As Surrey moves towards electrifying its residential and personal transportation sectors, the electric grid may require changes to accommodate rising demands. This project models electricity demand after electrification of townhouses, condominiums, single-family homes, and personal vehicles. An eQUEST model is generated to forecast electricity demands by simulating annual building operations. A spreadsheet is used to combine the building and home electric vehicle charging profiles. The results show large increases in electricity demand when comparing the baseline and electrified scenarios, especially throughout winter. The demand profiles can be used to address grid development. However, policy-making and city planning requires further research.

The eQUEST building energy modelling software was used to model a five-story apartment building constructed between 1980 and 1990 in Metro Vancouver, and a Passive House certified retrofit of the same building. Comparisons of electricity and gas consumption showed that retrofitting the building led to an increase in electricity consumption and a decrease in gas consumption. Discovering these results is important because of the increase in population and the COVID-19 pandemic. With more people staying home, the energy consumption of the residential sector will increase and could impede the 2050 net-zero emission target in place within Metro Vancouver.

In line with the City of Surrey’s climate action plan, our project investigated changes in energy usage, emissions and costs of retrofitting and electrifying a 1990 low-rise multi-unit residential building. By comparing ‘original’ and ‘retrofitted’ models, we found that electrifying building systems and improving the building envelope can reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the building envelope upgrade is acheived at a relatively high cost. Finally, our analysis on installing electric vehicle charging stations may help promote the technology in retrofitted buildings. Expanding the steps to meet newer building energy standards is essential to support retrofitting and electrification.

The AIM system is a feedback control system that continuously monitors agricultural soil conditions through the use of a sensor unit, and a user interface. The sensor unit built using a micro-controller equipped with a capacitive moisture sensor relays soil moisture data to a computer application-based user interface. The interface, designed in Excel for the prototype, reads the soil moisture data and notifies an operator when irrigation of the cropland is required. The interface can then control an irrigation system, supplying water until a desired soil moisture level is detected by the system.

View project video here.

Our team created a biodegradable conversion kit for home printers that turns a traditional ink cartridge printer into a reusable, refillable ink reservoir. By creating a refillable system, home printers become more affordable and sustainable by cutting down on plastic waste, and the use of expensive often unrecyclable cartridges. We created our design to model reservoir printers, which are an expensive printing option that is often inaccessible for students and low-income working professionals. By adapting a system that is already in use, we have created a fully integrated system that works on any home printer that uses a cartridge system.

View project video here.

Laundry systems are leading sources of synthetic material introduced into our biosphere. To help mitigate plastic pollution, we designed the SynthaSift, an inline laundry microplastic filter. Our inspiration draws from existing products, including Lint Luv-R and Filtrol. By enhancing Filtrol's filter range, SynthaSift filters particles approximately ten times finer, while maintaining a competitive sale price. The prototype was 3D printed using biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA), to minimize the environmental impact at each stage of our design. As SEE students, we acknowledge that water is a valuable resource, and it is our responsibility to make positive environmental impacts.

View project video here.