Watershed helped designed the winning house in the Sustainable House Competition in June 2006. Watershed was responsible for the mathematical energy modeling of different building features in this low-energy building, and the recommendation of design components related to heat-transfer and efficiency. The winning design used passive solar heating with accessible thermal mass contained within the envelope. This early work on low-energy buildings helped to support later designs including the CMHC Healthy House.
Watershed was proud to receive the External Research Award from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation for a study titled “Understanding Multi-Residential Load Profiles”. Using this data from a number of multi-residential building meters, Watershed developed a new model for energy use and load profiles, particularly for buildings with gas heating and electric cooling. One of the big discoveries of the study was the idea of “Gas Overhead” which explains why many buildings heated with gas are less efficient on an annual basis than buildings heated with electricity.
Watershed reviewed existing concepts for the Toronto Healthy House and developed a complete energy design, including passive solar heating and both active and passive thermal mass systems. The design included hour by hour modeling of building performance, as well as the design of passive night cooling.
Watershed was proud to receive First Prize Honours in the 1993 Green-vention Environmental Invention Awards Competition sponsored by The Canadian Industrial Innovation Centre. The prize was awarded for the DrySmart, a simple, yet innovative plug that reduces the energy use of electrical dryers by up to 20%. The plug uses a patented statistical algorithm to prevent over-drying of clothes, which contributes to energy waste in the home.
Watershed was honored to be selected by the Canadian Ministry of Energy and Mines to receive the PASEM Award. The award was based on a nation-wide competition evaluating technologies, management, and marketing strategies for implementation of solar energy in Canada. The PASEM award was given for Watershed’s contribution towards the development and manufacture of several innovative solar technologies and systems involving both solar air heating and solar water heating.