Ventilation products are being incorrectly specified because fabricators, installers and building owners don’t understand what is required of them, according to Wayne Irvine, managing director of AW Louvers. The situation has been compounded by what he describes as ‘the rush’ to meet the revised Part F of the building regulations, which comes into force on 15 June.
The ‘rush’ will result in most windows going into new-build or refurbished properties providing background ventilation via trickle ventilators, Wayne argued. However, putting vents into windows increases the chance of introducing outside noise, which can be harmful to the health of occupants. Unfortunately, according to Wayne, poor understanding of surrounding acoustics – terminology, measurements and different noise levels – often means that the wrong types of trickle vents are specified.
“There’s a lot of confusion around acoustics,” said Wayne. “For example, there are different performance measurements that are referred to by different European testing houses. There is RW in the UK and Dnew on the continent. There are also different decibels, different kilohertz.”
This can play havoc within the specification market, he said, because confusion can lead to incorrect products being specified. This is only likely to get worse as interest in ventilation increases.
“It’s quite often the case that somebody will ask for a product to meet a certain specification but it turns out to be the wrong specification because they don’t understand Dnew, C, CTR, or the octave bands relevant to aeroplane, train and car traffic or groups of people,” Wayne added. “We’ve done a lot of work on that, and developed our products and technical support accordingly.”
The SSH 2500EA Acoustic Trickle Ventilator is, according to AW Louvers, a market leader for trickle ventilators. It has a slot height of just 11mm and can provide a sound reduction of 46Dnew in one acoustic model in open position, and 48Dnew with two acoustic models in open position. To ensure that its products meet all technical requirements, AW Louvers has them tested at SRL Technical Services, an accredited acoustic performance lab in the UK.
