When undertaking a major building expansion or deep energy retrofit—meaning a comprehensive upgrade designed to maximize a building's energy efficiency—the margin for error is razor-thin. Property owners need absolute clarity on project viability long before breaking ground.
At Equilibrium, we use RETScreen Expert, an industry-standard software developed by Natural Resources Canada, to turn ambitious environmental goals into predictable engineering roadmaps. By building early models that analyze a building's envelope (its walls, roof, and windows), mechanical heating and cooling systems, and on-site solar power as a single, connected ecosystem, we take the guesswork out of capital investments. This data-driven approach de-risks decision-making, provides the proof required to unlock major federal grants, and ensures your facility is optimized for a low-carbon future.
Our work with the Mulgrave Road Theatre in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, perfectly illustrates this process:
The Challenge: Evaluate a complex project combining a deep retrofit of an older, existing building with a brand-new theatre addition.
The Process: We built a digital model of the facility to test how different high-performance technologies would interact. This included a cold-climate variable refrigerant volume (VRV) heat pump system—which efficiently moves heat throughout different zones of a building rather than burning fuel—high-efficiency heat pump water heaters, and a 62.7 kW rooftop solar array.
The Outcome: Our modelling mathematically proved that the facility wouldn't just meet its targets; it would achieve a 101% energy reduction compared to standard building codes and operate with a net energy surplus.
This precise data served as the technical foundation that secured formal Zero Carbon Building design certification and unlocked the vital federal infrastructure funding needed to move construction forward.