Danfoss recognizes Sheridan College with 2020 EnVisioneer of the Year award

Danfoss has named Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, as its eleventh EnVisioneer of the Year. Sheridan College is using pre-engineered, factory-built Energy Transfer Stations (ETS) from Danfoss in its recently upgraded district heating system.

Launched in 2010, the annual EnVisioneer of the Year award competition recognizes North American original equipment manufacturers, building owners, municipalities, contractors and end users that have introduced a new product, opened a new facility or invested in a building or system upgrade in the past 18 months using Danfoss products or solutions to realize significant energy and environmental savings.

In 2016, Sheridan College began a three-year project to decommission its nearly 50-year-old steam plant that served six of its buildings with a new third-generation hot water district heating system capable of serving centralized heat to the entire campus. It elected to utilize energy transfer stations — the interconnected system of heat exchangers, valves, pumps, programmable controller, piping and controllers that takes the central heat and transfers it into individual buildings — engineered and built by Danfoss.

By choosing to install packaged ETS from Danfoss with factory-fitted and configured controls as part of the new district heating system, the period when buildings would be without heat could be minimized and multiple buildings could make the transition to the new low temperature hot water district energy system in quick succession. The ability of Danfoss to customize the pipe network on each ETS to facilitate connection to the unique conditions in each mechanical room minimized delay in connection of the new equipment. It also enabled quick movement of complete energy transfer stations into the tight spaces of the existing system.

“Our old steam plant was experiencing more than 65 percent heat loss throughout the system,” said Herbert Sinnock, Director - Sustainability, Sheridan College. “By converting to a hot water system, we have reduced our annual natural gas consumption by more than 280,000m3 — which equates to an annual carbon reduction of 530 Tons. And we expect to further increase energy savings as we optimize and expand the system throughout the upcoming heating seasons. Plus, the Energy Transfer Stations from Danfoss allow for intelligent, granular control of the individual building supply water temperatures, delta T, and flow for both heating and domestic hot water.”

“Danfoss is excited about the success Sheridan College has found in environmentally-friendly district heating,” said Jeff Flannery, business development manager at Danfoss. “Danfoss has extensive history in district energy technologies around the world, and we’ve built on that knowledge to bring factory-designed and locally-built energy transfer stations to the North American market. This technology enables us to ensure system uptime and performance, optimize efficiency, and facilitate code compliance, start-up and commissioning.”

The award was presented at Sheridan’s Trafalgar campus in Oakville today by John Galyen, President of Danfoss North America. Herbert Sinnock, Sheridan’s Director of Sustainability, accepted the honor on behalf of Sheridan. The official presentation was postponed due to the pandemic.

“This is the first time we’ve presented our EnVisioneer of the Year award to an end user for their success in implementing new district heating technology,” said John Galyen, president – North America, Danfoss. “Danfoss has been engineering district energy systems and technologies for global installations for more than 80 years, but the potential in the North American market has only recently begun emerging and is greatest in campus and microgrid environments. District heating offers tremendous opportunity to look beyond the component or building to even greater levels of energy efficiency and decarbonization.”

About Danfoss ETS

Danfoss ETS are a more cost-effective and time-saving solution compared to “stick-built” energy transfer stations that are typically assembled individually onsite in multi-family buildings and other commercial buildings and building networks such as hospitals, universities and government facilities. Built in the USA, these new pre-engineered and factory-produced ETS solutions simplify the challenge of indirect building connections within North American district energy networks and specifically address unique local building code requirements.

Each energy transfer station arrives ready for start-up with factory-configured and pre-tested controls to ensure function and performance. Featuring a compact size and weight, the solution can also be constructed for easy transport through restrictive hallways and stairways and for installation in tight, existing spaces. Danfoss ETS are available in a pre-assembled version, as well as a version split into easy-to-assemble modules as required by space and height restrictions.

Other benefits of Danfoss ETS include:

• Reduced engineering costs and risks: Pre-engineered, factory-built ETS can be sized to meet a building’s specific load and other criteria, while benefiting from standardized, proven controls solutions—without the need of a consultant to design a unique system.
• Improved production quality: Fabrication quality can be better guaranteed in a professionally-managed factory environment, eliminating the space, lighting and welding access challenges associated with building equipment onsite. Pressure and leak detection are executed in a controlled environment following a prescribed process.
• Less time onsite: Producing ETS units offsite enables equipment delivery to be scheduled to coincide with overall construction project schedules and eliminates the amount of work and time required onsite by pipe fitters, electricians and controls contractors. Installation time can be reduced to as little as one day, as onsite activity is limited to a single electric power connection plus connection to building and district pipe networks.
• Documented, reproducible, maintainable installations: Danfoss ETS are supported by archived engineering design and fabrication documentation, including a complete bill of materials that facilitates and simplifies long-term maintenance needs.
• Plug-and-play operability: By fitting, configuring, and testing controls in the factory, Danfoss ETS are programmed for the building’s operating conditions prior to delivery, enabling the unit to be ready to meet the heating and cooling needs upon start-up.
• Trusted engineering support from Danfoss, including start-up and commissioning assistance.