Acid tests
A little
knowledge is
dangerous ...
Colin Ashford,
independent consultant
for Consulteco Ltd,
says the following
question-and-answer
exchange with a group of
professionals, during an
audit of school buildings,
highlights a lack of
knowledge over existing
codes and guidance.
Q: What STI did you aim
for?
A: Will 15 do you?
Q: What is the thermal
weight of the blocks in
the walls?
A: Four kilo-newtons
Q: What daylight factor
did you design for in this
space (RDS required two
per cent to five per cent)?
A: 0.25
> initiated research to bridge the knowledge gap. The
Q: What should be the
maximum insolation
competencies – aimed at professionals at all stages of
(amount of beam
procurement – are expected to be trialled on about 700
There is a lot of
radiation from the sun)?
schools in Scotland earmarked for refurbishment or
energy and effort
A: We tried to get greater
rebuild from summer 2009.
than 50 per cent
going into making
Gordon Hudson, technical director of consultancy
Mott MacDonald, suggests that, as the government
buildings perform
still struggles to define ‘zero carbon’, we may have
better – Robin
to accept that this isn’t an achievable target. He adds:
Nicholson
“Maybe you can’t have everything – good acoustics,
daylight, ventilation and thermal comfort. It does installing micro-generation equipment such as
require a teacher to be quite interactive in managing photovoltaics (PV), with most schools unlikely to
an environment.” generate more than 5 per cent of their total electricity
Part of the reason why schools can’t have it all is through this type of on-site renewable.
because classrooms today require different acoustics He says: “I think it’s interesting to know [how much
and have to be IT-friendly, although the increasing electricity you’re generating], as long as your display
use of IT brings problems of its own. Industry experts doesn’t use more than your PV generates, which has
have found some schools are wasting as much as been known.”
£50,000-worth of electricity each year, or a He believes that the sector needs to “design out”
100kW load of electricity each evening, electricity demand, rather than design in a low-carbon
by leaving computers running all supply. Almost all the schools designed in recent years
night and leaving lights on. consume more energy than their designs predicted.
Dr Andrew Wright, a senior But what other factors are driving electricity
research fellow at the Institute consumption? All of the schools visited by Hudson
of Energy and Sustainable during post-occupancy evaluations (POE) had their
Development, based at De Montfort lights on and most buildings were too hot much of
University, says some schools’ the time. He also found too much atmospheric carbon
electricity consumption in dioxide in classrooms, with some having more than
Leicester is increasing by 10 per 4,000 parts per million of CO2 in the air. At 2,700ppm,
cent year on year because of IT cognitive function drops by between five and 10 per
usage. He is also wary of schools cent. According to other industry experts it is very
common to find CO2 levels in teaching areas above
2,000ppm during the heating season.
Of course, there are systems put in place to manage
atmospheric environments but, according to Valerie
Bragg, a former head teacher and now a director at
consultancy Faber Maunsell, all teachers want is a
28 CIBSE Journal March 2009 www.cibsejournal.com
CIBSEmar09 pp26-29 schools.indd 28 5/3/09 14:11:14
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