2017

January’s 2017 Chapter Meeting was at tour at McMaster University of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind LIVE Lab. This new lab consists of a 12,000 square foot addition that was constructed to sit atop the existing Psychology Building. VRM was retained as the prime electrical. Mechanical consultant because unlike traditional project delivery models, the owner needed the complex structural design to be completed before engaging an architect. The project required the design team to engineer as lightweight a structure as possible. This proved to be challenging as acoustical theatre designs usually require extensive mass to dampen sound transmission. The structure is built on a conventional steel frame and has floating cast-in-place concrete slab floors to isolate sound transmission. To mitigate sound transfer of mechanical and electrical components into the LIVE Lab, all ductwork and electrical components were run in areas outside the theatre space as much as possible. Any penetration into the theatre space required acoustically dampened penetrations through the walls.Some quick facts: Heating was provided from the existing McMaster Central Utility Plant through a steam to water heat exchanger. Chilled water was used for cooling from the McMaster Central Utility Plant. The project used two air handling units – A constant volume air handler was dedicated to the LIVE Lab, the second VAV unit with terminal reheat served the remaining floor plan. Hydronic perimeter heating was used to address the envelop heating load. The main ductwork was run in acoustically lined duct shafts, any penetration required specific details provided as part of the acoustic consultant’s scope of work. Each penetration was inspected by the acoustic engineer. All ductwork serving the LIVE Lab was acoustically lined and run at a velocity of 700 FPM in main duct runs, with the velocity further reduced in branch ductwork. Minimal balancing dampers were permitted in supply ductwork serving the LIVE Lab. A Noise Criteria of below NC-10 was required in the LIVE Lab / Piano & Equipment Testing Space and Sound Booth. Supply air to the Live Lab was distributed to a large plenum and supplied at low level through custom diffusers. Return ductwork was supplied at high level

The Project Team: Structural Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Services – VRM;Architectural Services – McCallum Sather Architects; Acoustic Consultant – Aercoustics; General Contractor – STF Construction; Mechanical Contractor – L.J. Barton and Halton Sheet Metal; Electrical Contractor – Clairmont Electrical.The Manager of the LIVE Lab is Dr. Dan Bosnyak. Some 29 attended including 2 students –see below:

The Society Winter Meeting had the following facts: AHR EXPO/ASHRAE CONFERENCE Las Vegas Jan 2017. AHR had over 500,000 sq ft exhibit space; More than 2,000 exhibitors and over 68,000 industry professionals. There were attendees from every state in the U.S. and 150 countries worldwide. The ASHRAE Conference had 2,761 attendees; there were 699 committee meetings; there were 248 presentations via 331 speakers in Technical Program. Many from the chapter attended conference.

1st Name		Last Name	Company	City	Ron		Finnigan	Stantec Consulting	Burlington
Simon		Baruk	Engineered Air	Hamilton	John		Gowing	EI Solutions	Burlington
Aaron		Besseling	Besseling mechanical	Hamilton	Johnny		Graham	Big Ass Solutions	Mississauga
Leanne		Borges	City of Hamilton	Hamilton	Michael		Harris	HTS	Stoney Creek
Emily		Burgess	University of Waterloo	Waterloo	Iain		Hill	Johnson controls	Burlington
Carmen		Chu	City of Hamilton	Hamilton	Ray		Kampen	Johnson Controls	Burlington
James		Cotton	McMaster University	Hamilton	Vivek		Kumar	Systemair	Tillsonburg
Sreekant		Damodara	McMaster University	Hamilton	Mark		Long	Systemair	Simcoe
Robyn		Ellis	City of Hamilton	Hamilton	Francisco		Mesicek	Johnson Controls	Richmond Hill
Ron		Finnigan	Stantec Consulting	Burlington	John		Molnar	CoEng Advisors	Burlington
John		Gowing	EI Solutions	Burlington	Mustafa		Morsy	DEI & Associates	Waterloo
Johnny		Graham	Big Ass Solutions	Mississauga	Ramin		Namvar	Systemair Inc.	Tillsonburg
Michael		Harris	HTS	Stoney Creek	Ashkan		Oghabi	Systemair	Kitchener
Iain		Hill	Johnson controls	Burlington	Simon		Pieta	Engineered Air	Hamilton
Ray		Kampen	Johnson Controls	Burlington	Surya		Quiterio	Efficiency Engineering	Cambridge
Vivek		Kumar	Systemair	Tillsonburg	Mitchell		Rohrer	Johnson Controls	Burlington
Mark21st		Long	Systemair	Simcoe	Simon		Sahi	JCI	Burlington
Francisco		Mesicek	Johnson Controls	Richmond Hill	Jila		Samadi	University of Waterloo	Waterloo
John		Molnar	CoEng Advisors	Burlington	Shaba		Shringi	City of Hamilton	Hamilton
Mustafa		Morsy	DEI & Associates	Waterloo	Jeremy		Stockmans	SystemAir	Tillsonburg

