Breathing Buildings’ ventilation design creates perfect nursery environment

Breathing Buildings, a leading provider of controlled hybrid ventilation systems in UK, has provided a first-class natural ventilation system for the construction of YMCA East Anton Nursery and Community Centre.

The company’s F1000 units were installed in classrooms to ensure fresh air and healthy indoor surroundings.

YMCA East Anton is a purpose-built nursery for 0-5 year olds. which only opened in October last year.

Mechanical ventilation systems were first suggested, but concerns about the energy use and maintenance costs associated with this type scheme made them think otherwise.

Breathing Buildings were asked by Darcy Construction to design an unobtrusive, natural ventilation system which would provide high levels of ventilation to keep rooms fresh.

Each classroom has its own toilet with a void above; this void hosts a F1000 unit to provide tempered fresh air.

In cold weather, the F1000 system recycles the heat admitted through solar gain on the south-facing façade and the heat emitted by the children and carers in order to pre-heat the incoming ventilation air.

This allows a smaller heating system to be specified than with a traditional natural ventilation design.

In summer, when children are heading in and out of the classroom, the fresh air enters the rooms at low level via the doors or windows.

Subsequently, it flows across the space, providing much needed cross-flow ventilation, exiting out through the F1000 unit and high level damper.

The hottest summer days will see the system automatically move into a night-cooling mode, ensuring the space continues to ventilate and benefit from the colder temperatures in the evening.

The fabric of the building is passively cooled, lifting the need to air condition the south facing nursery.

This slimline unit is compactly tucked up against the ceiling, providing a throw of up to 10m into the space.

“Creating a comfortable, fresh and healthy indoor environment at low maintenance costs were the key factors mentioned in the project brief,” 

Peter Oliver, Commercial Director at Darcy Construction, talked about how the F1000 units met the brief well and heaped praise on them, saying they had provided a ‘well ventilated and energy efficient environment at low running costs’ making it ideal for the project.