Trend keeps control of natural ventilation at University of Bradford
Contributing to the eco-friendly features of The Bright Building at the University of Bradford is a WindowMaster natural-ventilation system with an integrated intelligent window control package from Trend Control Systems. This building has a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating and at the time of the award had the highest BREEAM design-stage assessment on record of 94.95%.
The consulting engineer on the project, James Allister of Silcock Leedham, explains, ‘To use the fewest possible electro-mechanical interventions as possible, The Bright Building has been carefully designed so that its physics drives everything — not the engineering.
‘It is fully naturally ventilated as a result of using WindowMaster technology from Trend, which is fully integrated into a building energy management system. In addition to the lower investment costs as a result of having no mechanical-ventilation plant, there is a reduction in on-going life-cycle costs from having less technology to service and maintain.’
As well as making sure that a building has clean air, The Carbon Trust has found that a naturally ventilated building could have half the energy costs of a mechanically ventilated building, primarily due to lower electricity costs.
The WindowMaster system features MotorLink technology that provides very precise control and monitoring of window opening.
Ian Knapton, project manager with Trend, explains, ‘Millimetre by millimetre control achieves the most effective natural ventilation. A window that is open too wide or too little will actually impede the ventilation of a space. ‘By using a graphical real-time user interface, it is also possible for the facilities-management team to receive an early indication of possible faults, as well as showing if the controls have been over-ridden. There is a security benefit too, as a signal can be sent to confirm that all or selected windows are fully closed outside normal working hours.’