February 2017 Chapter Meeting: Dinner and the presentation was held at the Holiday Inn in Burlington Tues Feb 21^st, 2017. Being Historical night, the 1^st speaker was George Menzies a recent recipient of the 50 year ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award. As Chapter Historian delivered a presentation on the history of the Society and the new branding and logo. Some 39 members were present. The feature presentation was the Oxford County 100% Renewable Energy Commitment project. The evenings two speakers Josh Gibbins, P.Eng Senior Energy Engineer at WalterFedy Consulting Engineers and Patrick Darby, P.Eng Senior Energy Engineer also at WalterFedy from their Kitchener Office 675 Queen Street South, Suite 111 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada  N2M 1A1, They discussed the Oxford County 100% Renewable Energy Commitment project, a WalterFedy Energy Project. Patrick Darby opened and outlined the scope of the projection. On June 24, 2015, Oxford County Council unanimously passed a motion to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050, becoming the first municipality in Ontario to commit to such a target. Smart Energy Oxford is a coalition of municipalities, sustainable energy businesses, LDCs, and private citizens committed to the renewable energy industry in Oxford County. Smart Energy Oxford is to identify baseline energy use, develop short and long term targeting, and develop a dashboard for tracking. A major requirement for the successful ongoing analysis of the 2050 goal is to have reproducible reporting throughout the next 32 years. This is a new approach which will eliminate the errors in tradition spreadsheets. This portion of the talk was done by Josh Gibbins who shared the innovative techniques he developed for reporting, which he named as Reproducible Reporting. This new technique addresses the problems of multiple report iterations by writing both the report narrative and the analysis together. Changes made in the narrative or analysis in one part of the project cascade through the other parts, generating a fully updated version of the document that is never out of date. This process also allows for the quick generation of report iterations and eliminates the “cut & paste” errors that are typical of current methods. This allows for instant updates when parameters change during the next 32 years. The new technique is from info on the internet that anyone can access and learn how to do. Students now graduating appear to be able to use the technique with ease. The older users of spreadsheets will need to update themselves to the new format. The question period was quite informative. Meeting adjourned at 9:10 PM.

Hamilton Chapter March 14, 2017 Meeting

The meeting was held at the University of Waterloo and included tours of Engineering 6 Building [Eng6] and Central Utilities Plant[CUP] prior to dinner. The 35 attendees were divided into 2 groups for the tours. Tour 1 was Engineering 6 Building [Eng6]: This project was a complex one in part because of the significant mechanical and electrical components required to serve more than 40 independent and unique research labs. The M&E scope comprised half of the contract value, and is similar to the services found in a hospital. Tour 2 was the Central Utilities Plant [CUP]: It operates and maintains the district energy facilities, high-pressure distribution systems, and stand-alone heating and cooling plants. The CUP Tour led was led by Rick Zalagenas, Director of Maintenance and Utilities at University of Waterloo. The Eng6 Tour led by Chris Ford, Energy Manager at University of Waterloo. The attendees enjoyed the tours especially relevant given that March is National Engineering Month. Our Host for the evening was the University of Waterloo – Co-operative Education & Career Action; Emily Burgess, Marketing Outreach Coordinator, Co-operative Education & Career Action (emily.burgess@uwaterloo.ca) Suman Armitage, Director of Communications & Marketing (suman@uwaterloo.ca) Dana Evans Laity, Marketing Outreach Manager (dana.evanslaity@uwaterloo.ca). “The University of Waterloo’s Co-operative Education & Career Action Department” was delighted to host our March meeting. ASHRAE’s presence on campus provided a wonderful opportunity for Waterloo students to connect with industry professionals and see the mechanics behind two of Waterloo’s unique buildings. Waterloo is grateful to have a strong relationship with ASHRAE and looks forward to future events together. The dinner was at Federation Hall at 8 PM, Tours took place at 6 PM and 7PM. Cost $45 chapter Members; $65 guests, Students $15

March 30^th,2017 Special event attended by Chapter President Frank Mesicek March 30, 2017

The City of Hamilton hosted the Ontario South Central chapter of the IFMA for a building tour on Thursday, March 30th. Built in 2012, Harry Howell Arena is an 18 million dollar project designed to LEED Silver criteria by dpai architecture in partnership with RDH Architects. The Waterdown Library and Senior’s Recreation Centre in Waterdown, designed by RDH Architects, has won a Canadian Architect National Award of Excellence. The new building serves the City of Hamilton well as a vibrant hub for the Waterdown community.

