Addresses the challenges of designing and constructing durable, energy-efficient building envelopes.
The Building Efficiency Technology Access Centre (BETAC) supports the building industry by helping clients address the challenges of designing and constructing durable, energy-efficient building envelopes, components and assembly in an environment with extreme conditions. BETAC's core purpose is to support the needs of those involved in the design, construction, renovation, commissioning and maintenance of a building’s envelope.
BETAC can assist its clientele by reducing the risk and uncertainty of new building envelope designs and by implementing our expertise in new and innovative products, materials, and testing methods. The Centre also recognizes the need to consider the intended use of buildings and the associated potential impacts on the building envelope.
- 3D design and rapid prototyping
- Automation
- Concept ideation, validation and design review
- Consumer focus groups
- Corporate on-site and in-house training
- Cost avoidance
- Customized technology demonstrations
- Design services
- Field trials/simulation
- Interactive workshops
- Literature reviews
- Manufacturing process design and development
- Open houses-facility and personnel
- Process optimization
- Product design and development
- Project management
- Regulatory guidance
- Rental of space and equipment
- Retail product label and packaging review
- Reverse engineering
- Sample analysis and testing
- Workflow consultation
- Technology validation and transfer
- Clean technology
- Construction (including building, civil engineering, specialty trades)
- Education
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Utilities
Specialized labs and equipment
| Specialized lab | Equipment | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Centre for Applied Research in Sustainable Infrastructure (CARSI) | Building envelope sensors | Measures temperature, moisture, relative humidity, heat flux |
| CARSI | Environmental chambers | One medium-scale set of two side-by-side chambers and another large-scale chamber. Evaluates thermal performance of windows, doors and mock-up wall systems. |
| CARSI | Air, water and structural chamber | Air, water and structural (AWS) testing takes what can be costly guesswork out of the process of enhancing the building envelope components and assemblies |
| CARSI | Heat flow meter | Measures thermal conductivity and resistance of construction materials, insulation products and assemblies |
| Mobile resource | Whole building airtightness testing | Increases building durability while lowering operating costs |
| Mobile resource | CAN-BEST Smart-Lab | Portable research and testing apparatus for air, water and structural testing of windows and doors |
| Mobile resource | Flexible, multi-channel data acquisition system | Meeting special requirements of mobile testing, this system contains programmable amplifiers and anti-aliasing filters for sensors. It contains flexible interfaces for a variety of analog and digital signals. |
| Mobile resource | Infrared camera | Thermographic camera that forms a heat zone image used for thermal analysis of buildings |
Private and public sector research partners
- Structure Monitoring Technology (SMT) Research
- Manitoba Hydro
- Manitoba Housing
- York Factory First Nation
- Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre
- National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP)
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
- Crosier Kilgour & Partners
- Proskiw Engineering
Additional information
| Title | URL |
|---|---|
| Pushing the envelope to make buildings greener. | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/property-report/pushing-the-envelope-to-make-buildings-greener/article28107980/ |