Natural ventilation at the hub of south Gloucestershire young people's services put by Windowmaster

The timber frame building is designed to meet the councils stringent carbon reduction policy, housing a number of childrens and young peoples frontline community facilities including educational welfare, social care and family support services. As a result, it stores more than 323 tonnes of CO2 within its structure. The building features low and zero carbon technologies including low energy lighting, a combined heat and power plant, photovoltaic cells allied to the Feed in Tariff and low energy natural ventilation.

Kingswood Locality Hub was built by Wates and designed by Bristol architects Alec French. The M & E consultants on the project were Parsons Brinkerhoff.

WindowMaster was selected because it was able to provide a model for an innovative and cost-effective natural ventilation solution that worked according to the brief.

Working with building services engineers NG Bailey WindowMaster designed and supplied a scheme controlling 100 actuators on opening windows in 31 zones, louvres on the facades and chimneys in two areas.

WindowMaster regional sales manager Carl Sutterby said: The system we supplied for the Kingsway Locality Hub is based on the NV Advance system. It is designed to interface with the building management system (BMS) to support a night cooling strategy as well as provide ventilation during the day.

Maximising the use of natural ventilation through openeable windows, cross ventilation and the stack system also aids in reducing the energy consumption of the building and reduces CO2 emissions.

WindowMaster, Europes largest provider of natural comfort and smoke ventilation solutions, was chosen to provide the window automation system for the Kingswood Locality Hub because of its ability to provide a complete installation, in particular the central computer control system. The installation includes window actuators, various sensors and a weather station.

The weather station monitors external conditions around the building, including wind direction and speed, temperature and rain fall. Changes in wind pressure on the facades are also modelled. These parameters are programmed into the computer control system where they are analysed along with readings taken from the weather station and sensors fitted internally. Windows around the building are then precisely controlled and positioned to keep air quality within rooms fresh and the temperature constant.

The natural ventilation system can be retrofitted on many existing windows as well as being installed on new buildings. It can operate on a broad range of window types, including top and bottom opening, sliding and parallel opening. The system can also be used on windows for heat and smoke ventilation.