April 3^rd, 2017 Joint Meeting [Hamilton and Toronto chapters],

This meeting was the annual joint meeting of the ASHRAE Hamilton Chapter and ASHRAE Toronto Chapter. Some 170 were present. 5 pm – 6 pm networking & hour d’ourves. 7 pm – 9 pm key note speaker & panel discussion. Location Mississauga Grand Banquet Hall, 35 Brunel Road Mississauga just off Hurontario. U of Waterloo had a display table. The Toronto Chapter’s Gazette provided details of the meeting and why the topic is so significant in today’s environment with the following statement: Every year, building owners and managers across our country organize sustainability events, such as Earth Hour, to demonstrate their dedication towards environmental stewardship. These events allow for occupant and public engagement and share the cause with a broader audience. Every individual contribution matters and everyone can make a positive impact in their own way. As an active member of ASHRAE, there are plenty of opportunities to make a positive impact as well. Whether you want to join an ASHRAE technical committee, support the development of an ASHRAE Standard, influence political leaders, or volunteer at the local chapter level – everyone can find a way to make a positive impact. Environmental stewardship is at the core of ASHRAE’s values and is engrained into everything we do. As a society, our mission is to advance the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world.

This April 3^rd, 2017 meeting aligns perfectly with this ongoing theme. Its purpose was to learn about The Toronto 2030 District, a collaboration of real-estate, design, construction and community stakeholders working together to accelerate climate action in downtown Toronto. It applies to other municipalities as well. This April meeting focused on sustainability. It was designed to be a CALL TO ACTION to all of our ASHRAE Members to find a way to make a positive impact on the built environment. Whether you are designing a new mechanical system, operating a building, implementing a technology or educating a classroom of students, take this month of April to make a positive change in the world around you.

To help members understand the purpose of the Toronto 2030 District it is the first Canadian member of a network of high performance urban Districts across North America – is a collaboration of real-estate, design, construction and community stakeholders working to accelerate climate action in downtown Toronto.

Toronto 2030 District Executive Director Jeff Ranson led the discussion on building for 2030, and how design practice and the buildings industry will need to adapt to this new paradigm. Several Panelists shared their views on low-carbon building design, deep-energy retrofits, designing for district future climate conditions, and emerging policy and market drivers in the GTHA. Bios for the participants follow:

Jeff Ranson Since 2002, Jeff has been actively involved in leading market transformation for the built environment. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Toronto 2030 District, the first Canadian entry in a network of North American conservation districts. Prior to co-founding the Toronto 2030 District, Jeff authored national and state roadmaps for low-carbon housing in Peru, Costa Rica and Mexico, and aided in the development of international zero-energy and near zero-energy pilot projects through the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate. Additionally, Jeff is a lead facilitator for the Enbridge Savings By Design builder conservation program and was the lead instructor for the Canada Green Building Council’s Certified Sustainable Building Advisor program. Jeff holds an HBA from the Western University’s Richard Ivey School of Business and a Masters of Design in Strategic Foresight and innovation from OCADU.

Panelists:

1. Adrian Sluga Executive Director of Toronto 2030. He has MBA, P.Eng., PMP, LEED AP, CBCP. Adrian is a Senior Vice President for Commissioning & Building Analytics for JLL North America. He brings with him over 15 years of leadership and experience on large-scale, complex projects across a breadth of fields, and uses his business acumen, strategic planning, and thought leadership to bring direction and experience to the company and its project teams. Through his combination of contracting, engineering, development, and property management experience, Adrian brings a highly specialized skillset to every project.  In combination with his technical knowledge, Adrian leads a highly proficient and specialized practice across North America, providing project management, commissioning, and energy management services.  In addition, he also ensures the seamless and successful best-in-class delivery of services across all sectors to all clients, to bring real value and deliver/realize results. Since joining JLL, Adrian has overseen the commissioning practice deliver high quality, specialized professional services for construction projects of more than $3B in value, and over 15,000,000 sq.ft.

