Demand ventilation with heat recovery saves energy for community centre
To provide energy-efficient supply and extract ventilation for the refurbishment of Oxford City Council’s Northway Community Centre, Vent-Axia has supplied its Sentinel Totus D-ERV demand energy-recovery system. The upgrade to the centre involved moving and changing the use of existing committee rooms and creating a new IT hub. As a result, two new internal rooms were created, one for child-focused activities and a large meeting room — and both required upgraded ventilation.
The two Sentinel Totus units serve rooms with varying occupancy and usage, so the council was looking to ventilate the rooms according to demand — whether for two people or 20. They are controlled according to CO2 levels.
Keith Reynolds, senior building-services engineering with Oxford City Council, says, ‘Our brief needed to comply with Building Regulations, and with internal rooms, it was essential to ensure there was adequate ventilation. We also wanted to install heat recovery in a bid to cut heating running costs. We selected the Sentinel Totus for its efficiency and heat recovery. We also chose Vent-Axia, as the product was easy to install and commission by our electrician and didn’t need specialist labour.
