SE Controls

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

‘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.

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Natural ventilation from SE Controls for award winning Hong Kong Science Park

Phases 3a and 3b of the extensive Hong Kong Science Park development, which won the Grand Award at the international ‘Green Building Awards’ in November 2014, are using more than 2000 window actuators from SE Controls to manage indoor air quality and provide natural ventilation to both of the new buildings.

Designed by architects, Simon Kwan & Associates and constructed by main contractor, Gammon Construction, the new buildings were conceived to be carbon neutral over their lifetime. To meet this goal a range of sustainable technologies and innovative energy saving solutions are incorporated, including a low energy hybrid natural ventilation system, where air conditioning is provided on a ‘pay for use’ basis to help reduce energy consumption.

As the 8 storey buildings use extensive glazed facades, they are orientate north-south to minimise solar gain and windows are automated using 1000 SE Controls SECO N 24 40 compact single chain actuators on each building, which are linked to the BMS and control the single sided, double opening natural ventilation system.

By using double opening window units with a high and low apertures incorporated in the design, warm air is vented through the top and cooler fresh air enters through the lower vent, which provides adequate ventilation to a room depth of 2.5 times the height of the window opening.

Manual opening of the windows is also incorporated into every floor, so that individual units can be opened or closed by the buildings’ occupants, when external weather conditions permit, to provide good indoor air quality and thermal comfort.

Frank Leung, Project Manager with SE Controls’ Asia Pacific operation in Hong Kong, explained: “Natural ventilation provides a highly energy efficient method of reducing costs and environmental impact. The innovative and holistic approach to sustainability that has been taken with the new Hong Kong Science Park buildings has shown what can be achieved with innovative systems and an integrated approach to energy management and carbon reductions and we’re delighted to have contributed to its award winning status.”

+44 (0) 1543 443060.

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

SE Controls invests in the future with five key management appointments

International smoke and naturalventilation systems specialist, SE Controls, has made five key management appointments to reinforce and expand its capabilities in core parts the business, including ventilation systems control and maintenance, fire engineering, project management and business development.

The new members of the management team are all highly experienced in their respective disciplines, each having worked for well over 20 years at a senior level within the building, construction and control systems industries with a number of UK and international companies.

Three of the new appointments, David Furneau, Stuart Coote and Nelson Godinho join from natural and powered smoke ventilation company, Airvent, taking up new roles within SE Controls as Project Manager, Business Development Manager, and Fire Engineer, respectively.

In addition to his time at Airvent, David has a long career in smoke control and project management having also worked for Colt International and GEC, while Stuart’s successful career in sales and business development in the engineering, electronics and construction industries includes periods with Colt International, and SMC Pneumatics.

Prior to joining Airvent as a fire engineer consultant in 2008, Nelson was a contracts engineer for Alstom South Africa, where he was directly involved in the design and management of a range of smoke ventilation and control contracts. At SE Controls, his role is focused on maintaining design and legislative standards across the smoke ventilation systems range, as well as liaising with fire engineering consultancies and specialists on relevant projects.

Simon North joins SE Controls as Service and Maintenance Division Manager from Honeywell Building Solutions, where he was responsible for energy and cost efficient life safety and natural ventilation solutions, while Paul Hunt takes up his post as Supply & Distribution Manager from Securistyle, part of the Assa Abloy Group, having also previously worked for the Newman Tonks Group.

SE Controls’ Managing Director, Will Perkins, explained: “We are constantly developing and growing our business in all the sectors and countries in which we operate through the design and installation of excellent solutions delivered by outstanding people. With these five key appointments we have not only increased our skills and experience base, but also created an even stronger platform for further development in key aspects of our business from customer service and systems maintenance through to product design and market development. “

+44 (0) 1543 443060.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

SE Controls provides safe environment at Holy Rosary School’s new entertainment hall

A new 1000 seat multi purpose entertainment and sports centre at Holy Rosary School in Johannesburg is using precision automatic window actuators and control systems from SE Controls, to provide effective smoke ventilation in the event of a fire.