2. Bryan Purcell is the Director of Policy and Programs at The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), an award-winning public agency dedicated to addressing climate change and air quality in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Bryan’s work focuses on accelerating the decarbonization of the built environment through development of innovative policies, programs, and business solutions.  He directs the TowerWise Program, through which TAF has financed and implemented major energy and Indoor Environmental Quality retrofits in ten low-income housing towers, using the buildings as living labs to advance understanding of the impact of retrofits on GHG emissions, indoor air quality, and occupant comfort.  Bryan also works with the City of Toronto on the development of green building policies including the Toronto Green Standard.

3. Duncan Phillips (Ph.D., P.Eng.) joined RWDI in 2000 as a Specialist and became a Principal in 2009. He is now the Global Practice Leader for Building Performance/Physics at RWDI. He is involved in developing passive and low energy design solutions for individual buildings and communities. 

Duncan comes to resiliency and climate change from the perspective of understanding how buildings and communities will respond to future climate conditions.  This includes predicting the future weather and then modeling the impact.  Examples of this include assessing the change in energy demand of buildings to reviewing future conditions in the urban realm based on changes in climate including heat island.  

4. Steve Kemp M.A.Sc., B.Eng., B.Sc., P.Eng, LEED® AP BD+C, Principal, RDH Building Science. Steve Kemp is a building science engineer specializing in energy modeling and design, and sustainability. His work experience includes a wide range of projects including green building design facilitation, renewable energy technology studies and energy research. Steve has developed energy modeling software for Natural Resources Canada, the US Environmental Protection Agency as well as utilities and product suppliers.

Steve has undergraduate degrees in Physics and Engineering as well as a Masters of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from Dalhousie University. He is a registered professional engineer in Ontario, a past-president of the IBPSA-Canada, and past-chair the Energy & Engineering Technical Advisory Group for the CaGBC and a Director for the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance.

After each panelist spoke, a very vibrant question period followed. Meeting adjourned at 9PM

The Chapter executive noted that only a few local members travelled the extra distance to this year’s combined meeting with Toronto with the location being the issue. They will look at a combined meeting with London next year with Cambridge ON being a suggested location.

George Menzies noted that this particular meeting addressed the major short falls in any planned energy plan. Cities must step up and put into place standards now on any upgrades or replacements equipment if any overall reduction in energy use will be achieved.

President Frank Mesicek summarized this joint meeting. Some 170 people attended the joint meeting with ASHRAE Toronto Chapter in Mississauga. It was a great networking opportunity and included some excellent tabletop presenters, like University of Waterloo. The panel called the Toronto 2030 District – the first Canadian member of a network of high performance urban Districts across North America – is a collaboration of real-estate, design, construction and community stakeholders working to accelerate climate action in downtown Toronto. • Toronto 2030 District Executive Director, Jeff Ranson led a discussion on building for 2030, and how design practice and the buildings industry will need to adapt to this new paradigm. • Panelists shared their views on low-carbon building design, deep-energy retrofits, designing for future climate conditions, emerging policy and market drivers in the GTHA. • Panel Discussion was followed by a very engaged Q&A session!

OBIT Leonard Wheeler passed away peacefully at home on Friday April 14, 2017. Len was a retired employee of Group 8 Engineering for over 50 years of dedicated service and a past member of the Hamilton ASHRAE Chapter. Len was also an avid golfer and a school bus driver for Attridge. We will all miss that happy face.

May 2017 Chapter Meeting

The topic for May 2017 was Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology which has energy-saving potential and ease of installation and maintenance. VRF provides customized control for different zones by constantly modulating refrigerant temperature and varying ventilation speed, thereby saving energy. The speakers covered the following:1. Energy Efficient Building Design Using VRF in Cold Climates by Mounib Chadi 2. Emergence of VRF Technology and Upcoming Trends of the System by Syed Abid

Speaker bios: Syed Abid holds a B.Eng. degree and is completing a M.Eng. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Ryerson University. He has 16 years of experience in the consultative selling of HVAC systems and solutions in diverse global markets. He has worked with Mitsubishi Electric Sales Canada for the last four years promoting VRF and VRF integrated products and technology in Ontario. Syed is a member of the ASHRAE Toronto chapter since 2013.

