Scoil Fhionáin, Kilfinane
Start Date: May 2012
Completion Date: October 2012
Value range: €20-€50K
Mech Contractor: Leahy Mechanical
Consultant: Axis Engineering
Main Contractor: Declan Breen Construction
Control Platform: Elesta
Description
One of 3 Experimental and Innovative school Buildings employing state of the art building technologies to deliver a low carbon school. It will be the subject of research for the Department of Education and a template for future building Design. The Building is constructed to a Passivehaus Standard.
Specific Challenges
- Developing a suitable Interface for Pupil Interaction
- Developing Graphics to explain Building Technologies that were comprehensible by Children
- Providing access to BMS from Classroom Whiteboards
- Integration with Window Vendors
- Co-ordination of Multiple Building technologies into one cohesive Dynamic Building
Details
The purpose of this school was to revolutionise school building design and the most important design feature - The Children! The pupils had to be at the heart of the project in order to educate them on Environmental Awareness and energy conservation in their formative years.
To this end we designed a Bespoke Child friendly touchscreen interface located in the common area of the school. It contained plant explanations, real-time information and energy usage analysis in user friendly manner comprehensible by children. The real success of this project is measured by the fact that the Touchscreen interface is used daily by pupil, teacher and parent alike.
Our next challenge was to build a control strategy to manage the various technologies deployed:
- Control Of LPHW plant
- Controlling space temperature and CO2 Conditions via sequencing of Zone Valves, Motorised Windows and Rooflights
- In depth Energy Analysis of Electrical, Heat and Water Metering
- Energy Management Traffic Light System
It was essential that the System be intuitive not just for children, but also for the staff responsible for the daily operation of the plant. With that in mind MC3E provided User friendly BMS graphics: we also provided a Graphical User Interface on the panel door mimicking the Front End Style. This provides a continuity of system operation.
For emergency situations all windows are provided with a manual override facility and all Control Valves are controlled by Elesta RC0211 Analogue output modules with integral override dials.
We are proud to be at the heart of this ground-breaking Building.