Bishop Shanahan Hall is the latest addition to the Catholic day school, which was founded in 1940 and provides private primary and high school education for girls from Grade R to 12 in a range of subjects including languages, mathematics and sciences.

Designed by Dual Design Architects and built by JTSON Construction, the extensive new hall was conceived as a multi-use building that could stage, formal events, indoor sports, competitions, student dances and entertainment, as the school had outgrown its existing facilities, which could no longer accommodate large audience functions.

While Bishop Shanahan Hall provides the highest standard of staging and equipment for events, safety for students, performers and the audience is also at the core of the building’s design, particularly if a fire should occur. The smoke ventilation solution formed part of the rationale behind the overall fire system design, which was prepared by Building Code Consultants (BCC).

To ensure the various escape routes are kept smoke free and assist evacuation, windows in the building are automatically actuated by SE Controls’ compact SECO N 24 40 - 800mm stroke chain actuators, which are fire safety tested to the internationally recognised EN12101-2: Annex G standard.

In addition to the 12 SECO N 24 40 actuators, supplied by SE Controls’ South African operation, which has offices in Durban and Johannesburg, specialist contractor Robertson Ventilation Industries (RVI), installed and commissioned four manual control point (MCP) fireman’s override switches together with 2 x OS2 Type 23 controls panels to control the MCPs and actuators while also linking them to the school’s fire safety system.

Russell Cramb of SE Controls Africa explained: “In addition to providing an effective smoke control solution, our actuators were also specified for this project as the architects wanted them to be almost silent and virtually invisible. To comply with this, each SECO N 24 40 unit was powder coated to match the window frame colour, while the low profile design of the actuator body enabled them to be sill mounted to keep them out of sight.”

+44 (0) 1543 443060.

Thursday, 9 October 2014

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.”

+44 (0) 1543 443060.

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Climate change, hospitals and patient well-being

Dr. Chris Iddon of SE Controls

Comment on hospital overheating from The Climate Change Commission report

The recently reported issue of climate change causing overheating in hospitals with an associated increase in related deaths, not only highlights the risk to patient health from high temperatures and inadequate ventilation, but also questions current thinking on building design.

According to findings from forthcoming research by Cambridge University, headed by Professor Alan Short, around 90% of UK hospital wards are of a design type that makes them susceptible to overheating.

Extracts from the report released by the Climate Change Commission, led by Lord Krebs, indicate that building design and construction are key contributory factors to the overheating and patient health issue. In addition, the Commission has already suggested that the retro-fitting of air-conditioning plant would be uneconomic, so the immediate focus is already centred on cost effective and energy efficient measures of addressing the problem, such as natural ventilation.

While hospital overheating can be readily managed with natural ventilation solutions, the additional benefits, particularly in hospital wards, is that it can also reduce the build up of pathogens, viruses and associated infections by encouraging air movement and ‘flushing’ stale air from the building. Independent research undertaken by Dr. Cath Noakes of Leeds University shows that when windows are closed to reduce heat losses and energy costs, there is an increased risk of infection due to a four-fold increase in airborne pathogens.

Although air quality in critical health and clinical areas of hospitals needs to be of the highest standard, these principles, in many instances, have been compromised in other parts of hospital design. In pre-operation, recovery and general wards, the opportunity for ventilation is often limited to a 100mm wide strip of open window - a limit governed by essential risk directives to protect patients from harm and provide a safe environment.

However, simple modifications could readily be implemented to the ventilation solution, such as high-level vents or window opening, which would to not only maintain patient safety, but also provide adequate ventilation to manage temperatures and improve indoor airquality.

