Talacre Community Sports Centre was opened in 2002 to provide community sports facilities for the people of Camden. The centre features a gymnastics training hall, 4 badminton courts, an indoor soft play area for young children, and an Astroturf pitch suitable for football and hockey.
After experiencing overheating problems at the Centre it was decided to install Monodraught’s Sola-boost units, which overcame the problem and have the significant added benefit of being energy neutral in operation.
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A total of twenty Sola-boost natural ventilation systems were supplied and installed by Monodraught linked to the company’s iNVent natural ventilation control system. Temperature and CO2 sensors were incorporated, with fan speed and override controls for each zone. INVent also automatically controls the Sola-boosts’ motorised dampers to provide a night-time cooling facility as standard.
Monodraught Sola-boost systems are based on an innovative technology that is widely recognised as the most effective means of harnessing the wind’s potential as a renewable energy source and using wind pressure to cleanse and ventilate a building. They use established atmospheric principles and the natural effects of the wind to bring fresh air into a building and extract stale warm air, using only natural forces, and make spaces in the Talacre Sports Centre comfortably fresh.
Commenting on the success of the Sola-boost installation Denis Moloney, Senior Building Surveyor, Camden Council, said: “We are very impressed with the results, and ‘before’ and ‘after’ thermal images of the Gym Hall clearly demonstrate the improvement in thermal conditions since the Monodraught systems were installed. The images represent a significant improvement in the comfort levels within the halls at Talacre Community Sport Centre. Even allowing for an external temperature difference of 5 degrees Celsius between the dates the first image and the second were taken. The ‘after’ image demonstrates the cooling of the upper areas of the Hall, where previously warm air accumulated as a result of the thermal rise within the building structure. This had a heating effect on the entire Hall. By releasing this build-up of heat at roof level through the Monodraught systems, which also introduced cool air, it can be seen that this has had a beneficial effect on the building.”
He adds that Camden Council also looks forward to similar improvements from the Windcatcher installation under summer conditions.
