Case Study: Vancity achieves 95% natural gas savings with Trane heat reclaim system

Vancity - Customer Case Study

Vancity, Canada’s largest community credit union, needed to upgrade the aging boiler plant at its Vancity Centre in Vancouver while reducing natural gas consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The building’s data centre required year-round cooling and was generating significant waste heat that was being vented away, creating an opportunity to improve sustainability. Trane Commercial evaluated the site and proposed a heat recovery approach using a heat reclaim chiller.

Trane Commercial implemented a Trane® Series R™ Helical Rotary heat reclaim chiller, along with new pumps, piping, and a smaller boiler, to capture waste heat from the data centre and reuse it for building heating. The system cut Vancity’s natural gas consumption by 95 percent, reduced greenhouse gas emissions from that source by 75 percent, and helped secure more than $85,000 in Fortis BC incentive funding, with an expected payback of 4.5 years.

Vancity

Jeremy Trigg

Director of Facilities and Environmental Management