A Somerset school has become the first in the UK to trial a new mechanical ventilation system in its classrooms. We look at its imminent launch and hears why clear heads need fresh air.
Remember those endless, dreamy school afternoons staring out of the classroom window while Mr Jackson, the economics teacher, droned on about how if you didn't concentrate you'd spend the rest of your life working on a building site? If he could only see you now, eh!

Well maybe, just maybe, the fault wasn't your's for having the attention span of a distracted gnat after a couple of drinks. Maybe it's that there wasn't enough fresh air circulating in your brain.

Uphill Primary School in north Somerset became the first UK school to tackle such issues when it installed a mechanical ventilation system from Dantherm in time for the current academic year. The project is part of a trial installation by the company (also based in Somerset but headquartered in northern Denmark), which has proved successful enough for a full launch of a school and hospital-focused system. If all goes according to plan, that launch will take place within the next month.

The pilot reflects the neat coincidence of two theories. Ian Furmidge, md of Dantherm UK, has ties with Uphill school and after visiting became convinced that the Portakabin and Elliott-type classrooms popular with many schools that need to expand beyond their confines, are desperately in need of some kind of affordable ventilation system. "I couldn't believe how smelly some of the classrooms can get," he reflects. "I felt intuitively that fresh air could only help with keeping the children alert and interested. At the same time as I was talking it over with the school I was pointed in the direction of some research that was published about April last year. It concluded that the brain uses around a quarter of the energy we burn, yet it can't store any of that energy. So it is completely reliant on the body's oxygen intake. Put a pupil in an oxygen-rich or well ventilated room and, the research suggested, learning ability improved by as much as 20%. If you can't ventilate the classroom then it recommends that you take the kids out for a stroll to pep them up. They are calling it accelerated learning."

Dantherm was already busy adapting its ventilation range to create Elite, which is targeted at the residential market. In the process it had created an interim unit that fell between conventional commercial and residential needs. It introduced this larger variation of Elite at Uphill when the school took delivery of an Elliott modular classroom. "I should stress that this was very much a test bed, we wanted to make sure that the system could do what we claimed it could do before we went any further," reflects Furmidge. "So we installed a conventional system that requires ducting. Normally this would be far too expensive for a school. Our system costs around £1000 but installation, with all the associated ducting, costs another £5000 or £6000 on top, which is obviously well beyond the means of the average school. At Uphill we absorbed that cost so that we could trial the system."

The results, claims Furmidge, have been excellent. On regular trips to the school since installation, he says that the mechanical ventilation system has kept the classroom much fresher, prevented condensation and has had the desired effect on the children's studies. It has also won commendations from both the teachers and pupils.

Other obvious advantages are that mechanical ventilation reduces the likelihood of pupils being ill and also that the windows do not have to be opened in order to bring fresh air into the room. The typical portable classroom has windows down two parallel sides, so if the wind is blowing along the opposite plane then opening the windows may not do much good anyway. Coupled with this, in urban areas opening them might let distracting road noise in along with the fresh air.

Convinced of its success and the potential for schools around the country, Dantherm has been busy building prototypes of its Elite system that are designed to be vented through the roof of modular schoolrooms. This negates the need for complicated ducting and installation and will, it believes, bring the price down to nearer £1500-2000 for the ventilation system, plus less than £500 for installation. While Furmidge emphasises that these are very much estimated prices in advance of the commercial launch, the economics are clear – even for someone who attended Mr Jackson's class.

"What we have to accept is that while schools might want this kind of fresh air technology they don't have a lot of money to spend," explains Furmidge. "So we've been busy working out how we get those costs down. There are six prototypes at the Danish manufacturing plant and all the tests are looking very positive. It's 70% efficient, which is actually too low for Danish regulations but comfortably meets the UK's Building Regulations, and even though the whole system will be a lot cheaper than the Uphill test rig, we've been able to enhance the product so that it will work even better than the ventilation that they have there."

Next up is convincing, and so creating, this new market. Furmidge has been in discussions with Somerset County Council and believes that it is keen in principle. He is also talking to the likes of Portakabin and Elliott about installing Elite in their new modular classrooms rather than just retrofitting, helping to absorb the extra costs up front. Modular hospital outbuildings are another obvious target area.

Though at the time of going to press it was too early to set an exact launch date, Furmidge was confident that the schoolroom Elite system will be available for such applications very shortly, and is equally convinced that the company has spotted a niche that will not only do its profits no harm but will provide a genuine public service.

"This is very much geared at these particular types of buildings. You have to have a structure that you can cut a hole in the roof of for the vent, so traditional brick buildings or two-storey structures are no good," he points out. "Because then you're back into all the ducting costs. But if you look at the number of classroom units that schools are adding to cope with space demands, and then at the positive results of maintaining fresh air in buildings, it has to make sense."

It certainly sounds like a sensible and pragmatic solution to a comparatively new conundrum and, talking to Furmidge, clearly fits with more than just his commercial sensibilities. Clever stuff, all round. It reminds me of Mr Jackson's wise words in my afternoon economics lesson, erm, now what was it he used to say? Erm…

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor