With the recent Carbon Trust Annual Survey showing energy costs as a key issue for most SMEs and corporate organisations, Monodraught has joined with Salix Finance Ltd to help empower public sector organisations to take a lead in tackling climate change by helping to drastically increase their energy efficiency with the installation of Monodraught’s Cool-phase system.
Salix Finance’s 100% interest-free capital for the public sector can help reduce public sector energy costs by enabling the installation of modern, highly energy efficient technologies such as Cool-phase. Cool-phase features an innovative Phase Change Material thermal energy store combined with intelligently controlled ventilation to actively ventilate and maintain building temperatures within the comfort zone. Utilising this technology can reduce energy consumption by up to 90% compared to conventional cooling systems.
Commenting for Monodraught, Managing Director Andrew McCubbin explains: “Uniquely, this combination of energy savings, cost savings and environmental benefits, enables Monodraught’s Cool-phase to meet the requirements of building regulations for thermal comfort, ventilation and energy efficiency in a single easy to retrofit system. And since no compressors or global warming refrigerants are used, the system does not require the expensive servicing and statutory checks required of air conditioning systems which further reduces running costs".
As upfront capital is a common barrier for public sector organisations seeking solutions to cut their energy consumption, Salix Finance and Monodraught can remove this barrier by making funding and technology accessible to the public sector.
By supporting innovative technologies such as Cool-phase, which have the potential to make significant contributions to energy efficiency, the Salix Finance funding mechanism can accelerate the move to a low carbon economy.
How to apply for Salix funding
The funding approach is a client-led process operated directly through Salix Finance. In order to complete the necessary application form, a Persistence Factor (PF) is used to equate the potential savings from using Cool-phase. A higher PF means long-term savings are improved. Cool-phase has been given an initial PF of 23.75, which aligns the use of the Monodraught system to similar efficiency savings achieved using LED lighting.
Salix Finance Ltd is a not-for-profit organisation funded by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the Department for Education, the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Monodraught has reinforced its position as a leading innovator in the building services industry with the recent presentation of two technical presentations to CIBSE and Brunel University's IEA Annex 62 conference on Ventilative Cooling.
First, Monodraught's Commercial Product Engineer Sam Whitfield presented an illustrated talk on 'How is technology transforming the way we, as engineers, work? which looked at the use of 3D printing in building services manufacturing. This was presented to the CIBSE Young Engineers' Network, chaired by Angela Malynn, senior mechanical engineer at Arup and former CIBSE ASHRAE Graduate of the Year.
Says Sam: "Having used 3D printing extensively in the development of our Cool-phase system we wanted to give our audience an insight into the opportunities of the highly-digital approach to today's specified projects and working practices."
The presentation featured a series of short 'burst' presentations covering leading-edge technologies that are transforming the way the modern building services engineer works and included 3D printing; the growing sophistication of computer aided design; IT networks that allow engineers to work from anywhere in the world; etc. The full presentation will be reported in the CIBSE Journal and other leading industry journals.
The second presentation, by Monodraught's Senior Research Engineer, Dr Zsolt Bako-Biro, covered the 'Analytical and experimental modelling of energy storage in phase change material for natural cooling of buildings' in the context of Monodraught's innovative development of the second generation of its Cool-phase low-energy ventilation and cooling system.
Two installations were discussed in the presentation. One is the evaluation of the innovative phase change material (PCM) technology that was achieved by installing Cool-phase systems in two 'control' areas in Anglia Ruskin University. The second was for a Science Lecture Room at Bournemouth University, which was fitted with two new Cool-phase systems to provide natural cooling. The Monodraught design team carried out full dynamic thermal modelling to predict that the systems would fully dissipate heat gains within all areas of the building where the Cool-phase was to be installed.
Commenting for Monodraught, technical director Nick Hopper says the company's application of innovative green tech solutions are pioneering energy savings within the built environment. These presentations demonstrate Monodraught's continued development of sustainable solutions since the launch of its original Sunpipes and Windcatchers more than 40 years ago.
Monodraught's innovative Cool-phase low energy ventilation and cooling system is now further enhanced thanks to its high-performance phase change material (PCM) being awarded a RAL Certificate following extensive testing. The two-year test programme, which involves heating and cooling the material to capacity during 10,000 cycles, measures the material's performance levels and working life. The actual figures achieved by the PCM during the 10,000 cycles is equivalent to 28 years of life in service, which well exceeds the 5-year Cool-phase guarantee and the 25 year design life estimated by Monodraught during its own Cool-phase product development programme.
Commenting for Monodraught, technical director Nick Hopper says this level of accredited performance, furthers the long term acceptance of the technology within the built environment.
RAL Certification provides an audited test for long term performance of Phase Change Material. Successful certification puts the Cool-phase system in a class of its own as a low energy cooling, ventilation and heat recovery system that reduces the running costs of buildings while creating a fresh and healthy indoor environment without compressors or hazardous coolants. The system uses intelligently controlled phase change material to actively ventilate and cool buildings, maintaining temperatures within the comfort zone, while radically reducing energy consumption by up to 90% compared to conventional cooling systems.
Cool-phase, the award winning natural cooling, ventilation and heat recovery system from Monodraught is now available to architects, consultants, specifiers and building contractors through BIMobject.com a major worldwide source of free-to-use Building Information Modelling (BIM) content.
The Cool-phase BIM objects are data rich and are able to integrate with leading BIM software. The 3D digital representations have been built with the full product data and technical properties. This enables designers of buildings to create a fresh and healthy indoor environment for their concepts without using compressors or hazardous coolants. At the same time
Cool-phase offers a significant reduction in the running costs of the future building and assists with life cycle analysis.
Architects and consultants wanting to reduce the communication time on construction projects between customers and suppliers are now able to download full technical data on Cool-phase systems directly from the cloud. The BIM objects integrate automatically with their 3D models, allowing Cool-phase systems to be dragged and dropped into their own projects, improving visualisation and highlighting items such as fixing points and duct positions.
The key benefit of BIM is to increase productivity within construction. BIM allows centralised storage of data, linking important information between all teams involved in the process. Dimensional details direct from the manufacturer allow a greater degree of accuracy, ensuring close coordination on site and reducing complications. This can result in reduced lead times and lower overall construction costs.
Monodraught’s Technical Director, Nick Hopper says the launch of the Cool-phase BIM Objects continues Monodraught’s long history of integrating products within Building Simulation and CAD software.
