Vent-Axia provides an upgrade

As part of a local refurbishment programme, Vent-Axia has helped Oxford City Council’s north east committee to upgrade the Northway Community Centre by supplying its state-of-the-art Sentinel Totus DERV (Demand Energy Recovery Ventilation) system to improve ventilation and save energy.

Oxford City Council invested £76,000 in the Northway Community Centre refurbishment to upgrade and expand the building to offer the local community further facilities. The project involved moving and changing the use of existing committee rooms and creating a new IT hub. As a result two new internal rooms were created, one designed for child-focused activities and the other to be a large meeting room, both requiring upgraded ventilation.

The Local Authority’s brief was to select an energy efficient supply and extract system that would offer improved ventilation and low running costs. Oxford City Council therefore installed two Sentinel Totus Midi units in Northway Community Centre to upgrade ventilation in the new internal rooms. “Oxford City Council chose the Sentinel Totus because of its high efficiency and its on-demand principles. Since the units serve rooms with varying occupancy and usage the Council was keen to only ventilate the rooms to meet demand, whether it was two or twenty people,” explains Daniel Evans at Vent-Axia. 

Oxford City Council was attracted to the Sentinel Totus D-ERV system because of its 90 per cent energy recovery and its demand ventilation philosophy, only supplying ventilation as and when it is needed. Featuring acoustic linings the Sentinel Totus also offers quiet ventilation, essential in a meeting room environment. “Our brief needed to comply with Building Regulations and with internal rooms it was essential to ensure there was adequate ventilation. We also wanted to install heat recovery in a bid to cut heating running costs. We selected the Sentinel Totus for its efficiency and heat recovery, but also because the product was easy to install and commission by our electrician and didn’t need specialist labour,” explains Keith Reynolds, Senior Building Services Engineer for Oxford City Council. 

Two Sentinel Totus Midi units were installed above the ceiling to serve the two individual rooms, one above each room. The Sentinel Totus system’s precise control options were key to providing the required amount of fresh air to the internal rooms while keeping CO2 levels within prescribed levels. Depending on the rooms occupancy a change in CO2 levels triggers the Sentinel Totus’ fan speed to increase or decrease to ensure good ventilation is maintained to meet demand. 

“We are very happy with the results, the rooms are nice and fresh and although it is only early days we hope running costs will be minimal due to the on-demand ventilation. Since we use traditional heating in the building we hope the Sentinel Totus’ heat recovery will also cut down on our fuel bills,” adds Keith Reynolds.