Our Services

Commissioning

BTAC provide a specialist commissioning engineering service operating throughout Australia & PNG. We offer specialised independent commissioning services. By partnering with building owners and developers as their trusted commissioning consultant we often continue provide our services throughout the entire lifecycle of a building.

Our services include, but are not limited to:

At the outset of all projects we Carry out a comprehensive services and maintainability review of the services design documents. This is a design review that identifies any difficulties or short comings in the safety, function Commissionability and ultimately maintainability of the services.
We establish a commissioning plan for the project which is one of the most critical steps in undertaking any project. It must cover all stages of a project but is arguably most important to have the commissioning plan in place prior to project commencement. At BTAC we can provide comprehensive strategy, analysis and programming services both before the commencement of a project (in the manner of responsibilities, interface matrices, programming, etc.) and after projects (in the manner of building tuning, condition, energy and fire life safety audits, etc.). Our commissioning planning includes a comprehensive review of all commissioning and documentation requirements with each contractor. Our plan becomes a road-map for the commissioning process for the commissioning team to follow.
We create a commissionable item witnessing schedule which details the sequential activities to establish a comprehensive validation of all commissioning activities at all phases of commissioning including off site precommissioning and Building Tuning during the defects liability period.
We chair Commissioning meetings to plan and coordinate commissioning activities in accordance with the construction programme. This frequently involves liaison with the non-services construction team members responsible for the structure fabric and fit out. This eliminates commissioning related problems before they can impact upon the programme. Our planning and programming ensure the required commissioning activities are completed in the shortest amount of time.
Integrated Services Testing (IST) is a major component of our commissioning service. It is so vital to the success of any project we write a separate plan covering the Integrated Services Test. This plan becomes the script for the test which is often retained by our clients for use in their annual Fire Life safety tests. We test entire building in all modes of emergency to ensure the building services function, operate and interface as they were designed to normally both going into and out of an emergency. This proves the building worksin a fire and black out situation.

Building Tuning - Energy and Condition Auditing

NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating Scheme) is our speciality. We guarantee an improvement in energy rating that will be achieved if we are engaged to provide our energy auditing and monitoring procedures.

We are accredited energy auditors and can carry out Type 1 & 2 energy audits according to AS/NZS 3598.1:2014, for all classes of buildings.

A Desktop energy audit can be performed entirely from electricity bills, architectural drawings and electrical diagrams to estimate energy use. We will estimate your buildings probable electricity consumption by using calculated electrical load values compiled from the indicated load connected and the hours of used. We then compare the estimated load to the actual bills. This level audit is cost-effective and can be used to determine if a need for optimisation exists. We can also look at your usage pattern and advise on the financial viability of switching electricity suppliers or tariffs.

A Type 1 energy audit also involves a site visit to perform a survey of the building plus estimating the electrical consumption & usage patterns of many devices, to better match our calculation model to the building. By considering large devices or appliances as well you can make informed decisions about not only upgrading your building fabric but switching to more efficient appliances. We recommend this level for most cases because it’s a good trade-off between our consulting costs and correctly identifying most big-ticket areas to minimise energy consumption.
A Type 2 energy audit builds upon the Type 1 report and additionally involves measuring the actual electrical consumption & usage patterns of most devices, to provide the most accurate calculation model we can. This is more expensive, but it squeezes out the last few percentage points of uncertainty in your building, allowing for full optimisation in all areas. A condition audit of the commences with establishing the scope of work with our client to determine the type of audit required. The scope is determined by understanding and the client concerns regarding the items of plant that are not performing and costing the building operation. The Audits are flexible and can be tailored to only address only items of paramount concern to our client. The goal is to optimise building performance by identifying opportunities for integrating and upgrading building services that will have the building functioning efficiently with maximum returns.

We have the skills and experience to audit all manner of building services we concentrate on the following to achieve the savings:

