More Energy Savings
February 25th, 2010 · by Bill Hole
Last week, I talked about a highly visible way we’re saving energy at the Enjoy Centre. But there’s also an out-of-sight feature that’s the star of our overall plan to achieve energy and water savings of about 22 percent. It’s a 455,000 L water storage tank that we expect will reduce our water consumption by 80 percent.
That’s because the greenhouses have been designed to funnel rainwater and melting snow from the roofs into the holding tank. The collected water will be used to irrigate our plants and then reused thanks to our flood-floor watering system that has a recirculation component (which also means fertilizer-rich water won’t make it into the sewer system). In fact, as long as there’s average precipitation, we expect to meet all our irrigation needs through collection and reuse of water.
Another out-of-sight energy saver that’s been finalized is a cogenerator, which will use natural gas to generate electricity. The advantage of cogeneration is we’ll be able to capture the waste heat energy—a byproduct of the electrical generation—and use it to heat the greenhouse and the water in the Enjoy Centre. We don’t expect to be totally off the grid with cogeneration, but with it we anticipate an overall gas and electrical savings of nine percent. There will also be energy-efficient condensing boilers to further enhance our natural gas savings. Save, save. Win, win!