Municipal Building Energy Retrofits

Saanich implements multiple building energy retrofit projects each year to increase energy efficiency and move to renewable energy. This not only reduces our GHG emissions, but reduces costs and often improves user comfort.

We’re developing 100% Renewable Pathways for each key facility, identifying the actions that are planned to reach our climate targets.  Check out the G.R. Pearkes 100% Renewable Pathway document.

Some key recent projects in our municipal facilities include:

  • Replacement of old, inefficient gas boilers at Gordon Head Recreation Centre with a renewable-energy heat pump and efficient backup gas boilers for building space and pool heating. This reduced the building GHG emissions by 38% in 2018 compared to the previous year with larger savings expected in 2021 following a full building retro-commissioning that is underway.
  • The Municipal Hall’s yearly carbon emissions were 33% smaller in 2018 than 2017 thanks to recent building efficiency upgrades. The new heating control systems will also result in greater comfort for occupants.
  • In 2019 Saanich purchased a REALice® System for the Green rink at Pearkes Arena following success with a similar installation in the Gold rink in 2016. This is a water treatment device for ice arenas to remove micro-air bubbles from water that is used when laying and resurfacing the ice. It makes it possible to flood the ice with unheated water to create hard & resilient ice in comparison to the previous approach of using heated water. Reclaimed heat is already used at the Pearkes facility for showers and as supplementary hot water for the arena’s resurfacing machines. The installation of this second REALice® System further reduced the Arena’s energy requirement and is anticipated to save 900GJ of energy use per year.
  • In 2016, Saanich began a 5-year program to convert 6,000 of their 9,000 street lights from High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps to energy efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). The program will result in a 51% reduction in overall electricity use and an annual savings of $214,000 and 26 tCO2e once fully complete. The LED fixtures also have a longer life span than HPS fixtures reducing the need for maintenance.