Premier Public Relations contacted Selectaglaze for a window improvement to their offices, to create a more agreeable working environment by reaching a higher level of thermal insulation
Premier Public Relations’ office located in a 19th century industrial building across five floors in Bucknall Street, London.
Founded in 1983, Premier delivers marketing communications campaigns for the entertainment, arts and cultural industries.
The large yellow brick Victorian building was first used as a warehouse, and therefore the thermal reliability and acoustic controls were inadequate for its new use as an office space due to the original inefficient single glazed windows.
Although a warmer environment was the main objective, Premier was also interested in what could be achieved to improve noise attenuation.
With Premier located close to a busy thoroughfare in WC2, high levels of outside noise could potentially distract and affect staff efficiency.
Following on from a productive set of consultations on the best treatments for the draughty openings, Selectaglaze installed 115 windows across the ground, first, second and third floors. A wide range of products were combined for the specification, the majority of which were two and three pane horizontal sliders.
The Series 30 lift-out unit was specified for one particular opening to allow easy access for cleaning. Another primary window was fitted with a single side hung casement, designed to suit the existing fenestration.
The marginal frames created clean lines complimenting the existing primary windows, making them unobtrusive and virtually unnoticeable. Units were installed over a few weeks to guarantee that staff were not distracted.
Thermal reliability
‘Sustainable St Albans’ worked in tandem with Selectaglaze on this project, and provided them with a thermal imaging camera to measure the fluctuations in the thermal reliability of the primary windows before and after the addition of secondary glazing.
Imagery is generated by thermography which pinpoints heat patterns in the infrared wavelength spectrum.
Sensors within the camera identified these heat signatures and translated them into visible pixels.
Although the resulting images were of a low quality, the differences are evident between treated and untreated windows.
The working environment at Premier has been bolstered by the successful installation of secondary glazing, with staff remarking on a significant difference in thermal retention, with draughts virtually eliminated.
