At Foss Dyke Brass Band It’s been all hands to the decks as band members have all mucked in to complete a first class DIY band room refurbishment.
Foss Dyke Brass Band is a traditional English Brass Band, based in Lincoln, with its roots dating back to 1974 when it commenced life as a local village band named the North Hykeham & District Concert Band. It has subsequently grown in stature and in the quality of its performance, therefore rapidly establishing itself as “Lincolnshire’s Premier Brass Band”. It became one of the few bands to rise through the brass band divisions from 4th to Championship Section within a period of just 7 years.
Unfortunately, with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the band have had to pause their busy schedule of rehearsals, performances and competition playing.
Not ones to sit back and be defeated by the covid-19 layoff, the DIY savvy band members have got together to undertake a major refurbishment of their rehearsal facilities in Waddington – Lincolnshire.
The refurbishment saw a full rewire of the building, all lighting changed to energy efficient LED, touch free new toilets and wash room facilities, a new kitchen, new hot water boilers, new chairs & music stands, a new ‘history wall’, a full decoration and with the help of us at Torr, a class leading energy efficient Mitsubishi fresh air ventilation system.
The ongoing guidance from Brass Bands England, sourced from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), provides risk assessments that brass bands should undertake before resuming rehearsals & performances. From their own guidance they advise:
Taking steps to improve ventilation as far as possible and whenever possible, both through the use of mechanical systems and opening windows and doors.
https://www.bbe.org.uk/news/28082020-1659/bbe-offers-sector-support-advice-the-latest-covid-19-pandemic-guidelines-dcms-%E2%80%93
And with the help of Torr Engineering, the committee of Foss Dyke Band have been proactive with their decision to install a new ventilation system for the safety and comfort of their band members at their newly refurbished rehearsal facilities.
Our system of choice was the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SAF fresh air ventilation heat exchanger.
Using the information and data supplied, our suppliers calculated that the best option for the band room was the largest fresh air and ventilation unit in the Mitsubishi range, the SAF1000E7 model.
The SAF1000E7 provides up to 1000 cubic metres per hour of fresh air flow, removing the same amount of stale air from the room. These models use a heat exchanger to recover up to 75% of the heat in the waste exhausted air taken out of the building, this is inputted to the fresh and filtered clean air delivered to the building making these units very energy efficient to run.
Unlike basic extraction systems that just pull air out of a building, the Mitsubishi SAF system ‘tempers’ the incoming air with the outgoing room air to transfer existing heat energy.
In winter, the stale warm air exhausted from inside the band room passes through the ventilation unit and warms up the fresh incoming cold air from outside, which is then filtered and ducted in to the room.
Similarly, in summer, the stale air in the band room which has already been cooled by the air conditioning system, passes through the ventilation unit on its way to being exhausted outside and cools down the fresh incoming warm air from outside, which is then filtered and ducted in to the room.
Capturing what would normally be waste energy, means the heating/cooling requirements of the building are reduced, so smaller size plant can be selected, savings can be made in long term energy consumption, and carbon emissions are reduced.
The inclusion of the SAF energy recovery ventilation units in the building design, will reduce the total amount of carbon emissions
Another big advantage of the SAF systems over traditional extraction fans is their low noise level. This is a very important consideration, especially in a brass band room setting.
The SAF unit was mounted in the loft space of the band room where space was limited. To aid the installation the flexi ducting was pre fabricated with its connections before lifting in to the loft space.
Getting the SAF system in to the loft was another challenge – as the loft hatch wasn’t big enough for the unit to pass through. Fortunately, amongst the Foss Dyke Band diy’ers was a joiner so the loft hatch swiftly got enlarged.
Once up in the loft, the ducting was laid out ready for fixing.
The supply air (fresh air in to the building) and return air (stale air out of the building) were vented outside at high level. The vents are kept apart to prevent stale air being sucked back into the building.
Interior supply and return vents fit neatly into the ceiling and are hardly noticeable. The vents have manually adjustable vanes that allow control of the air flow direction and the ability to limit the amount of flow through individual vents.
Control of the system is through a wall mounted remote control.
The system is very easy to control; with options to set up a timer, alter the speed/air volume of the unit, turn from heat exchanging to ventilation only and finally, once set up, just turning the whole system on and off.
It was a pleasure to help out Foss Dyke, especially since our director of engineering Garry Ornsby actually plays baritone with the band!
And our affinity with Brass Band’s doesn’t stop with Foss Dyke, as our friends over at City of Hull Brass Band will testify; where we recently installed a new air conditioning system in their rehearsal room over in Barton Upon Humber.
So if you’d like any more information on Foss Dyke Brass Band, you’ll find their Facebook page very informative and their website is available here.
Or if you’re a member of a brass band and you’d like any further help or information on air conditioning and ventilation for your band room, please don’t hesitate on contacting us at Torr here.
