OPINION Your letters
This month: How do we ensure a building will perform in line with its design intentions?
Penalise owners whose buildings don’t perform I would like to suggest some input from CIBSE to the planned changes to Part L of the Building Regulations: the carbon emissions declared on the Energy Performance Certifi cate should be verifi ed by measurement of actual energy consumption at a suitable interval after completion and handover to the users. If the measured emissions do not coincide with the declared fi gures based on the design, then the building should be classed as non- compliant with the regulations, and appropriate penalties should be applied to the owner. This may go some way to tackling
i0522-12 CIBSE AD AW:CIBSE Magazine 190x66 16/6/10 14:29 Page 1
the situation where various ‘green’ technologies are installed to get the building through the regulations, but then not used. There is a rumour that many biomass boilers are installed and not used, as the site then runs on the gas-fi red back-up boiler. Other low carbon technologies present challenges to contractors unfamiliar with them – and proving their correct operation, or even achieving fi nal commissioning,
buildings to need less energy in the fi rst place this would not be a problem, but the current situation demands a mixture of approaches to reducing carbon emissions – and, as engineers, we have the role of installing technical solutions which may be misused or not used at all. Peter Hill
How to ensure that a building will perform in line with its design intentions after it has been handed over to the client?
Less of the thumbscrews and a little bit more analysis please You report that Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, wants home owners to be banned from selling their property if they fail to meet energy effi ciency targets (the Journal, April 2011). That’s the stuff. The next step should be to bring back the rack and thumbscrew for those who question such proposals. The diffi culty I have with many of
can be tortuous and time-consuming. A commercial client has little incentive to take on the trouble and expense of operating a low carbon system, and fuel costs are a tiny fraction of his overheads. Of course, if we could design
Simply calling something ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ seems to be enough – no rigorous analysis is required
the proposals put forward by various interest groups is that they rarely seem to provide hard facts and fi gures. The mere fact that something can be called ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ seems to be enough – no rigorous analysis is required or welcomed. Which is why I was glad to see
the unbiased report in the Journal on tests carried out on small wind turbines in urban locations (the Journal, June 2011). This is the kind of useful knowledge we need if a proper engineering approach is to be made towards solving the problems in a practical fashion, avoiding a lot of expensive and self-defeating actions. Gerard Palmer FCIBSE
Never mind the log book, why not a FSH? It is the same every time. Everyone is in a good mood, the building is at its best, the building handover is complete, you take a satisfying slurp of tea ... and then
JS Humidifiers
✔ Expert assistance in design and selection
Comprehensive range water in 18˚C 30˚C Low energy humidifiers
✔ Humidifier run cost analysis ✔ Carbon footprint analysis
E:
sales@jshumidifiers.com T: +44 (0)1903 850200 W:
www.jshumidifiers.com
Up to 12°C evaporative cooling Free lunchtime CPD seminars 22 CIBSE Journal July 2011
www.cibsejournal.com
Shutterstock
Free A3
psychrometric charts
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68