Breathing Buildings
Breathing Buildings provides low energy ventilation systems, using the principles of natural mixing ventilation in winter and natural upward displacement ventilation in the summer.
Breathing Buildings was formed as a spin out company from the University of Cambridge in 2006, following the discovery and development of the proprietary low energy e-stack mixing ventilation system as part of a major research programme at the BP Institute, through the Cambridge-MIT Institute, with funding from BP plc. The technology was filed for patent by the University of Cambridge, and Breathing Buildings has exclusive rights to the technology.
Breathing Buildings was set up to develop and commercialise this low energy ventilation system. During 2006-07 prototypes of the system were developed and tested in the Breathing Buildings laboratories, with a team of highly qualified ventilation experts. The value and potential of the innovation has been recognised by several awards for innovation. Furthermore, since 2007 the e-stack ventilation system has been made available to the industry with considerable success, as recognised by the award of the 2008 Most Enterprising New Market Entrant of the Year at the Euromoney and Ernst & Young Global Renewable Energy Awards.
Products and services
Breathing Buildings- Low Energy Ventilation Systems
This is achieved by mixing the incoming cold fresh air in Winter with hot interior air prior to it reaching the occupants. The system ensures that the air quality remains very high but also that the building is totally comfortable to avoid the risk of cold draughts which are often associated with natural ventilation systems.
In warmer weather the system typically operates with higher ventilation flow rates in order to minimize the risk of overheating, although it can be used in conjunction with thermally massive building types to exploit the benefits of passive night-cooling in which case lower ventilation rates are again used.
Data collected at Harston School in Cambridgeshire shows how the e-stack system provides a much better quality environment in winter. Over a two week period in winter 2008, we turned the e-stack system off on Tuesdays and Thursdays and observed considerably higher CO2 levels as a result of inadequate ventilation. Under normal e-stack operation children aged 5-6 are in the classroom wearing just their school jumpers close to the vent.CO2 data collected at Harston School
