Western Mechanical Services was hired by Civil Construction, the General Contractor to carry out the commissioning services for the GEM facility at St Pauls Hospital in Vancouver. Through the iCapture Program, St Pauls Hospital carries out cardiovascular and pulmonary research.
The GEM facility included laboratory space to house conventional and transgenic animals with Holding Rooms, Procedure Rooms, Laboratories, Reverse Osmosis Room, Anterooms, Staff Offices, Loading / Receiving, Cage Wash and Staff Support Areas.
The mechanical systems included variable air volume air handling systems with variable frequency drives for the fan motors, steam humidifiers, HEPA filtration systems, two plenum mounted exhaust fans mounted in parallel. Heat recovery coils filled with propylene glycol were provided in the exhaust and outdoor air intake ductwork to transfer heat from the exhaust air to the outdoor ventilation air.
A Triatek pressure controller with internal sensor monitors the pressure differential within several critical areas relative to the corridor pressure and modulates exhaust Venturi valves to maintain a specific positive or negative pressure in each area.
An energy management system controlled the air flow to certain areas when they were unoccupied to optimize the usage of energy.
Western Mechanical Services was also chosen to provide the air and water balancing and operation and maintenance manuals for this project.