Dating to the founding of the aerospace company in 1953, CAE’s original plant in Montreal had undergone several expansions over the years. The rooftop of the one-million square foot facility was covered in an extensive array of decentralized HVAC units, making energy management difficult. Rather than simply replacing aging equipment, CAE decided to leverage its building’s energy savings potential.
CAE partnered with Ecosystem to implement a deep energy retrofit that addressed key goals in efficiency and functionality: significant energy savings, a simplified HVAC system, and ease of operation and maintenance. To deliver these outcomes, Ecosystem designed and installed a centralized heat recovery system, reducing the number of HVAC units by 75%. In addition, prioritizing the use of chillers during the summer to supply the new rooftop units increased air conditioning efficiency by 35%. The extensive re-engineering of the building infrastructure included high-performance heating and cooling equipment that operates based on demand and new centralized controls to maximize operational flexibility.
Thanks to this project, system reliability has greatly improved, and CAE’s annual heating bill has been cut by 75%.
Replacement and grouping of rooftop HVAC units
Installation of high-efficiency hot water boilers
Replacement and optimization of centralized controls
Addition of heat recovery and glycol-water systems
Ventilation optimization
‘‘The energy efficiency project was quickly selected because its rate of return was advantageous compared to other proposed investments. Moreover, because the savings were guaranteed, the risk level was very low.’’
-David Héon, Manager – Facility Services
