If you spend any time on the Adexsi UK website or our social media, you’ve probably come across some unique words such as ‘VeriShaft’ or ‘VeriFlow’.
While our customers may well be familiar with the meaning behind these terms, we thought we’d spend a few minutes explaining exactly what they are and how they pertain to our work.
You see, when undertaking smoke control system design or smoke control system installation, we offer a fire-engineered solution that often exceeds the performance required by building regulations and is generally bespoke to the application at hand – for example our designs are influenced by building height, number of storeys, corridor length, builder’s work shafts etc.
The use of terms like ‘VeriFlow’ is simply one of shorthand – a way of packaging up systems that share common elements but are always tailored to the application at hand:
VeriShaft – if a fire breaks out in a multi-storey building, smoke can quickly spread across and between floors. Controlling the flow of this smoke to minimise its spread and keep it away from escape routes is the goal of a smoke control system, and our mechanical solution is called ‘VeriShaft’.
This consists of a builder’s work shaft fitted with dampers on each floor, and a mechanical fan arrangement at the top. If a fire is detected, the dampers on all floors remain sealed with the exception of the damper on the fire floor, while the rooftop fan is activated. This causes the smoke to be drawn into and up the shaft, before being expelled outside of the building. Inlet air is generally supplied by a vent on the top of a nearby stairwell.
These systems allow for relatively small shaft areas to be effective, resulting in a larger rentable space for the building owner.
VeriFlow – sometimes it makes sense to save ongoing energy and maintenance costs by specifying a natural ventilation system. This takes advantage of the natural tendency of hot smoke to buoyantly rise up by allowing routes for smoke to leave a building and fresh air to enter – usually by means of a system of actuated windows or vents. We dub any of our natural smoke ventilation systems ‘VeriFlow’ and they are applicable to everything from warehouses to residential apartment blocks.
VeriPark – in an enclosed or underground car park, exhaust fumes can be an issue. CO2 from petrol engines, NOx from diesel ones – the effect on humans of these toxins is less than ideal, and with no natural airflow to vent them away, build-up is a real concern.
‘VeriPark’ is our solution – a network of zoned jet fans linked to air quality detectors that can activate at variable speeds to push air either out of the car park opening or toward an extractor fan-equipped plant room.
This solution costs less money than traditional ‘always on’ ducted systems through energy savings, and there are architectural benefits too as the jet fan arrangement simply requires less head room.
There is an added benefit, too – if a fire breaks out these fans can ramp up to much higher speeds, venting hazardous smoke away from means of escape and allowing fire fighters to more quickly deal with the blaze.
VeriCom – for one of our smoke control systems to really be effective, it has to be properly coordinated. That means operating to pre-set protocols called “cause and effects” programmed into a central smoke control panel. In the simplest terms this means the activation of a smoke alarm causing a rooftop vent to open, but it could also result in the correct zone of a car park ventilation system being activated to remove smoke or a complex arrangement of dampers, standby fans and inlet air vents coming online.
We also allow for ‘VeriCom’ controls integration with other building systems.