Throughout the summer of 2004, the newly appointed Facilities Manager, Phil Evans, at Imperial College London had been fighting with the problem of how to overcome the severe overheating problem that plagued the College's Library for the last 10 years, particularly in the summer months. The whole of the top floor had full height glass curtain walling with no open able sections and the existing mechanical ventilation system could not cope. After several visits to Monodraught's offices, where Windcatchers are installed in an office environment, Phil Evans instructed Monodraught to install 10N° of their 1000mm square Windcatcher systems to the Library and work at Imperial College was completed by October 2004.

"The effect and result was instantaneous", said Phil Evans. "The hot stuffy atmosphere which always pervaded the Library disappeared overnight and we were immediately conscious of the fresh air coming in from the Windcatcher system". Although this was at the tail end of the summer season, they could see that this was certainly going to provide the answer, so this was certainly 'putting Windcatchers to the test' under extremely adverse conditions. The main challenge for natural ventilation, however, is 'what happens in the winter months?' People always ask the same question, 'Are there going to be any problems of cold draughts?' Imperial College has now been using the system for eight months and during the winter months, the ventilation openings have been programmed to remain just 5% open to give background trickle ventilation and there has been no report of any cold draughts?

Furthermore, however, Dr Gary Hunt of Imperial College, who is the Senior Lecturer in Fluid Mechanics has agreed with Monodraught to carry out full-time monitoring, so as to assess CO₂ levels; temperature levels, inside and out; humidity and VOCs.

They will also assess any change to the heating demand for the building. In choosing the Monodraught Windcatcher systems, Phil Evans said, "We are all aware how difficult it is to study and work in a stuffy environment and this was one of the key factors in the College's decision to improve the ventilation in the Library by adding these six Monodraught Windcatchers.