FEATURE
FROM PASSIVE TO INTERACTIVE AND REACTIVE
It has never been more pertinent to test room integrity, for airtightness. A building that is not airtight cannot be properly mechanically ventilated. Now is the time to build tight and ventilate right, says Bernard Hornung, Head of Operations, Built Environment at Coltraco Ultrasonics.
Until the outbreak of this global pandemic there was plenty of frustration around the slow pace of technology adoption within the built environment. Whilst other industries had made good progress, teams of builders were struggling to meet minimum building performance standards. Inefficient processes left much room for improvement.
New homes often fail to meet low-energy targets, and to satisfy residents with fundamental issues such as ease of use, summer comfort and energy costs. There is far too little Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) happening routinely on projects to close the performance gap.
HOW COVID-19 CHANGED OUR BUILDING
SECTOR The pandemic can be credited with pushing the construction industry in the right direction. Many processes have changed and there is no need to go back to the way it was. The technological advances that would have happened over the next few decades, have now been achieved, due to the pandemic’s dramatic acceleration of technology adoption.
Most buildings are tested for airtightness, air permeability, and air leaks with outdated and intrusive technology, making tests difficult, time consuming and expensive. Yet it is critical to quickly locate and accurately quantify air leaks in rooms and buildings. There is now a unique solution from Coltraco Ultrasonics who have brought testing for airtightness, and air permeability into the 21st century. Air leaks with a diameter as small as 0.5mm can now be detected and quickly located with the Portascanner AIRTIGHT 520.
BUILDINGS, AIRTIGHTNESS AND VENTILATION In March 2020, the world as we knew it fundamentally
and suddenly changed, however, innovation continued to evolve and thrive. There was an urgent requirement within the NHS to prevent infection spread in hospitals and contain the virus by maintaining negatively pressurised ICU Wards and ensure their airtightness.
UK Government put out a COVID-19 emergency response grant through InnovateUK for technology to help the NHS. In June 2020, Coltraco Ultrasonics was one of the winners. The grant was for adapting its already award-winning watertight integrity technology into technology suitable for room airtight testing. Like many businesses, Coltraco Ultrasonics was
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transformed by the pandemic. In just eight months Coltraco Ultrasonics had successfully designed and manufactured two innovative solutions to help the NHS and healthcare settings with infection control and the building sector to ensure effective ventilation through airtightness.
Following from this need to contain the spread of airborne diseases, Coltraco Ultrasonics swiftly saw the demand for this leak detection technology to be re-designed for the built environment. Portascanner AIRTIGHT 520 is a new solution to ensure that buildings are airtight so that people can be confident that they are returning to ‘safe buildings’ and ‘safe working’ by properly ventilating them. This is to ensure that all ventilation systems are operating effectively, and thereby enhance indoor air quality (IAQ) which has now become a poignant issue.
No alternative leak measuring technologies measure the leak size directly, but instead infer it from pressure differences of airflow measurements, which are assumed to be taken at constant temperature and pressure, something that in reality, is never the case. This means that alternative technologies have inaccuracies that may be minimised, but not eliminated entirely, by highly skilled operators using manual calculators.
For the first time, with minimal training, the user can locate a leak, quantify the leak site, calculate the air flow rate through it, and generate an air permeability value for the room. You can then take accurate remedial action where necessary, and have full confidence in both the airtightness of your room, and the effectiveness of your ventilation in circulating clean air.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF CLEAN AIR FM and HR teams are tasked with keeping buildings
and spaces comfortable, sustainable, efficient, safe, healthy and well maintained, and this list keeps growing as buildings, including residential buildings are expected to deliver more. More can include addressing the effects of climate change by making a building more energy efficient. More after this pandemic will include a critical appraisal of indoor air quality.
Around 70% of the world’s population spends an estimated 90% of its time indoors, and the World Health Organization estimates that in 2020 there were more than six million premature deaths due
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