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FEBRUARY 10 - PASSIVENT OPTIMISES NATURAL RESOURCES FOR SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE



An innovative package from Passivent Ltd is enabling specifiers for the Government’s Building Schools for the Future to optimise natural resources and ensure compliance with the scheme’s specific requirements.

The company has added natural daylighting solutions to its range of natural ventilation systems, enabling fulfilment of the BSF’s specification that ‘in schools, natural daylight during daylight hours should always be the main light source for reasons of quality and sustainability’*. Passivent has conducted an extensive period of testing, unparalleled in the tubular rooflight industry, to bring to market Sunscoop tubular rooflights, Metro modular rooflights, and Litevent Airstract combined rooflight/ventilator, all of which not only meet the BSF requirements but also are accepted means of achieving BREEAM credits, for which all BSF buildings have to attain at least a ‘very good’ rating.

In-plane rooflights are proven to allow up to three times more daylight into a building than a comparable-sized window, whilst domed rooflights further enhance daylight penetration. Independent testing has shown a single 250mm diameter Sunscoop with 2.5m tubing gives more than four times the amount of light of a single 60W bulb or 13W low energy lamp on a bright day with direct sunlight, without any of the energy consumption or heat generation. A single Litevent Airstract can provide up to almost 1.3m2 of daylight AND over 0.55m2 ventilation in one unit.

Explains Wayne Aston, Director of Technical at Passivent, “There is an obvious synergy between natural ventilation and natural daylight, so it is logical for us to add daylighting solutions to our range, as an additional tool to help specifiers significantly reduce energy consumption and the building’s carbon footprint.

Passivent’s Sunscoop tubular rooflight is available both with a raised glazed dome, and in-plane, reflecting natural daylight above a pitched roof through a ceiling void into a room below. The product is already proving a success in the education environment, with, for example, 19 Sunscoops installed at Heronsbridge Special School in Bridgend, 10 at Durrington Middle School in West Sussex and 12 at Sale Grammar School’s new visual arts facility. The school’s Business Manager and project co-ordinator Mrs Jeanette Buonocore observed, “Natural light is so much better than fluorescent light, not only for the students to work in, but to show off the art work. The Sunscoops bring a huge amount of natural light into the whole facility.”

The Passivent Metrodome provides a combination of high daylight values, controlled ventilation, thermal efficiency and aesthetics. The Metrodome yields up to 92% light transmission and includes as standard up to 4000mm2 adjustable ventilation.

Litevent Airstract provides up to 92% light transmission and 0.66m2controllable ventilation; Passivent advises on appropriate unit size depending on volume of air movement required.

To fully explain the current range of natural daylighting options available, Passivent has produced a ‘Natural Daylight Solutions’ guide. Copies are available on request or can be downloaded on this website.

Passivent is part of the Building Product Design Group and is the UK’s leading designer and supplier of natural ventilation systems for both domestic and commercial applications. The company 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 has also contributed to the BSRIA Guide BG2/2005 Wind Driven Natural Ventilation Systems, as well as being a member of the DCSF steering committee on natural ventilation guidance for schools, Building Bulletin 101.

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