Client:
School District 62

Project Overview:
The land site at 3100 Constellation Avenue in West Langford is being prepared for two new schools.

Product:
Reliable Controls

Project Type: Building Automation System Upgrade

Client: The District of North Vancouver

Product: Reliable Controls

Pain Points: 

A challenging building envelope contributed to consistent occupant discomfort.

Building temperatures were difficult to control. Radiators are located on the central interior of the building rather than the perimeter walls. Additionally, the building has lots of windows – spaces around them would be too hot/cold depending on the outdoor temperatures. If one area of the building required heating or cooling, all areas of the building would be affected, leading to further issues.

There was no data available to calculate potential energy savings that could come from retrofitting the controls system. However, it was clear that the building equipment was running too much in order to compensate for the building envelope.

Project Goals:

1. Reduce Energy Use
2. Improve occupant comfort
3. Quantify comfort improvements & enable data collection

Our Solutions

1. Collaborated with the client’s engineering consultant to refine the sequence of operations and implement efficient strategies for controlling the building.
2. Installed more occupancy sensors, and switches on garage doors so that the gas heating will not operate when doors are open.
3. Carefully controlling building pressure to keep it close to neutral and minimize leakage of hot/cool air so the building doesn’t suck cold air in or lose heat.
4. Implemented a programming strategy which lowered the supply water temperature setpoint while also maintaining comfort, reducing the frequency of adjustments to match fluctuating outdoor air temperatures, and lowering building energy usage.
5. Performed post-project continuous optimization/commissioning to see where operating efficiency could be further improved (ie. identify and eliminate unnecessary heating/cooling).

Client Satisfaction:

All three objectives were met & exceeded client expectations with very minimal disruption to the occupants. 

Overall comfort was significantly improved. Notably, the improvements were achieved solely by enabling control of the existing mechanical equipment. No changes to mechanical or HVAC equipment were made.

Some occupants were given personal heaters and air conditioners for their spaces to provide additional levels of control in some of the spaces that were exceptionally difficult to control.

Data that is now being collected by the BAS will be used to design future mechanical upgrades.

Energy savings:

Natural gas consumption: Decreased by 25%

Electricity consumption: Decreased by 25%*

* A lighting retrofit project was also completed in 2019. Data was not available to quantify the amount of savings to attribute to each initiative, so this total includes savings from both projects.

Client Quote:

“Maybe other transformations we need in the world can be done without major disruption. We can have big results without our world changing at all.” – Monica Samuda, P.Eng., CEM, Energy Manager at District of North Vancouver

Client: The District of North Vancouver

Product: Reliable Controls

Project Type: Controls Retrofit

Project Overview: Controls retrofit for a stylistically modern building with high energy usage.

Pain Points:

Occupant comfort was a consistent issue within the building. This was due in part to its wide variety of uses (atrium, offices, meeting rooms, council chambers, etc). The existing building control system did not allow for spaces to be controlled appropriately for their designated usage.

Energy use was high in the building, although the DNV had taken several steps to make manual adjustments to moderate energy consumption. Equipment in the building was known to be running more than necessary.

A need for data collection was also highlighted as there was no current method of tracking the data required to plan for mechanical equipment upgrades.

Project Goals:

1. Improve comfort controls
2. Reduce energy consumption
3. Implement methods data collection for:
4. Planning capital equipment upgrades
5. Implementing further energy reduction strategies

Our Solutions:

1. Retrofitted the existing outdated system with a Reliable Controls web-enabled building automation system.
2. Added temperature sensors throughout the building to collect the data necessary for implementing controls strategies and capital equipment upgrades.
3. Used several occupancy sensors in order to minimize the heating and cooling of spaces that may be empty or not currently in use in order to maximize energy savings.
4. Implemented a complex scheduling strategy to meet all the different needs of the building.
5. Implemented a Heating Hot Water Setpoint strategy. This ensures that the boiler water temperature is always running at the lowest possible setting while still maintaining comfort.
6. Identified issues with existing equipment to see where improvements could be made. We discovered that units were over-sized for the space. As a result, they couldn’t operate at a low enough speed to meet air quality requirements (CO2).

Client Satisfaction:

All three objectives were achieved & the project was a resounding success. 

The client reported significant improvement in comfort and energy savings, stating:

“There was very minimal disruption to the occupants – they saw technicians on ladders for a couple of weeks and new thermostats appeared on the walls, but no other visible change. With the significant improvement in comfort and energy savings it is amazing that it was done without changing any of the equipment or doing any renovations or changing the physical space.” – Monica Samuda, P.Eng., CEM

It was also noted that the building operator was more able to engage with the building operation on a daily basis due to the availability of data.

Lesson learned:  

“Working in cooperation with the mechanical consultants and the district’s energy manager- exchanging ideas and strategies- was the reason that this project was such a success. Additional projects to improve the system even further are coming up in the near future and I look forward to being involved in the consulting, design, installation and implementation of the upcoming improvements.”

–Chad Nichol, Operations Manager, Kerr Controls Inc.

Energy savings (Baseline year 2011, Comparison year 2019):

It should be noted that it was not possible to accurately estimate the expected energy savings for the upgrade project, because there was no data available from the original control system. The district team knew that the savings would be significant, but were still surprised by the results.

Natural gas consumption: Decreased by 40% 

Electricity consumption: Decreased by 31%

Pacific Sands Beach Resort in Tofino BC.

Kerr Controls Inc. is a company specializing in design, installation and maintenance of Building Automation Systems for commercial buildings.

Duncan Courthouse – Duncan BC

Kerr Control Inc. Automation solutions for any size of facility, from stand-alone panels to multiple-site integrated systems.

Kerr Controls Inc. This historic building at 1001-1019 Douglas Street was built in 1938 by architect Studley Patrick Birley as the Sussex Apartment Hotel. In 1995 it was incorporated into the larger Mozart development at 720 Broughton Street.

Hillside Mall – Victoria BC

Building Management Retrofit

The former girls school and convent, St. Ann’s Academy, is a National Historic site located in downtown Victoria.

The historical 76,000 square foot building was renovated and restored in 1995-1997. A portion of the building, now an Interpretive Centre, was restored to 1920′s appearance and the majority of the building was converted to modern office space.

In April 2010 Kerr Controls Inc. completed an energy management project which included upgrading the building automation system to the latest Reliable Controls standard.

Kerr Controls Inc. maintains the KMC Controls KMDigital system in this sewage lift station in North Saanich, BC.

The digital control system monitors the lift station and provides internal alarms for early failure detection.

Construction of the new Airside Operations Centre at the Victoria airport was completed in the spring of 2010.

The new facility houses administration offices, maintenance facilities, and a new fire hall.

Kerr Controls Inc. expanded the KMC Controls KMDigital system to control the new ground source heat pump, in floor heating and demand ventilation systems. Kerr Controls provides ongoing service and support.