified from an external audit and monitoring, this presents a significant opportunity because utility cost-efficiencies can be improved quickly, and the project payback period is often less than one year. This immediately adds property value and equity for a new acquisition.

EnergyBrain2 — EnergyBrain monitoring tracks results and provides immediate feedback

“There’s huge leverage in having these kinds of savings,” says Mr. Krehm. “Using EnergyBrain will reduce your operating inefficiencies, you will have the ability to evaluate various retrofit strategies that can be used on a wider scale within your portfolio, and you will add huge value to the real-estate portfolio where it’s being used. I would venture to say that if you come from no utility monitoring to the effective use of EnergyBrain, you would easily add 20% to the value of your portfolio. If there is a commitment and a belief in this system, a building manager who uses EnergyBrain can have a grasp of utility consumption that he could only dream of.”

All things considered, investing in efficient utility consumption is a great way to achieve the triple bottom line of economic prosperity, environmental performance and social responsibility. A proactive mindset and utility monitoring goes a long way to capturing these gains, and ensuring optimum building performance for years into the future.

Looking for more information? Have a question about this article? Email info@watershed.ca.

The benefits of water recommissioning

By Barry Glina, Residential Portfolio Manager, Monterey Park
Originally published in Building Blocks magazine February 2014

As owners and managers of industrial, commercial and residential buildings, Monterey Park has always focused on proactively managing operating costs. While many property managers focus on electricity and natural gas conservation, water consumption is quickly becoming a major cost, particularly in the residential sector. The City of Toronto water rate has gone up 133% in the last decade and is scheduled to increase by another 8% next year. The most effective way to minimize the impact of rate increases is to focus on water conservation. At 35 Confederation Drive, one of our larger residential
buildings (135 units), water consumption had reached 60,000 cubic meters per year ($178,000 at 2014 water rates). Water leakage often goes unreported and in some cases, such as a leaking toilet, tenants may not even be aware of the issue. Continual improvements in fixture efficiencies make staying informed about the latest technology difficult. Our water costs had increased substantially, but we faced a challenge in navigating the many conservation products and services available, and in deciding how to allocate our capital budget.

In early 2012 we were approached by Watershed Technologies, a Toronto company with over 35 years of experience in building energy and water conservation. After doing a preliminary review of our utility bills, Watershed identified 35 Confederation Drive as an attractive candidate for water
recommissioning and recommended a water audit to review our existing fixtures and assess the potential opportunity. While many audits are limited to a visual inspection, Watershed took detailed measurement of the existing plumbing fixtures in 15% of the suites. They also reviewed four years of our utility history, and installed special monitoring equipment to provide an hourly water consumption profile online, which helped assess water leakage.

The water audit concluded that we could be saving 11,000 cubic meters of water a year ($33,000). Almost a third of all faucets were found to be leaking and almost half had no aerator. Many of our 6 liter toilets did not have the correct early-closure flappers, increasing the actual flush volume to 10 liters. Showerheads also presented an opportunity, as many of the existing models had high flow rates.

After reviewing the results of the water audit, we opted to contract Watershed to implement the recommendations outlined in their study. There are a number of companies that perform water recommissioning in the GTA. You should consider several factors when you choose. Select a supplier that:

Repairs or replaces leaking plumbing fixtures, rather than those that only report.
Has experience optimizing 6 liter toilets and sourcing the correct flappers, noting that many companies (and perhaps your own maintenance staff) simply use generic toilet flappers which actually increase the toilet flush volumes.
Will install hourly utility monitoring as part of a water recommissioning project, to allow for the tracking of the results of the project from day one and make sure the savings do not erode over time. Be alerted of sudden increases in consumption, and can track increases in leakage over time.

The project was implemented in June 2012 and was completed in just over a week. Watershed worked with our site staff to ensure tenants were notified and informed of the project. After completion, we received preliminary results almost immediately and a formal written savings report a couple of months later. Ultimately we did end up saving 11,000 cubic meters a year, which will mean a reduction of $33,000 in our water bills for 2014. Our annual natural gas consumption also decreased by 40,000 cubic meters due to reduced hot water consumption, saving us a further $12,000 a year in energy costs. With a project cost of $16,000, we recouped the initial capital investment in months and are
now enjoying a significant improvement in our bottom line. Watershed is also helping us apply retroactively for an incentive from Enbridge for these natural gas savings, something which is possible because of the hourly utility monitoring system which was installed as part of the project. We are now looking at implementing similar water recommissioning projects at our other residential buildings.

resultschart — Watershed Technologies has been conducting water tune up projects similar to the Save on Water program throughout the GTA for five years. In 2011, water conservation programs were implemented at 15 multi-family residential buildings ranging in size from 25 to 375 suites. Water monitoring showed significant savings and an average payback period of less than a year.

Looking for more information? Have a question about this article? Email info@watershed.ca.