RAINWATER REUSE SYSTEM FOR OFFICE TOWER

March 28, 2020

Vancouver, BC

Net Zero Water designed a rainwater harvesting and reuse system for a new high-rise building, the tallest office tower in downtown Vancouver.

The 37-storey building is 550-feet-tall, with 540,000 square feet of office space. The tower will have LEED Platinum green standard and will be one of two towers in Canada to be a part of the Canadian Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Pilot Program.

Key Challenge

Designing a booster system that can deliver the water to the top floor at 300 psi.

A system design that considered the restricted size of the mechanical room plus low doorway sizes in order to fit equipment through.

Implementation of the bylaw to amend the Building Bylaw regarding non-potable water systems.

Highlights

Aiming for LEED Platinum green standard target.
Treated water stored in a 2,000 US gallon tank; boosted to the top floor at 300 psi.
Designed to be compact, configured for ease of maintenance, skid mounted and complete with stainless steel pipe and fittings.

Solution

To satisfy LEED certification requirements, the developers integrated a rainwater harvesting and reusesystem in this building to reduce demand on municipal water supply and the impact of storm runoff. Rainwater is collected from a hard rooftop area and treated to supply toilet flushing for the entire building.

Net Zero Water worked with Integral Group Engineering of Vancouver and PML Professional Mechanical Ltd. of Port Coquitlam BC, to design a turn-key rainwater harvesting treatment system.

Rainwater goes through Net Zero Water’s rainwater treatment package system after being pulled from the poured concrete cistern. Treated is then be stored in a 2,000 US gallon day tank before going through a booster package to get to the top of the building.

In order to have the NZW package comply, the engineering team added an online turbidimeter to always record the turbidity level of the water. Net Zero Water provided concepts, options, drawings and written specifications until the final design was agreed upon.

The Net Zero Water treatment system was designed to be compact, configured for ease of maintenance, skid mounted and complete with stainless steel pipe and fittings. The system also incorporated a Net Zero Water control panel with colour HMI screen and communications to Building Automation System.

Additional Opportunity

As part of all Net Zero Water’s turn-key solutions, system commissioning, testing and training is included in the purchase of the system to ensure system operation and reliability for years to come.