Christy Love takes us behind the scenes of deep energy retrofits that transform aging buildings while residents continue living their daily lives. As an energy and climate specialist at RDH Building Science, she brings both technical expertise and a human touch to complex sustainability projects.
What does it take to modernize a 1970s high-rise without displacing tenants? Christy reveals the painstaking process—from creating digital models of buildings with no existing plans to orchestrating window replacements that happen in a single day. The results are transformative: triple-glazed windows eliminate siren noise from nearby hospitals, heat recovery ventilators provide clean air during wildfire season, and some units barely need heating at all.
Christy's passion for measurement and verification shines through as she discusses monitoring projects tracking energy use across dozens of buildings. She's particularly excited about hybrid heat pump technologies that combine efficiency with reliability across temperature ranges.
From its origins fixing leaky condos to its current work on climate-responsive buildings, RDH exemplifies how construction expertise must adapt to changing environmental realities. Tune in now to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Site.
Visit Podcast Leadership andPerspective from Construction
with your host, James Faulkner,Recorded live from the show
floor at BuildX Vancouver 2025.
All right, I'm here withChristy Love.
(00:24):
That's Christy, not Christy,correct?
Oh yeah, Christy, Christy good,Can't get that one wrong.
That's true.
A lot of Christys that I'veknown over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, and a good.
How are they spelled?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I-E-Y.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Some Ks.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Oh yeah, but I always get tripped on the Kirstie.
Oh yeah, oh, they're like it'sKirsten or Kristen or Kirsten.
It's like oh cheers, kirsten.
I know it's just so manymacerations of the Krip.
You can call me Christy,christy, that's an easy one.
Okay, so you are the.
Oh, hang on, you are A I haveto be careful on putting the
(01:02):
label of the specialist but youare an energy and climate
specialist at RDH, that'scorrect.
So RDH, great organization.
As we were chatting offlinebefore, this got its start in
the old school fixing theproblems of the rainforest we
(01:25):
live in the pacific north coastof the leaky condo thing
originally and sort of inventedthat screens that you would see
in these high rises and fixingthe envelopes and making sure
nothing fell on anyone's headand uh, so yeah, it's pretty
cool.
That's right.
Yeah, and now, how many?
How big is the organization now?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think we're about 350.
If I had to guess and like nineoffices nine offices don't?
I think we're about 350, if Ihad to guess and like nine
offices Nine offices.
Don't quote me, but we'reacross North America.
We've got Vancouver, victoria,a few people in Courtney,
toronto on the Canadian side, ohwow, seattle, portland Is.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Toronto recently new.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Not that new.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
The company's gone for what?
20 years or something?
Yep, yeah, I think 20 years orsomething.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yep, yeah, I think early 90s when they started.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Interesting.
So you're working on a numberof projects.
You were talking about FortisBC, one that you were doing, and
you also mentioned on the teamside of things which you're very
excited about.
Now, in terms of the structure,I was looking through the
(02:30):
website of RDH and it seems likethere's a lot of principles.
What is the organizationalstructure?
How does that work?
Are you considered a principalin Victoria?
How does that all work?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, so there are somewhere around 40 principals.
So the general business modelof RDH, that's 11%.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
A lot of principals.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, somewhat unusual for our industry.
We're very broadly owned, sowe're obviously a private
company.
Yeah, so anyone who's been withthe company for a couple years
and we've sort of judged thatthey're aligned with our core
values and they are a long-termasset.
They're offered shares so youcan start buying just like 25
shares or whatever and just getyour foot in the door and then,
(03:13):
each year that there are sharesavailable, you can kind of buy
up and then, as you progress interms of responsibility, you
have the opportunity to become aprincipal.
So principals do have like aminimum floor of the number of
shares they have to own.
It's sort of a yeah, like we're.
We're the people who are reallyresponsible for the success of
(03:33):
the business and so you know,being a share owner means you
can.
You're also things go belly up.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You're on the hook, so there's accountability there.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, You've got to have that accountability
accountability.
So yeah, it's broadly owned andyeah, from what I've heard of
other consulting firms, it's afairly unusual model, like a lot
of consultants are more tightlyheld with a very small group.
So that's one of kind of thecore founding principles of RDH
since the beginning was thatthey wanted it to be broadly
(04:05):
owned and it shows in terms ofjust sort of, I guess, pride in
the company and that sense ofaccountability and ownership and
like I've had a lot of freedomto develop according to my
interests and skills andbasically create my own sort of
business area within the company.
That's something I've reallyappreciated about being at RDH.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So you being so, what's your background then?
So how did you get into?
How long have you been with thecompany for?
About 11 years now 11 years,okay, and what were you doing
before this?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So I worked at two different mechanical consulting
firms.
So I did a civil engineeringdegree Okay, an arts degree
before that, but we probablydon't need to talk about that.
But when it came to like whatam I going to do for a career, I
actually feel like my artsdegree has probably served me
better.
It makes me a better consultant, probably, than the engineer.
(05:00):
I mean, the engineering stuffis critical obviously.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Less of an insult and more of a consultant.
Sure, that's my favorite one.
I've used that many times.
I like that.
I hadn't heard that before.
An consultant.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
An consultant yeah.
Yeah.
So I did a civil engineeringdegree at UBC and I was pretty
open about civil engineering.
Civil engineering is very broadand I was pretty open about
civil engineering is very broad.
So transportation, structures,materials, water and wastewater
treatment, plumbing it's kind ofendless, and so you just touch
(05:37):
on very lightly all thesedifferent subjects.
So I was pretty open when Igraduated about what I wanted to
do, except that I knew I wantedto be involved with
sustainability in some way.
That was the big term at thetime.
I wanted to make a differencein the world.
So initially my dream job was Iwas going to work for the city
of Vancouver.
(05:57):
They have a transportation,engineering and community
planning joint department.
I thought that's great.
I didn't get hired, okay, andall the funding for
transportation had been cut bythe province.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Was it the arts?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
degree that did it Right when I graduated.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Like wait, she's way too creative.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, no one would even talk to me if all I had was
the arts degree.
This is great.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
This is great.
You was the arts degree.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
This is true, you needed the engineering degree to
get the interview, and thenthey're like oh cool, you have
an arts degree.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, exactly the icing.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, so I was just casting about.
I actually got a one-year jobwith engineers and geoscientists
, bc, as their sustainabilityresearcher.
So I worked for theirsustainability committee and met
a whole bunch of people indifferent sectors who are doing
cool things, and so I got kindof keyed into the green building
world and at that time themechanical engineers were really
(06:52):
driving things.
That's when, like, lead wasbecoming kind of a thing, yeah,
and the mechanical engineerswere really driving it.
So I got a job with amechanical engineer, despite the
fact that I'm a civil.
Yeah, I actually did marketingfor them for the first couple of
years weirdly.
And then, yeah, and then sort ofswitched back over to the
(07:14):
technical side, worked for thatfirm for five years.
And then I actually moved toPortland, oregon, and worked for
a different mechanicalconsulting firm for five years
and always just finding thesustainability projects,
sticking my hand up for those.
You know you had to do.
You still had to do like theduck sizing and all the, because
(07:35):
there wasn't really enough atthat time to just do
sustainability related stuff.
But I did some cool projects.
And then I met RDH.
They were looking for someonein Portland.
