Reducing the Risk from Covid19 in Schools:

Guilford County School in Surrey is the latest school in the UK to install Ventive’s natural ventilation system. The award-winning Windhive® ventilation system has been installed in the secondary school’s sports hall to provide users (school children and local sports clubs) a cleaner and healthier indoor environment, helping to reduce the risk from Covid19.

The natural ventilation system for the Guildford sports hall comprises four Windhive units, designed and manufactured in the UK by Ventive.  Each unit provides 100% fresh air, is low-cost and is low-carbon.

Each Windhive unit combines passive ventilation, heat recovery and system intelligence to supply up to 200 litres of fresh air every second. The unit adapts to real-time conditions to deliver an optimal balance of ventilation and comfortable temperatures, whatever the weather.  The system offers passive cooling at night that reduces daytime starting temperatures and purges heat from the building for free during the hotter summer months.

In addition, Ventive’s systems are Cloud connected and “smart”, autonomously reacting to their environment and transmitting data, allowing remote monitoring and over-the-air upgrades to optimize performance.  The systems have been proven to be cheaper to install, to operate and to maintain than full mechanical air conditioning plant.

Rob Morrison, Managing Director of Ventive Ltd said: “In the current “Post-Covid” climate, concerns have increased over traditional air conditioning units and recirculating systems redistributing contaminated air within rooms.  Consequently, the importance and interest in Natural Ventilation is growing as we look to provide healthier environments that are less “virus friendly” and more human friendly.”

Guildford County’s sport hall is the second education project that Ventive has worked on with Pope Consulting, a building services engineering company, based in Chichester, West Sussex.

Ventive’s Rob Morrison added: “We were delighted that Pope Consulting chose to use Ventive, and I am proud of the positive feedback that we’ve received from the client – Guildford County School.  Not surprisingly, the interest in our systems has grown significantly this year, given concerns over air quality and virus transmission. We are completing a number of projects this quarter for state, free and fee-paying schools, with more in the pipeline for next year.”

Mark Cheeseman, School Manager of Guildford County School said: “Ventive’s Windhive system delivers precisely what we want: a clean air system that’s good for the users of our sports hall, good for the environment, is low cost and low maintenance and can be operated remotely. They also look good.”

With local authorities, the Government, architects, building engineers and others looking at ways to improve ventilation in schools, Ventive has recently published a Ventilation Guide for Schools: Coronavirus mitigation –  https://ventive.co.uk/resources/ventilation-guide-for-schools-best-practice-in-a-post-covid-world/

For more information, visit www.ventive.co.uk

Rob Morrison, Ventive Ltd: rob@ventive.co.uk

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Notes to Editors

1. Natural Ventilation is a method of supplying fresh air to a building or room by means of natural forces (wind speed or air buoyancy). Passive ventilation with Heat Recovery (PVHR) is a Natural Ventilation system capable of recovering heat without using electricity.  It ensures that all of the air we breathe, within the built environment, is fresh and can be introduced comfortably without the need for further power, heating or inefficient cooling.
2. Ventive is a building services innovator, design and manufacture ventilation solutions for schools and other high occupancy buildings.
3. It pioneered the design of naturally intelligent ventilation systems that deliver fresh, comfortable air at minimal energy cost. Its proven, ‘displacement’ ventilation systems not only reduce the reliance on costly, energy-hungry mechanical systems but also ensure that stale, contaminated air is safely removed from occupied spaces without mixing with incoming air (which is the case with both recirculating and mixing mechanical systems).
4. Ventive has worked with top UK university researchers from Imperial, UCL and Brunel and the development of its technology has received multiple industry awards and central government support (BEIS’s Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, Innovate UK and the Energy Systems Catapult); Ventive is also part of the Made in Britain campaign. The company is based in West London.
5. To date, Ventive systems have been installed at primary and secondary schools, a number of high occupancy buildings and over 200 homes in the UK. Ventive is currently installing systems at Crest Nicholson’s development at Bicester Eco Village.