Mounib Chadi holds a B.Eng. and a Masters in Energy Conservation. He had seven years of consulting experience before joining Technicair (design build contractor) in 2013 as the Director of Engineering. Mounib was one of the early adopters of VRF technology in North America including the design of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority headquarters in London, Ontario, a LEED Platinum building considered one of the most energy efficient buildings in Canada.

Research Promotion Investment: ASHRAE Hamilton Chapter is excited to announce a historic moment for our Chapter. University of Waterloo Co-operative Education & Career Action department, a strong Chapter supporter, has contributed towards the campaign and become our first ever Platinum Chapter Contributor. This is a monumental 5-year commitment of support from U of W and is a substantial portion of our campaign for the coming 5 years.

May 28^th,2017 Social Night – Joint meeting with OACETT. A joint social meeting with ASHRAE and OACETT was held at Flamboro Downs in Dundas Ontario. Included was FREE Parking, Racing Program, Roast Beef Buffet, $5 coupon for Slot Machines below, dinner at “The Top of the Turn” restaurant. Timing: 5:00pm Arrive & Meet; 6:00pm Races Start; 5:00 – 8:30pm Buffet Some 18 in attendance who had a great time at Flamboro Downs. The 5^thRace was designated to our 2 groups meaning we got to go down and meet the winning horse and jockey. Many bet on “#5 in the 5^th” and many stood at the finish line coaxing it to a victory! Many cashed in huge for horse “Sword of the Spirit”.

Annual ASHRAE Hamilton Golf Tournament Wednesday, June 14th, 2017. Registration included 18 holes of golf, one power cart per two people, dinner, and many prizes to be won. Our long serving Social Chair David Rasmussen hosted his 28^th year as Tournament organizer with a picture perfect sunny day. The temperature was a hot 23C. The course for the 2^nd year in a row was Glendale Golf and Country Club in Hamilton. Golfers all finished the 18 holes by 6:15pm. Supper went off at 6:30pm. We had 100 golfers this year again a Scramble format was used, and a 3 Drives per person requirement to keep the game challenging. The team of Michael Carr, Chris McClelland, Joe Bryson and Jim Grieve finished at 7 under Par. Ladies Longest Drive (Hole # 10) was won by Emily Burgess. Men’s Longest Drive (Hole # 8) was won by Andy Morin. Delano Rodriguez was our “Beat the Pro” on Hole #4 and awarded a sleeve of balls if you got your ball closer than him on this tricky elevated 4^th Hole. If you didn’t beat him you got to throw 2 darts at employees from his company. Hit the target and you also won a sleeve of balls. George Menzies was at hole #10 offering Tee-off benefits to the golfers if they contributed to ASHRAE’s RP program. Almost all took up the offer. To top off a super day, every golfer got to pick a prize contributed by various members after dinner had finished.

Chapter Summer Summit Planning Meeting June 12^th, 2017; This year’s host was Allan Antcliffe at his home in Cambridge. Almost all of the 2016-17 Chapter Executive and Board of Governors were there: Frank Mesicek, President; Iain Hill Pres-Elect and MP chair; Chris Makarewicz Chapter Administrator; Robyn Ellis, Grassroots Government Advocacy Chair; George Menzies, H&A Chair, Chapter Historian; Reaz Usmanali MP Co-Chair; Colin Umbach, Chapter Newsletter Editor; Kevin Hu Refrigeration Chair; John Molnar RP Chair; David Rasmussen Social Chair; Mark Long, Student Activities Chair; Aaron Besseling SA Co-Chairand YEA Chair; Mustafa Morsy CTTC; Allan Antcliffe Treasurer; Jeremy Stockmans Chapter Webmaster. Many good ideas to improve the chapter for 2017-18 were discussed. Again, this year, many on the executive will be going to the CRC in Montreal.

