Natural ventilation is key part of environmental strategy

21 May, 2006

Natural ventilation using 13 Passivent high-capacity terminals is a key part of the environmental strategy for lettable office space for business start-ups in Airdrie town centre.

The environmental-friendly design of a former gas-holding area in Airdrie town centre into 2500 m2 of lettable office space for business start-ups includes a sedum grass roof and passive stack ventilation. North Lanarkshire Council commissioned Barr Construction for the development. Working with project architect Aedas and natural-ventilation specialist Passivent, a scheme was devised using passive stack ventilation via 13 circular terminals. Passive stack ventilation relies on a combination of wind and buoyancy forces to extract warm used air from the occupied spaces. The used air is replace by cooler fresh air drawn in through openable windows under direct control of the occupants. Each business unit can be partitioned into two separate offices, so the design team came up with a twin ducted system that would exhaust used air via two grilles in the ceiling of each office. The air is then ducted via fire dampers to the builders’ passive-ventilation shaft within the facade. The builders’ shafts are divided to duct used air separately from offices on the ground floor and first floor to the roof, where they termination into a Passivent high-capacity circular terminal. Passivent stack ventilation using Passivent high-capacity terminals is said to be capable of ventilating twice the depth inside the building compared with single-sided ventilation using only windows. It can also provide effective night cooling as there is a greater difference between internal and external temperatures at night, increasing buoyancy forces.

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