Winkler, Manitoba

Located in Winkler Manitoba, Emerado Elementary School was Tempeff's first DualCore® installation.

The Mandate

Although the importance of ventilation is well known, it is one of the most costly aspects of operating a building. In cold climates heating outdoor air to usable temperatures takes a tremendous amount of energy, and can account for as much as 50% of the operating costs.

For Emerado School, the mandate was given to provide a system design that offered the best of both worlds, high ventilation for a quality learning environment, while minimizing capital expenditures and operating costs. Given the harsh Manitoba winter climate (-30° F design) this was a daunting task given the traditional energy recovery options available at the time.

The Solution

To minimize impact of high ventilation rates on the operating costs an innovative choice was made – a Tempeff DualCore® ERV. With superior efficiency even at outdoor air temperatures lower than -30° F, the DualCore® unit was an ideal choice to minimize operating costs and simplify system design.

The Results

After the project was completed and allowed to operate for 2 full heating and cooling seasons the engineer of record analyzed all the utility bills for the school. Taking all of the different bills they consolidated to a common unit – using kWh/Ft2/year. They found that the school had the lowest operating cost in the entire province, consuming less than 13 kWh/ft2/year. This is especially impressive considering the harsh Manitoba climate where the school was located in (-30° F design temperature). Comparing to all schools in the entire country, Emerado still finished in the top 10%, even when compared to schools in a much milder climate.

The energy consumption noted is for entire school, and the DualCore® unit is only supplying ventilation air. However the engineer did state that without the DualCore® unit, the ventilation load would have accounted for 50% of the operating cost, thus the DualCore® unit contributed a significant portion towards low operating costs.

Due to the high efficiency and frost free operation, the engineer was also able to simplify the overall system design due to the elimination of defrost strategies and oversized reheat considerations. This contributed significantly to the relatively low mechanical construction costs, where they were able to keep costs around $25 per square foot (costs in Canadian dollars, circa 2006)