Industrial
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Fresh air and free heat. From Bombardier to NASA, from Ford to General Motors and from Wal-Mart to FedEx and more, hundreds of companies around the world are saving their money and our environment. 127 tons(!) of CO2 will NOT be disgorged into the skies this year. Or ever! Thanks to FedEx. FedEx estimates that installing a SolarWall heatcladding system on its Distribution Centre in Colorado will result in the building NOT discharging 254,000 lbs. (116,000 kilograms) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. That’s 127 tons of greenhouse gases avoided because one FedEx building is burning less gas for heating one not-so-huge facility. And that’s HUGE! Not only is FedEx helping the environment, but it’s saving $12,000 each year in the process – and these operating savings started Day One. Strict building codes require that the building be ventilated at a rate of 1.5 cfm/ft2 of floor area, or 90,000 cfm. Using conventional means to keep the building warm, while providing this level of ventilation, would cost a small fortune. Thanks to the 5,000 ft2 (465 m2) SolarWall installation, 45,000 cfm of outside air is pre-heated by the sun before reaching the ventilation system, providing 2,300 million BTUs of heat energy a year. And that’s a lot of natural gas that’s not being burned! “Better get your meter checked,” said disbelieving gas supplier! Steelcare is one of Canada’s leading industrial service companies, providing sophisticated warehousing, inventory management, and transportation to the steel industry. When its Plant 19 was being built, Steelcare looked at innovative ways to redesign conventional warehouses. The goal was three-fold: To 1) protect the environment; 2) reduce energy costs; 3) build a state-of-the art steel storage warehouse. Said Bob Edwards, engineer and Capital Projects Manager at Steelcare: “The product is cold-rolled and must be protected from humid conditions. Rust is a huge concern, so we go to great lengths to keep a dry environment.” To prevent condensation on the stored steel rolls, the ventilation air must be heated all year, which results in high natural gas consumption levels. As the fully-automated, climate-controlled, 7,927 m2 warehouse was being designed, energy costs were put under the microscope. Said Edwards: “Since energy expenses were prohibitive in our other facilities, we had to reduce costs. After we had looked at a lot of options, we got a REDI grant to put in a SolarWall [system]. “With everything we did, our warehouse is 56% more efficient than conventional construction and the SolarWall [system] represents more than 20% of the energy contribution. “Using SolarWall was a simple way of capturing the sun’s energy and has helped produce a building that’s so efficient that we don’t use any natural gas in June, July and August to maintain the humidity in the building.” Demetrius Tsafaridis, President of Steelcare, relates a recent anecdote: “Our gas and electric bills are ridiculously low compared to our other facilities. Our gas supplier said we had better get our meter checked because it shows we are using way too little gas.” Steelcare’s use of SolarWall heating panels garnered them five LEED points and was one of the factors that resulted in Plant 19 becoming Canada’s first LEED Gold certified industrial facility. At the INDUSTRIAL

Canada Conserval Engineering Inc. 200 Wildcat Road, Toronto, ON M3J 2N5 T: 416.661.7057 F: 416.661.7146 E: info@solarwall.com W: www.solarwall.com U.S.A. Conserval Systems Inc. 4242 Ridge Lea Rd., Suite 28, Buffalo, New York 14226 T: 716.835.4903 F: 716.835.4904 E: solarwallUSA@solarwall.com W: www.solarwall.com presentation ceremony Andrew Pride, representing the Canada Green Building Council, said: “This project shows that industrial facilities can be built to higher performance standards and sets an example for other industries to follow. Plant 19’s design and construction demonstrate...