Goal of the project
The project carried two objectives. First, a water-cooled VRF system that had failed needed to be replaced, balanced, and commissioned — poor source-side flow control had been among the issues driving the failure, including compressor damage. Second, the remainder of the building underwent a retro-commissioning process to restore and optimize the performance of its existing systems: gas-fired boilers, a heat recovery chiller with exhaust coil heat recovery, air handling units, and domestic hot water preheat. The goal was to return the building’s systems to reliable, efficient operation — a particular priority given the demands of the northern BC climate.
How did KCx achieve goal
KCx Engineering delivered commissioning and balancing across both scopes. On the replaced VRF system, our team addressed the source-side flow control deficiencies that had contributed to the original failure, balancing and commissioning the system so it could operate reliably rather than repeat the conditions that damaged its predecessor.
Across the wider retro-commissioning scope, KCx applied a data analytics process that exposed several flow and control issues affecting the boilers, heat recovery chiller, AHUs, and DHW preheat systems — problems that would be difficult to isolate through inspection alone. Remote connectivity and data analytics were crucial to success on a project of this kind, allowing our team to gather and interrogate system data continuously despite the site’s location in northern BC, without depending on repeated travel to a remote facility.
The result is a building whose systems have been diagnosed, corrected, and verified through measured data — restoring reliable performance and optimizing efficiency across a heritage arts facility in one of the province’s more demanding climates.