SE Controls has supplied materials for a natural ventilation and smoke control system in a college in London.

1,054 actuators have been fitted at City Academy

City Academy, in Hackney, caters for around 900 students and has been built with a facade of aluminium and glass.

SE Controls supplied equipment to various sub-contractors while the final installation and commissioning was undertaken by the company’s engineers. The windows and actuators on the project were installed by Parry Bowen Limited.

Around 1,054 actuators were supplied and fitted in various combinations to 538 vents. Various methods of actuation were specified depending on the location and ventilation requirement within each space, a spokesman for the manufacturer said.

Ventilation inside the classroom was made up of linked tandem pairs of actuators fitted to the window system operated with a switch. In circulation and communal spaces actuators were wired back to 10 panels controlling 17 zones for the entire building. The actuators have been grouped into 110 separate groups.

A spokesman for SE Systems said: “All window actuators were fitted with pivot brackets ensuring that the window could still attain some lateral movement which reduces the strain on the actuator chain. Adopting this method of attaching the actuators to the windows ensures that the actuators themselves attain the longest possible life without failure.

“Where there are areas of possible entrapment, programmable chain actuators have been implemented within the windows and these have been reduced in both closing force and speed in order to protect against injury.”
Designed to provide smoke free exit routes in case of fire, the circulation and communal spaces control panels have been built to work with a control panel that is linked into the fire alarm system. The device should open all the windows in these spaces should a fire alarm and power supply failure occur, SE Systems said.

For natural ventilation the 10 control panels have been linked into a central building management system to offer comfort ventilation. At third floor ceiling level more than 100 louvers allow outside air to enter attenuated ducts – which have been sealed with hatches to the inside.