prev / next

1 2 3 4

· · · ·

The City of Kingston have set an ambitious goal to design and construct all new municipal buildings to Net-Zero Energy standards. The Kingston Fire Maintenance Garage, designed by CSV Architects, is the City of Kingston’s first municipal building that produces as much energy as it consumes. CSV Architects was selected to design the new facility due to their experience with emergency service buildings and expertise in high performance buildings.

Located in Kingston’s Fire Training Complex, the building acts as the fleet maintenance garage for Kingston Fire & Rescue. The facility contains three drive through truck bays capable of housing six full-size vehicles and a crew area for the maintenance staff.

The vision for the project was to design a new building that could act as a model for the construction of future municipal buildings in Kingston. Utilizing a lower cost, pre-engineered structure and simple building systems allowed savings in capital cost to be redirected to the installation of on-site renewable energy.

The target was to design a building that would generate its electrical need within its own 730 m2 footprint, allowing the building to act as a template that could be replicated on other properties with rooftop solar panels. The building’s leading-edge design employs solutions to reduce energy consumption while minimizing additional cost and complexity.

To meet the Net Zero Energy targets, part of the savings on the capital cost were directed toward the installation of a Solar Field. Preliminary data indicates the Solar Field produces 102% of the energy projected to be used, according to the energy model. The solar array will have a useful operating life of over 30 years and is expected to pay itself off with the reduction in utility bills after 15 years. The surface area of the array is only 666m2 fitting within the building footprint and exceeding the project objective. The result was a successful prototype for future sustainable development in the City of Kingston.