I just had my daughter, so Iwasn't really looking for a big
change.
But I thought, hey, I looked upthe website.
I hadn't even heard of RDH.
I'm like, oh, they have aVictoria office.
(07:57):
So I thought, well, if I coulduse this as an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So were you American then, or not?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
No, I'm Canadian.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, yeah, you had a green card to work in Portland,
obviously.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
A TN visa actually.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Oh, okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Anyway, so you moved back to the homeland.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, so it was an opportunity to move back and, as
I learned more about thecompany, it was a pretty
exciting opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah Cool.
Yeah so it's been 11 years now11 years, and so you are a
principal now.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I am yes.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Wow, Pretty exciting, huh it is.
That's pretty cool.
So I would think that having11% of the population of a
company being principals, thatlevel sets a really great
understanding of a family kindof I don't want to say family
(08:43):
but a group of people of similarinterests.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, but when I say interests, I don't mean hobby.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I mean similar career interests in terms of moving
the company forward and gettinggreat projects, hiring people
that are going to uplifteverybody, etc.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, it's still a very diverse group and I do
think that's one of thestrengths of RDH, but there are
definitely principles that Ithink I've met almost all of
them, but maybe not all of themat this point.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
And some of them do completely different things.
Do you have a big summit thatyou guys go to?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We used to do that.
We're a bit big now and well,covid kind of kiboshed that, but
there used to be like we kindof come together once a year.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Is it kibosh or kibosh?
I always say kibosh, I say thesame as you, but that sounds
like food.
It does.
Would you like some kibosh?
I have some in the back of thetruck.
No, no, it doesn't reallyresonate.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I already had lunch, did you Okay?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I don't really like my kibosh, or kibosh it does.
Yeah, it sounds like babaganoush.
Anyway, we digress.
Okay, so you were saying thatobviously the team is too big
now to have this kind of a thing, but you guys have, culturally,
(09:58):
how do you all sort of cometogether in that way?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I think it's something we're still evolving
because we're also veryconscious of, you know, the
impact of flying around NorthAmerica just to see each other
in person, as valuable as thatis.
One of my most enjoyable thingsI've done in the last couple of
years is the women principalshave gotten together and it was
quite organic.
It was just like one of thewomen principals from Toronto
(10:23):
was like hey, I'm going to be inSeattle, let's hook up.
And then, well, I'm just inVictoria so I can just pop over
and end up being like eight ofus.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I think there are about 12 of us now.
Total um yeah, so it's justnice to connect with the woman.
Principal experiences is sortof it's.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's a unique thing, so it's just nice to find your
people right in a way I meanit's uh, yeah, there's, there's
certain challenges that in everyit's just it's human nature
Can't get away from it.
I mean we can try, we can tryour hardest, but the reality is
(11:02):
that it's great to be aroundpeople, that you have, that see
things in a similar light.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, I mean, it's a shared experience.
Exactly, and being a woman in amale light.
Yeah, it's a shared experience,and being a woman in a
male-dominated field and amale-dominated company is there
are just things that we have allgone through together to be
recognized.
The company's come a long waybut, we still end up having
(11:34):
similar struggles and everyonehas struggles always obviously
in life um, but it's just niceto be able to connect like, oh
yeah, you just kind of nod ateach other like, yeah, I get it
do you know what I find isactually, um, very interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Um, is that the from observing many, many
construction companies you know.
You know, via CYMAX I find thisis specific to women in
construction is that many, mostof the women are this connective
tissue critical person that isholding companies together.
(12:09):
I find A lot.
I mean you have the.
You know a lot of field crews,you know they're doing a lot of.
I mean you have the.
You know a lot of field crews,you know they're doing a lot of
the work but a lot of planning,a lot of the things there.
It's just a different vibethere and I think that that kind
of gets lost sometimes on howimportant that aspect is.
I don't know what emotionalintelligence or something, but
(12:32):
it's pretty cool.
Yeah, something like that,something like that I know this
is all radioactive conversation,but um, but I mean it's a good
thing you probably found thatwith your, with your rdh, do you
have like a little group namefor that, the rdh?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
oh fire, I think this I can't remember what it is.
Well, it stands for somethingand I can't remember what it was
.
So, yeah, it didn't stick.
It didn't stick, at least notwith me.
Didn't get the T-shirt, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
That's cool, all right.
So can we chat a little bitabout?
So you're working on thisproject, project and um with um.
Can we chat about that?
Sure, yeah, yeah, so this wasum with um fortis bc, so you
would go into um.
You said you had to perhapsrecruit some of the projects,
(13:26):
did you?
Do you have to get involved inthat part to get projects to
sign on, to be able to do thisand for for, uh, the energy
project yes, well, I mean, itdepends on the project, but if
we want to talk specificallyabout the pilot, yes, the pilot.
How did that work?
Where did it start?
What was the impetus of it?
And then, how did you guys getinvolved?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, so Fortis is always looking to develop new
programs.
They have a commitment toreduce emissions, like BC Hydro.
So the two utilities areregulated by the BC Utilities
Commission.
And they're required to have aplan for reducing emissions, and
so part of that plan isincentive programs.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So when you say emissions, how does that
manifest itself?
Just for people who don't?
What do you mean?
Well, emissions, so obviouslyon Fortis BC.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Burning fossil fuels yes.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, burning fossil fuels, but in BC hydro,
hydroelectric power, there isn'tany, is there?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
There are.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It's just much less carbon intensive than combusting
fuels, but there are stillemissions.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
There are still emissions from creating power
From hydroelectric.
I'm just trying to level setthat.
Yeah, I totally get it.
When Fortis BC, if you'reburning your fireplace all the
time you're burning fossil fuel,get it Easy.
That one slammed up, but it waslike hydroelectric power
turning a turbine, water iscoming through creating
(14:49):
electricity from generator.
There's no emission there.
I don't know, I'm just tryingto figure it out, but I guess
what you mean is so also it usedto be really focused on energy
efficiency, right?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So I guess, yeah, basically the concept is that BC
.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Like leaking energy.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Inefficient buildings yeah yeah, Because that's
really where you guys getinvolved is like how do you use
less so you can have less of afootprint?
That's right.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay, regardless of their fuel type.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So it's just been.
It's shifted a little bit inthe last few years to be more
focused on emissions.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Okay, just to meet, like the province's climate
commitments and whatnot, andthis comes from that commission
that you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
But there's still an efficiency element to it.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So, yeah, the utilities have to come up with
five-year plans that getapproved by BCUC and that kind
of sets out how they're going tospend their money to save
energy and or reduce emissions,right, so one of the things that
Fortis is investing in is deepretrofits of existing
multifamily buildings.
(15:54):
Right, okay, and they're likeokay, so how do we do this?
How much can we save andtherefore take credit for, as
we're reporting back to DCUC?
So this is kind of how, like,their incentive programs tend to
develop.
So the pilot project is reallyinforming the eventual
development of a incentiveprogram.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I see yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So the recruitment comes in.
We want a diversity of buildingtypes, ideally like high-rise
and low-rise, and differentclimates represented.
So something in the interior,something lower mainland.
Different ownership types,possibly like affordable housing
or market rentals.
These are all rental-focusedprograms, so they put out a call
(16:35):
.
So Fortis puts out a call andsays, hey, you're interested in
being part of this pilot andbasically Fortis is going to pay
for everything.
