Project title:
Off-Campus Residence Energy Dashboard
Project #:
SPF0049
Project leader:
Jerome Conraud
Accountable person:
Jerome Conraud
Final Report
What we set out to accomplish:
McGill Utilities & Energy Management obtained funding (through a loan from the University) to install
meters on campus. The installation was completed on 2011 and the University launched its energy
dashboard in 2012, thereby giving energy-use data to the community and laying the ground for
behaviour change programs.
Unfortunately, the off-campus residences were left out of this first wave of meter installation. Indeed
Residences are a self-funded unit and, therefore, McGill Utilities & Energy Management could not pay
for the installation of meters off the main campus.
The goal of the project was to install meters to monitor the energy use of the main off-campus
residences in real time and to display this information on the McGill Energy Dashboard.
What we accomplished:
Power meters were installed in all the four residences (Solin Hall, Carrefour Sherbrooke, la Citadelle, and
New Residence Hall). Natural gas meters were installed in three of the residences (Solin, Carrefour and
La Citadelle).
Note: the Residences paid for the installation of meters in Solin Hall (not included in the original SPF
application) and for the hot and chilled water meters of New Residence Hall (whose installation cost
exceeded the original application).
Project #11-322
(Carrefour, New
Rez, La Citadelle)
Project #11-329
(Solin Hall)
Budget
$50k
Actual
$33k
Paid by
SPF ($42k)
Residences ($8k)
Status
Complete
$13k
$12k
Residences
Closed
Challenges / failures encountered and how they were addressed + recommendations:
1. New Residence Hall is a complex building inasmuch as it is part of the La Cité complex. La Cité
has its own thermal plant where they generate hot water and chilled water; they also have a
private natural gas distribution network. The chilled water and hot water meters installed in
New Residence Hall were paid by Residences, as they were not part of the original SPF fund
request. More meters would have been required (power and gas) to segregate NRH from the
rest of La Cité but Redborne, La Cité’s utilities & facilities management company were hard to
deal with and reluctant to allow McGill to install more meters. Unfortunately, should the
project be replicated, we would have to deal with the same issues and would probably deal with
it the same way we did.
2. The installation of the power and gas meters in La Citadelle took far more time than anticipated
for two reasons: first, La Citadelle was under major upgrade work at the time of the application
and the works lasted longer than anticipated. We were not given access to the building before
the contractor vacated the building. In the meantime, we finished the rest of the installations
and this building got shifted down on the priority list of the powerhouse’s staff. This is quite
unfortunate and should this project happen again, I would put more pressure on to the
powerhouse staff for them to finish the installation.