Do you know how an AIR PEAR® works?

By Melinda | Published: February 3, 2012

Watch this video to see how an Air Pear works to equalise the air temperature when heating an internal space.

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Optimise Your Cooling- Save $$ and Reduce Your Carbon Emissions with AIRPEAR®

By Melinda | Published: January 25, 2012

Watch this video- our partner Airius explains the benefits of thermal equalisation- perfect for the Australian climate.

High ceiling sales areas such as car show rooms and retail outlets aim to create internal environments that are comfortable so that customers stay for longer and spend more.  This can be extremely costly, particularly with regard to cooling. Air conditioning systems can help address this issue. Although they are expensive to install, maintain and operate, and do not sustain a consistent environment, but instead create unwanted hot and cold spots. Then in most cases the expensively cooled air is lost, escaping through doors as customers enter and leave the building. The Airius destratification system is the perfect solution to this problem; improving the efficiency of your air conditioning and HVAC system whilst highly reducing its energy consumption and your carbon emissions.

By circulating the air more efficiently the cooled air is spread evenly throughout the internal space, eliminating hot and cold spots, drawing a lesser load form your air conditioning system and preventing such large atmospheric losses each time a door or a window is opened. It also raises the internal due point which reduces or eliminates condensation, keeping products clearly on display. On average the Airius system saves between 25-40% on your air conditioning costs in a typical high ceiling retail environment.

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Natural Ventilation and Daylight- No Test for the University of New England’s Mock-up Pharmacy

By Melinda | Published: January 9, 2012
Vento has been awarded a project at the University of New England (UNE), whereby, Vento will be
providing natural ventilation to a first floor laboratory and both natural ventilation and daylight to a ground floor mock-up pharmacy within the university. The top floor of this facility will be using our SOLA-BOOST® solar assisted natural ventilation system and the ground floor will be using SOLA-BOOST and SUNPIPE® natural daylight systems, ducted through the first floor, to provide the central pharmacy counter with a great ambiance for learning.Our SOLA-BOOST is an evolution of the WINDCATCHER with a solar driven internal fan that provides additional ventilation on sunny days, whilst maintaining zero additional running costs. This is perfect for the Australasian climate.
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WINDCATCHER® in Cornerstone Secondary College Multi-purpose Sports Hall

By Melinda | Published: January 8, 2012

Vento will be installing eight 1200mm Square WINDCATCHER® natural ventilation systems into the Cornerstone Secondary College multi-purpose sports hall. Due to the halls diverse functionality, from sports to examinations and school assemblies, our WINDCATCHER systems are ideal with their flexible design elements and intelligent control system.

The WINDCATCHER extracts hot stale air and has the added advantage of carrying clean, fresh air from roof level down to the hall through intelligently controlled modulating volume control damper arrangement, as depicted in the below image.  The system is controlled using INVent fully automatic control system allowing the four season calendar program to ensure that internal temperatures and CO2 levels are maintained all year round, and all for approximately $2 per annum per system!

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Westbourne Grammar School Extends Building But Retracts Energy Consumption

By Melinda | Published: January 6, 2012

Vento has been awarded a project at Westbourne Grammar School in Victoria, where they are extending their existing building to increase the number of classrooms in the year 7 LOTE centre (Languages Other Than English) to twelve.

Vento will be installing these classrooms with twelve WINDCATCHER® natural ventilation systems in conjunction with thirty-seven WindowMaster™ actuators and twenty-two SUNPIPE® natural daylight systems and dimmable lights connected to a lux sensor.

The overall building is controlled using our NV Comfort™ System which ensures that the internal climate, lighting and comfort system can be appropriately managed.

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Envï Opened in the Presence of Princess Mary

By Melinda | Published: November 25, 2011

Princess Mary attracted a massive crowd at the opening of Envï- the first energy efficient relocatable classroom at Pakenham Springs Primary School in Victoria on Thursday.

Princess Mary at Pakenham Springs Primary School opening Envï

She headed the ‘State of Green- Join the Future Think Denmark’ delegation to promote and inspire a move towards adopting sustainable and energy efficient building solutions in conjunction with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Vento was very proud to show off our WINDCATCHER® and WindowMaster® natural ventilation and control systems in our Envï project. All attendees commented on the high level of thermal comfort inside the building despite the extremely hot day outside.

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Victorian Demountable Classrooms Go Green

By Melinda | Published: October 27, 2011

Sustainable building provider Vento Australasia is participating in a Victorian state government initiative to provide inspiration to the next generation of energy-efficient relocatable classrooms.

As part of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s (DEECD) exemplar relocatable building named ‘envi’, Vento Australasia tailored a highly intelligent natural ventilation system for the prototype classroom expected to be launched for use in October 2011.

To provide natural cooling and maintain an optimum internal environment, Vento Australasia created a hybrid system utilising automated windows from WindowMaster and secure, solar-powered rooftop ventilation from Monodraught.

James Idle, Senior Engineer of Vento Australasia, said the system utilises cutting-edge technology to provide an ideal learning environment that minimises energy consumption while maintaining occupant comfort within the portable classroom.

“The intent of this building is to showcase an array of innovative design elements for sustainable education facilities and this hybrid natural ventilation system is the first of its kind in Australia,” he said.

“Vento’s intent with this hybrid system was to provide maximum user control and maintain ideal temperature and oxygen levels whilst minimising the use of mechanical air conditioning and heating.

