Maintaining clean ventilation systems is an important part of sustaining good indoor air quality or fire risk management where grease contamination may be present. With this in mind building owners and site facilities managers employ contractors to visually inspect inside these respective systems to determine if they are clean.

Ductclean (UK) Ltd have designed and developed our first generation of intelligent ventilation system sensors. This innovation is notably the first of its kind, but captures the real meaning of ventilation system condition based monitoring.

During its 2 year development Ductclean (UK) Ltd have provided the platform to trial the sensor in parallel to the accreditation and collaboration carried out by the Building Research Establishment. To ensure that our sensor had its own identity we created Vanguard Sensor Technology Ltd, and named our first sensor the Lexie Sensor.

After successfully trialling the sensor at AEG O2 arena and throughout Centrica portfolio, we are pleased to announce the launch of Vanguard Sensor Technology’s ‘Lexie Sensor’ to the public.

This innovation is notably the first of its kind, but captures the real meaning of ventilation system condition based monitoring.

Previously the only methods available to the industry for ductwork system testing and monitoring was to visually and/or manually test each system in several locations for each and every site, which are costly and time consuming as they involve accessing the internal surfaces of the ductwork system which would involve disruption to the occupied area, access through the false ceiling, removal of the access door and finally carrying out the chosen test protocol. Once completed the reverse would of course have to take place.

Our sensors will eliminate this requirement, with every ventilation duct located at any location across the client’s whole portfolio being monitored remotely and accurately. Our sensors are simply installed within the ventilation system via a new or existing access door, which can be hard wired (12 volt supply) or battery operated. The technology and accompanying software provide real time information of the deposit build up within the kitchen extract, supply, return air and general extract systems. The optical measuring device is then able to measure in microns the contamination within the system. Each sensor is wireless, negating the need for costly controls wiring. The sensors then at pre set intervals report back to a master controls box which in turn reports all the DATA back either to a clients existing building management system or to our Vanguard DATA base.

The Vanguard system is then able to predict the next clean due date from the recorded DATA history. When trigger levels are reached the system will also send an alert email to the designated client representative.

From the recorded DATA building owners/occupiers and facilities managers are able to carry out maintenance cleaning on condition based information rather than planned. This may reduce the current planned cleaning schedule providing cost savings, large portfolio clients are able to compare best performing against worst performing sites so that the best performing criteria can be utilised on new builds and refurbishment projects.

Whatever the pressures from a commercial, efficiency or carbon foot print the Vanguard system ticks all the boxes.

For more information on Vanguard Sensor Technology Ltd please visit www.ductclean.co.uk