Natural Resources committee  Yes, I'll give you an example. In a recent study that we did for Siemens Canada and New Brunswick Power, we looked at the effectiveness of specific smart thermostats that could be controlled by the Internet on the ability for the utility to shift heating loads in the wintertime

Natural Resources committee  The return on investment that is going to motivate investment is owned by the building owner or the person who will make that investment, not by NRC or a government agency. They are the ones in control of their expenditures. We want to try to create technologies, information and

Natural Resources committee  For existing buildings, there's no question.... Technologies called building energy management systems essentially sit on top of the building automation system. Using algorithms and logic rules, they look for faults in the way in which the building is operated. They're very appea

Natural Resources committee  That's a really good question. It all boiled down to the national master standing offer. If they were to adopt and use the national master standing offer, they would be able to procure the exact same technology that is being used in the Government of Canada buildings right now a

Natural Resources committee  Maybe an analysis of what's required all the way through the procurement chain would be really good to make sure we have all the i's dotted and the t's crossed, and where we can help, we'd be very glad to. That would complete the technology transfer, I would think.

Natural Resources committee  We do not develop standards. We develop information that others can develop standards from. Energy professionals now have accreditation. Engineers do that service as well. We feed into those groups so that they can develop the documents they need for their members, and they can e

Natural Resources committee  The answer to that is that it's probably too recent. We've submitted the reports to PSPC. What NRC did, was a very detailed pre- and post-energy audit. We looked at the delta in the energy consumed and the cost. We are working with PSPC to make those data publicly available in a

Natural Resources committee  NRC was engaged by PPB, the parliamentary precinct branch, at the very early stages of developing the work plan for the parliamentary precinct, including the Centre Block. We developed a report for them that outlined innovative technologies that could respond to use cases that w

Natural Resources committee  No. I think one of the areas that NRC excels in is a multidisciplinary approach. Often when we look at energy efficiency, we can realize collateral benefits. We also need to ensure we don't bring along unintended consequences. Increased air tightness means fewer air exchanges, wh

Natural Resources committee  As part of one of the initiatives coming from the Treasury Board's centre for greening government, they are now asking that federal infrastructure projects submit a life-cycle analysis and a total cost of ownership assessment of the asset. It's not going to be used in the bid sel

Natural Resources committee  In general, we look at a basket of technologies. Obviously, one of the weakest links in a building's envelope is with the glazing and windows. Airtightness is often overlooked. If you have a leaky envelope, then make it airtight. It comes back to this: What are we starting with?

Natural Resources committee  Many of those tools and resources are coming from our colleagues at NRCan, so we're feeding into that. Not to be overlooked are the provincial utilities, both electricity and gas. They have information and programs that are very valuable to the homeowner. They're typically region

Natural Resources committee  I'd like to be able to say there's a very simple answer, but unfortunately, there isn't because it really depends on the building itself and what its condition is. If there's been a ton of deferred maintenance, and maybe there are requirements for upgraded seismic resistance, the

Natural Resources committee  Sure. Maybe I could take a step back and say that NRC collaborates very closely with NRCan and other government departments on a number of important initiatives. In fact, the Canadian centre for housing technology, which is located in the NRC, is a shared facility among NRCan,