Breathing Buildings Supports World Ventil8 Day

Breathing Buildings, a leading provider of controlled natural and hybrid ventilation systems is celebrating World Ventilation Day (#WorldVentil8Day). World Ventil8 Day aims to raise awareness of the importance of ventilation as a crucial part of enabling health and wellbeing of people.

Taking place on Thursday 8 November 2024, World Ventil8 Day was initiated by a group of researchers and professional bodies who are passionate about the importance of ventilation. This year the theme is ‘Enabling Action’ and aims to spread the word about all that is good in ventilation and how to help people to improve ventilation in their buildings whether it be a home, a school, a workplace or a social space. It also aims to highlight ventilation’s role in healthy buildings and a healthy life.

Breathing Buildings is keen to support World Ventil8 Day. Since the company was founded, it has been dedicated to energy efficient ventilation which improves indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort. Prior to the pandemic there was already an increasing awareness of how indoor environments impact our health and wellbeing. In the UK ventilation guidance for schools already existed in the form of Building Bulletin 101 (BB101).

The last revision, the 2018 edition of BB101: ‘Guidelines on ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality in schools’ looks at the key design elements of modern ventilation systems in schools. The document sets out requirements for schools to improve ventilation to create a healthy and comfortable environment that will help improve children’s learning outcomes.

Louise McHugh, Product Manager at Breathing Buildings, comments: “Breathing Buildings is delighted to support this year’s World Ventil8 Day. Since it was founded, Breathing Buildings has been committed to energy efficient ventilation that improves IAQ and thermal comfort. Over the years we have helped a raft of schools improve their learning environments.

“Providing excellent thermal comfort and enhanced IAQ, our hybrid ventilation is designed to suit a diverse range of commercial and public buildings with high heat gains, such as schools, colleges, leisure centres, offices, theatres and even churches. Our latest innovation the NVHRe raises the bar on energy efficient ventilation, marking the next step in hybrid ventilation technology.”

Breathing Buildings is committed to improving IAQ and enabling action by helping schools improve their ventilation and indoor environments. For example, Breathing Buildings supplied ventilation to High Point Academy, a secondary school for students with complex learning difficulties in Wednesbury, West Midlands. The 90-pupil school features classrooms that are designed to be safe and calming for autistic pupils, it includes a range of specialist rooms that enhance the children’s experience.

In addition to this specialist learning environment, the two-storey school benefits from Breathing Buildings’ NVHR (Natural Ventilation with Heat Recycling) hybrid ventilation units that help provide good indoor air quality and keep the school warm in winter and cool in summer. This boosts comfort and health which is essential for the pupils’ learning and wellbeing.

But it is not only schools that can benefit from hybrid ventilation technology. For example, Breathing Buildings supplied ventilation to ECO MEP’s carbon negative headquarters in Ashford, Kent. Recently purchasing the building, ECO MEP are mechanical and electrical contractors who focus on delivering lean, sustainable solutions to commercial clients. In line with these values, their objective was to ensure their own new offices were a beacon of sustainability and so specified Breathing Buildings’ innovative NVHRe Natural Ventilation with Heat Recycling and Heat Recovery to provide energy efficient ventilation.

Breathing Buildings’ award-winning NVHRe, raises the bar on energy efficient ventilation. Marking the next step in hybrid ventilation technology, the key difference between Breathing Buildings’ original NVHR® range and the new innovative Natural Ventilation with Heat Recycling and Heat Recovery (NVHRe) is an addition of a low resistance heat exchanger cell within the unit.

This allows the unit to benefit from both heat recycling and heat recovery, reclaiming even more heat than previous models, saving more energy, providing great occupant comfort, and allowing users to include it within the building energy assessments (SBEM).

Offering the lowest energy consumption for a hybrid heat recovery ventilation unit in the industry, the NVHRe combines 46% heat recovery efficiency with low Specific Fan Power (SFP) of 0.075 W/l/s to help maximise a building’s energy savings. In addition, the NVHRe has several different operating modes to minimise energy use, enhance IAQ and improve occupant comfort. An intelligent hybrid system, the unit automatically decides when and if mechanical operation is required, ensuring it only operates when absolutely necessary.

Providing excellent thermal comfort and enhanced IAQ, the NVHRe is designed to suit a diverse range of commercial and public buildings with high heat gains, such as schools, colleges, leisure centres, offices, theatres and even churches.

The inclusion of the low resistant aluminium cross plate heat exchanger to the unit lowers energy costs by reducing the reliance on space heating to maintain thermal comfort in a room. It operates during colder external temperatures, typically below 7ºC when mixing recycled air alone is not enough to maintain the desired temperature for occupants. 

The range also includes units that can be the primary source of heat; needing no radiators, as well as a system that can offer further cooling. The British designed and manufactured units come in three models with product variations to suit every need with the standard NVHRe 1100 and NVHRe+ 1100 which includes a heating coil and is ideal for buildings in cooler areas; and an NVHRe C+ 1100 which features a heating and cooling coil for year-round comfort and full temperature control.

The NVHRe hybrid ventilation system’s ultra-efficient facade-based mixing ventilation allows single-sided, enhanced natural and hybrid ventilation in deep plan spaces whilst making the most of internal heat gains, with the addition of heat recovery to deliver superb thermal comfort and IAQ. Hybrid ventilation focuses on the vital balance of IAQ, thermal comfort, and efficiency by choosing the most appropriate mode of ventilation based on the internal and external conditions, allowing the NVHRe to be in the most energy efficient mode possible at all stages. 

Allowing low-energy hybrid natural ventilation, even in buildings with limited facade and roof space, highly efficient mixing fans mitigate cold draughts in winter and provide a ventilation boost in summer, with the addition of heat recovery to bolster winter thermal comfort, minimising the need for a primary source of heating for the space, in return reducing energy costs. Supplied with an external temperature sensor, and an internal temperature and CO2 sensor, as well as an intelligent controller the system monitors conditions to create an ideal indoor environment, boosting both productivity and wellbeing. 

Breathing Buildings’ NVHRe won ‘Commercial/ Industrial Ventilation Product of the Year’ category at the prestigious HVR Awards 2024. Breathing Buildings is currently shortlisted in the Energy Saving Awards and the ECN Awards for supplying ventilation to the ECO MEP project.

For further information on NVHR®, NVHRe and E-stack ventilation, as well as other products and services offered by Breathing Buildings, visit www.breathingbuildings.com or call us on 01223 450 060.