Building Management System. Audits of the control system often reveal simple changes in the BMS system can return immediate savings. We work with the existing BMS provider to find better functional control solutions the optimise the performance and save running cost
Ventilation systems. We review operational times and control strategies and check for excessive exhaust problems,
Mechanical Services HVAC Audits. We have years of experience in the design installation commissioning and maintenance of Mechanical Services or HVAC. The existing Mechanical services maintenance provider vendor may adequately maintain the plant retro commissioning exercise managed by BTAC will ensure the plant is tuned to operate and function as it was designed to. The normal energy saving strategies we recommend in our condition audits are economy cycle free cooling, optimised start and finish run cycles, elimination reheat, and winter heating cycles are but a few of the optimising strategies we have introduced for our clients. We also focus on the major items such as chillers, boilers cooling towers and pumping. Changes to operation sequence temperature set points run times and heat rejection produce significant savings from these items of plant.
Switch Boards. Main Switchboards, Mechanical, Light and Power, Distribution Boards. We provide recommendations maintenance, fault finding and thermo-graphic scans to high-light any potential hot spots which might otherwise be unseen by the naked eye.
Lighting. Our energy audits to both base building and tenancy lighting will find easy fixes such as lighting bunched together or poor lighting zoning where one switch brings on lights in areas not always in use, this especially so in new fit outs in office buildings. LED type lights being implemented and having real financial benefits for tenants and landlords a like. We also design lighting zoning, occupancy sensors, air conditioning control in conjunction with lighting control. These are tangible opportunities to save money. The possibility to obtain a result, potentially doubling the return on investment from just upgrading to LED lights alone, is very real.
Compliance AS3000, AS1851, AS1668, and others. When a non-compliant situation, we recommend and provide the scope for the contractor to rectify.
Maintenance of Mechanical services, Electrical, and other services. Building Services Audits will assist with maintenance programming and scheduling, it can assist in knowing if additional maintenance agreements are required, or a wider scope of coverage.

Audits can assist you to resolve a decision as to whether corrective maintenance should go ahead or simply replace a major item old equipment. As a manager, you will have more information to work with to report to the financial controllers in the property management.

Building Tuning – Fire Life Safety audit and Certification

Owners, or a business or a person, that is occupying, or managing a building have a legal obligation to ensure the safety of any person in that building in the event of a fire or other emergency.

BTAC have developed a Fire Life Safety checklist inspection procedure and will carry out the inspections for Owners and Managers to assist them in managing their compliance with the governing Fire and Emergency Services codes and regulations.

We can provide further explanation and clarification of requirements then carry out the witness inspections of the testing and maintenance that has been undertaken by the services maintenance contractors.

We will then prepare an independent third party declaration that states the prescribed fire safety installations have been maintained during the period covered by this statement in accordance with the applicable codes and regulations.

If during the inspection on site defects are detected, then a written notice will be provided along with the corrective action required. Defects with be classified as critical or non-critical. Critical defects are those render the fire safety installation inoperable. Non critical defects are those that leave the fire system operable yet still require rectification such as Exit lights not working or hose reels with superficial damage.

Fire life safety audits usually cover the following items

Mechanical Ventilation and Air handling systems
Emergency lifts
Emergency lighting
Emergency power supplies
Emergency warning and intercommunication systems
Exit signs
Fire detection and alarm systems
Fire door sets
Fire extinguishers
Fire hose reels
Fire hydrants (including booster pumps)

Fire mains
Fire shutters
Other features that form part of the fire system
Smoke and heat venting systems
Smoke door sets
Smoke exhaust systems
Solid core doors
Special automatic fire suppression systems
Sprinkler systems and pump sets
Stairwell pressurisation systems

Other services that can be provided by BTAC are:

Detailed Designs & Technical Specifications

Tender Services

Construction Phase Services & Project Management

Operational Strategy & Procedures

Life Cycle Planning

Independent Commissioning Agent (ICA)

BTAC has completed the ICA role for the following projects

Sydney Water Potts Hill Sydney
Ergon Mackay
Ergon Rockhampton
Ergon Hervey Bay
Ergon Toowoomba
Sherwood Bus Depot Brisbane
Trade Coast Bus Depot Brisbane
55 Elizabeth Street Brisbane ATO
120 Pitt Street Sydney
AFP Building Brisbane Airport
McDonalds Kilsyth Melbourne
AMCA Canberra

5 Martin Place Sydney
20 Martin Place Sydney
1 William Street Brisbane
Bloomberg Tenancy Sydney
Google Tenancy Sydney
AFP Tenancy Brisbane Airport
333 George Street Sydney
Gasworks Brisbane
300 George Street Brisbane – W Hotel and Office Tower
100 Mary Street Brisbane – Westin Hotel
5 Chan St Office Building – Canberra
Linfox Logistics – Willawong Brisbane

Energy Audits

BTAC has carried out energy Audits at the following buildings

Salt Tavern Kingscliff
420 George Street Brisbane
Meriton Kent Street Sydney
Meriton Rialto Sydney
Meriton Bondi Junction
Canterbury Nursing Home Sydney
Workcover 280 Adelaide St Brisbane
400 Boundary street Brisbane
Century Yuasa Batteries Carole Park Brisbane

Building Upgrades

BTAC has carried out building services upgrades at the following buildings

ATO Mt Gravatt
Royal Pines Gold Coast
143 Turbot Street Brisbane
100 Wickham Street Brisbane
Twin Towns Services Club Tweed Heads
Twin Towns Outrigger Resort Tweed Heads
Kawana Shopping Centre sunshine Coast