So a bunch of building ownersapply and then we as a team
evaluate the applicants for whatwe think the potential savings
are.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So you guys are like the American Idol judges?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, sort of Are they going to be easy to work
with?
There's a bit of that.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So what was the application volume versus how
many people got?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I think we had about 20 buildings long listed and
then we selected four.
Okay, One of them ended updropping out for various reasons
Pretty invasive right.
That wasn't the reason theydropped out.
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
So would it be a similar thing to?
So what did that?
Obviously, it's a multifacetedproject, but so when you
long-list and then you the shortlist and then you get to the
four, so with the four of those,those different types of
structures, then one high-riseone and then the different areas
(17:44):
as well yeah, we had, um, theones that went ahead.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
We had a high-rise concrete rental building built
in the 1970s in the city ofVancouver, okay, and we had an
affordable housing four-storywood frame building, also built
in the 70s in the city of NorthVancouver.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And then we had a market rental wood frame
low-rise building in Kamloops.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Okay, yeah, okay.
So you're going through.
So you do an estimate of whatyou think you can save by doing
x, y and z.
So how do they determine whatthey're going to do?
So do you guys have to do thefeasibility there?
Study on on exactly what thewhat you could do yes, exactly
yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So we started out as part of the recruitment phase.
We kind of did an initial likereally spreadsheet based, sort
of like okay, here's how muchenergy they use now and
emissions, and based on thesystems they have and the
retrofits they've done over time.
So, for example, the bestcandidate in terms of savings
(18:44):
would be a building that hasoriginal single glazed aluminum
framed windows right very littlewall insulation.
Um, Really old boilers.
One of the stipulations of theprogram is that they had to be
gas-heated buildings and theyhad to remain gas-heated
buildings.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So that's just one of the particularities, Otherwise
why would they pay Exactly?
Yeah, Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And then, yeah, so old mechanical systems that are
due for replacement.
So, yeah, so we do a fullmodeling, we create a digital
model of the building, we takeall the utility bills, we
calibrate the model so that itrepresents how the building's
actually functioning, and thenwe test.
I mean, we're a consultant team.
(19:29):
We all have a lot of experiencewith retrofits, so we of have
our our list of things that weknow are going to be impactful,
based on what we know about thebuilding.
And then we also have therequirements from fortis for
what what we can do.
So gas-based systems meanswe're going to replace the old
boiler with a gas absorptionheat pump oh yeah, or a gas
(19:51):
engine heat pump.
So then we model all themeasures, we put together
different packages of measures.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Can I just ask you a question on the?
So it's built way back then.
Obviously, the cities have theoriginal plans.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
No, they almost never do.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
They didn't Okay, so they don't have any.
So how did you guys, did youguys actually build like new 3D
models?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, we often do have to do that where we Holy,
that's a lot of work, don't it?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So you have to, like, get every measurement right and
every floor and Like you,basically, are rebuilding the
plans.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, most.
I mean they're fairly simplestructures, like they tend to be
rectangles with somearticulations.
So you know, you can kind oftake.
Sometimes there are hard copyplans that we can get from the
city and we'll basically tracethe floor plans and sort of
build it.
That way we can use, likethrough Google Earth.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Take measurements off .
Speaker 2 (20:55):
So there's a number of ways we can do that.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So you end up with an actual visual model before the
work starts.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Wow crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And then we use that to create the drawing sets that
are then going to be bid andbuilt.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Jeez, that's a lot of work.
Pre-work Jeez, yeah, that's alot of work.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Pre-work, yes, and that is, I think, one of the
most important things with doinga deep retrofit, or like a
holistic retrofit, when you'reaffecting multiple systems with
people living in the building.
So, they have to live in thewhole time.
We never kick anybody out ofthe building.
We do a lot of work from theexterior, so like adding
exterior insulation.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
That's a very Gen X thing to say.
By the way, kick, we do a lotof work from the exterior, so
like adding exterior insulation.
That's a very Gen X thing tosay, by the way, Kick you, is it
?
I am Gen X.
I know Well, I can tell.
Yeah, we're both Gen X.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So what is?
Is Renovix Gen Z or what?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
No Displace.
Oh, okay, right You're supposedto be kicked out.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I guess yeah, kicked out is kind of the yeah, the
sort of opaque terms to veil thereal meaning.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, so we don't kick anyone out.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
We can replace windows from the outside.
We usually build scaffoldingaround the building.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So you can replace yeah, because they do come from
the outside right the windowsfrom the outside Mostly.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Sometimes you have to do it from the inside but,
usually we can do most of thework from the outside Because
you're doing the frames too.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
That's the hard part.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, yeah, and all the detailing, so that we have a
proper air barrier.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
All that good stuff, so yeah.
So in order to execute all thatwhile people are living in the
building it does take one youhave to really plan the work
well, yeah, and then we oftenconstruction manage these as
well.
So there's that whole like.
We have like a very detailedschedule and we phase things so
that you can minimize theentries into any one person's
(22:49):
suite.
So we've got it down so that theday of window replacement it
all happens in one day.
The old window comes out, thenew window comes in, the
tenant's happy, they're likesuper comfortable, and then they
do the finishing later.
Um, but yeah, so that kind ofretrofit takes.
(23:10):
I think you, when we initiallyundertook the project fortis had
a schedule in the rfp andthey'd sort of swapped things
where it was like eight monthsof design and 18 months of
construction and we're like no,no, okay, well, we need to spend
probably a year planning andthen we can get construction
down to 10 months, minimize thedisruption, but you've got to do
that planning up front.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So you're ready, nice .
So it's an exciting project todo.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Super exciting Part of it was that we kind of got to
do all of the scopes of workthat RDH does so building
enclosure, consulting structuralengineering like shoring up
rotten framing and all that goodstuff reinforcing the roof to
add new equipment, energymodeling, which is sort of my
bailiwick.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Bailiwick is another one.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's not Gen X, I don't know.
That's like Boomer, maybe.
Yeah bailiwick.
I don't know where that camefrom.
That's like Boomer, maybe.
Yeah, baileyway, I don't knowwhere that came from.
And then monitoring as well,which is one of my favorite
things to do.
Let's actually measure theimpact to air quality energy.
What?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
about the air quality ?
Are you changing carpetmaterials?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
No, mostly ventilation.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh ventilation.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
So these older residential buildings, the way
they're ventilated, is you openyour window?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And then you have a manual bath fan and you might
have a range hood fan.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
What the hell is a manual bath fan?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You turn on the fan when you go in the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
That's manual, so you're not cranking it with your
hand.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, if you push something with your finger,
that's manual.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, I'll get you what would be automatic.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It just happened If it was on a humidistat or
something it just would ramp upAll right, or what we actually
have done, which is heatrecovery ventilators, so yeah,
and then you have some corridorpressurization just to control
smells and smoke, yeah, so itdoesn't work.
That system doesn't work verywell for providing adequate
(25:05):
ventilation.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
And then what happens when there's a wildfire, smoke
event, where you live in areally noisy street, where you
don't want to have your windowsopen, or there's security
concerns for leaving your windowopen.
So we actually did addressventilation as part of this
project as well.
