Elta Find that Every Little Helps in Superstore Car Park

The expertise of Elta in car park ventilation applications has been demonstrated by a project for a Tesco superstore in Dundee.

The 8,000 square metre 24 hour Tesco Extra on South Road was the latest in a number of Tesco retail projects with which Elta has been involved. The Dundee site features a car park at ground level, with capacity to the west of the store and the majority of spaces available in an undercroft car park beneath the store itself which is raised to first floor level. Because the undercroft is enclosed, smoke control specialist Advanced Smoke Technology (AST) worked in conjunction with M & E Contractor Neville Tucker to develop a design for the ventilation system which would overcome a number of potential issues relating to the changing structure of the car park.

The solution was AST’s Impulse Ventilation System which features 23 JetVent Axial impulse units and three large Long Cased SmokeVent units, all from Elta, not only to provide efficient day to day ventilation, but also to ensure effective smoke ventilation in the event of a fire. The 1,400mm diameter SmokeVent fans constantly regulate the airflow rate through the car park while the impulse fans control the airflow direction. The system also features a carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring system and a multi-criteria fire detection system, all linked to a main control panel. The signals provided by the CO monitors and the multi-criteria fire detectors are routed to the AST master control panel which adjusts the speed of the fans depending on the prevailing environmental conditions within the car park.

If a pre-determined level of CO pollution is reached or in the event of a fire, the zone based system is able to send a signal to automatically activate the impulse fans within the affected zone and to switch the SmokeVent fans to maximum capacity.

By controlling the fans and varying the rate of ventilation to meet the demand, the system only operates at full load during peak times, thereby providing significant energy savings and reducing operating costs.

Elta’s Jetvent fans are supplied in red as standard but at the special request of the customer, were finished by Elta in a white powder coating to the RAL specified by Tesco Stores.

Geoff Hardaker of Advanced Smoke Technology said “We undertook a smoke test to demonstrate the airflows in the car park of the Dundee store as part of the commissioning process and Tesco were extremely impressed with the results.”

AST’s smoke control specialists worked with Tesco’s own building engineers from the outset of the project, with AST drawing on Elta’s experience in fan technology to ensure the fans specified were ideally suited to the specific requirements of the Dundee site.

Further information on the range of products and services offered by Elta is available at: www.carparkventilation.com

Elta is part of the £85 million Elta Group, a family of businesses with operations in six countries on four continents which, together with a network of international distributors, provides quality fans and related air movement equipment to customers worldwide.