windcatcher

The provision of good IAQ in schools is important both for the health of students and in maximising educational achievement. It is, however, common for school classrooms to be significantly under-ventilated and this can lead to high levels of CO2 and other pollutants. Natural ventilation offers the potential to improve IAQ within schools whilst, at the same time reducing running and maintenance costs. Accordingly, this article examines a natural ventilation strategy based on the use of a roof mounted split-duct Windcatcher ventilator. Here, 16 U.K.

Windcatchers are roof mounted devices that use the action of the wind to provide top down natural ventilation to a room. Here, fresh air is channelled into a room while, at the same time, stale air is drawn out. This provides a simple but attractive natural ventilation methodology that is increasing in popularity in U.K. schools. However, an analysis of system performance has largely been limited to laboratory based measurements and the use of CFD to generate predictions.