OPINION Your letters


We need to recruit more widely The new CIBSE president, Andy Ford, says experienced building engineers and building services graduates must work together, with a mutual respect, to shape the future of the building services industry (Journal, July, page 26). While I agree with these sentiments


in part, the relatively small number of individuals entering building services degree courses is not sufficient to meet the demands of our industry. The secret to shaping this new integrated industry lies not just with building services graduates, but with highly talented graduates from a range of subjects. I am keen to recruit building services


graduates, but only those who can display the spark, intellect and capability that is essential to becoming a successful building services engineer. In fact, just 20% of all graduates we have hired over the last few


years have been from building services degree courses. I would strongly encourage Andy Ford and my contemporaries within the industry to open their eyes to the talent and ability outside of the small pool of building services graduates, and widen the scope of their search to find the raw talent that exists, and which can easily be moulded into the next generation of building services engineers. This, I believe, is the best way to support and develop the future of our industry Geoffrey Palmer


Why the exessive car park lighting? An article in the May issue of the Journal concerned the effective ventilation of multi- storey car-parks. However, the night-time illustrations of the Manchester Interchange car park on pages 3 and 52 raise another crucial design issue with UK multi-storey car parks – the profligate wastage of energy


through all-night, and in many cases 24-hour, burning of lighting. For a publication committed to sustainability and energy-saving, not to draw attention to this seems like an unfortunate oversight. With new multi-storey car parks, the installation of lighting sensors and crime- prevention systems – such as zones of brightness within dimmed-down floors that could alert the police to the presence of potential wrong-doers – should be a ‘no- brainer’, with payback in just a few years. Carl Gardner


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MANUFACTURER’S VIEWPOINT


The Renewable Heat Incentive will provide a futher opportunity for heat pumps to show their value in making cost-effective energy savings, writes Martin Fahey of Mitsubishi Electric, sponsor of this column


The government is set to introduce a Renewable Heat


Incentive (RHI). Although not all the details are known, the RHI will reward those using renewable technologies for their commercial and domestic heating needs. But for it to be suitable, the right


low carbon approach to heating commercial buildings has to offer a number of characteristics. First, to operate on a daily basis,


it needs to be straightforward. Previous experience shows how quickly a technology becomes obsolete if it causes too much inconvenience. Second, the technology has to


be scalable, meaning that it can be deployed in buildings of varying sizes, and offer both small and large-scale solutions. This also implies that the technology can be manufactured in large numbers, and is supported by a wide skills


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infrastructure that is either already in place, or is ready to be skilled up. Of course, the technology has


to be environmentally sound, compared with existing technologies, offering


demonstrable energy use and emissions savings. However, it is also very important that the right solution for renewable commercial heating is also economical – it can be produced in numbers that deliver cost benefits for end- users and, where possible, will offer real cost benefits compared with conventional systems. Heat pump heating offers


all of these characteristics, and as a result it is becoming an


Heat pump technology is ready now and is able to answer the need for low carbon commercial heating


increasingly popular option in the commercial sector. Already a proven technology, advances over the past decade, such as the introduction of inverter technology, have helped to make heat pumps even more energy and carbon efficient. Two leading


research bodies, BSRIA and BRE, have independently tested the efficiency of heat pumps. At point of use, for every 1 kW of electrical energy input into a heat pump,


3.2 kW of heat is produced. This means that for the same heat output, heat pumps use less primary energy than direct electric heating, gas or oil boilers. Heat pumps can extract


renewable energy from the ground, from a body of water such as a lake or river near the building, or from the air. They can deliver heat into a building in a variety of ways, including underfloor heating, radiators or via warmed air. This flexibility gives designers more choices about what delivery system will work best for their project. With both air and ground


source heat pumps recognised as renewable technologies, the choice of type will depend on the characteristics of a project. However, one thing is certain: the technology is ready now and is able to answer the need for low carbon commercial heating.


SPONSORED BY


August 2011 CIBSE Journal


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