Kalzip helps to teach lessons in sustainability

Two UK schools are proving a blueprint for sustainability by saving energy and even selling it back to their providers with a little help from Kalzip.

Sandbrook Community Primary School in Rochdale and Levenshulme High School in Manchester are models of modern academic thinking, where a school not only has to perform for the benefit of its students but also for the community and the environment.

Sandbrook is a GBP5 million replacement for two primary schools which suffered from falling numbers and now incorporates community facilities and a Surestart nursery with 52 part time equivalent places for the over threes.

As part of a growing network of "extended" schools in the area, it also provides a wide range of extra curricular activities for the 420 children as well as adult learning facilities outside normal school hours.

As the first of the new schools to be constructed in Rochdale borough, and to comply with the LEA's sustainable policy, full advantage had to be made of renewable resources, sustainable materials and low energy features to help reduce its carbon footprint.

Architects at the Impact Partnership designed a single storey, steel framed building to take full advantage of natural light and ventilation.

The south facing facades have solar shading and harness the power of the sun to provide heating, lighting and hot water.

The 200 m assembly hall roof captures solar energy to provide electricity generated via an 8.7 kW Kalzip AluPlusSolar integrated photovoltaic roof system as well as the heating of hot water through passive solar panels.

The makeup of the roof material - factory laminated photovoltaic panels - also provides the necessary insulation and acoustic values while allowing the roof line to have a slight barrel form to enhance aesthetics.

Some 3,000 m of the Kalzip standing seam in sustainable aluminium has also been used over many of the other roof elements.

A display panel in the school's entrance foyer, indicating the amount of electricity currently being generated, cumulative watts to date and CO2 savings, helps incorporate the school's sustainability features into the science curriculum as part of learning about energy.

Impact's senior electrical engineer Keith Hill said: "Some schools will spend four times more per pupil on energy.

We designed Sandbrook to take full advantage of sustainable and low energy technologies, and this allows the school to spend its budget where it counts - on the pupils." Headteacher Danny Mulkeen added: "The idea of generating our own energy from the sun, which will provide heating, lighting and hot water for the school, is very exciting and we hope this will become a blueprint for other school designs." Site constraints restricted the new school building to a very small part of the 3.85 hectare plot which featured an eight metre slope.

The existing school next door, which was occupied during the construction period, was demolished on completion and the area used for a new playground and kick pitches.

John Case, senior architect at The Impact Partnership, said: "We specified Kalzip for Sandbrook because it is a good quality system that is suitable for low pitches, satisfies all performance requirements and enables fast and early completion.

"Its consistent appearance also played a part as the roofs are visible from higher surrounding areas and it enabled the curved section to the hall and adjacent straight pitched section to be achieved without lateral joints.

It also enabled a smooth conical roof section to be constructed over the curved plan area of the school".

The distinctive 6.7 kW Kalzip AluPlusSolar system installed on the southern elevation at Levenshulme High School provides around 4,500 kWh of 'clean' electricity per year - a carbon saving equivalent to more than 2.5 tonnes of CO2.

The renewable energy harnessed from the sun is first used inside the new leisure centre to power lighting and electrical equipment, then any surplus is fed back into the National Grid and the centre's utility bill is credited.

A meter recording the amount of energy being generated by the cells is located in the reception for the public to see.

Levenshulme is a high school for girls from a wide area of the city who share their new GBP2.2 million leisure centre with young people and adults from the local community.

Facilities range from a four court sports hall, fitness suite, sports therapy and teaching classrooms, changing rooms and offices.

The 1,500 m, steel framed "Energy Box" as it is more commonly known, sits on a former tennis court at the top of the playing fields and provides a striking contrast to the traditional red brick facades of the existing school buildings.

This was part of the brief to Walker Simpson Architects - to design a building which was visible to the community, with a main hall to Sport England standards and ancillary accommodation all under a single roof.

The architects also steered the design team towards a passively ventilated sports hall.

Architect John Holroyd said: "The building has been very well received.

The Kalzip systems allow for flat and curved roof elements which lend themselves to the original design concept.

The reflective roof panels then stand in contrast to the matt render surface and the metallic surface of the profiled wall panels." Kalzip approved Teamkal members Richmond Cladding Services, who also installed the Kalzip systems at Sandbrook school, had to use a special scaffold system at Levenshulme as the southern elevation curved away from the vertical.

The scaffolding cantilevered towards the wall, allowing them to fix 250 m of structural decking, which is designed to provide acoustic absorption inside the building as well as support the Kalzip outer skin, sweeping up and onto the roof where 1,000 m of stucco embossed aluminium standing seam was laid, like the photovoltaic panels, perpendicular to the decking.

Richmond Cladding Services' Chris Greenfield said: "This wasn't the easiest wall to load up and then install but we managed and the completed project looks great".

Sustainable facts:.

* The energy required for heating, lighting and powering equipment in an ordinary school classroom releases about 4,000 kg of CO2 every year - enough to fill four hot air balloons 10 metres in diameter.

* UK schools spend about GBP450 million on energy every year - three times as much as they do on books and about 3.5% of their budgets.

* Some schools spend four times more per pupil than similar schools in the same region.

The difference is often to do with how effectively schools manage their energy use.

* Surveys show that through simple low cost and no cost measures, schools can reduce their fuel bills by up to 10% while also reducing their CO2 emissions.

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