Reliable Controls’ “Entrepreneur of the Year”
Mike Kerr was in Tucson last month to accept Reliable Controls’ “Entrepreneur of the Year” award on behalf of the Kerr Controls Team. The award was presented at the Reliable Controls Interconnect Conference by Robb Shipley and Rick Rosine, in recognition of sustained new growth in the Western Region in 2017.
The past year has been exciting for the Kerr Controls Team, as we’ve increased our service offerings for clients on Vancouver Island and expanded our presence in Metro Vancouver.
We’ve had some significant organizational changes, with Chad Nichol taking on leadership of our Installation & Service team in Victoria and Geoff Wort expanding his role leading the Maintenance team. Mike Kerr is now directly overseeing our operations in Metro Vancouver to provide a higher level of service to our clients on the mainland.
Of course, our success and growth would not be possible without great partners. We would like to express our appreciation to Reliable Controls for recognizing us, but also for their commitment to having a state-of-the-art product, for working with us on technical issues, for helping our clients find the right solutions, and being accommodating when we had tight deadlines.
I’d also like to give a shout out to the entire Kerr Controls team who earned this award through their continued dedication to making our clients’ lives easier.
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Kerr Controls Inc. awarded the prestigious VICA Subcontractor Award 2023!
Exciting news! Kerr Controls Inc. proudly awarded the prestigious VICA Subcontractor Award 2023 in the category of projects under $2M.
We were very pleased to accept the subcontractor award for our work on the Pexisen Elementary and Centre Mountain Lellum Middle Schools. Kerr Controls installed the internet‐connected building automation control systems in the elementary school, middle school, and central plant to automate the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, and monitor energy consumption. The scope included programming the system software and creating a graphic user interface.
The two schools and central boiler plant were built simultaneously on a large site at 3090 & 3100 Constellation Avenue near Westshore Parkway in Langford. The total construction budget was approximately $88.6 million, and the project was targeted to be built to LEED Gold standards with a focus on energy efficiency.
Kudos to Chad Nichol who led our Kerr Controls Victoria team, and our skilled techs who contributed to the project – Nick Gherasim, Dave Badcock, Kevin Wilson, Ken Pugh, Lee Yuan, and Sam Kerr. Great job team!
We also enjoyed excellent collaboration on this project with Sooke School District 62 , PML Professional Mechanical Ltd., SMcN Consulting Inc., Farmer Construction Ltd. and our partner Reliable Controls.
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Jim Ciccone Civic Center
Project Overview:
In September of 2020, we had the opportunity to participate in the Boiler Replacement Project at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre in the City of Prince Rupert. The project involved replacing ageing boilers with more energy-efficient condensing boilers and pumps.
Kerr Controls Inc. completed the Controls portion of the work. We installed a Reliable Controls building automation system to monitor and control the pool boilers, heating, and domestic hot water boilers, and all associated pumps, heat exchangers, valves and equipment.
The new system has a user-friendly graphic interface and web-server capabilities.
Building Background:
Originally opened as the Prince Rupert Civic Centre on October 16, 1971, the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre has offered a place for the community to live and play actively since its inception. With the Civic Centre’s rededication to Jim Ciccone and his family on February the 9th, 1996, it continues its tradition of steadfast dedication to Prince Rupert and all of its visitors by supplying quality facilities for community activities. Facilities include the Russell Gamble Gymnasium, activity rooms, an auditorium, and an ice arena, aquatic centre.
Partners:
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- Cura Projects (Colin Evans)
- City of Prince Rupert
- Slopeside Mechanical Systems
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Construction & Skilled Trades Month in BC – April 2018
Construction & Skilled Trades Month in BC – April 2018
Kerr Controls celebrated Construction Month in BC with a Friday afternoon get together in April. We would like to congratulate Chad Nichol on receiving a Construction Leadership award for Continual Learning & Improvement which was presented at the event.
Chad currently leads the Kerr Controls installation & service team in Victoria. He is a Red Seal electrician and factory certified Controls Technician. He started his career in construction through the ELT program and did his electrical apprenticeship with Kerr Controls.
The building automation industry is constantly changing as technology evolves and Chad has embraced the principles of continual learning and improvement. He is an early adopter of new technology and is constantly learning both through self-study and formal courses. He pushes himself and encourages those around him to be constantly improving through ongoing learning and process improvement.
Chad is a great role model for those who are considering a rewarding career in the skilled trades!
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Leverage Your Existing Building Control System With Submetering
Leverage your existing building control system with submetering
Submetering is the use of meters to measure, in real time, the usage of resources such as hydro, gas and water. Data can be collected on individual equipment or groups of equipment. Large amounts of granular data are collected and analysed to inform decision making by building owners and managers.
Integrating a network of sub meters extends the performance of the building automation system by providing information that just isn’t available from standard utility meters. It presents a major opportunity for building owners and managers to leverage the power of existing building control systems with limited additional investment.
Common applications of submetering are:
- Accurately measure usage and allocate costs to departments or tenants;
- Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of upgrades, accurately calculate ROI and payback periods;
- Compare usage with other similar facilities or a benchmark and identify/prioritize areas for future upgrades;
- Identify maintenance issues even earlier and prevent significant down time;
- Accurately identify where energy or other resources such as water are being wasted so that the building systems can be made more efficient.
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Top 3 trends that are impacting building automation in 2018
The rain on the west coast has us stranded indoors in January, coming up with “top trend lists”!
Keeping in mind that many of the projects we work on are retrofits and re-commissioning projects, here are the top three trends that we see impacting the building automation industry in 2018…
- System integration
We are definitely seeing greater demand for integration of building systems such as HVAC, lighting and access systems that traditionally have their own proprietorial systems. Building managers greatly benefit from a common “front-end” to access and control all the systems from a single seat.
- Submetering
With the power to leverage existing building control systems for greater benefit, we see submetering as a strong trend for building retrofits in 2018. The real time collection of granular data on individual equipment and equipment sets can be used to inform decision making at many levels, and with limited additional investment.
- Internet of Everything
With widespread adoption of internet connected devices, from fitness trackers to doorbell cams and cars, the Internet of Things (IoT) is now often referred to as the Internet of Everything (IoE). Internet-connected is the new normal for buildings and all their devices. We will continue to see more ways that information can be collected from building control systems to optimize the balance of building comfort and energy consumption. Watch for greater application of artificial intelligence and “learning buildings”.
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