Natural ventilation helps primary school achieve ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating
Contributing to the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating achieved by Rogiet Primary School in Monmouthshire, with a score of 78.8%, is a natural-ventilation and control system supplied by WindowMaster. It also won the 2010 BREEAM Schools Award. The school has motorways close by on either side, and there is also a railway line nearby — all of which create noise problems.
The project architect, Till Scherer of White Design, said, ‘WindowMaster was involved in the design of the school right from the start. The design statement called for a natural-ventilation system with automated and manual facades and roof windows controlled by a building-management system which could be used to provide visual data on the operation of the building — including temperature, CO2 concentration and energy use.
‘WindowMaster was able to design a system that opened windows on either side of the building just enough to allow suitable ventilation but keep as much noise as possible out.’
The project includes 50 actuator controlling windows in 10 zones, various sensors and a weather station.
The control system understands and knows how the wind speed and direction on all facades will influence the airflow through the windows on each level and location in the facade. WindowMaster determines the pressure coefficients for each window by calculating the relevant air pressures from different wind speeds and directions.
