HC MERV 13 4" pleated filtersBGE TP6100XL

BGE

NAFA 2020 CLEAN AIR AWARD NOMINATION

Oakridge Centre650 W 41st Ave, Vancouver, BC

NAFA Clean Air Award Nomination

OAKRIDGE CENTRE, VANCOUVER BC

Building Description

• Name: Oakridge Centre – South Tower(Included in this submission is the Shopping Mall, and South Tower)

• Address: 650 West 41st Ave., Vancouver, BC

• Year constructed: 1959, renovated 1984, redevelopment underway

• Number of floors (Retail): 2

• Total square footage (Retail): 573,920 sq. ft.

• Number of floors (South Tower): 2

• Total square footage (South Tower): 47,067 sq. ft.

NAFA Clean Air Award Nomination

BGE is pleased to nominate Oakridge Centre, owned and operated by QuadReal located at 650 West 41st Ave., Vancouver, BC for a 2020 NAFA Clean Air Award.

The Oakridge Centre site, originally built in 1959 and renovated in 1984, is currently undergoing a major redevelopment and expansion with an anticipated completion of 2025. While phased construction is underway, the existing Mall and adjoined towers remain occupied until tenants can be moved into new buildings when complete. For the scope of this award, we are nominating the original Shopping Centre and Adjoined South Tower.

Early in March, QuadReal initiated a corporate taskforce to develop a Post-Covid building operation strategy to improve health and safety for building occupants. The following improvements relating to IAQ were identified: increase building ventilation, increase outside air promoting air dilution and improve filter efficiency.

The existing supply air system is limited to a single-stage filter Roll-O-Matic assembly and the max blower capacity is also limited with minimal redundancy. Therefore, it was decided that the best course of action to increase filtration efficiency without compromising airflow with increased filter resistance would be to tear down the roll-o-mat assembly, and replace it with a flat bank assembly that would allow operators to use higher efficiency products of standard sizes (including a secondary stage of filtration if it was desired), with the added benefit of reduced air bypass and maintenance ease.

BGE’s NCT Certified Technicians removed all of the existing roll-o-matt assembly serving every floor of the South Tower, rebuilt a front-load bank with a 4” track, complete with fully gasketed holding frames and clips. The MERV-7 fibreglass roll filters were replaced with new high-capacity MERV-13 4” pleated filters (BGE’s TP6100XL). This improvement provided a considerable increase in filtration efficiency, greatly reduced bypass with a much tighter assembly, very nominal increase of resistance and offered QuadReal the latitude to revise filtration products easily. Lastly a thorough coil cleaning was completed to provide better energy transfer to assist with meeting cooling loads in the summer. It is anticipated with a much tighter assembly, far less bypass will occur, and coil cleaning will not be required as frequently providing QuadReal with operational savings.

For the Shopping Centre, BGE augmented our typical PM for the CRU filters by upgrading the filter product from a MERV-7 fibreglass panel filter to pleated MERV-13 filters (BGE TP6100XL). We will monitor loading periodically to determine when the next change out should be completed as it will likely be a higher change out frequency compared to years past.

BGE is proud to nominate QuadReal for the 2020 NAFA Clean Air Award for their great effort and proactive approach in protecting the health and safety of their tenants and visitors at Oakridge Centre!

South Tower Improvement – Filtration EfficiencyThe original assembly required QuadReal and BGE to utilize a Roll-o-Matic compatible roll, so a Merv-8 Fibreglass roll was utilized.

The goal for the site was to improve the filter efficiency with products that would be well tolerated by the existing mechanical system, a Merv-13 high-capacity pleat was an ideal solution as the resistance was low enough to ensure adequate airflow.

South Tower Improvement – Bank RetrofitRetrofit and install work completed by NCTs: Andrew Palmer and Gordon Rutgers

Original Filter Assemblyroll-o-mat with MERV-8 Fibreglass Media Rolls

Newly constructed front-load bank, fully gasketed and complete with filter clips to prevent bypass

New gaskets and clips on all framesNew bank complete with BGE’s MERV-13 TP6100 High Capacity 4” Filters

South Tower Improvement – continuedDirty coil, before cleaning Provided new maintenance logs

for all unitsFollowing coil cleaning

South Tower – Retrofit Particle Count

Graph showing results of particulate testing

Blue – before retrofit

Red – Immediately following retrofit

Green – aprox 2.5 weeks following retrofit

Shopping Mall– Filtration Efficiency UpgradePreviously used filtration product in all CRUs at the Mall – Merv-7 filter efficiency

Filter Change Report prepared for QuadReal upon completion of each filter change out (aprox every 4-6 months depending on loading)

Upgraded filter product installed in all (open) CRUs, MERV-13 filter efficiency