“The hybrid Sola-Boost solar-assisted natural ventilation system and WindowMaster Natural Ventilation system allows the relocatable classroom to be naturally ventilated with fresh air as much as possible.

“Through intelligent control and monitoring, both internal and external conditions are measured so that when natural ventilation is precluded the control system has the ability to tell the air conditioning to turn on or off when required; however, the key to this function is that the air conditioning has to be activated by the end user.

“This can potentially provide a dramatic reduction in energy use, helping to minimise the operating cost and carbon footprint of the classroom.”

To achieve this goal for envi, which consists of two classrooms, Vento installed one GRP 900 square Sola-Boost system from Monodraught above each classroom.

The system uses prevailing winds and a solar-powered fan to channel cool fresh air into a building while simultaneously extracting warm internal air.

Within each classroom, 16 actuators were installed to allow windows on two sides of each room to incrementally open and close automatically as required.

The operation of the rooftop ventilation and automated windows is controlled by a WindowMaster NV Comfort system that negates the need for a stand-alone building management system (BMS) and features an intelligent touch screen for user control.

Idle said this system delivers a range of user control, remote access and controllability of the functions of each system, therefore saving on the cost of a BMS to run air conditioning and other functions.

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Strathalbyn Library Due to Open in September

By Heidi | Published: July 15, 2011

Alexandrina Council plans to open the redeveloped Library, Customer Service and
Community Centre at Colman Terrace, Strathalbyn on Saturday 17th September 2011.

Designed by Brown Falconer Architects, the building stresses traditional heritage and innovative, environmentally sustainable design principals.

Vento was approached to provide a natural ventilation solution that would be effective in the South Australian climate. The WindowMaster solution was chosen to ensure that all high level windows are linked to the NV Comfort™ control panel which acts as the building’s building management system (BMS).

NV Comfort™ naturally ventilates the internal space in periods of fine weather between 20⁰C and 25⁰C. In the warmer months when temperatures exceed 25⁰C, the system knows to automatically activate the mechanical cooling system.

Photo Courtesy of Alexandrina Library Flickr Photostream
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Vento helps DEECD go green with ‘envi’

By Heidi | Published: July 15, 2011

Vento has participated in a Victorian State Government initiative to provide inspiration for the next generation of energy efficient relocateable classrooms.

As part of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s (DEECD) Exemplar Relocatable Initiative, Vento Australasia tailored a highly intelligent natural ventilation system for a prototype classroom named ‘envi’.

To provide natural cooling and maintain an optimum internal environment, Vento Australasia created a hybrid ventilation system utilising automated windows from WindowMaster™ and secure, roof top SOLA-BOOST® solar assisted natural ventilation from Monodraught. The operation of both systems is controlled by a WindowMaster NV Comfort™ system that negates the need for a stand-alone building management system (BMS) and features an intelligent touch screen for user control.

Click here to read the full article.

Artists' rendering supplied by DEECD.

Click here to read the full article: Vento Helps DEECD Go Green with 'envi'.
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WindowMaster Provides NV & Smoke Solution to 2,429 Network Rail Windows.

By Heidi | Published: July 13, 2011

WindowMaster has supplied window actuators, locking motors and automated controls for the natural ventilation of Network Rail’s  new National Centre in Milton Keynes. The development consists of six buildings – two multi-storey car parks and four office buildings joined by a central atrium which will house the main reception, support facilities, a coffee bar, retail outlets and space for informal meetings. The development will feature living roofs, rainwater harvesting and natural ventilation controlled by WindowMaster’s newly launched MotorLink™ automated window control system.

WindowMaster is supplying chain actuators for the automation of 2,429 windows as well as espagnolette locking motors for 439 of these windows. These MotorLink™ actuators are connected to 263 MotorLink™ MotorControllers to provide power and control primarily for natural ventilation. The central atrium also includes life-safety smoke control.

Network Rail’s new offices are divided into four blocks aligned to use prevailing wind together with exterior solar shading panels to reduce heat gain, improve the efficiency of natural ventilation and allow effective use of natural light. In the office areas, natural ventilation will be augmented by passive cooling, while energy requirements will be met by power and heating from the local district energy scheme.

BAM’s project manager Steve Milton said: “WindowMaster was selected because of its experience in making the programming and operation of automated natural ventilation and smoke ventilation systems as easy as possible.”

“Over an 18 month period it became clear to all parties that the technical features and quality provided by WindowMaster’s MotorLink™ actuators and MotorControllers were essential for the performance of the natural ventilation strategy, whether controlled by a proprietary natural ventilation control system or by the proposed building management system.”

MotorLink™ is a state of the art digital data communication technology which provides improved control and functionality where automated windows and natural ventilation are part of a building management system (BMS).

WindowMaster MotorLink™ offers precise and accurate control. Because it operates within open bus communication standards, including KNX, LON, Bacnet and Modbus, its operation does not require expensive dedicated software systems. The versatile range of functionality of the MotorLink™ system also means that BMS suppliers and facade companies can deliver robust, flexible control solutions tailored to specific project requirements. Millimetre-by-millimetre control enables an optimal indoor climate to be obtained whatever the weather or the season. Two-way communication between the MotorLinkTM window actuators and the MotorLink™ MotorController enables the BMS to accurately position the windows.

MotorLink™ features precise position control, three-speed actuator operation, synchronisation between multiple actuators on the same window and reduced risk of entrapment. Other features include a reversing function, which protects the weather seals around the window, fault indication and online set-up.

To read the full article click here

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