Report from the ASHRAE Summer Conference June 24 to 28, 2017 in Long Beach CA by chapter member Aaron Besseling. “I was honoured to be selected as the 2017 LeaDRS participant for Region 2 shadowing Doug Cochrane for the duration of the 4 day Long Beach Summer conference. The LeaDRS experience opened my eyes to how large of an organization ASHRAE really is. As my understanding of ASHRAE society operations grew I quickly realized how important a role the chapters play and how my role in the Hamilton chapter can make a difference in the big picture. The benefits of attending this conference were immediately realized on day 1 at my first ashrae meeting. Being able to network on a global level with likeminded professionals was a completely new experience for me as well as a huge opportunity for growth. As I was exposed to what I later described to my colleges as the United Nations of the Mechanical industry I discovered a whole new appreciation for how vast and well operated this grass roots volunteer organization is run and became increasingly excited for my role in its operations. Doug Cochrane went out of his way to make the LeaDRS experience as beneficial for me as possi- ble. He insured that I was exposed to not only the sections of ASHRAE that he was heavily involved in but also encouraged me to break out on my own to find comities and seminars that sparked my interest. This led to me finding technical seminars on; net zero code requirements, building controls of the future, and design strategies for smart cities. This was on top of the technical comities I dis- covered such as the technical committee on climate change, VRF, and designing for cold climate. Doug also made it a large priority to introduce me to as many people as possible at every social event we attended. Everyone I met from society executive to my fellow LeaDRS participants had nothing but positive things to say about the ASHRAE community experience and they all had the opinion that ASHRAE has given more to them in life experience than they could possibly give back in volunteer hours. The high light of the conference for me was being able to sit in on the President Elects Advisory Committee meeting. I had the pleasure of watching society president elect Sheila Hayter host a brainstorming session on what challenges the mechanical industry will face in the next decade and how ASHRAE should be positioning its self to support the industry through those challenges. Being in the room when leaders of a global society are discussing big issues like climate change and a big opportunity such as globalization was an unbelievable experience. To watch Sheila orchestrate these conversations then take the notes to formulate a broad strokes game plan on her year as president was not only a valuable lesson for my career but also an inspiration to further my experience with ASHRAE.

In closing I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Audrey Dupuis for honouring me with such an amazing opportunity, Doug Cochrane for the outstanding mentor ship, guidance and for tailoring the LeaDRS experience to match my interests, as well as the ASHRAE community for supporting the LeaDRS program and taking the time to explain the ins and outs of the society. I am extremely great full for the chance to develop my self and am looking forward to increasing my involvement with ASHRAE.

The next event was the CRC hosted by the Montreal Chapter August 25-27, 2017 at the ALT Hotel. The chapter report at the CRC follows: Hamilton 037 Chapter Activity Report for Year 2016-2017 delivered by Iain Hill for Chapter President Frank Mesicek who was delayed attending Region 2 CRC held in Montreal until Sat Aug 26/17. Meeting was Aug 25^th to Sun Aug 27/17. The Chapter Executive for 16-17 consisted of Aaron Besseling – YEA Chair, Secretary; Allan Antcliffe – Treasurer; Colin Umbach – Newsletter Editor; David Rasmussen – RP Co-Chair, Social; Frank Mesicek – President; George Menzies – History Chair; Iain Hill – MP Chair, President-Elect; Jeremy Stockmans – Webmaster; John Molnar – RP Chair; Kevin Hu – Refrigeration; Mark Long – SA Chair; Mustafa Morsy – CTTC Chair; Reaz Usmanali – MP Co-Chair (Retention); Robyn Ellis – CGGC Chair. Report details:

• Other Technical Events beside chapter meetings: Robyn Ellis, Chair of our Grassroots

Government Affairs Committee[GGAC] held a joint meeting with IFMA and COH March 31, 2017 to discuss funding opportunities for green buildings, sustainability and infrastructure. [Info sent to ASHRAE’s HQs Government Affairs Office.]

• YEA Activities: YEA ‘s Trampoline Dodge Ball. Feb 23/17; YEA’s 3rd Annual Ultimate Frisbee Game June 10/17 in Brantford’s Silver Bridge Park with ASHRAE’s London and Hamilton Chapters in an ongoing battle for bragging rights. 11 participated. YEA has been reaching out to the HHCA for a joint meeting. YEA approached the Hamilton Hive about having YEA sit as a member. Continued to offer complimentary rides from McMaster to student chapter members to attend chapter meetings
• Social Events: December 13^th, 2016, Curling at the Glanford Curling Club; May 28/17, Joint Horse Racing Event with OACETT and ASHRAE; June 14/17, Hamilton Chapter Scramble Golf Tournament at Glendale Golf Club
• Research Promotion/Fundraising: Chapter Goal was $9500, actually raised $9557 (This includes a special 5-year $15,000 investment from the University of Waterloo of which $3000 was credited in 2017).
• Chapter Finances: Chapter Bank Balance is down from $32,631.28 in June 2015 as we have been sending 1 to 2 students to each of the past two Winter Society Meetings [cost is about $ 1,700/ student] – thus we are now operating in a deficit position. Costs for this year’s Montreal CRC will also reduce assets.) Date of Last Audit was Aug 2017. Number of Chapter Members 127; Society dues paying members is 257, no major change.
• New things implemented during the year: Varied meeting location which resulted in higher average attendance; Getting better leverage from SSU (Simple Sign-Up). Higher student engagement is starting to show results.[students special meal cost at $15.plus free ride to meeting]; Experimented with later meeting starts, due to difficulty of people to make it on-time. Experimented with different times and formats for the Exec Meetings, again due to time-constraints. Approved at Summer Summit 2017 to raise chapter meal prices to try to reduce asset losses.
• Things you are proud of during year: Great attendance at chapter meetings; having some 11 members attending Moncton CRC plus spouses, and many members attending ASHRAE Winter and Summer meetings including participation at several TC meeting; Team Building.

