Prestige Johannesburg office development stays cool with SE Controls

A new prestige office development in Sandton, Johannesburg is using a combined smoke and natural ventilation system, involving automatic window vents in the building’s elliptical glazed central tower, which is actuated and controlled by an integrated solution from SE Controls Africa.

Located in the Sandton business area, which is regarded as one of South Africa’s prime commercial locations, the R208 million (£10.7 million) Capital Hill development combines seven floors of office space with residential apartments, as well as covered parking for almost 400 vehicles.

                                  

Designed by MWLF Architects, the building not only provides high quality business facilities and residential accommodation, but is also highly energy efficient and is constructed to achieve a ‘Four Green Star’ rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa.

As part of this process, the building’s 12 storey elliptical central tower features a fully glazed external facade within an aluminium lattice structure, which incorporates an automatic window and vent opening system to provide natural ventilation and overnight cooling, as well as smoke ventilation in the event of a fire.

To achieve the necessary level of versatility and control required for the automated vent system, SE Controls supplied 49 SECO N 24 25 twin chain actuators with a 350mm stroke length together with 7 SHEVTEC® control panels and manual control points (MCP), which were networked using the company’s OSLink network cards. An external weather station was also installed to provide an information feed on ambient conditions into the system.

In normal operation, the windows open and close automatically, to provide cooling and a supply of fresh air, but in the event of a fire this is over-ridden and vents are opened to allow smoke to be vented, enabling escape routes to be kept smoke free.

Russell Cramb, General Manager with SE Controls Africa, explained: “Capital Hill is an iconic building and has already attracted a lot of attention for its eye-catching design, green credentials and the quality of facilities it provides. We have an immense amount of experience in combined natural and smoke ventilation solutions, which we used when working with the architect to create a solution that wouldn’t compromise the smooth architectural lines of the external glazed facade.”

Further information on SE Controls’ products, solutions and projects can be obtained by visiting www.secontrols.com or calling  +44 (0) 1543 443060.

SE Controls Smoke and Natural ventilation solution for Airbus

A new 25,000m² office building for leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, is using an advanced smoke and natural ventilation system from SE Controls to provide a comfortable working environment for staff while ensuring that an effective smoke and fire control strategy can be implemented in the event of a fire.

The four storey building, which is part of the £70 million Airbus Aerospace Business Park development at Filton, accommodates more than 2,500 staff and brings together engineering, design and customer support functions that are currently located in several smaller buildings onsite into the new engineering and technology campus.

SE Controls was involved in the project from the early stages to clarify the ventilation strategy and provide calculations on the free area requirements for the smoke vents to ensure compliance and performance standards were met.

Four separate atrium spaces feature as part of the building, designed by AWW Architects, and each incorporates 84 Schüco AWS 102 projected top hung vents. The vents are automatically operated by a total of 336 SCCO 24 30 concealed actuators, which were supplied, installed and commissioned by SE Controls in partnership with specialist façade contractor, Norking Aluminium.

In addition to installing the actuators, the interface control panels were also supplied, installed and commissioned by SE Controls together with the fire rated cabling, which is completely concealed within the curtain walling.

During day-to-day operation, the natural ventilation system responds to signals from sensors linked to the building management system (BMS) to ensure that the indoor air quality and temperature are maintained within the pre-set parameters to maintain a comfortable working environment.

In the event of a fire, the building’s alarm system signals the natural ventilation system to automatically close all the vents as part of the smoke and fire control strategy. This not only restricts the flow of oxygen into the building to help suppress the fire but also allows precise control to be taken by fire officers via the system’s manual control points, enabling smoke to be cleared from the relevant atrium.

As SE Controls’ actuators and Schüco vents have been tested and proven to meet the European smoke vent standard hEN12101-2 and the Construction Products Regulations that came into force in July 2013, the ventilations system is CE marked and fully compliant.

SE Controls’ Commercial Director, Martin Oates, commented: “The Airbus project is an excellent example of how a fully compliant life safety critical smoke ventilation system can also be utilised on a day to day basis to provide a controlled natural ventilation solution that maintains comfort for Airbus staff.”

He added: “By being brought into the process at a very early stage, we were able to clarify the specification, assist the design team and help resolve any technical and operational issues during the build.”  

  

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.

SE Controls provides a creative environment at new university design centre

Students at Loughborough University’s recently completed East Park Design School building are being helped in their studies by an integrated natural ventilation system from SE Controls, which ensures that carbon dioxide (CO₂) and is kept in check and indoor air quality levels are maintained.

Designed by Burwell Deakins Architects, the £14.7 million building uses informal design themes and layouts to create an ‘inspirational environment’ as well as providing practical work spaces, design studios, lecture theatres and workshops.

As with all learning environments, one of the key considerations for the design school was ensuring that levels remained within the appropriate limits to ensure that students’ abilities are not impaired by poor indoor air quality. Also, the building was conceived form the outset as a low carbon structure with minimum emissions, so utilises a range of energy efficient technologies including solar shading, insulated glazing and SE Controls’ natural ventilation solution.

The extensive natural ventilation control and actuation system was designed and installed by SE Controls to not only manage the CO₂ levels, but also ensure the temperature within the building is maintained within comfortable limits by using precise incremental control over the entire natural ventilation system.

To achieve these key goals, SE Controls installed over 400 chain actuators over the ground, first and second floors to control high level vertical vents in laboratories, offices and study areas, as well as the design school’s workshops and computer room.

Automatic louvres are also installed in ground floor public areas and meeting rooms, to allow fresh air to enter the building, while a further 48 chain and linear actuators in the building’s extensive glazed atrium vents provide ventilation to the atrium space below.

The entire system is controlled by a series of SE Controls’ OS2 networked control units and an OS2 modular panel for the atrium vents, which are seamlessly linked into the buildings BMS. This not only monitors CO₂ and temperature, but also signals the actuation of the vents and louvres to maintain the levels within the system’s upper and lower set points.

Darren Wainwright, SE Controls’ project leader on the East Park installation, explained: “The close relationship between CO₂ levels and the performance of students in schools and other educational establishments is already well documented, so it’s vital that good indoor air quality is maintained. However, it’s equally important that heat losses are minimised during ventilation to avoid unnecessary use of energy to re-heat the building, which is why the operating algorithms and ventilation strategy deployed minimise energy consumption while maintaining excellent indoor air quality and comfortable temperatures.”

Loughborough University has also been closely involved with the development of SE Controls’ new ‘NVLogiQ’ compact natural ventilation control solution through a highly active knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) programme. The ongoing relationship, which has already been in place for more than two years, has enabled SE Controls to develop advanced energy saving operating algorithms to the current design standards and accepted best practice for its new generation of controllers, of which NVLogiQ is the first.

SE Controls specialises in the design, project management installation and maintenance 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.