The Laboratory Animal Services section of the University of Adelaide support the biomedical research community through the delivery of best practice & world standard laboratory animal products & services
They recently went through extensive renovations to their laboratories and offices. Frigrite services were awarded the contract for the HVAC upgrade.
Part of these renovations included a new chiller, cooling tower, heat exchanger, 6 new state of the art heat recovery air handlers, new mechanical services switchboards, new variable speed drives and a brand new state of the art building management system.
Austec Building Automation was awarded the contract to supply, program and commission the Building Management System. The System was a Reliable Controls system.
Our Scope of works was as follows: -
Project Overview
This facility is used in the experimentation and testing field. The animals used are extremely sensitive. There are also biological hazards on site and therefore temperature, air flow direction and pressure are extremely critical. We had to ensure that strict tolerances were complied with so that AQIS could provide certification of the facility. There was also a strict environmental component of the project.
The facility operates 24 hours a day 7days a week, with a 100% fresh air HVAC system. The facility was originally constructed in 1971 and has completed 30 years of operation.
As the system operates as a once flow through system, significant energy was being wasted.
A complete upgrade to the facility required compliance under the new BCA Energy Efficiency measures. A Heat Recovery System was required to meet all of these requirements.
We worked closely with Armlec Pty. Ltd who installed the system to provide advice where required and also to commission the hard wiring of the system.
We also worked closely with Steve Williams Commissioning through the process of air and water balancing and commissioning of the entire system.
We were able to achieve the following results:-
- Temperature control of entire facility of set-point ± 0.1ºC
- Pressure control of set-point ± 3.0 Pascal’s
- Fail safe operation of pressure control. In the event of a failure of the air-handler exhaust fan the smoke spill fan comes in to back it up and maintain the original pressure set- points.
- Once power was returned after a power failure or fire test, system returns to normal operating mode without any operator intervention.
- System set-points are completely adjustable by the operator as are alarm set-points for different categories.
- Shut down of temperature control of certain areas that are not occupied 24/7 is achieved via a time schedule and can be manually overridden by an operator.
- Trend-logging of all temperature and pressure readings over time is available for print out and archive.
The project was undertaken in two stages ½ the floor at a time with the other ½ fully operational. Completion was achieved on budget and on schedule with a minimum amount of interruption to the end client
