Services

Flow has extensive experience in base building mechanical and electrical retrofits and tenant improvements, deriving smart solutions from constraints and exceeding clients’ expectations.

Bassam Yammine, Partner, Flow Engineering

Flow’s mechanical and electrical services run the gamut for most building types and systems, from general design and management services to advising, investigating and reporting to base building upgrades.

Our multitalented team has complementary skills that allow us to apply intelligent mechanical and electrical engineering solutions across a breadth of projects. Our guiding principle of collaborative problem solving promotes looking at challenges through a creative lens, leveraging differences to arrive at smart, practical, and sustainable solutions regardless of project type.

We’ve listed the details of our core areas of practice below. Check out our projects page for a showcase of our solutions.

General Design and Management Services

Mechanical
  • Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning

    Design of HVAC systems such as air handling units, heat/energy recovery ventilators, heat pumps, rooftop units, VAV boxes, fan arrays, dust collection systems.

    Fire Hall No. 5 & Pacific Spirit Terrace

    90 Alexander

    1988 Wylie

    169 W 7th

  • Plumbing, Water and Drainage Systems

    Design of domestic hot and cold water, sanitary, vent and storm water systems, including ancillary components such as sumps, oil interceptors, grease interceptors, acid neutralizers and others. Coordination with municipalities and design of new incoming services to a building.

  • Base-Building Consulting Services

    Technical review and management services for existing buildings and systems.

  • Building Optimization

    Review of existing building systems and controls to identify potential efficiencies to reduce energy consumption and improve building operation.

  • NECB, ASHRAE, Step Code and LEED Implementation

    Audit of existing buildings for compliance with energy codes or designing new installations conforming to an energy code.

  • Energy Modelling

    Construction of computer models of building systems in order to analyze various system alternatives or compliance with a specific energy code.

  • Project Management

    Professional oversight and management of projects, including requests for proposals, preparation of contracts, certificates of payment, project schedules and meetings.

Electrical
  • Lighting

    Development of lighting layouts and luminaire specifications to meet project requirements, including energy distribution analyses.

    169 W 7th

    West Village Energy Centre

  • Security

    Design of security system infrastructure, including CCTV cameras, alarms, card readers and other associated components.

    West Village Energy Centre

  • High-Voltage Power Distribution

    Design of incoming electrical service, including pad-mounted transformers, unit substations and other arrangements in coordination with local utility providers (i.e. BC Hydro).

    90 Alexander

    West Village Energy Centre

  • Secondary Power Distribution

    Design and specification of power distribution systems carrying energy from distribution transformers to panels and equipment.

    169 W 7th

  • Life Safety Systems

    Design of new or replacement fire alarm systems, including bells, pull stations, speakers, strobe lights, smoke detectors, and ancillary equipment and infrastructure.

    169 W 7th

  • Base-Building Consulting Services

    Technical review of and management services for existing buildings and systems.

  • NECB, ASHRAE, Step Code and LEED Implementation

    Audit of existing buildings for compliance with energy codes or designing new installations confirming to an energy code.

  • Project Management

    Professional oversight and management of projects, including requests for proposals, preparation of contracts, certificates of payment, project schedules and meetings.

Advising, Investigating and Reports

Mechanical
  • System Troubleshooting and Performance Investigation

    Review of existing systems to identify issues and optimal ways to resolve them. Analysis includes leveraging existing information such as drawings, trends and bringing in third parties (e.g. commissioning and balancing agents) to help collect additional data.

  • Mechanical System Building Assessment

    Gathering of information on existing building systems via visual inspection, document collection, manufacturer information, service reports and others to ascertain condition of existing systems.

  • Cooling and Heating Capacity Studies

    Assessment of capacity of existing HVAC systems via calculations and analysis of historical monitoring data (or when historical data is not available, via installation of temporary temperature loggers).

  • Energy Incentive and Optimization Reports

    Professional oversight of studies and implementation related to energy incentive programs such as Continuous Building Optimization, Clean BC and electrification. Administration of analyses on existing chilled and heating water plant systems.

  • Capital Planning Services

    Collaboration with system owners to plan for system refurbishment, overhaul or replacement. Provision of technical data to facilitate budget approval and work schedule throughout current and future capital periods.

Electrical
  • Electrical System Building Assessment

    Gathering of information on existing building systems via visual inspection, document collection, manufacturer information, service reports and others to ascertain condition of existing systems.

  • Building Electrical Capacity Studies

    Assessment of capacity of existing electrical systems via calculations and analysis of historical monitoring data, leveraging the assistance of electricians to log energy consumption as needed.

  • Capital Planning Services

    Collaboration with system owners to plan for system refurbishment, overhaul or replacement. Provision of technical data to facilitate budget approval and work schedule throughout current and future capital periods.

  • Coordination Studies

    Required analysis of various electrical system components to ensure available electrical current is coordinated with each protective device to promote safe operation of electrical system.

  • Arc Flash Studies

    Analysis of an existing power system to determine incident energy available at specific electrical devices, with information used to identify the level of PPE required when accessing specific electrical equipment.

Base Building Upgrades

Mechanical
  • System Re-piping

    Development of strategy and design for re-piping existing systems, including domestic water, storm/sanitary, chilled/heating water and condenser water.

  • End-of-Life Equipment Replacement

    Assessment and design for replacement of existing systems such as heating/cooling coils, fans, valves, chillers, boilers and ancillary components. A strong focus on reducing energy consumption with equipment replacements considering heat recovery, fan arrays and other available technology.

    910 Mainland

  • Elevator Machine Room HVAC Upgrades

    Review of adequacy of existing elevator machine room HVAC systems, with design of modifications as required to facilitate elevator modernizations.

  • Building Service Replacement

    Assessment of required upgrades to existing building services such as storm, sanitary and water connections, and associate coordination with municipalities.

  • UV Disinfection and Air Filtration Upgrades

    Upgrade of existing filtration systems with UV disinfection or more stringent filter packages.

  • Snow Melting Systems

    Protection of exterior areas from ice and snow formatting such as parkades, walkways, outdoor pools and spas.

  • Building Decarbonization

    Development of strategies and system modifications to reduce or eliminate building’s reliance on natural gas and focus on consuming hydro-generated electricity.

Electrical
  • EV Charging Stations and Infrastructure

    Design of immediate and future provisions for electrical vehicle charging stations, including leveraging of the latest smart charging station technology to maximize capacity.

  • Electrical Service Upgrade

    Coordination with BC Hydro and utility providers to upgrade a building’s main electrical service and associated primary distribution.

  • Elevator Modernizations

    Design of electrical and life safety infrastructure to permit elevator modernizations, including review of impact to emergency power where applicable.

  • End-of-Life Equipment Replacement

    Assessment and design for replacement of existing system such as generators, transformers, distribution and fire alarm.

  • Metering and Lighting Controls Upgrades

    Upgrades to electrical distribution to permit addition of electrical consumption meters.

  • Snow Melting Systems

    Protection of exterior areas from ice and snow formatting such as parkades, walkways, outdoor pools and spas.

  • Building Electrification

    Development of strategies and system modifications to accommodate an increased electrical load as a result of building’s reducing their natural gas consumption.