W.H. Demmons HVAC
Energy Efficient Building Systems
Energy Efficient Building Systems
W.H Demmons' HVAC Division is a full service design-build-maintain engineering company offering a broad range of heating and air conditioning services to residential, commerical, industrial and marine customers.
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Backbone Magazine
Posted on March 5th, 2009 No commentsDockside residents to track carbon footprint in their suites thanks to the innovation of Victoria companies August 16, 2007 Victoria, BC – August 16, 2007 –Not tonight honey, I’m watching my carbon footprint. A new device called the MACH-Stat(TM) lets you monitor your carbon footprint from your bedroom…or any room in the house. Now being installed at Dockside Green’s first building Synergy, opening early next year, the MACH-Stat(TM)controls room temperature as well as reports energy and water consumption. It monitors the weather outside, and even tracks residents’ in-suite carbon footprint, daily and over time.
Thanks to custom programming and graphics developed specifically for Dockside Green, residents can also log onto the system over the Internet and see in real time their water and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions – literally watching their carbon footprint.
The first of its kind on planet earth, it’s a true homegrown success story. The MACH-Stat(TM) is manufactured by Victoria-based Reliable Controls Corporation, was customized for Dockside Green by Houle Controls in Victoria, and the graphics to make this sophisticated system easy for residents to use, were developed by Syscor Research & Development, also in Victoria.
For Joe Van Belleghem, Dockside Green co-developer along with Vancity, having MACH-Stats in Dockside’s suites puts residents on the leading edge of a ‘green’ revolution, while supporting local business.
“We said all along that we wanted to support local companies that share our vision and values,” Van Belleghem says. “We’re convinced that this system is really going to take off based on the greater awareness around climate change, the cost of water and energy, and the direction the provincial government is taking to promote efficiency.”
Joe LeRoy, Control Divisions Manager at Houle Controls in Victoria who customized the system for Dockside Green, is particularly excited about the potential to raise people’s awareness around their energy consumption in a way that can lead to positive change in their behaviour.
“People can’t fix what they don’t know,” LeRoy says. “By seeing their impact right up there on the wall; by having a way to measure every day how their behavior impacts their emissions, they can start to set goals and make changes that will have a significant impact, not only on their lives, but on the climate.”
The MACH-Stat(TM)is on display at Dockside Green’s presentation centre at 1101 Wharf Street in Victoria. The system is also sold for residential and commercial purposes by Houle Controls in Victoria.
Contact:
Trisha Lees
Tartan Public Relations
250.592.3838 or 250.896.3838 (cell)Sara Holland
Tartan Public Relations
604.609.0219 or 604.880.1494 (cell)Reliable Controls
Victoria-based Reliable Controls Corporation is a manufacturer of world-class leading-edge building automation controls. They specialize in designing and manufacturing Internet-connected environment controls and building controls that are simple, flexible, and competitively priced. The MACH-System(TM)is used to monitor and control the mechanical / HVAC and electrical / lighting equipment found in every kind of building control application. Their products are designed, manufactured, tested and shipped from their state of the art manufacturing facility in Victoria.Houle Controls
Houle Controls is a division of Houle Electric Limited, a western Canadian electrical contracting firm. Houle Electric is one of the largest electrical contractors in British Columbia with Houle Controls Victoria positioned as the largest Reliable Controls Dealer on Vancouver Island. Houle Controls has been involved in a number of LEED rated, silver and gold targeted buildings as well as some forward looking geothermal projects. Houle Controls is distinct in that they are the only local controls contractor with a Professional Engineer dedicated strictly to Project Managing DDC projects. Houle Electric employs 150 - 200 including supervisor and support staff, professional engineers, certified electrical technicians, product/application specialists and licensed electricians.Syscor Research and Development
Located in Victoria, BC, Syscor is a systems’ integration corporation that offers a wide variety of services and expertise to emerging and established technology companies. Its clients and partners range from some of the world’s largest corporations to small businesses. They have developed products and services ranging from embedded devices, network elements, and automation systems to distributed document management systems and analytical financial tools.About Dockside Green
Situated in the heart of the City of Victoria, Dockside Green is being developed on fifteen acres of former brownfield industrial land adjacent to the Upper Harbour and downtown, between the Johnson and Bay Street bridges. With a planned total of 1.3 million square feet of mixed residential, office, retail and industrial space, Dockside Green is a unique, environmentally responsible and sustainable development, and also represents the biggest development of city land in Victoria’s history. -
The Vancouver Sun Article - Sept. 29, 2007
Posted on March 4th, 2009 No commentsCarbon footprints are now easier to measure
Innovative device at Victoria’s Dockside Green will allow residents to keep track of their energy and water use
Kim Davis, Special to Westcoast Homes
Published: Saturday, September 29, 2007
Looking to drop a carbon footprint shoe size?
While carbon calculators such as www.carbonfund.org and www.offsetters.ca seem to be growing like diet programs on the Web, there is nothing like real-time feedback to keep you honest and vigilant about your carbon-crunching efforts.
While Joe Van Bellinghem, co-developer of Victoria’s Dockside Green, jokes about his own growing waistline, he is a veritable Richard Simmons when it comes to motivating people to slim down their energy and water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Using an innovative monitoring and systems-control device called the MACH-Stat, the Dockside Green development will be the first in Canada to provide residents with in-suite — and online — access to minute-by-minute information about their personal energy and water consumption, and related carbon footprint.
IT SLICES, IT DICES, IT CALCULATES CARBON
While a programmable thermostat should be considered akin to a good sharp knife — every home should have one — the MACH-Stat system not only makes it easier for homeowners to create a comfortable indoor setting; it also helps them understand and implement a healthier water and energy diet for their home.
Such “smart meters” — interactive devices that control room temperature, and also track how much electricity people use and when they use it — are not new to Canada or B.C. In fact, BC Hydro’s 1.7 million customers can expect to see them installed in their homes within the next five years. However, according to Joe LeRoy, controls division manager for Houle Electric on Vancouver Island, the MACH-Stat type of metering, which also reports on the energy used for heating (space and water), water consumption, the weather outside, as well as each household’s carbon footprint, has never been done on a project of Dockside Green’s scale before.
Using a commercially available, out-of-box system made by Victoria-based Reliable Controls and customized for Dockside in collaboration with Houle Electric and Syscor Research and Development, residents will be able to track their energy and water use, and compare their consumption habits with their anonymous neighbors.
“What makes this system so powerful is that we place individual residents at the helm of their own energy monitoring and consumption control,” explains Robert Lashin, president of Houle Electric, on the company’s website.
“Programming and feedback tools have unprecedented power to bring about a measurable change in behaviour - and a meaningful change in attitudes - where responsible energy consumption is concerned.”
METERING SENSE
Energywatch, a gas and electricity watchdog in the U.K., describes smart metering, along with better consumer education, as the missing link in changing energy consumption and motivating consumers to actively conserve energy.
“There is better potential of changing people’s behaviour if it is right in front of them: in their face,” says LeRoy. “[UK development] BedZed has a comparable meter mounted right near the kitchen table. You can’t avoid it.”