People Terry Wyatt
Work in
progress
The building services sector has been failing clients for too long
when it comes to energy efficiency and performance outcomes.
Terry Wyatt tells Carina Bailey what urgently needs to be done
L
ow-energy buildings are almost universally failing To beat our current failings, Wyatt believes, building
to perform, insists CIBSE past-president Terry services systems need to operate autonomously, or they
Wyatt. That’s a tragedy for the nation and ought are destined to fail. “If you haven’t properly engineered
to be deeply disappointing to their designers. The the system in a building and are relying on people doing
principal reason is that the building services industry something, it will not happen – it will fail. It must either
simply hasn’t monitored the performance of buildings, completely work by itself or, if it’s decided people will want
and has employed some pretty “sloppy” engineering the ability to change it themselves, then it must default to
designs, the Hoare Lea consultant laments. where it should be every couple of hours.”
Wyatt, one of the sector’s figureheads, will lay down This will enable a building to adjust its systems and
the gauntlet to his fellow professionals when he gives a energy consumption automatically to the levels designed
keynote speech to the CIBSE national conference, which for. This sort of ‘dynamic response’ is fundamental to
takes place in London later this month. The sloppiness the process of dynamic demand management of energy
Wyatt refers to partly lies in an overriding ethos to save use that is soon to play a big part in the nation’s energy
energy; some professionals believe that because building strategy.
services such as ventilation systems consume energy in Wyatt is also critical of some clients. He says that, if a
operation, it will save energy simply to exclude these building’s services aren’t designed properly in the first
systems from a building altogether. place, the first thing a client will do will be to install the
How wrong, says Wyatt, who argues it’s imperative “least efficient equipment” to counteract the problem.
that buildings are properly engineered. “There’s been a This will also create unhealthy environments where the
tendency to think we don’t need to be putting building risk of catching infections, such as respiratory illnesses,
services in [ for example] teaching spaces and halls. increases.
“But when you fail to put them in, the result is what’s “If you don’t properly engineer [a building], users
happening all around us – uncomfortable, hot and sweaty make it worse by the cheapest possible solution. Less
buildings with unhealthy levels of CO
2
, contaminants and performance is always less.”
infection, which also fail to meet the energy targets.” So can we hope to meet the government’s future near-
Similarly, if someone puts in a lighting system zero carbon targets? According to Wyatt, we’re not even
somewhere, he says, it is idiotic not to have it coupled meeting existing ones yet. “We have to look at why we’re
with a control that switches it on, up, down and off as not meeting them, and we will only know that when we
needed. And yet this has been done time and again, even monitor them and investigate why that’s so. A negligible
in supposedly iconic buildings specially designed for level of such investigation is being done.”
‘daylighting’. He blames the low price of energy, relative to incomes,
Some could accuse Wyatt of being overly critical, but for this lack of investigation. The reality is that most
he believes it’s “a time for honesty”. He says that, unless people have no idea how much they are consuming, least
we want to feel the economic pain, “we really have got to of all where it’s being consumed, and expecting them
get our act together now and come up with proper design to be interested in how the systems work is ridiculous,
solutions”. He adds: “We are seeing packaged, high- Wyatt concedes.
performance, off-site manufactured buildings coming in So the answer has to lie with engineers. “It’s got to be
Speaking out:
from Germany and Scandinavia which have guaranteed engineering that comes up with the solution, and we are
Terry Wyatt is a keynote
speaker at this year’s
performance. We will see more of this happening if we failing,’ he says.
CIBSE national conference don’t come up with the goods.” “We’re failing to deliver the buildings that are required, >
www.cibsejournal.com April 2009 CIBSE Journal 29
CIBSEapr09 pp28-30 wyatt.indd 29 2/4/09 14:59:09
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