Sutton Life Centre buries its ventilation ducts in the ground
An underground heat exchanger using Rehau’s Awadukt Thermo ground system will reduce the energy requirements of Sutton Life Centre throughout the year. Designed by Curl La Tourelle, this £8 million innovative learning facility will house a citizenship centre, community library and an interactive, virtual-reality space to teach young people a range of life skills. The 2-storey building is being built to meet best-practice sustainability standards.
The temperature of ventilation air drawn through the pipework grids will be reduced by up to 14 K in the Summer and raised by up to 9 K in the Winter, reducing demand on the biomass boiler that is being installed for space heating.
Two grids of Awadukt Thermo pipework are being installed by GSE Civil Engineering following its specification by Halcrow Yolles. The pipework has an anti-microbial silver layer.
The first pipework grid is being installed at a depth of 1.5 m. 11 runs of DN200 runs, each 18 m long, will deliver 2880 m3/h.
A second grid under the multi-use games area delivers 7200 m3/h using 35 runs of DN200 pipework, each 30 m long.
