Often School Halls have high level windows located around the perimeter to allow maximum natural daylight and fresh air ventilation.
The challenge with this comes when the hall is used for activities like school drama lessons or end of year productions and such like where dimout conditions are needed. On new schools motorised blinds are often built into the design which is easy as the electricians can provide fused power outlets in the precise position of the window blind motor. This is a great solution as it hands control of the blinds to the teacher via remote control switch meaning the hall can be darkened at a click of a switch.
So what do you do if retrofit blinds are needed in an existing School Hall ?
The cheapest way would be to mount manually operated blinds with long control chains but there are a number of problems with this method. Firstly this method requires an unobstructed section of wall directly below the blinds to allow the safe installation of a ‘P’ chain retaining clip (required by law). The second issue is user effort, teachers would need to be leaning back and looking up whilst pulling on the bead chain which could be awkward and difficult for some. Finally the temptation for the children to pull on the bead chain could cause breakage or unauthorised use.
Whats the solution to this? remote controlled Motorised blinds ! this is a great solution as it solves all of the above problems but what do you do if there is no power available by the high level windows ?
Option 1 arrange for an electrician to mount fused power points by the head of each window reveal, this will in most instances be costly and will involve disruption and unsightly conduits being on view.
Option 2 Solar powered blinds ! This must be the ultimate ‘Best of both worlds’ providing a completely standalone solution remote controlled blind which solely relies on the suns energy to trickle charge the blinds integral battery via a neat solar panel mounted directly on the window frame.
Kensington Systems Ltd can advise on the best setup for your school using the Rolshade 430E Solar product,
Call us on 0117 9589933 to find out more
