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NRCan HVAC Assessment Tool and Guide for the Pandemic Period

Introduction

COVID-19 caught everyone off guard and introduced the need for a ‘New Norm’ around the world. This includes the commercial office response to HVAC best practices. 

Natural Resources Canada’s mandate to Canadians is to help improve energy efficiency in buildings. During the pandemic, commercial buildings must continue to operate and be available. Although occupancy may be dramatically reduced, energy use has not shown similar dramatic reduction for various reasons. The purpose of this voluntary, self-assessment tool, therefore, is to provide feedback on the impact of your HVAC strategies. It highlights key areas and best practices for HVAC operation during a pandemic to help your operations team respond with greater confidence. More specifically, the following assessment and guidance will:

  1. Emphasize the Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) approach and its application to help owners undertake HVAC operation changes. NRCan’s 4-phase EBCx process can often achieves savings of 10 to 15%, as well as other non-energy benefits.

  2. Highlight where HVAC operation can be improved to meet energy efficiency best practices without compromising current pandemic HVAC operations guidelines.

  3. Provide resources and references that can help guide you in determining an enhanced HVAC operations strategy and plan during a pandemic. 

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic” Peter Drucker 

Since every HVAC system is unique as are the building requirements, the tool cannot recommend specific operation parameters. Instead, there are 10 relevant elements to consider that credible organizations have identified along with recommended best practices from reputable organizations.

This tool is focused on commercial offices but can be used with caution for other facilities that have similar occupancy. For sectors that have very specific sanitary requirements, such as the Health Care Sector, Medical laboratories, research centres, etc., additional considerations are naturally required. Each question has a brief reference or additional resources to help provide context. Space is also provided to make a note or comment for the respective response. The tool has been structured to be brief on purpose to encourage operations and management team to complete the tool together. In this way, a greater understanding of the building, system configuration, requirements and limitations are shared in defining the best HVAC strategy and communication plan to sustain the strategy.

This is a voluntary, self assessment tool that has been tested with a variety of property managers and operations staff. The objective is to share reputable advice on the critical HVAC elements in response to the pandemic period while optimizing energy use in a commercial office.

Comments are welcome:
HVAC_Assessment@Energy-Efficiency.com

DISCLAIMER

Please note that ongoing research is being conducted on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as it relates to HVAC requirements, including ventilation, filtration, and relative humidity. The transmission of the disease is not yet fully understood. and NRCan is not qualified to provide guidance on potential health effects of HVAC configurations. This tool reflects NRCan’s best understanding of possible HVAC configurations, as of its release date of December XX, 2020. 

Please seek additional input from your provincial and/or local health care officials.

REPRODUCTION 

This tool and accompanying data are copyright of the Minister of Natural Resources Canada (2020). Duplication in any manner is forbidden without prior written permission, which may be obtained by contacting the Office of Energy Efficiency. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada (Natural Resources Canada) 2020. 

WARRANTY AND INDEMNITY 

This tool is provided on an “as is” basis. Natural Resources Canada makes no guarantees, representations, or warranties respecting the Software, either express or implied, arising by law or otherwise, including but not limited to effectiveness, completeness, accuracy, or fitness for a particular purpose.

Natural Resources Canada shall not be liable in respect of any claim, demand or action, irrespective of the nature of the cause of the claim, demand or action alleging any loss, injury or damages, direct or indirect, which may result from use of this tool . Natural Resources Canada shall not be liable in any way for loss of revenue or contracts, or any other consequential loss of any kind resulting from use of this tool.

This tool is distributed for informational purposes only and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Canada nor constitute an endorsement of any commercial product or person. The recipient of this tool shall indemnify and save harmless Natural Resources Canada, and its employees contractors, agents and suppliers, , from and against, and shall be responsible for all claims, demands, losses, costs, including solicitor and client costs, damages, action suits or proceedings, arising out of, related to, or occasioned by any use of this tool by the recipient. Natural Resources Canada shall have the right to defend any such action or proceeding with counsel of its own selection.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Natural Resources Canada would like to thank the following organizations for their assistance during the development of the tool:

Energy@Work Inc., Technosim, and the numerous organizations that have provided comments guidance and improvement suggestions.