On a scorching summer day at Toronto’s Humber College, a smart system precools buildings in the early morning to avoid the afternoon spike in electrical rates at peak demand time. Another system turns on lights in rooms only when people are using them. And when the weather is cold, heat pumps have learned to redirect heat from crowded spaces on campus to other buildings that can use some warming.

Since 2014, Humber College facilities have grown by 25 per cent, yet the school’s use of smart controls as well as energy-efficiency initiatives and retrofits has reduced energy use per square foot by more than 20 per cent.

And the college is on track to achieve a 30-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with a decade ago, says Aman Hehar, Humber’s associate director of energy and climate change.

It meant installing smart sensors throughout the school, and in older buildings with poor envelopes, it meant retrofitting windows and insulation to make them more efficient, he explains.

“Having the separate systems share information with each other is making the buildings run as optimally as possible,” he says.

It’s part of a collaboration between Humber College and Siemens Canada that developed a sustainable microgrid and renewable technology (SMART) lab that will be used to teach students about microgrids – systems that reliably manage the generation, storage and consumption of energy.

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