Figure 1: The comfort system for a building is likely to comprise elements of building fabric in addition to traditional heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting installations. Once low and zero carbon technologies are added – often with specific operating parameters – the total system can become vastly complex. In order to achieve the optimum performance for the building while ensuring the sub-systems and components all function in harmony, a rigorous approach to specification and verification of performance requirements at all levels of system integration are needed
the contributions of many engineering disciplines to work in harmony. Systems engineering as a discipline sets out a methodology for ensuring that the many disparate component sub-systems are developed to deliver optimum performance in their own right while still contributing to the overarching performance goals for the completed product. I believe that we need to look to the
discipline of systems engineering for guidance on how building services engineers can take the lead role in delivering low carbon construction projects. In our working lives we are already
familiar with the issues of interoperability between particular parts of the building services installation. For example, when designing a heating installation using
48 CIBSE Journal January 2012
a heat pump in place of a conventional boiler, we already understand the internal operation of the heat pump system and how this potentially interacts with the external heating distribution system. If we fail to match an appropriate form of heat utilisation to the limited temperature range of the heat pump, then it will fail to perform and so the entire heating system fails. Systems engineering simply formalises
the process by which we already make decisions about building services installations. The methodology suggests breaking down the design of a complex system, such as a building, into a range of manageable sub-system designs. Each of these sub-systems can then be designed for optimum performance. However, we should undertake the sub-system specification and design, not as an isolated project, but taking into account the interaction between sub-systems and their overall contribution to the final carbon performance of the building project. Key to the systems engineering approach
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