When the lack of cooling is linked to other building design issues, such as south facing glazing, low ceilings, thin walls and the cumulative heat build up from multi-storey structures, there will be and inevitable impact on hospital temperatures

Temperature data research and analysis that I have undertaken with Professor Kevin Lomas, as part of the wider Cambridge University team lead by Professor Short, reveals that in numerous hospital wards across the UK there are number of key factors influencing overheating risk. The work has not only highlighted the resilience of traditional, heavyweight ‘Nightingale wards’ to overheating, but also indicated that solar gain is the key cause of internal temperature increase.

Alongside improved ventilation and increased air movement through carefully planned vents to maintain patient safety, the introduction of measures to limit heat gain, such as the deployment of external shading devices will help reduce overheating risk.

Hospital overheating is a very real issue and this report highlights that most are not only incapable of dealing with any predicted gradual increase in temperatures that may result from climate change, but are also likely to be susceptible to heatwaves.

The links between building design practice and how regulations will need to evolve to manage overheating and assist infection control are likely to be a key outcomes from the research, which will impact all aspects of architecture and construction.

While some retro-fitted solutions can provide effective answers to overheating, the time to review building design standards, specifications and regulations, particularly for future hospital construction projects, is probably already here.

+44 (0)1543 443060.

Monday, 23 June 2014

Innovative natural ventilation from SE Controls helps keep pupils alert

A new £2 million science centre at Moreton Hall School in Oswestry, is using an advanced NVLogiQ naturalventilation monitoring and control solution from SE Controls to maintain classroom indoor air quality while providing a stimulating and comfortable environment for pupils.

Founded more than 100 years ago, Moreton Hall is one of the UK’s highest achieving independent schools, providing education for girls from age 3 to 18 and boys from 3 to 11, together with accommodation and facilities for boarding.

The new two-storey science building provides high quality teaching laboratories for the school’s junior science, GCSE and A level students and was designed by Shrewsbury based architects, Baart Harries Newall who were keen to ensure that the building’s indoor air quality was maintained within national standards and its energy consumption was minimised.

To achieve the designer’s objectives, SE Controls worked closely with the architects and main contractors, Jones Brothers Weston Rhyn, to develop an assisted natural ventilation solution. Using compact NVLogiQ room controllers linked to automatic opening windows and a low energy cross flow fan in each of the eight lab classrooms, the system manages ventilation as well as the operation of radiators to provide a fully integrated low energy system.

The NVLogiQ room controllers constantly monitor carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in each classroom alongside indoor air temperature and relative humidity, as well as outside temperature, wind and rain via external sensors. Each NVLogiQ unit also incorporates an integral data logger to allow the recording and analysis of all key aspects of the room environment.

The sophisticated monitoring and control algorithm used within the compact NVLogiQ system was developed in conjunction with Loughborough University’s School of Civil and Building Engineering to ensure indoor CO₂ levels and temperatures are precisely controlled while minimising building energy losses.

In addition to the eight NVLogiQ controllers and PSUs, 18 SECO N 24 40 400N twin chain compact actuators were also installed by SE Controls together with PIR finger trap sensors and all the appropriate cabling to control the automatic opening of windows and the small cross flow fans in each lab.

During normal operation, as CO₂ levels increase within each individual science lab, the NVLogiQ controller triggers SE Controls’ SECO N 24 40 compact chain actuators to begin the incremental opening of the windows to allow fresh air to enter the classroom. Simultaneously, small dampers located on the wall opposite the windows are signalled to open and the low energy fans start to draw air from the room to stimulate cross flow and aid ventilation.

Dr. Chris Iddon, SE Controls’ Design Manager, explained: “There are already a significant number of high quality studies that have identified a clear link between increased internal CO₂ levels and a reduction in the ability of students to learn and perform optimally.”

He added: “Post occupancy monitoring of the Moreton Hall classroom environment has shown excellent indoor air quality proving that the design is an example of how having a clearly defined, controlled and executed ventilation strategy can maintain a high quality and stimulating classroom environment for students. Using NVlogiQ enables excellent on demand ventilation whilst minimising heating energy demand.”

+44 (0) 1543 443060.