Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC), known for its iconic main campus building designed by Canadian architect, Douglas Cardinal, is a comprehensive community college with two campuses attended by 2,000 students in credit programs, and over 6,000 in workforce training and recreational programs.
The project’s two-year scope called for the removal of the facility’s pneumatic controls in favour of the Reliable Controls® MACH-System with the least impact on day-today facility operations. Due to the unique design of the facility’s architecture, challenges on the project involved retrofitting the digital controls while maintaining the esthetics of the facility. To form the backbone of the new system, 19 MACH-ProSys™ and 3 MACH-ProCom™ BACnet Building Controllers were connected via Ethernet to the college’s Intranet to be externally accessible via VPN. All BACnet® subcontrollers currently utilize an MS/TP connection to their corresponding main controller.
At the time of the project, the existing mechanical equipment consisted of a main heating plant with High Efficiency Boilers, a main cooling plant with absorption chiller, 22 main Air Handling Units, complete with Variable Air Volume control, perimeter radiation, and reheat. Working closely with the facility owner, Reliable Controls® Authorized Dealer, Serv-All Mechanical Services, was able to maximize energy savings while maintaining required levels of comfort and control by employing the SSL-OC controller’s motion sensors in areas of intermittent usage.