SE Controls provide an East London development with combined environmental ventilation and smoke control systems to help keep residents comfortable and safe.

The Eclipse development, part of the ongoing planned regeneration of the Blackhorse Lane area, was split into two construction phases, both of which incorporates a hybrid smoke control and ventilation system from SE Controls.

In normal operation, the hybrid system maintains comfortable temperatures within the corridors and avoids overheating due to ceiling mounted heating pipework, while providing fresh air movement through the building.

To achieve this, SE Controls installed ‘enviro-fans’ in the ceiling plenum on every floor, which are activated by temperature sensors and draw warm air from the corridors, into the building’s smoke shaft before being vented.

The mechanically vented smoke control system utilises roof mounted duty and standby fan sets, which are linked to smoke shafts in each of the residential blocks. Every corridor is fitted with a SHEVTEC smoke shaft damper, which opens in the event of a fire, allowing the fans to remove smoke from the fire corridor into the smoke shaft to keep escape routes and stairs clear of smoke.

SHEVTEC control panels are installed on every floor to manage the automatic operation of the smoke control system, while tamper proof manual control points enable the fire service to reset the system after testing or actuation and also prevent any accidental activation.

In addition to using fire rated ducting, which allowed the smoke shaft to be offset at roof level, SE Controls Contracts Manager, Dave Furneau developed a fan ‘cassette’ solution, which enabled the fans to be concealed within the shaft, yet also allows them to slide out on integrated load bearing runners.

A key benefit of this approach, in residential situations is that it provides unrestricted access for service engineers, which minimises downtime and reduced potential risk exposure for the building. If necessary, a fan can be replaced within a turnaround time of 1 hour.