Greater Student Engagement, active Student Branches at McMaster and U of Waterloo; Able to send 1 or 2 student ASHRAE members to Society Meetings; Making really good progress on increasing PAOE totals this year. Publishing article on Westdale Theater, Canada’s 1^st A/C theatre in 1935, helped with deadly heat wave of 1936

• What about year 2017-2018? Tough year ahead as changes in Leadership and Chairs, given the end of a 2-year cycle; Continued focus on Student involvement in Chapter; Anticipate growth in the University of Waterloo Student Chapter; Look for ways to cut costs and increase revenue to achieve a balanced budget. Next year’s CRC location will cost less to send Members which should help; the requirement for Engineers in Ontario to accumulate PDC’s may help attendance – given a good topic, which with the new $50/meal cost should increase revenue. New rate for Life Members at $35 may help attract some of our older members.

2017-2018 Executive for 2017-18 was as follows:

President Frank Mesicek, C.E.T., PMP; Research Promotion John Molnar, P.Eng., LEED AP; Events: David Rasmussen, C.E.T. Treasurer Allan Antcliffe, P.Eng.; YEA Aaron Besseling and Ryley Besseling; Membership Promotion Iain Hill, LEED AP; and Reaz Usmanali, B.Eng., LEED AP Student Activities Mark Long and Aaron Besseling; Historian George Menzies, P.Eng.; C.T.T.C. (Programs) Mustafa Morsy; Grassroots Government Advocacy Robyn Ellis, B.Eng., CFM and Quinton Voskamp; Airways Matteo Ravelli

ASHRAE Hamilton September Dinner Meeting held Tuesday, September 12th, 2017. The topic of the night was Acoustical Engineering Design of Canada’s Quietest Nanotechnology Research Laboratory, and was presented by Todd Busch. Todd presented a talk on the “Acoustical Engineering Design of Canada’s Quietest Nanotechnology Research Laboratory”. The National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) is a National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) facility situated on the campus of the University of Alberta. Design and construction of the facility started in 2002 with commissioning occurring during 2006. The NINT has supported groundbreaking research at nano scales and beyond. The Government of Canada, through the NRCC, has proclaimed the NINT to be the ‘quietest’ research facility in Canada. The facility contains clean rooms with both high airflow volumes and ‘characterization’ suites that are the home of instrumentation (e.g., electron microscopes) that have known sensitivities to excessive noise and vibration. The issues of design concern included architectural, mechanical / electrical, and structural performance to achieve the lowest practical levels of adverse noise and vibration throughout the building. Todd discussed the various problems that arose and the technical approaches that were applied to arrive at tangible solutions.He reviewed a number of ways to mitigate noise and vibration in building design.  The issues of design concern included architectural, mechanical / electrical, and structural performance to achieve the lowest practical levels of adverse noise and vibration throughout the building. Todd also discussed the various problems that arose and the technical approaches that were applied to arrive at tangible solutions.  Todd Busch, M.A.Sc., P.Eng., P.E., INCE Bd. Cert., has 20 years of experience consulting on issues related to acoustics, noise, and vibration. He has an academic background in mechanical engineering studying noise control and has been employed as an acoustical consultant in Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Calgary, New York, and currently Toronto. He is a registered professional engineer in British Columbia and California and is Board Certified through examination by the Institute of Noise Control Engineers. Night was well attended with some 38 in attendance, 18 members, 10 students, and 10 guests.

October Chapter Meeting, Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 at the University Club of McMaster Unversity,1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON, actually the Alumni Memorial Hall which is Building #8 where we have held many prior meetings. 29 attendees were present.

