‘Green’ natural ventilation from SE Controls at new King’s Cross Central development

The London Borough of Camden’s new multi-storey office and leisure complex within the 67 acre King’s Cross Central development, is using a highly energy efficient natural ventilation system from SE Controls to maintain a comfortable indoor environment while contributing to the building’s BREEAM outstanding rating.

Working with contractors, Kier Construction, as executive architects, Weedon developed the original design prepared by Bennett Associates for Camden Council’s new administrative HQ and customer services contact centre. Located at Five Pancras Square, the the 14-storey building not only provides 150,000 sq.ft of floor space but also incorporates a leisure centre, swimming pool, public library and café.

By using a combination of active and passive design features to obtain very low carbon emissions, such as low glazing ratios and energy efficient ventilation, the building achieves the highest standards of environmental sustainability for a major office building and is on course to reach the highest ever BREEAM score.

To maintain precise energy efficient control over the building’s indoor air quality and maintain a comfortable working environment, SE Controls supplied, installed and commissioned a natural ventilation system that fully automates and controls the opening of windows on the North and South elevations, as well as the main atrium space.

A total of 204 SCCO 24 30 concealed tandem and single chain actuators are installed on Schüco AWS 102 SK glazed projected top hung vents, which are controlled by 68 NVLogiQ 6Amp power supply units (PSUs) and actuated by the building’s central BMS, which also triggers window opening and closing for night purging.

Within the North atrium, SE Controls also installed 12 SECO N 24 40 twin chain actuators and a 30 Amp PSU panel, incorporating a maintenance key-switch and linked to the BMS, to provide additional control over ventilation, indoor air quality and building energy efficiency.

SE Controls’ Commercial Director, Martin Oates, explained: “With the continued move towards greater energy efficiency and sustainable building design, highly efficient natural ventilation systems, such as that incorporated within Five Pancras Square are delivering significant performance and running cost benefits to building owners, architect and occupants:

He added: “In addition, the level of flexibility and precise environmental control they provide via advanced sensors and actuation systems enables indoor air quality parameters, such as carbon dioxide and temperature levels to be managed highly efficiently, allowing a comfortable and stimulating environment for staff and visitors to be maintained.”

SE Controls specialises in the design, project management and installation of advanced smoke ventilation and natural ventilation solutions to meet the needs of architects, contractors, building services engineers and facilities managers worldwide. Further information on SE Controls’ products, solutions and projects can be obtained by visiting www.secontrols.com or calling

 +44 (0) 1543 443060.

Fire safety and comfort cooling from SE Controls for new London apartment development

A six-storey apartment development in North London is using an innovative smoke control system from SE Controls to not only provide smoke-free escape routes in the event of a fire but also ensure that day-to-day temperatures in communal areas and corridors are kept at comfortable levels for residents.

The Notting Hill Housing Group’s 108 home development at Micawber Street in Hackney was handled by Ardmore Construction, which included the demolition of existing buildings and the construction of the new residential block, which also incorporates more than 2,500 m² of commercial floor space.

Initially, the building was designed with a mechanical ventilation system and a separate dedicated environmental shaft to help cool the building and address the overheating effect in multi-storey buildings, caused as a by-product of routing heating distribution pipework in building voids to optimise space.

SE Controls was invited to evaluate this system by conducting a thermal modelling analysis on the building and the results showed that it provided negligible cooling benefit, reducing temperatures by just one degree Celsius on only a few days in the year.

Working closely with the design team and Ardmore Construction, SE Controls engineered a combined smoke control and environmental solution, based on its SHEVTEC® system, which uses the existing smoke shafts to provide significant thermal performance improvements and enabled major cost savings to be made on the project.

SE Controls incorporated additional automatic opening roof vents and lobby vents into the design, allowing the smoke shaft is to be utilised as a fresh air natural ventilation system, which enables the lobby and corridors to be cooled and avoid overheating. This is achieved by the use of 0.5 m² permanently open louvres at roof level and within the stairwell, while also utilising the automatic smoke dampers on each floor to vent heat into the smoke shaft. Larger automatically opening roof vents, dedicated to the smoke ventilation system, were also installed and enable the natural ventilation system to be over-ridden automatically in the event of a fire.

In normal day-to-day operation, the natural ventilation design allows air to enter through the lobby doors, which are held open by electro-magnetic devices and flow across the lobby before being exhausted through the roof vents, with the lobby temperature being controlled by a tamper proof thermostat.

If a fire should occur, the lobby doors close automatically along with all the smoke dampers, except the one located on the fire floor. This allows smoke to be drawn from the corridor, through the smoke shaft and away from the stairwell to ensure a smoke free escape route is maintained.

The entire system is controlled by networking the smoke ventilation system’s smoke dampers on each floor with SE Controls’ OS2 controllers incorporating OS link network cards. In addition, the system also incorporates an SE Controls NVLogiQ room controller in the fist floor lobby core to monitor and log the system’s performance for future analysis and tuning.

