A combined smoke and natural ventilation system at a leading Western Cape wine grower’s new production facility at Simondium is using chain actuators, monitoring and control solutions from SE Controls Africa to help provide a comfortable and safe working environment.
Established in 1997, Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons’ new 6,000 m2 winery was constructed to meet growing demand for their wines. The process engineer and principal agent was consultC Engineering and the architectural vision was produced by Malherbe & Rust Architects.
The new facility is separated into zones, each dedicated to a specific wine production process. Maturation accounts for almost 2,400 m2 of the total area and the remaining capacity is split between fermentation and the storage & blending areas.
In order to meet the ventilation requirements for carbon dioxide(CO2) smoke and natural ventilation, Charl de Kock of consultC Engineering designed individual window automation and control solutions dedicated to each zone. Key switches are also installed to enable localised operation by authorised users.
By using window automation rather than automatic opening roof vents, the maximum roof space could be made available for solar PV panels, which help reduce energy consumption and plant running costs.
During normal operation, the system uses natural ventilation to allow the day-to-day management of temperatures, while also enabling CO2 produced during the fermentation process to be vented to atmosphere. In the event of a fire, the natural ventilation mode is over-ridden. When the system receives a signal from fire and smoke sensors, the smoke ventilation mode triggers all windows to automatically open fully, which enables smoke to be vented and escape routes to be kept clear.
