Lorain County Agriculture Society - Ross Exposition Center

The Lorain County Agriculture Society (LCAS) wanted to build a beautiful space to host a multitude of different events from county fair activities to career fairs and everything in between. This breadth of activities made the HVAC design for this large event space difficult because the system had to be designed to veterinarian standards for heating, cooling, and ventilation for animals. The system was also required to provide comfort for over 3,000 people. When those large crowds were present LCAS wanted an on-demand ventilation solution. Finally, they wanted a simple way to control the entire system because activities changed day-to-day without the added cost of a full building management control system.
The Applied Air MATO units handled the bulk of the HVAC for this nearly 60,000 square foot space. In "Auto Mode", the units would either heat or cool the space to the owner's designed temperature while still providing enough outside air to meet code. The "On-Demand" Ventilation controls monitored CO2 in the space and automatically forced the MATO units to bring in more outside air to lower the CO2 levels. In "Manual Mode", the MATO units would turn off heating or cooling and convert to a 100% outside air system to provide enough ventilation in conjunction with the exhaust fans for housing animals during fair week. The result was a system that could satisfy a variety of conditions with a relatively simple control sequence, avoiding the added cost of a full building management control system.


Due to the flexibility of the space for a wide range of activities, it was important to maintain a clear roof span and keep the floor space as open as possible. The construction of the MATO frame and panels made installing the units outdoors a feasible solution. This also reduced the risk of LCAS having to cancel events due to roof leaks during inclement weather.

The MATO system consisted of (2) Applied Air MATO-045K heating and cooling Air Turnover Units with On-Demand Ventilation and (2) Carrier 100-Ton Condensing Units