So we monitored, like we putsensors in like five suites in
each building to kind of get abaseline before the project, and
(25:30):
then we added these little heatrecovery ventilators that are
continuously ventilating,whereas before there was just
the bath fan and the windows andthen we'll monitor it for a
year after the retrofit and seewhat the change is and hopefully
we see an improvement.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Nice, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
But you saw an improvement pretty much right
away.
Right, you were saying thatthere was.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Well, the windows are very noticeable.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Like yeah, I walked into one of the suites where
they had just done the windowand there's still like holes in
the wall because there's otherstuff we were going to do.
But they put the new windows inand I always like to talk to
the tenants when I see them likewhat you know, how is it?
Like it's amazing, and likethey comment on the quietness
too.
Like we did triple glazedwindows on this one building and
(26:17):
they were the building's closeto a hospital, so they got lots
of siren noise and stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, so it was like quiet, yeah, and some of the
suites probably need very littleheat now.
Yeah, it's also a big building,so there's some internal gains
and stuff.
Yeah, that's one of the thingsI like about the enclosure side
of things is that it's so simpleand effective and it's
immediate and it's done Likewe're.
(26:48):
You know, with these projects.
The enclosures have been donefor many months now, the
mechanical systems havetechnically been done for many
months and we're kind of gettinginto the verification phase now
, except that we're still tryingto get the mechanical systems
working how we want them to yeahand it's surprisingly
complicated, like just like backand forth, like the controls
(27:10):
are just getting the outputs tobe able to understand how the
systems is work.
Is working?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
yes, they're going from floor to floor to floor
like all the controls, heat, Imean.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
It's very difficult to do setting temperatures for
return water loops and yeah,it's kind of endless yeah, and
then you've got to probably keep.
You got to keep on top of thatover time too.
So there's a big educationcomponent.
The building owners yeah whenwe hand over that, so that they
maintain these savings as well.
So the enclosure simple, justworks yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So that's it pretty interesting that you guys went
from sort of leaky condomitigation all the way to this
very complex.
It's basically builtenvironment monitoring and
optimization basically.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, I would say I think from day one RDH has had a
research bent.
Yeah, I would say I think fromday one RDH had a research bent,
because I think the wholedevelopment of the rain screen
approach to solve the leakycondo crisis was a bit of an
experiment in testing.
So there's always been thatkind of philosophy and bent.
Like we do a lot of materialtesting and stuff, so it sort of
(28:17):
naturally lended itself to.
Like when I came on on board, Iwas really interested in heat
pumps and so I kind of took itin a different direction.
But we already had a lot ofgreat relationships with funders
, like people like cmhc or bchousing, who are always looking
to improve buildings and lookingfor research projects.
Um, so it's kind of a naturalextension tailored to the
(28:41):
interests of an individual.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, it seems like there's a pretty good
opportunity moving forward.
A lot of buildings with theextra heat from the summers
we're seeing like I know frombeing involved with my strata we
have the west side of thebuilding basically gets baked
(29:07):
and then the east side of thebuilding gets moss, it's green
and the other side is likebleached Just because of the way
that and seals are gettingbaked out and there's.
I mean, are you seeing thatthat amount of work is just
becoming way more prevalent thanit ever was?
A building's 20 years old, morethan 20 years old, that kind of
(29:30):
like they're realizing they'renot lasting as long.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I don't know, I'm not so much involved on that side
of things, okay, but I think wedo see differential wear for
various reasons.
Yeah, involved on that side ofthings, but we, I think we do
see differential wear forvarious reasons.
Um, one of the interesting oneswas, um, like there's been a
lot of work in vancouver to likejust the buildings that have
sort of degraded over timebecause of just how wet it is,
yeah, and then we look at a verysimilar building in Victoria
(29:59):
where I live, and they're fine,like the same vintage of
building is fine, and we thinkit's because, well, we do get a
bit less rain in Victoria, butthen we also have a lot more
wind.
So there's just more opportunityfor the building to dry out,
like after the wet season.
That's a theory anywayInteresting.
Every building, kind of, isdifferent, that's a theory
(30:21):
anyway, interesting Everybuilding kind of is different.
I guess it's sort ofunfortunate in a way, because
everyone wants to have the magicbullet that's going to fix
every building.
But the reality is that everybuilding has something unique
about it, Some weird thing.
When you take off the claddingyou're like, oh that's
surprising.
And then you've got to dealwith it.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
So what are you excited about moving forward
with RDH?
And then you've got to dealwith it.
So what are you excited aboutmoving forward with RDH?
What are you looking at thatgives you more zing in your step
?
You're like, oh, I can't waitto do that.
Or maybe there's newtechnologies, new things.
What gets you excited?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I would like to do a pilot.
I'm always excited about themonitoring studies.
We're just wrapping up onewhere we've monitored hybrid
heat pump retrofits in like 40homes across BC.
So another forest projectactually, where so?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
hybrid heat pump.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So hybrid heat pump is where you have a heat pump
air to water or an air to airheat pump that's doing the
primary heating, but then, onceit gets below a certain
temperature, you switch over toa gas furnace.
Okay, so it's got a combinedthing, I see, yeah, and then the
controls have to be integratedso that all works, and there's
all kinds of things that can gohaywire or be done differently
(31:35):
with just how homeowners operatethings.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
The good old heat pump.
That's just like I had.
People were putting airconditioning our building's not
air conditioned and they hadpeople putting air conditioning
and they needed a heat pump andthey'd take up like a third of
their balcony with a heat pumpLike bloody hell.
It's like is that going toevolve at some point to be a
smaller footprint?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
They already have evolved to be smaller.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I would say You've seen those big?
Speaker 2 (32:04):
like.
I call them jet engines, likethe really old, the older
generation heat pumps.
Yeah, with the big fan on thetop, yeah, and they just sound
like a jet engine when they turnon.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I mean, these ones are more quiet, but they're
still not that small.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
That's true, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
They've got to get there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
If we're trying to populate Mars, we should be able
to get a heap on smaller Peopleare all excited about these.
They're called packaged thermalair conditioning units what's?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Well, it's all in one unit.
The compressor and evaporatorare all in one unit, so you have
to install it on an exteriorwall and then it has sort of two
openings and then it sort ofruns the air through the unit
and it does the same thing, butit's has much lower capacity
(32:50):
than traditional split systemdoes so.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
The applications are somewhat limited by comparison
yeah, and punching through theenvelopes, not that, yeah, you
have bigger holes in theenclosure and then a lot of
these units are quite leaky.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
So we've been working with some of the manufacturers
to just make a better box sothat when it's not on the
manufacturers must love you guys.
Eh, Some of them do Some ofthem do on the other hand,
that's pretty cool, alright,chrissy.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, this was very informative and it's nice to get
to know you.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
You as well, yeah it was fun.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
You're an iceberg.
Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I'm an iceberg, oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, a lot of information under the water
there, so that's pretty cool.
At least I got to dive down alittle bit, so that's pretty
cool, all right.
Well, thank you and enjoy theshow.
How do people get a hold of you?
Do you want people to contactyou?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Sure, yeah, you can go through the RDHcom website.
Perfect, also on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And if people want to work on your team.
Maybe You're all looking forgreat people, oh yeah, we almost
always have active job postings.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Perfect, reach out.
I like to meet with youngprofessionals in particular, and
young women professionals, ifthey're wondering about how to
develop their career and, um,yeah, always make time for
people perfect, okay.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Well, enjoy the show and thank you for spending some
time with me, appreciate it.
