Natural ventilation helps achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating in Cornwall
WindowMaster is supplying natural-ventilation and control systems for the £12 million Pool Innovation Centre, a business incubation centre, in Cornwall. The 3-storey development provides 3500 m2 of space for 45 offices of varying sizes, six shared meeting rooms and conference facilities. Plymouth University is responsible for managing the centre on behalf of Cornwall County Council and is backed by £9 million of ERDF Convergence investment and nearly £3 million from the South West RDA.
The building has been awarded a BREEAM ‘Excellent rating’ and is designed to emit 35% less carbon dioxide than a traditionally constructed office building of a similar size.
Nick Sendall of project designer Halcrow Yolles, explains, ‘We needed a specialised design of natural ventilation to capture moving air outside the building and a system to control windows in the building to circulate the air, maintain interior climate and reduce CO2 levels.’
The project design specified a natural-ventilation system based on WindowMaster’s NV Advance window automation system. It was chosen because it provided a complete installation with a central computer control system. The installation includes a weather station, various temperature sensors and 253 actuators to control facade windows and roof windows. It will work with 28 ‘wind catchers’ on the roof that channel fresh air into the building.
The system is controlled to serve 62 separate zones over three floors.
The operation of the system depends on the control system understanding and knowing how wind speed and direction on all facades will influence airflow through every window so they can be opened and closed as required.
