ARCHIVED - Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax – Building on Success

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Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's East Coast naval base and home port to the Atlantic Fleet. The Base is comprised of a variety of military properties focused around the strategic Halifax Dockyards in Nova Scotia and has the most infrastructure of any military base in Canada. The Base employs over 14,460 personnel, consists of over 700 buildings, with a total floor space of over 5.2  million square metres (m²), and includes six central heating plants with an output of 562,725 pounds of steam per hour. The base provides construction engineering, safety, environmental management, logistics, harbour support and emergency response services to Maritime Forces Atlantic and assigned lodger units.

CFB Halifax has signed a second energy performance contract (EPC) with Honeywell, a pre-qualified energy services company (ESCO) on the Qualified Bidders List (QBL) of the Federal Buildings Initiative (FBI). The base is investing $9.5 million over 10 years, and will save approximately $1.4 million or 10  percent in annual energy costs. It will also lower energy consumption by 100,000 gigajoules (GJ), cut water consumption by 54,075 m³ and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 12.9 kilotonnes per year.

The EPC will focus on approximately 130 buildings. The types of buildings include offices, maintenance and repair workshops, warehouses, physical plants, a recreation and fitness centre, rinks, retail stores, day care centres, an airport control tower and aircraft hangars.

Work at CFB Halifax began in February 2008. Honeywell is currently implementing the following energy efficiency measures:

• Installation of High-Efficiency Lighting in high bay areas of workshops, warehouses and hangars.
• Upgrades to the central heating plants will reduce fuel used for heating. The plants use mostly no. 6 fuel oil. Each gallon of fuel oil reduced saves about 10 kg of carbon dioxide (CO₂).
• Improvements to the central heating plant boiler automation system.
• Enhancements to the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) control system, including automatic start/stop schedules.
• Upgrades to the HVAC mechanical system, including conversion of the constant volume air handling systems to variable air volume (VAV) and installation of variable frequency drives to control fan speeds.
• Improvements to the central steam distribution system, including replacement of steam traps, installation of steam pressure control and repairs to steam piping and insulation.
  
• On-site training for building personnel to ensure staff operate and maintain new equipment and systems efficiently. This will also help engage their involvement during the construction stage and make hands-on training much more effective once Honeywell has implemented the measures. Staff will receive preliminary training of the following key technologies: central boiler automation, HVAC control and mechanical systems.
• An employee awareness program will help educate building occupants about energy efficiency and motivate them to cut their energy use at the Base. Regular updates about the retrofit project will also be available on the “Energy Matters” Web site, in the base newspaper and at Energy Awareness booths erected at various key buildings throughout the Base.