Thanks so much, james.
All right, thank you, ciao.
Well, that does it for anotherepisode of the Site Visit.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to stay connected withus by following our social
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You can also sign up for ourmonthly newsletter at
(34:31):
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All right, let's get back tobuilding.
Welcome to the Site.
Visit Podcast Leadership andPerspective from Construction
with your host, James Faulkner,Recorded live from the show
floor at BuildX Vancouver 2025.
All right, I'm here withChristy Love.
(00:24):
That's Christy, not Christy,correct?
Oh yeah, Christy, Christy good,Can't get that one wrong.
That's true.
A lot of Christys that I'veknown over the years.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, and a good.
How are they spelled?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I-E-Y.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Some Ks.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Oh yeah, but I always get tripped on the Kirstie.
Oh yeah, oh, they're like it'sKirsten or Kristen or Kirsten.
It's like oh cheers, kirsten.
I know it's just so manymacerations of the Krip.
You can call me Christy,christy, that's an easy one.
Okay, so you are the.
Oh, hang on, you are A I haveto be careful on putting the
(01:02):
label of the specialist but youare an energy and climate
specialist at RDH, that'scorrect.
So RDH, great organization.
As we were chatting offlinebefore, this got its start in
the old school fixing theproblems of the rainforest we
(01:25):
live in the pacific north coastof the leaky condo thing
originally and sort of inventedthat screens that you would see
in these high rises and fixingthe envelopes and making sure
nothing fell on anyone's headand uh, so yeah, it's pretty
cool.
That's right.
Yeah, and now, how many?
How big is the organization now?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think we're about 350.
If I had to guess and like nineoffices nine offices don't?
I think we're about 350, if Ihad to guess and like nine
offices Nine offices.
Don't quote me, but we'reacross North America.
We've got Vancouver, victoria,a few people in Courtney,
toronto on the Canadian side, ohwow, seattle, portland Is.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Toronto recently new.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Not that new.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
The company's gone for what?
20 years or something?
Yep, yeah, I think 20 years orsomething.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yep, yeah, I think early 90s when they started.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Interesting.
So you're working on a numberof projects.
You were talking about FortisBC, one that you were doing, and
you also mentioned on the teamside of things which you're very
excited about.
Now, in terms of the structure,I was looking through the
(02:30):
website of RDH and it seems likethere's a lot of principles.
What is the organizationalstructure?
How does that work?
Are you considered a principalin Victoria?
How does that all work?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, so there are somewhere around 40 principals.
So the general business modelof RDH, that's 11%.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
A lot of principals.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, somewhat unusual for our industry.
We're very broadly owned, sowe're obviously a private
company.
Yeah, so anyone who's been withthe company for a couple years
and we've sort of judged thatthey're aligned with our core
values and they are a long-termasset.
They're offered shares so youcan start buying just like 25
shares or whatever and just getyour foot in the door and then,
(03:13):
each year that there are sharesavailable, you can kind of buy
up and then, as you progress interms of responsibility, you
have the opportunity to become aprincipal.
So principals do have like aminimum floor of the number of
shares they have to own.
It's sort of a yeah, like we're.
We're the people who are reallyresponsible for the success of
(03:33):
the business and so you know,being a share owner means you
can.
You're also things go belly up.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You're on the hook, so there's accountability there.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, You've got to have that accountability
accountability.
So yeah, it's broadly owned andyeah, from what I've heard of
other consulting firms, it's afairly unusual model, like a lot
of consultants are more tightlyheld with a very small group.
So that's one of kind of thecore founding principles of RDH
since the beginning was thatthey wanted it to be broadly
(04:05):
owned and it shows in terms ofjust sort of, I guess, pride in
the company and that sense ofaccountability and ownership and
like I've had a lot of freedomto develop according to my
interests and skills andbasically create my own sort of
business area within the company.
That's something I've reallyappreciated about being at RDH.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So you being so, what's your background then?
So how did you get into?
How long have you been with thecompany for?
About 11 years now 11 years,okay, and what were you doing
before this?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So I worked at two different mechanical consulting
firms.
So I did a civil engineeringdegree Okay, an arts degree
before that, but we probablydon't need to talk about that.
But when it came to like whatam I going to do for a career, I
actually feel like my artsdegree has probably served me
better.
It makes me a better consultant, probably, than the engineer.
(05:00):
I mean, the engineering stuffis critical obviously.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Less of an insult and more of a consultant.
Sure, that's my favorite one.
I've used that many times.
I like that.
I hadn't heard that before.
An consultant.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
An consultant yeah.
Yeah.
So I did a civil engineeringdegree at UBC and I was pretty
open about civil engineering.
Civil engineering is very broadand I was pretty open about
civil engineering is very broad.
So transportation, structures,materials, water and wastewater
treatment, plumbing it's kind ofendless, and so you just touch
(05:37):
on very lightly all thesedifferent subjects.
So I was pretty open when Igraduated about what I wanted to
do, except that I knew I wantedto be involved with
sustainability in some way.
That was the big term at thetime.
I wanted to make a differencein the world.
So initially my dream job was Iwas going to work for the city
of Vancouver.
(05:57):
They have a transportation,engineering and community
planning joint department.
I thought that's great.
I didn't get hired, okay, andall the funding for
transportation had been cut bythe province.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Was it the arts?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
degree that did it Right when I graduated.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Like wait, she's way too creative.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, no one would even talk to me if all I had was
the arts degree.
This is great.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
This is great.
You was the arts degree.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
This is true, you needed the engineering degree to
get the interview, and thenthey're like oh cool, you have
an arts degree.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, exactly the icing.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, so I was just casting about.
I actually got a one-year jobwith engineers and geoscientists
, bc, as their sustainabilityresearcher.
So I worked for theirsustainability committee and met
a whole bunch of people indifferent sectors who are doing
cool things, and so I got kindof keyed into the green building
world and at that time themechanical engineers were really
(06:52):
driving things.
That's when, like, lead wasbecoming kind of a thing, yeah,
and the mechanical engineerswere really driving it.
So I got a job with amechanical engineer, despite the
fact that I'm a civil.
Yeah, I actually did marketingfor them for the first couple of
years weirdly.
And then, yeah, and then sort ofswitched back over to the
(07:14):
technical side, worked for thatfirm for five years.
And then I actually moved toPortland, oregon, and worked for
a different mechanicalconsulting firm for five years
and always just finding thesustainability projects,
sticking my hand up for those.
You know you had to do.
You still had to do like theduck sizing and all the, because
(07:35):
there wasn't really enough atthat time to just do
sustainability related stuff.
But I did some cool projects.
And then I met RDH.
They were looking for someonein Portland.
I just had my daughter, so Iwasn't really looking for a big
change.
But I thought, hey, I looked upthe website.
I hadn't even heard of RDH.
I'm like, oh, they have aVictoria office.
(07:57):
So I thought, well, if I coulduse this as an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So were you American then, or not?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
No, I'm Canadian.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, yeah, you had a green card to work in Portland,
obviously.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
A TN visa actually.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Oh, okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Anyway, so you moved back to the homeland.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, so it was an opportunity to move back and, as
I learned more about thecompany, it was a pretty
exciting opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah Cool.
Yeah so it's been 11 years now11 years, and so you are a
principal now.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I am yes.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Wow, Pretty exciting, huh it is.