Dr Chris Iddon, SE Controls’ Design Manager, explained: “Corridor and building overheating, particularly in multi-story residential projects is a key issue, as buildings become more airtight and the location of heating pipework in communal areas creates potentially uncomfortable levels of thermal gain, which can reach well in excess of 30 degrees C. In order to determine the most effective methods and provide a solution to this problem, we have carried out extensive studies and dynamic modelling of various ventilation scenarios, which show that natural ventilation is an effective solution to mitigate overheating risk.”

He added: “Also, dedicated cooling systems wouldn’t necessarily be considered for circulation spaces due to plant, installation and running costs for what are essentially non-profitable spaces. As smoke control systems are already a legal requirement within these spaces, our expertise can be used to adapt them to address both smoke and natural ventilation needs in a single, more economical solution. In addition, it can also be retro-installed to buildings with a smoke control system that are experiencing overheating issues with minimal disruption.”

SE Controls specialises in the design, project management and installation of advanced smoke ventilation and natural ventilation solutions to meet the needs of architects, contractors, building services engineers and facilities managers worldwide. Further information on SE Controls’ products, solutions and projects can be obtained by visiting www.secontrols.com or calling

 +44 (0) 1543 443060.

Exclusive smoke ventilation solution from SE Controls for London’s Marconi House

London’s prestigious Marconi House apartment and hotel development, which is already set to be one of the capitals most sought after addresses, is using an advanced SHEVTEC® smoke and heat exhaust ventilation system from SE Controls to provide smoke free escape routes for residents and staff in the event of a fire.

Located on The Strand, the building has a long and varied history, originally housing the Gaiety Theatre’s restaurant before being redeveloped as the headquarters of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company and being chosen the location for the BBC’s first landmark radio broadcast in 1922.

The latest phase in its evolution, which has been designed by Foster & Partners includes the construction of a five star 157-bedroom hotel linked to and exclusive development of 86 apartments behind the original stone façade that still bears the Marconi name. Alongside this, the five star hotel development provides 157 bedrooms, which is served by a separate and completely independent SHEVTEC smoke ventilation system.
 

As each building has different layouts and specification, SE Controls worked closely with Lloret Fire and Security on the hotel development and Nomico/Galliard on the apartments to create smoke ventilation solutions dedicated to the apartments and hotel while integrating fully with the fire alarm systems.

SE Controls was responsible for the supply, fitting and commissioning of the North and South stair smoke shaft control systems, involving the installation of SHEVTEC automatically opening smoke shaft door actuators on each of the apartment block’s eight levels, primarily to provide pressure relief to the stair core pressurisation systems and passive smoke extraction to the communal lobbies when activated by the fire alarm.

The actuators are controlled by OS2 control panels, which are located on each floor together with tamper proof manual control points (MCP) for use by fire service personnel. Two repeater panels are also installed in the concierge area and the fire control room to provide a constant display of status and activation in the event of a fire.

Within the hotel, smoke ventilation is handled by two smoke shafts with one located in the North stairs and the other dedicated to the ten floor bedroom corridors, which also provides natural ventilation to the building in normal operation.

The extensive SE Controls’ solution incorporates SHEVTEC automatic multi-blade dampers on each floor, including basement levels, together with 28 OS2 Type 21 controllers, 31 fire servicetamper proof MCPs and reset points two repeater panels to provide full status monitoring. All systems used within the SE Controls system are CE marked and conform to the latest legislation requirements for performance, fire safety and operation including the EN12101 and BS9999 standards.

In normal operation, all dampers are open to provide natural ventilation, but automatically close when activated by a signal from the fire alarm system except for the damper located on the floor where the fire has started. This provides pressure relief to the staircase system and enables smoke to be vented from the fire floor, while stopping any cross contamination onto other floors and allowing smoke free escape to be possible on all floors.

Fire service manual control points are located next to each damper to enable control of the vent by fire officers. If a fire should occur on any non-bedroom floors, the system is configured so that all dampers will close to allow evacuation, while still allowing Manual Control Point override.

SE Controls’ Managing Director, Will Perkins, commented: “The developers have not only focused on the quality of the facilities, services, construction and finish within Marconi House, but also on the fire safety strategy and its vital role in ensuring the safety of residents, staff and hotel guests. Smoke ventilation is a vital element in this process and I’m delighted that we were able to put our extensive experience in residential smoke ventilation systems to use on this prestigious development.”

SE Controls specialises in the design, project management and installation of advanced smoke ventilation and natural ventilation solutions to meet the needs of architects, contractors, building services engineers and facilities managers worldwide. Further information on SE Controls’ products, solutions and projects can be obtained by visiting www.secontrols.com or calling +44 (0) 1543 443060.