Crabtree Manorway, Belvedere

Combining fume extract, smoke clearance and day-to-day ventilation

The Crabtree Manorway “Warehouse” in Belvedere is a secure facility that has been purpose-built for the Met Police to undertake fleet maintenance and other official police duties. The project consisted of 4 individual buildings, each with their own requirements and system types, making this quite a unique project, greatly benefitting from Colt’s considerable experience and expertise.

Colt was commissioned primarily to deal with fume extraction in the bay areas where vehicles were being stored and tested, as the fumes produced by the vehicles are hazardous to health.

Smoke clearance in the event of a fire was also an element that needed to be taken into consideration in order for the building to meet all the legislative requirements. In addition, the warehouse manager wanted to ensure that there was general, adequate day-to-day ventilation in the spaces to prevent overheating in the summer months for the staff.

This combination of requirements – fume extract, smoke clearance and natural ventilation – is not a typical pairing and therefore presented the design team with ample opportunity to show off their experience and creativity. To meet the requirements of this unique opportunity, we made use of Colt’s wide range of smoke and climate control products to achieve the desired results. The entire Colt system was integrated into the building’s building management system using a bespoke control system designed for this project to ensure easy management.

One of the differentiating aspects of this project is in how the Colt designers used their systems and regulatory knowledge to create a highly effective system that makes use of various controls and sensors to help detect differences in conditions. This, in turn, informs the system’s response, so that occupant safety and comfort is always guaranteed, while providing the most energy-efficient solution.

An example of this can be found in the main building which has carbon monoxide gas detection sensors, rain sensors and wind direction sensors installed on the outside of the building, in addition to a temperature sensor that is installed on the inside of the building. When the sensors determine that it is dry, not windy and fume levels are low, Colt’s Apollo vents and Coltlite CLT natural ventilators provide an efficient, noiseless natural ventilation solution.

However, if the sensors detect rain, an increase in wind speed or a rise in the gas levels in the building, the system’s response will switch to providing a more suitable powered solution using Colt’s all-weather Tornado extract fans. However, even then, the Tornado fans will still adjust their running speed to match the requirement, as they constantly receive information about the gas levels, increasing and decreasing their response to stay as efficient as possible.

Seefire vents and Jetstream fans (which are more typically used in car parks) were used similarly in conjunction with each other on some of the other buildings where the building structure created cross-flow restrictions.