Burlington developer takes energy conservation seriously – goes thermal with a 16 storey project in ‘upper core’.

 

Partner Graham Chalmers points out detail on an architect’s model of the project due to begin construction at Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road in the Spring.
Partner Graham Chalmers points out detail on an architect’s model of the project due to begin construction at Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road in the Spring.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  March 3, 2011  –  Have you noticed how we have all become “environmentalists”?  We put our garbage in the different coloured bins.  We buy into the idea of not purchasing water in plastic bottles and we at least try to walk rather than drive some of the errands we have to run – but the price of gas drives that decision more than our newly found environmental concerns.

There aren’t all that many opportunities to reduce the size of our carbon footprint on this planet but a developer new to the Burlington market is about to begin the “big dig” for a 16 storey condominium project at the corner of Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road, which they describe as “north Burlington”

The cost of heating and cooling units is being borne by Mother Earth for this “first in the province” use of geo thermal in a condominium project.
The cost of heating and cooling units is being borne by Mother Earth for this “first in the province” use of geo thermal in a condominium project.

What makes this development unique and environmentally sound is the decision to go geo thermal for their energy.   The contractors will be putting pipes down fifteen metres into the ground and tapping into the earth’s energy that will be used to heat and cool the condominium units.

Geo thermal as a process is not cheap.  “It usually adds about $5000.00, often more than that to the price of a unit and that put condominiums into a price bracket that isn’t very competitive” explains Graham Chalmers.  However, Davies Smith Development has come up with a really interesting twist to paying for that very expensive geo thermal piping and its attendant monitoring devices.  The company that is doing the geo thermal work will own the system and lease it to the condominium, thus spreading the cost of the construction over a long period of time and making the units as affordable as anything else in its market segment.

Each resident will be able to set the level of heating or air conditioning they want in their unit.  They will never know that the energy they are burning (if we can use that phrase)  will come from the earth beneath them but, they will see something in the order of a 10% reduction in their energy costs at today’s prices, and be protected from future increases in the price of natural gas.  There isn’t much of a down side to this.  Geo thermal is a proven technology, used by Wal-Mart at their Fairview Road location in Burlington.   The only tough part with geo thermal has been the capital cost and with the lease back solution Davies Smith has come up with, the condo owners get the best of several worlds.  Price protection and a secure energy source and knowing that they’ve  helped save the planet.

The building has solar panels on the roof but Graham Chalmers points out that “solar really isn’t as cost effective as many people think it is”.  It does work and the hope is that they will generate enough energy to cover the cost of heating the water used in the building.  “We will have some natural gas coming into the building to heat water but the building itself will be heated and cooled with geo thermal energy”, said Chalmers.

He believes this development is the first condominium, in Ontario at least, to use geo thermal on this scale.  Construction will begin late in March.  And how is business?  Are the units selling?  According the Davies Smith sales people 85% of the units are sold – not bad when they have yet to put a shovel into the ground.

Davies Smith developments is a partnership between two guys that worked together for some time for different companies and decided they had a bit of money and wanted to strike out on their own.  They aren’t a ‘runty little development company’ selling condo units in one of the hottest markets in North America but rather have earned a better than average share of awards and have decided that they will develop a reputation and let that sell the housing they develop.

The project at Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road is in an area undergoing significant change.  All four corners of this intersection as well as properties south along Appleby are slated for development.  The city has its newest fire station under construction half a block away.  The units range from 645 sq ft to 1140 sq feet in size.   85% of the units have been sold.

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