Event Description: The topic of the night was the Future of Refrigerants, and was presented by Spencer Fuller. He discussed the world of refrigerants. He covered the history of where we have come from in the world of refrigerants and chillers, to where we currently are with present regulations and rulings. He then explored the future of refrigerants, including the impacts to capacity, safety, cost, and user experience. 

Spencer Fuller is the Regional Sales Manager – Chillers, Johnson Controls. He has extensive experience with the topic. He graduated from The Virginia Military Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2012. He has been with Johnson Controls for 5 years. Half of his tenure has been a part of the chiller product management team where he managed the YMC², mag bearing centrifugal chiller, globally. The other half of his tenure has been with the Chiller Solutions Portfolio Team for North America. This team is responsible for ensuring that the Johnson Controls chiller portfolio, both water and air-cooled chillers, meet the current and future customer’s requirements. Attendance was 31.

November 7^th, 2017 was Hamilton Chapter’s RP Recognition night and was held at the Holiday Inn in Burlington ON.  We had two key RP investors attend, U of W and FibreCast Inc. The Hamilton Chapter of ASHRAE welcomed both Dana Evans Laity of U of W and George Badovinac of FibreCast. Some 35 members were present. The topic of the night was The Essential role of Indoor Air Quality in Patient Outcomes, and was presented by Stephanie H Taylor, MD., the first time a medical doctor addressed the chapter. The evening featured a depth question period after her talk which impressed all attendees.

The Doctor opened her remarks by stating that Engineers put much thought and work into designing and managing building HVAC systems with the goals of preserving building materials, conserving energy consumption and keeping occupants comfortable. However, the primary function of most buildings should be to protect the health and safety of people. Paradoxically, the intersection of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and occupant health or disease is one of the least understood subjects in the field of public health! This is not from deliberate neglect of engineers, but from lack of medical research on IAQ and health. Two significant trends are occurring in this century: people spend more and more time indoors, and the incidence of chronic disease is higher than ever before. Are these two factors related? If so, how can indoor air management support occupant health and not promote chronic illnesses?

She stated that in her presentation, we will accomplish the following:

• Understand the current Indoor Air Quality environment
• Present New Research findings on the relationship between indoor air management and patient infections in hospitals. Micro-biome Study will be presented with new data. (in press 2017)
• Review existing studies on IAQ and occupant health
• Review solutions to improve IAQ and maximize Patient outcomes in Healthcare facilities

Our speaker’s bio: Stephanie H Taylor, MD, MArch, FRSPH(UK), CABE is the CEO of Taylor Healthcare Consulting Inc. She graduated with honors from Harvard Medical School in 1984. She practiced clinical medicine and did academic research in cellular growth mechanisms for the next 20+ years. During this time, she became very concerned about new infections that many hospital patients contracted while they were being treated for unrelated issues.  Determined to better understand the connection to the hospital’s built environment and airborne infections and to find a practical solution to ensure better patient healthcare, she obtained her Masters Degree in Architecture from Norwich University. After several years working in an architecture firm focused on hospital design, she founded Taylor Healthcare Commissioning, Inc., a nationally recognized consulting company that specializes in designing, building and maintaining hospitals and other commercial buildings for optimal patient health and occupant safety. Dr. Taylor continues to expand her work through ongoing studies and client assignments that allow her to better understand the relationship between the built environment and occupant health that result in the decrease of both acute and chronic diseases through management of indoor air quality and other building parameters.

In the discussion that followed, our speaker was impressed about the knowledge of the topic and the issues that exist. It probably was the most active discussion in recent years.

In summary, those present learned that: 1.New data reinforces the importance of IAQ in occupant health; 2. that 40 (percent RH) is now the new 20 which likely causes Dry Building Syndrome that harms patients; 3. Collaboration between engineers, building managers and physicians is the key to improving public health.

December 13^th, 2017 was the 2^nd Annual ASHRAE Hamilton Chapter Curling & Social Event. It was held at Glendale Curling Club, 401 Mt.Albion Road in Hamilton. Cost was $30/member, $35/guest. Some 24 members, students and guests attended. At 7 PM everyone enjoyed pizza, salad and trimmings which Glendale allowed us to bring into the club. At 8 PM, everyone enjoyed a detailed curling lesson and how to sweep and slide on the ice without falling…. Then the curlers broke into 2 distinctive groups – the veterans and the students. It was amazing that again this year the curlers got the feel of the right weight that was needed to get the rock into the house after just an end or two. After some group pictures the group broke up at 10ish to find several inches of fresh snow had fallen during the evening.