H2O getting energy facelift

Photo: Contributed

The City of Kelowna hopes to secure a senior government grant to make the H2O Centre more energy efficient.

Energy program manager Brydan Tollefson says the upgrades will save the city about $90,000 a year in utility costs.

"We are looking to replace and upgrade the mechanical heating plant which is made up of a low-efficiency boiler that provides the heating for the pool water and hot tub, as well as low efficiency domestic hot water tanks that provide the water for showers and sinks," said Tollefson.

"In addition to that, we have the heat recovery chiller and the storage system that provides pre-heat to those boilers and domestic hot water systems."

Tollefson said they would replace the boilers and domestic hot water with high-efficiency condensing systems, and significantly increase the size of the heat recovery chiller.

In addition, the H2O Centre will undergo a complete facility-wide LED lighting conversion.

He added the H2O Centre is by far the largest city-owned emitter of energy.

"We are looking at about 420,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year reduced. 5,900 gigajoules of natural gas. This works out to 295 tons of GHG emissions."

The overall cost of the project is about $2.6 million, however, with provincial and federal grants, the city's portion would be less than $700,000.

Tollefson says most of the items are going to have to be replaced within the next three to seven years, so if makes sense to go ahead now because of the greenhouse gas advantage and the shared cost of the project.