Electrifying York's campus heating
A retrofit plan for York University's gas-fired central plant — heat pumps for 17 buildings and flue-gas heat recovery for 16 — cutting about 3,430 tonnes of CO₂ a year.
≈ 3,430 t of CO₂ a yearfiled underEnergy & thermalSustainability
The problem
York’s Keele campus is heated and cooled from one central plant, the Central Utilities Building, which burns natural gas to make high-pressure steam and chilled water and pipes them across campus through ageing steam tunnels. York has committed to net zero by 2040, and that plant is the biggest obstacle. Switching it all to electric overnight isn’t realistic, so the question was what to do, building by building, and in what order.
Options we compared
| Option | How it works | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Heat pumps | Move heat instead of making it; a COP around 3 means about 3 units of heat per unit of electricity | Higher up-front cost; efficiency drops as it gets colder |
| Flue-gas heat recovery | Captures waste heat from boiler and cogeneration exhaust | Still burning gas, just less of it |
| Better gas boilers | Swap in ~90% efficient boilers | Barely moves emissions |
We scored them on feasibility, efficiency, emissions, installation and maintenance cost, long-term savings and wider environmental impact.
The recommendation
A hybrid. Newer buildings that can take it get air-to-water heat pumps (17 buildings). Older buildings that are hard to retrofit get flue-gas heat recovery first (16 buildings), so they’re more efficient while they wait. It works with what York already has: the campus generates about 60% of its own electricity through cogeneration, which leaves room to absorb the extra electrical load from heat pumps.
The numbers
| Estimate | |
|---|---|
| Heating energy saved | about 17,148 MWh a year |
| CO₂ avoided | about 3,430 tonnes a year |
| Capital cost | about $10.1M |
| After federal and provincial incentives | about $4.1–6.1M |
These came from first-principles energy balances: boilers at 85% efficiency today, heat pumps at a COP of 3, and emissions factors of 0.2 t CO₂/MWh for gas and 0.04 t/MWh for electricity. We cross-checked against published results from Thompson Rivers University and the University at Buffalo.
A ten-year plan
- Years 0–2: make buildings efficient. Flue-gas recovery at the central plant and in buildings, more insulation, smart controls; aim for 10–20% less HVAC energy.
- Years 2–5: start electrifying. Split building clusters off into their own HVAC substations with air- and ground-source heat pumps, shifting 20–30% of demand to electricity and closing unused steam tunnels.
- Years 5–10: finish the switch. Every substation on heat pumps, the steam tunnels retired, and the central plant producing almost only electricity.
Phasing it this way avoids the problems of switching too fast while still landing before 2040.
Scraps from the build