That's pretty cool.
So I would think that having11% of the population of a
company being principals, thatlevel sets a really great
understanding of a family kindof I don't want to say family
(08:43):
but a group of people of similarinterests.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, but when I say interests, I don't mean hobby.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I mean similar career interests in terms of moving
the company forward and gettinggreat projects, hiring people
that are going to uplifteverybody, etc.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, it's still a very diverse group and I do
think that's one of thestrengths of RDH, but there are
definitely principles that Ithink I've met almost all of
them, but maybe not all of themat this point.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
And some of them do completely different things.
Do you have a big summit thatyou guys go to?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We used to do that.
We're a bit big now and well,covid kind of kiboshed that, but
there used to be like we kindof come together once a year.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Is it kibosh or kibosh?
I always say kibosh, I say thesame as you, but that sounds
like food.
It does.
Would you like some kibosh?
I have some in the back of thetruck.
No, no, it doesn't reallyresonate.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I already had lunch, did you Okay?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I don't really like my kibosh, or kibosh it does.
Yeah, it sounds like babaganoush.
Anyway, we digress.
Okay, so you were saying thatobviously the team is too big
now to have this kind of a thing, but you guys have, culturally,
(09:58):
how do you all sort of cometogether in that way?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I think it's something we're still evolving
because we're also veryconscious of, you know, the
impact of flying around NorthAmerica just to see each other
in person, as valuable as thatis.
One of my most enjoyable thingsI've done in the last couple of
years is the women principalshave gotten together and it was
quite organic.
It was just like one of thewomen principals from Toronto
(10:23):
was like hey, I'm going to be inSeattle, let's hook up.
And then, well, I'm just inVictoria so I can just pop over
and end up being like eight ofus.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I think there are about 12 of us now.
Total um yeah, so it's justnice to connect with the woman.
Principal experiences is sortof it's.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's a unique thing, so it's just nice to find your
people right in a way I meanit's uh, yeah, there's, there's
certain challenges that in everyit's just it's human nature
Can't get away from it.
I mean we can try, we can tryour hardest, but the reality is
(11:02):
that it's great to be aroundpeople, that you have, that see
things in a similar light.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, I mean, it's a shared experience.
Exactly, and being a woman in amale light.
Yeah, it's a shared experience,and being a woman in a
male-dominated field and amale-dominated company is there
are just things that we have allgone through together to be
recognized.
The company's come a long waybut, we still end up having
(11:34):
similar struggles and everyonehas struggles always obviously
in life um, but it's just niceto be able to connect like, oh
yeah, you just kind of nod ateach other like, yeah, I get it
do you know what I find isactually, um, very interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Um, is that the from observing many, many
construction companies you know.
You know, via CYMAX I find thisis specific to women in
construction is that many, mostof the women are this connective
tissue critical person that isholding companies together.
(12:09):
I find A lot.
I mean you have the.
You know a lot of field crews,you know they're doing a lot of.
I mean you have the.
You know a lot of field crews,you know they're doing a lot of
the work but a lot of planning,a lot of the things there.
It's just a different vibethere and I think that that kind
of gets lost sometimes on howimportant that aspect is.
I don't know what emotionalintelligence or something, but
(12:32):
it's pretty cool.
Yeah, something like that,something like that I know this
is all radioactive conversation,but um, but I mean it's a good
thing you probably found thatwith your, with your rdh, do you
have like a little group namefor that, the rdh?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
oh fire, I think this I can't remember what it is.
Well, it stands for somethingand I can't remember what it was
.
So, yeah, it didn't stick.
It didn't stick, at least notwith me.
Didn't get the T-shirt, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
That's cool, all right.
So can we chat a little bitabout?
So you're working on thisproject, project and um with um.
Can we chat about that?
Sure, yeah, yeah, so this wasum with um fortis bc, so you
would go into um.
You said you had to perhapsrecruit some of the projects,
(13:26):
did you?
Do you have to get involved inthat part to get projects to
sign on, to be able to do thisand for for, uh, the energy
project yes, well, I mean, itdepends on the project, but if
we want to talk specificallyabout the pilot, yes, the pilot.
How did that work?
Where did it start?
What was the impetus of it?
And then, how did you guys getinvolved?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, so Fortis is always looking to develop new
programs.
They have a commitment toreduce emissions, like BC Hydro.
So the two utilities areregulated by the BC Utilities
Commission.
And they're required to have aplan for reducing emissions, and
so part of that plan isincentive programs.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So when you say emissions, how does that
manifest itself?
Just for people who don't?
What do you mean?
Well, emissions, so obviouslyon Fortis BC.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Burning fossil fuels yes.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, burning fossil fuels, but in BC hydro,
hydroelectric power, there isn'tany, is there?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
There are.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It's just much less carbon intensive than combusting
fuels, but there are stillemissions.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
There are still emissions from creating power
From hydroelectric.
I'm just trying to level setthat.
Yeah, I totally get it.
When Fortis BC, if you'reburning your fireplace all the
time you're burning fossil fuel,get it Easy.
That one slammed up, but it waslike hydroelectric power
turning a turbine, water iscoming through creating
(14:49):
electricity from generator.
There's no emission there.
I don't know, I'm just tryingto figure it out, but I guess
what you mean is so also it usedto be really focused on energy
efficiency, right?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So I guess, yeah, basically the concept is that BC
.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Like leaking energy.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Inefficient buildings yeah yeah, Because that's
really where you guys getinvolved is like how do you use
less so you can have less of afootprint?
That's right.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay, regardless of their fuel type.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So it's just been.
It's shifted a little bit inthe last few years to be more
focused on emissions.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Okay, just to meet, like the province's climate
commitments and whatnot, andthis comes from that commission
that you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
But there's still an efficiency element to it.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So, yeah, the utilities have to come up with
five-year plans that getapproved by BCUC and that kind
of sets out how they're going tospend their money to save
energy and or reduce emissions,right, so one of the things that
Fortis is investing in is deepretrofits of existing
multifamily buildings.
(15:54):
Right, okay, and they're likeokay, so how do we do this?
How much can we save andtherefore take credit for, as
we're reporting back to DCUC?
So this is kind of how, like,their incentive programs tend to
develop.
So the pilot project is reallyinforming the eventual
development of a incentiveprogram.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I see yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So the recruitment comes in.
We want a diversity of buildingtypes, ideally like high-rise
and low-rise, and differentclimates represented.
So something in the interior,something lower mainland.
Different ownership types,possibly like affordable housing
or market rentals.
These are all rental-focusedprograms, so they put out a call
(16:35):
.
So Fortis puts out a call andsays, hey, you're interested in
being part of this pilot andbasically Fortis is going to pay
for everything.
So a bunch of building ownersapply and then we as a team
evaluate the applicants for whatwe think the potential savings
are.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So you guys are like the American Idol judges?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, sort of Are they going to be easy to work
with?
There's a bit of that.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So what was the application volume versus how
many people got?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I think we had about 20 buildings long listed and
then we selected four.
Okay, One of them ended updropping out for various reasons
Pretty invasive right.
That wasn't the reason theydropped out.
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
So would it be a similar thing to?
So what did that?
