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Energy Efficiency in a Cold Climate: Epcor Tower
Jillian Pederson, B.Sc, P.Eng, LEED® AP
1
 
1
AECOM Canada Ltd, Calgary, Alberta, CanadaCorresponding email:
 jillian.pederson@aecom.com
 
SUMMARY
Epcor Tower is a 29-storey office tower located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is locatedat 53.3° latitude. The design temperature is -34°C in winter and 28°C DB/19°C WB insummer (annual 62°C delta). Various measures are applied to create an energy efficientbuilding in this climate. A high performance envelope is used to minimize the effects of largetemperature swings. Energy efficiency is also achieved by providing an outdoor air systemwith geothermal pre-heating and pre-cooling via earth tubes. Additional energy savingmeasures include exhaust air heat recovery, winter free cooling, and boiler stack condenserheat recovery. Using the energy saving measures presented, the building is expected toachieve a 41.4% energy use reduction as compared to ASHRAE Standard 90.1.
INTRODUCTION
Epcor Tower is a 66,974m
2
office tower with a building footprint of 3,073m
2
. It is comprisedof a two storey retail podium, 26 floors of office space, and a mechanical penthouse floor.There are four levels of below grade parkade with a total area of 28,288m
2
. The project is thefirst high rise building to be built in Edmonton in over 20 years and it has the capacity forfuture expansion.Figure 1. Rendering of Epcor Tower [1]
 
The site is located in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at 53.3° latitude. The designtemperature is -34°C in winter and 28°C DB/19°C WB in summer (annual 62°C delta)according to the Alberta Building Code. The climate poses interesting challenges on thebuilding design, particularly on energy use and occupant comfort. This paper outlines themeasures used to achieve an energy efficient building while maintaining thermal comfort in avaried and cold climate.
METHODSBuilding Envelope
The building envelope plays a critical role in a building’s energy use, particularly in a climateas extreme as Edmonton. The envelope is also vital in maintaining adequate occupantcomfort as it provides a thermal barrier to the outdoors and minimizes the effects of largetemperature swings. Epcor Tower has a building envelope with a window to wall ratio of 49%. A unitized curtainwall glazing system was selected for the fenestration. In order toensure sufficient envelope performance, four curtainwall options were selected for analysisbased on energy cost and thermal discomfort. Table 1 below describes the four optionsanalyzed and their respective centre-of-glass U-values.Table 1. List of Curtainwall Options Evaluated
Option Description U-Value (W/m
2
K)#1 Triple-glazed A 1.01#2 Double-glazed A 1.48#3 Triple-glazed B 1.20#4 Double-glazed B 1.69
Earth Tubes
Epcor Tower takes advantage of a unique system of earth tubes used to pre-heat and pre-coolthe building outdoor air. The principle of earth tubes is a geothermal exchange between theair and the surrounding earth using a thermally conductive material as a separation. Thegreater the surface area in contact with the ground, the better the heat transfer will be.Because the ground temperature essentially remains constant below the frost line, the groundcan be used to heat the air in the winter season and cool the air in the summer season. Inorder to maximize the rate of heat transfer, it is ideal to flow the air at a low velocity throughthe earth tubes to provide adequate lag time for the heat transfer to occur. Based on previousexperience in this climate, a heat transfer rate of 0.5°C/m of earth tube can be achieved at aspeed no greater than 1.02m/s.For this project, two vertical intake shafts run down the exterior of the parkade walls. Theseintake shafts are constructed with glycol heating lines inside the concrete to ensure freezingdoes not occur. Once the shafts have passed the lowest parkade level, they turn 90° tocontinue horizontally below the parkade structure. The earth tubes then form a loop aroundthe building’s core before connecting to the main tower air handling unit which provides therest of the conditioning. Figure 2 is a schematic representation of the earth tube system.
 
Figure 2. Schematic of Earth Tube SystemThe earth tubes themselves are built as a combination of precast concrete pipes and pouredconcrete plenums with internal columns for structural support. The plenums are 9.5m wideand 2.5m high. With an airflow rate of 18,877L/s per earth tube this equates to a velocity of 0.79m/s, which meets the criteria outlined above. The earth tubes are designed for themaximum load, which in Edmonton occurs in heating mode. The desired temperature rise isfrom -34°C to 6°C, 6°C being the constant ground temperature below the frost line, resultingin a 40°C delta. Using the heat transfer rate of 0.5°C/m each earth tube needs to be 80m inlength. The actual length of the constructed earth tubes are 116m and 97m.
Exhaust Air Heat Recovery
In order to capture waste heat from the general exhaust system, a heat recovery unit is locatedat the exhaust outlet. This recovery unit captures the heat in the exhaust air and returns it to aheating coil in the main tower air handling unit via a glycol run-around loop.
Winter Free Cooling
In a climate such as Edmonton’s, there is an opportunity to take advantage of winter freecooling. During the winter months when the outdoor air wet bulb temperature is less than thechilled water temperature, in this case 6.7°C, the entire cooling load can be achieved throughthe cooling towers. This is accomplished by providing cooling towers capable of running yearround with integral immersion heaters. In free cooling mode, the chillers are turned off andbypassed completely.
Stack Condenser
 Conventional boilers are used on this project in conjunction with a stack condenser. All of theboilers are breeched together in order to combine the flue gases prior to entering the stack condenser. Heat in the flue gases is extracted in two separate heat exchanger coils within thestack condenser: one using water and one using glycol. The flue gas temperature is lowered
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