Passivent Helps Create Flagship Centre

Published by Angela May for Passivent Ltd in Communities and also in Environment

A  complex designed to be an exemplar scheme in its field is living up to its ‘state of the art’ reputation - right through to its ventilation, with help from Passivent Ltd.

The £18m Beacon Centre for the Blind was designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘very good’ rating and is now being recognized as a benchmark in care facilities for the visually impaired in the UK.

The Wolverhampton centre has been completely redeveloped by Loughborough based contractor William Davis on behalf of the Beacon Centre for the Blind charity and Bromford Housing Group. The project has provided 71 rent and shared ownership apartments for people with visual impairment, plus a new administration and charity HQ building that further includes an activity centre, craft room, recreation hall and gym, IT suite, training and employment suite and shops for the residents.

The whole non-residential building is ventilated via Passivent natural ventilation, achieved using

 27 strategically placed Passivent Aircool window ventilator units and six Passivent Airstract roof mounted ventilation terminals.

Martyn Tharratt, Senior Project Co-Ordinator for William Davis, observed, “The new Beacon Centre for the Blind sets a benchmark in care facilities in the UK. With sustainability in mind, the choice of natural ventilation allows the building to be passively cooled without the use of environmentally damaging air-conditioning installations- this is just one feature driven by our aim to achieve a BREEAM ‘very good’ certification, Other sustainable features include solar panels to heat hot water, water saving devices and high levels of insulation throughout.”

The entire ventilation strategy focuses on harnessing natural forces of wind and convection, to draw fresh air into the building and exhaust the ‘used’, internal air. The Aircools open and close as appropriate to ensure the regulatory number of air changes per hour, drawing fresh air into the building. The warm internal air, which rises under natural convection, is then exhausted through the Airstract terminals on the roof. A controllable damper in the Aircool unit features a new generation PVC louvre that offers excellent insulation by combining a unique profile with highly reflective strip inserts. The strip increases the Aircool’s U value to match that of a double-glazed window. Acoustic chevrons on the Aircool units reduce travelling noise to further enhance the internal environment for the users.

The Passivent system requires electricity only to attenuate the louvres when they move to regulate the flow of fresh air. It operates 24/7, allowing excess heat build up within during the day to be extracted at night, in effect providing free night cooling. Natural ventilation systems have been shown to reduce energy consumption over air conditioned buildings by up to 50%, yield 15% savings on capital costs and 75% savings on maintenance costs, and can eliminate the need for a separate plant room. Passivent natural ventilation gives a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions, and can  help achieve up to a ‘A’ rating under the Energy Performance Certificate. Research also shows that occupants prefer naturally ventilated buildings, with fewer incidents of sick building syndrome, and improved performance.

Natural ventilation is just part of Passivent’s range of eco-friendly solutions for commercial environments, detailed on website www.passivent.com, which include techniques to maximise natural daylight and thus reduce artificial lighting, and which simultaneously have a positive impact on the building’s occupants.

Passivent is a founder member of the NatVent EC-EU-funded project co-ordinated by the Building Research Establishment to develop practical natural ventilation solutions for the commercial sector, and is developing “smart” solutions to promote adoption of natural ventilation. The company has contributed to the BISRIA guide BG2/2005 Wind Driven Natural Ventilation Systems, as well as being a member of the DCFS steering committee on ventilation guidance for schools, Building Bulletin 101.