A new multi-use development completed in Galway has incorporated a sophisticated window system.

The Galway Coach Station/Webworks development comprises a car park, intercity coach station with mezzanine restaurant and a mixed use development of three upper floors housing 48 apartments and an Enterprise Ireland IT commercial centre with glazed internal atrium.

The new Webworks portion of the development incorporates a natural ventilation system designed and installed by WindowMaster which significantly reduces the building's energy use and running costs.

Europe's largest provider of natural ventilation and smoke detection solutions, has installed its NV Advance system.

It includes 334 motors controlling 54 different zones using combined CO2 and temperature sensors to control windows and fans for both natural comfort and smoke ventilation.

The individual cellular office spaces incorporate a controlled natural ventilation system with air input through the façade windows and exhausting through passive acoustic louvers into the central atrium.

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Air exchange rates are calculated based on actual room temperature and CO2 levels as well as external conditions. The central atrium is ventilated via motorised windows in the glazed rooflight.

The building has 40% lower CO2 emissions using natural ventilation than it would have using a mechanical ventilation system alone.

Consulting engineers for the project were O'Connor Sutton Cronin (OCSC). The architects responsible for specifying were O'Connor Keogh Mulcaire (OKM).

The consulting mechanical and electrical engineers on the project were RN Murphy.

Commenting on the Galway Webworks development, RN Murphy’s Ciaran Flynn said: "We specified WindowMaster because we have worked with them on a number of other development projects.

"For example, we partnered with them on a project to decentralise Ireland's Department for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to new headquarters in Clonakility, County Cork where WindwoMaster successfully designed and installed the natural ventilation system.

"WindowMaster won through on our tender process for the Galway Coach Station/Webworks development and was able to provide us with the appropriate natural ventilation solution with a centralised management system."

Windows around the building are then precisely controlled and positioned by the WindowMaster system to keep air quality within rooms fresh and the temperature constant.

If an object, or hands or fingers, becomes trapped in a window and prevents it from closing, the amount of current drawn by the motor instantly increases.

This is detected by the microprocessor which immediately reverses the motor to release the window, therefore preventing the possibility of serious injury.

(PR/JM)