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whatnext

Apr 12, 2019 7:00 PM

Vancouver Highrise Condos are Energy Guzzling Pigs

Ouch!

Luxury high-rise condos are ‘guzzling electricity,’ says BC Hydro

High-end condos haven’t just put affordability out of reach for most people – they’re also pigs when it comes to electricity.

That’s according to a BC Hydro report release today (Friday). It says these new luxury condo buildings are being marketed as energy-efficient, while in reality are using up a larger power footprint than older building...

...“With sales, and construction of highrise buildings increasing, so is the amount of power being used,” says BC Hydro. “Highrise luxury buildings consume about three to four times more electricity than low-rise buildings.”

https://www.vancourier.com/luxury-high-r...ing-electricity-says-bc-hydro-1.23789925

misher

Apr 12, 2019 7:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatnext (Post 8538501)

I note it says heated pools and saunas use up electricity. Interesting since the pools and saunas I've seen use gas fired boilers. I guess the 240V for the pump uses up a decent amount of power. Are the newest buildings also using electric baseboards? Hot water baseboards are common in the average condo.

WarrenC12

Apr 12, 2019 7:06 PM

That's interesting, though that article has very little detail.

Quote:

“This is likely due to the addition of more luxurious amenities like heated pools, hot tubs, saunas, fitness centres and movie theatres,” said BC Hydro.

Sure, heating pools is expensive, but that's nothing new. Are new condos being forced to use electric hot water for these pools instead of the standard natrual gas boiler hot water?

Fitness centers and movie theaters? Give me a F----- break, those things use next to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I am surprised there is no mandate for LED lighting on all of the parkade/stairwell/hallway lights that are on 24/7. That's an instant savings for any strata, and a no-brainer in terms of ROI. Developers should be mandated to install them from the start.

whatnext

Apr 12, 2019 7:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarrenC12 (Post 8538508)

That's interesting, though that article has very little detail.

Sure, heating pools is expensive, but that's nothing new. Are new condos being forced to use electric hot water for these pools instead of the standard natrual gas boiler hot water?

Fitness centers and movie theaters? Give me a F----- break, those things use next to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I am surprised there is no mandate for LED lighting on all of the parkade/stairwell/hallway lights that are on 24/7. That's an instant savings for any strata, and a no-brainer in terms of ROI. Developers should be mandated to install them from the start.

Did Vision ever pass the changes to outlaw a lot of gas-fired stuff with newbuilds?

s211	Apr 12, 2019 7:39 PM

I'm going to add my voice to the "that's somewhat BS" chorus. Want to watch your electricity bill go sky-high? Then get an electric cooking top and electric baseboard heating. I had a rental apartment with both and the electricity bill was astronomical. Afterward, in a condo I had a natural gas range and the electricity bill was less than a quarter of what it was in an apartment.

So: you can think the social engineers at the City of Vancouver forcing the end of natural gas heating and cooking for being partly to blame.

CanSpice

Apr 12, 2019 8:30 PM

One thing I haven't been able to find is their actual stats and what they're actually talking about. They talk about buildings all the time without any sort of indication of the scale of the building, or doing some sort of "per square foot" cost. I mean, take this quote from the actual report:

Quote:

Amongst these, high-rise buildings (those with five stories or more) use approximately three to four times the amount of electricity as low-rise buildings. BC Hydro data shows the average electrically heated high-rise condo building built after 2010 uses approximately 1,045,028 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which is four times the amount used by a low-rise building built in 1980s that uses just 235,266 kilowatt hours a year.

Well no shit a bigger building uses more electricity! It's bigger!

This is an absolutely terrible report, whoever wrote it should be ashamed of themselves, and journalists writing stories about it without giving any thought into what they're writing should be ashamed of themselves as well.

misher

Apr 12, 2019 9:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarrenC12 (Post 8538508)

The gold standard for me is step down led fixtures. They go down to 5% and up to 100% when they detect motion. Have seen building who invest in LED retrofits save around 40% with 4 year payback periods afterwards.

WarrenC12

Apr 12, 2019 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatnext (Post 8538548)

Did Vision ever pass the changes to outlaw a lot of gas-fired stuff with newbuilds?

No more gas fireplaces, which I think is a good idea. The problem with gas, and frankly what I was expecting from this article, is that it's a tragedy of the commons, where people use whatever they want because it's "included in the strata fee" which is obviously stupid, everybody pays anyway.

That and apparently it was a fire hazard. Not sure on that one.

We are in a relatively new build, still has a gas cooktop. But we're on the SEFC NEU. Don't get me started on that money grab...

WarrenC12

Apr 12, 2019 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by misher (Post 8538689)

Those require new ballasts though, which makes it very expensive as a conversion.

Our parkade is maybe 30% motion detected lights.

SpongeG

Apr 12, 2019 10:09 PM

adding population increases electricty use, is it much different to stack housing or let it sprawl in terms of electricity use?

WarrenC12

Apr 12, 2019 10:10 PM

I think if you look at overall energy usage, modern buildings with LED lighting, new appliances, and so-on would be more efficient. Density and outside surface area would play a factor, as would something like A/C. Everything else is noise.

I don't see the problem either. Electricity is a home grown product with very low levels of carbon intensity.

Next they'll be telling us converting to EVs uses more electricity than gas engines.

misher

Apr 12, 2019 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarrenC12 (Post 8538744)

Those require new ballasts though, which makes it very expensive as a conversion.

Our parkade is maybe 30% motion detected lights.

We replaced the entire fixtures, they have a built in motion sensor, quite a bit cheaper than buying the two separately. In this specific project the fixtures were over 50 years old so it was their time to go.

The cost of constantly replacing ballasts adds up as well, especially since you need an electrician to do so.

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