Obviously, it's a multifacetedproject, but so when you
long-list and then you the shortlist and then you get to the
four, so with the four of those,those different types of
structures, then one high-riseone and then the different areas
(17:44):
as well yeah, we had, um, theones that went ahead.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
We had a high-rise concrete rental building built
in the 1970s in the city ofVancouver, okay, and we had an
affordable housing four-storywood frame building, also built
in the 70s in the city of NorthVancouver.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And then we had a market rental wood frame
low-rise building in Kamloops.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Okay, yeah, okay.
So you're going through.
So you do an estimate of whatyou think you can save by doing
x, y and z.
So how do they determine whatthey're going to do?
So do you guys have to do thefeasibility there?
Study on on exactly what thewhat you could do yes, exactly
yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So we started out as part of the recruitment phase.
We kind of did an initial likereally spreadsheet based, sort
of like okay, here's how muchenergy they use now and
emissions, and based on thesystems they have and the
retrofits they've done over time.
So, for example, the bestcandidate in terms of savings
(18:44):
would be a building that hasoriginal single glazed aluminum
framed windows right very littlewall insulation.
Um, Really old boilers.
One of the stipulations of theprogram is that they had to be
gas-heated buildings and theyhad to remain gas-heated
buildings.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So that's just one of the particularities, Otherwise
why would they pay Exactly?
Yeah, Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And then, yeah, so old mechanical systems that are
due for replacement.
So, yeah, so we do a fullmodeling, we create a digital
model of the building, we takeall the utility bills, we
calibrate the model so that itrepresents how the building's
actually functioning, and thenwe test.
I mean, we're a consultant team.
(19:29):
We all have a lot of experiencewith retrofits, so we of have
our our list of things that weknow are going to be impactful,
based on what we know about thebuilding.
And then we also have therequirements from fortis for
what what we can do.
So gas-based systems meanswe're going to replace the old
boiler with a gas absorptionheat pump oh yeah, or a gas
(19:51):
engine heat pump.
So then we model all themeasures, we put together
different packages of measures.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Can I just ask you a question on the?
So it's built way back then.
Obviously, the cities have theoriginal plans.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
No, they almost never do.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
They didn't Okay, so they don't have any.
So how did you guys, did youguys actually build like new 3D
models?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, we often do have to do that where we Holy,
that's a lot of work, don't it?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So you have to, like, get every measurement right and
every floor and Like you,basically, are rebuilding the
plans.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, most.
I mean they're fairly simplestructures, like they tend to be
rectangles with somearticulations.
So you know, you can kind oftake.
Sometimes there are hard copyplans that we can get from the
city and we'll basically tracethe floor plans and sort of
build it.
That way we can use, likethrough Google Earth.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Take measurements off .
Speaker 2 (20:55):
So there's a number of ways we can do that.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So you end up with an actual visual model before the
work starts.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Wow crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And then we use that to create the drawing sets that
are then going to be bid andbuilt.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Jeez, that's a lot of work.
Pre-work Jeez, yeah, that's alot of work.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Pre-work, yes, and that is, I think, one of the
most important things with doinga deep retrofit, or like a
holistic retrofit, when you'reaffecting multiple systems with
people living in the building.
So, they have to live in thewhole time.
We never kick anybody out ofthe building.
We do a lot of work from theexterior, so like adding
exterior insulation.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
That's a very Gen X thing to say.
By the way, kick, we do a lotof work from the exterior, so
like adding exterior insulation.
That's a very Gen X thing tosay, by the way, Kick you, is it
?
I am Gen X.
I know Well, I can tell.
Yeah, we're both Gen X.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So what is?
Is Renovix Gen Z or what?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
No Displace.
Oh, okay, right You're supposedto be kicked out.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I guess yeah, kicked out is kind of the yeah, the
sort of opaque terms to veil thereal meaning.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, so we don't kick anyone out.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
We can replace windows from the outside.
We usually build scaffoldingaround the building.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So you can replace yeah, because they do come from
the outside right the windowsfrom the outside Mostly.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Sometimes you have to do it from the inside but,
usually we can do most of thework from the outside Because
you're doing the frames too.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
That's the hard part.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, yeah, and all the detailing, so that we have a
proper air barrier.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
All that good stuff, so yeah.
So in order to execute all thatwhile people are living in the
building it does take one youhave to really plan the work
well, yeah, and then we oftenconstruction manage these as
well.
So there's that whole like.
We have like a very detailedschedule and we phase things so
that you can minimize theentries into any one person's
(22:49):
suite.
So we've got it down so that theday of window replacement it
all happens in one day.
The old window comes out, thenew window comes in, the
tenant's happy, they're likesuper comfortable, and then they
do the finishing later.
Um, but yeah, so that kind ofretrofit takes.
(23:10):
I think you, when we initiallyundertook the project fortis had
a schedule in the rfp andthey'd sort of swapped things
where it was like eight monthsof design and 18 months of
construction and we're like no,no, okay, well, we need to spend
probably a year planning andthen we can get construction
down to 10 months, minimize thedisruption, but you've got to do
that planning up front.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So you're ready, nice .
So it's an exciting project todo.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Super exciting Part of it was that we kind of got to
do all of the scopes of workthat RDH does so building
enclosure, consulting structuralengineering like shoring up
rotten framing and all that goodstuff reinforcing the roof to
add new equipment, energymodeling, which is sort of my
bailiwick.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Bailiwick is another one.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's not Gen X, I don't know.
That's like Boomer, maybe.
Yeah bailiwick.
I don't know where that camefrom.
That's like Boomer, maybe.
Yeah, baileyway, I don't knowwhere that came from.
And then monitoring as well,which is one of my favorite
things to do.
Let's actually measure theimpact to air quality energy.
What?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
about the air quality ?
Are you changing carpetmaterials?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
No, mostly ventilation.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh ventilation.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
So these older residential buildings, the way
they're ventilated, is you openyour window?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And then you have a manual bath fan and you might
have a range hood fan.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
What the hell is a manual bath fan?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You turn on the fan when you go in the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
That's manual, so you're not cranking it with your
hand.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, if you push something with your finger,
that's manual.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, I'll get you what would be automatic.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It just happened If it was on a humidistat or
something it just would ramp upAll right, or what we actually
have done, which is heatrecovery ventilators, so yeah,
and then you have some corridorpressurization just to control
smells and smoke, yeah, so itdoesn't work.
That system doesn't work verywell for providing adequate
(25:05):
ventilation.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
And then what happens when there's a wildfire, smoke
event, where you live in areally noisy street, where you
don't want to have your windowsopen, or there's security
concerns for leaving your windowopen.
So we actually did addressventilation as part of this
project as well.
So we monitored, like we putsensors in like five suites in
each building to kind of get abaseline before the project, and
(25:30):
then we added these little heatrecovery ventilators that are
continuously ventilating,whereas before there was just
the bath fan and the windows andthen we'll monitor it for a
year after the retrofit and seewhat the change is and hopefully
we see an improvement.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Nice, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
But you saw an improvement pretty much right
away.
Right, you were saying thatthere was.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Well, the windows are very noticeable.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Like yeah, I walked into one of the suites where
they had just done the windowand there's still like holes in
the wall because there's otherstuff we were going to do.
But they put the new windows inand I always like to talk to
the tenants when I see them likewhat you know, how is it?
Like it's amazing, and likethey comment on the quietness
too.
