Fire safety, natural ventilation – the many benefits of automated windows

Smoke extraction and natural ventilation systems are an often overlooked but integral part of many commercial buildings in New Zealand. Not only are they a key component of a building’s fire safety apparatus, but they also offer a contemporary alternative to air-conditioning systems and other mechanical ventilation systems.

Luckily, there’s a very straightforward way to combine both the smoke extraction function and the natural ventilation function: the installation of automated windows. Of course, such installations are often easier said than done.

That’s why it’s good practice to entrust such supply and installations to those with vast experience and know-how in the field. Door & Window Systems (DWS), a Christchurch-based construction technology company with over 30 years of experience, fits this particular bill. While the company is known for its quality in manual and integrated window products, it is especially proficient in the supply and installation of automated window actuators.

DWS director Denis Diedrichs says the services they provide are important in both maintaining a safe environment and ensuring comfortable temperatures are kept throughout each building.

“We offer an array of premium international window actuator system brands, installed and serviced by our professional specialists,” says Denis. “Our smoke extract and ventilation solutions are suitable for complex projects with the requirements of smoke extraction from a building.”

At the heart of the offering are specialised control cabinets – these can be integrated with fire and safety control panels which enables communication for windows to open or close on demand to meet requirements.

In many cases, the actuators installed with the windows have an integrated circuit board that provides a two-way communication to a Building Management System (BMS). This integration in particular is crucial, as it enables interaction with other essential systems within the building – like HVAC and lighting, among others – granting energy savings, improving comfort, and ensuring the building’s safety in the event of emergencies.

Denis says this is the kind of system that was installed in Blum’s new showroom in Christchurch, which opened last year.

“For this project, we installed a full BMS-driven ventilation system and smoke activation function with the window sashes,” he says. “Upon receipt of a fire alarm, the system will activate automatically – and everything we used in this project was high-level architectural hardware from Germany.”

The specific system used was the controlled natural ventilation (CNV) product from D+H Mechatronic, a German intelligent systems company. The system uses a CPS-M control panel which ensures intelligent networking of all components and satisfies the most important requirements for state-of-the-art systems for smoke and heat exhaust ventilation as well as automated, natural ventilation.

The 12 inputs and outputs of the ADM enable the CPS-M to control even complex automated ventilation scenarios. For example, four connections on the ADM module can even be used as analogue inputs – meaning both digital and analogue peripheral devices such as temperature and CO2 sensors, ventilation buttons and signal emitters can be connected via the CPS-M and their signals evaluated.

Denis says BMS-driven systems like the one installed in the Blum showroom can also be manually operated from control panels.

“End users can operate the windows from touchpads on wall mounted panels,” he says. “That's giving them a host of ventilation customisation throughout the building and in various rooms. Of course this is all in addition to the automated side of it, which is triggered when the fire alarm is activated, for example.”

In the event of a fire, there are two protocols for the window system depending on the circumstances. If the building has a large extractor fan, windows will automatically open to egress smoke. But if there is no large extractor fan, windows will automatically close, which limits oxygen ingress and thus helps to isolate the fire.

Another key benefit of the automated windows with smoke duty actuators is a particularly high temperature threshold: actuators are designed to withstand 300°C before they lose their structural integrity. At this temperature, in most cases glass and aluminium have already been compromised – so this helps ensure that the windows are doing their job even as the window materials themselves have lost integrity.

These are the types of installation services that DWS provide throughout the South Island, and as the window automation technology evolves, so too does DWS’s offering. It’s been involved in ventilation systems for schools, libraries, community centres and even residential properties in the South Island – and Denis says he’s excited for the future.

Learn more about Door & Window Systems and their work in the automated window industry.