The Centre for Applied Technology (CAT) is the largest building on Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (NAIT) Main Campus, covering 51,600 square meters while hosting approximately 5,000 full-time students. CAT is more than 25% of the total size of all of NAIT’s main Campus buildings combined, and is 60% larger than NAIT’s second largest building, the HP Centre. The building has been fitted with the Reliable Controls MACH-System™, which has aided in the building’s LEED® Gold certification.

Reliable Controls Authorized Dealer, Serv-All Mechanical Services, Ltd., successfully completed this new construction project for the NAIT CAT facility, which resulted in LEED Gold certification.

The networked, MACH-System™ hardware is connected to an operator workstation, which is installed on an internal IP network. Operators and facility managers use the workstation to access the full BACnet®-enabled system.

The mechanical equipment onsite includes BACnet-enabled chillers, boiler, and variable frequency drives (VFDs). Additionally, hard point control to air systems, heat pumps, standalone A/C units, VAV boxes, and fan coils are installed.

Chilled beams and chilled radiation panels make this project special. The project is unique because exhaust air from the basement is used to pressurize the parkade for heating and ventilation.

Achieving proper pressures from the 5-storey atrium to the outside proved to be a challenge, as did balancing the pressure from the parkade and basement with the parkade doors opening and closing.

This LEED Gold certified facility is projected to realize substantial energy savings.