Like we did triple glazedwindows on this one building and
(26:17):
they were the building's closeto a hospital, so they got lots
of siren noise and stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, so it was like quiet, yeah, and some of the
suites probably need very littleheat now.
Yeah, it's also a big building,so there's some internal gains
and stuff.
Yeah, that's one of the thingsI like about the enclosure side
of things is that it's so simpleand effective and it's
immediate and it's done Likewe're.
(26:48):
You know, with these projects.
The enclosures have been donefor many months now, the
mechanical systems havetechnically been done for many
months and we're kind of gettinginto the verification phase now
, except that we're still tryingto get the mechanical systems
working how we want them to yeahand it's surprisingly
complicated, like just like backand forth, like the controls
(27:10):
are just getting the outputs tobe able to understand how the
systems is work.
Is working?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
yes, they're going from floor to floor to floor
like all the controls, heat, Imean.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
It's very difficult to do setting temperatures for
return water loops and yeah,it's kind of endless yeah, and
then you've got to probably keep.
You got to keep on top of thatover time too.
So there's a big educationcomponent.
The building owners yeah whenwe hand over that, so that they
maintain these savings as well.
So the enclosure simple, justworks yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So that's it pretty interesting that you guys went
from sort of leaky condomitigation all the way to this
very complex.
It's basically builtenvironment monitoring and
optimization basically.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, I would say I think from day one RDH has had a
research bent.
Yeah, I would say I think fromday one RDH had a research bent,
because I think the wholedevelopment of the rain screen
approach to solve the leakycondo crisis was a bit of an
experiment in testing.
So there's always been thatkind of philosophy and bent.
Like we do a lot of materialtesting and stuff, so it sort of
(28:17):
naturally lended itself to.
Like when I came on on board, Iwas really interested in heat
pumps and so I kind of took itin a different direction.
But we already had a lot ofgreat relationships with funders
, like people like cmhc or bchousing, who are always looking
to improve buildings and lookingfor research projects.
Um, so it's kind of a naturalextension tailored to the
(28:41):
interests of an individual.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, it seems like there's a pretty good
opportunity moving forward.
A lot of buildings with theextra heat from the summers
we're seeing like I know frombeing involved with my strata we
have the west side of thebuilding basically gets baked
(29:07):
and then the east side of thebuilding gets moss, it's green
and the other side is likebleached Just because of the way
that and seals are gettingbaked out and there's.
I mean, are you seeing thatthat amount of work is just
becoming way more prevalent thanit ever was?
A building's 20 years old, morethan 20 years old, that kind of
(29:30):
like they're realizing they'renot lasting as long.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I don't know, I'm not so much involved on that side
of things, okay, but I think wedo see differential wear for
various reasons.
Yeah, involved on that side ofthings, but we, I think we do
see differential wear forvarious reasons.
Um, one of the interesting oneswas, um, like there's been a
lot of work in vancouver to likejust the buildings that have
sort of degraded over timebecause of just how wet it is,
yeah, and then we look at a verysimilar building in Victoria
(29:59):
where I live, and they're fine,like the same vintage of
building is fine, and we thinkit's because, well, we do get a
bit less rain in Victoria, butthen we also have a lot more
wind.
So there's just more opportunityfor the building to dry out,
like after the wet season.
That's a theory anywayInteresting.
Every building, kind of, isdifferent, that's a theory
(30:21):
anyway, interesting Everybuilding kind of is different.
I guess it's sort ofunfortunate in a way, because
everyone wants to have the magicbullet that's going to fix
every building.
But the reality is that everybuilding has something unique
about it, Some weird thing.
When you take off the claddingyou're like, oh that's
surprising.
And then you've got to dealwith it.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
So what are you excited about moving forward
with RDH?
And then you've got to dealwith it.
So what are you excited aboutmoving forward with RDH?
What are you looking at thatgives you more zing in your step
?
You're like, oh, I can't waitto do that.
Or maybe there's newtechnologies, new things.
What gets you excited?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I would like to do a pilot.
I'm always excited about themonitoring studies.
We're just wrapping up onewhere we've monitored hybrid
heat pump retrofits in like 40homes across BC.
So another forest projectactually, where so?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
hybrid heat pump.
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So hybrid heat pump is where you have a heat pump
air to water or an air to airheat pump that's doing the
primary heating, but then, onceit gets below a certain
temperature, you switch over toa gas furnace.
Okay, so it's got a combinedthing, I see, yeah, and then the
controls have to be integratedso that all works, and there's
all kinds of things that can gohaywire or be done differently
(31:35):
with just how homeowners operatethings.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
The good old heat pump.
That's just like I had.
People were putting airconditioning our building's not
air conditioned and they hadpeople putting air conditioning
and they needed a heat pump andthey'd take up like a third of
their balcony with a heat pumpLike bloody hell.
It's like is that going toevolve at some point to be a
smaller footprint?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
They already have evolved to be smaller.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I would say You've seen those big?
Speaker 2 (32:04):
like.
I call them jet engines, likethe really old, the older
generation heat pumps.
Yeah, with the big fan on thetop, yeah, and they just sound
like a jet engine when they turnon.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I mean, these ones are more quiet, but they're
still not that small.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
That's true, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
They've got to get there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
If we're trying to populate Mars, we should be able
to get a heap on smaller Peopleare all excited about these.
They're called packaged thermalair conditioning units what's?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Well, it's all in one unit.
The compressor and evaporatorare all in one unit, so you have
to install it on an exteriorwall and then it has sort of two
openings and then it sort ofruns the air through the unit
and it does the same thing, butit's has much lower capacity
(32:50):
than traditional split systemdoes so.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
The applications are somewhat limited by comparison
yeah, and punching through theenvelopes, not that, yeah, you
have bigger holes in theenclosure and then a lot of
these units are quite leaky.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
So we've been working with some of the manufacturers
to just make a better box sothat when it's not on the
manufacturers must love you guys.
Eh, Some of them do Some ofthem do on the other hand,
that's pretty cool, alright,chrissy.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, this was very informative and it's nice to get
to know you.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
You as well, yeah it was fun.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
You're an iceberg.
Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I'm an iceberg, oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, a lot of information under the water
there, so that's pretty cool.
At least I got to dive down alittle bit, so that's pretty
cool, all right.
Well, thank you and enjoy theshow.
How do people get a hold of you?
Do you want people to contactyou?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Sure, yeah, you can go through the RDHcom website.
Perfect, also on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And if people want to work on your team.
Maybe You're all looking forgreat people, oh yeah, we almost
always have active job postings.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Perfect, reach out.
I like to meet with youngprofessionals in particular, and
young women professionals, ifthey're wondering about how to
develop their career and, um,yeah, always make time for
people perfect, okay.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Well, enjoy the show and thank you for spending some
time with me, appreciate it.
Thanks so much, james.
All right, thank you, ciao.
Well, that does it for anotherepisode of the Site Visit.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to stay connected withus by following our social
accounts on Instagram andYouTube.
You can also sign up for ourmonthly newsletter at
(34:31):
sitemaxsystemscom slash the sitevisit, where you'll get
industry insights, pro tips andeverything you need to know
about the Site Visit podcast andSitemax, the job site and
construction management tool ofchoice for thousands of
contractors in North America andbeyond.
Sitemax is also the engine thatpowers this podcast.
All right, let's get back tobuilding.
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