Juno House – Mechanical Services Rectification & System Upgrades

June House, a large student accommodation and co-living facility, was experiencing widespread failures across its mechanical services shortly after project completion. With almost 80% of room-based HVAC systems malfunctioning, the site required an urgent and thorough review to diagnose the causes and implement effective upgrades without disrupting day-to-day operations. Complete Refrigeration & Air were engaged to deliver a full system assessment, isolation strategy and stage rectification plan.

Business name

Juno House

Location

Perth, WA

Industry

Student Accommodation

The Problem

Juno House faced an exceptionally high failure rate across room air handling units (AHUs) and key plant components. Many issues were traced back to deficiencies in previous works, meaning the site needed upgrades beyond the original scope to restore reliability.

Approximately 80% failure rate across room AHUs

Faulty actuators, STAD valves and shutoff valves

Malfunctioning float valves for chiller make-up water

Faulty central plant sensors affecting chiller operation

No isolation valves for level-by-level or east/west hydronic shutdowns

The system had air trapped in the chilled water circuit and no auto bleed valves, which could have lead to a catastrophic failure of the chiller system.

Need to maintain building operations and revenue during works

The Solution

Complete Refrigeration & Air delivered mechanical review of the whole site and designed a staged upgrade plan to significantly reduce failures while maintaining building operations. This required strategic system shutdowns, installation of critical isolation points and progressive replacement of faulty system components.

Conducting a full audit of recurring failures across rooms and plant equipment

Identifying root causes linked to valves, actuators and sensor faults

Introducing new isolation valves to allow half of the building to remain active during upgrade procedures

Replacing 80 Stad valves and actuators

Changing several sensors realted to the BMS.

Changing 2x float valves for both make up tanks.

Installing new central plant sensors to stabilise chiller performance

Delivering rectification works in controlled stages to minimise operational impact

Performing shell and tube clean and annode changes for chilled water vessel.

Changing multiple failed controllers and correcting wiring to multiple units resulting from historical works.

Faults identified and repaired within 12 months

We have found / repaired (in less than 12 months)

Faulty Smardt chiller (Inverter PCB). System ran at 50% capacity as a compressor was locked out with a faulty PCB
Replaced 89 actuators, shut off valves and stad valves
Replaced 17 custom made fan barrels and motors
Replaced a faulty aircon in the lift motor room
Replaced 14x faulty room wall controllers
Replaced 7x isolators that were damaged by the elements
Repaired 2x failed AHU (motors not aligned correctly and belts failed)
Performed a repair to the cooling tower (rust guard, patched the cooling tower blower with epoxy and sheet metal)
Installed multiple air bleeds to the system as it was found to trap air (could cause complete chiller failure via air trapping / no water flow)

The Outcome

The staged upgrades dramatically improved system reliability, reducing the failure rate from 80% to under 10% across the building. The project was delivered at more than 30% below the projected cost during initial assessment, providing exceptional value to the client. Operations remained active throughout the works, ensuring uninterrupted accommodation revenue.

Juno House – Mechanical Services Rectification & System Upgrades

The Problem

The Solution

Faults identified and repaired within 12 months

The Outcome

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