CPD PROGRAMME
Professional development
The CIBSE Journal CPD Programme
Members of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and other professional bodies are required to maintain their professional competence throughout their careers.
Continuing professional development (CPD) means the systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of your knowledge and skills, and is therefore a long-term commitment to enhancing your competence. CPD is a requirement of both CIBSE and the Register of the Engineering Council (UK).
CIBSE Journal is pleased to offer this module in its CPD programme. The programme is free and can be used by any reader. This module will help you to meet CIBSE’s requirement for CPD. It will equally assist members of other institutions, who should record CPD activities in accordance with their institution’s guidance.
Simply study the module and complete the questionnaire on the final page, following the instructions for its submission. Modules will be available online at
www.cibsejournal.com/cpd while the information they contain remains current.
You can also complete the questionnaire online, and receive your results by return email.
This module considers the case for installing solar thermal heating system technology Solar thermal continues to rise
The industry that designs, manufactures, supplies and installs solar thermal heating systems was disappointed when, at the end of March, the UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) funding scheme for domestic installations was not going to commence in 2012 as had previously been anticipated. Commercial systems can already attract RHI funding; however, there are also good reasons for the application of this technology to domestic properties – not least its positive lifetime carbon impact. This article will develop from the previous Solar thermal – solar hot water heating CPD published in February 2009 (available at
www.cibsejournal.com).
Solar thermal adoption In a market report1
published in 2011,
the take up of solar thermal per capita in the UK was one third that of countries of similar climates, such as Ireland and Holland. Sceptics may consider that the solar resource is somehow different outside the UK but, as attested by the data in Figure 1, there is little variance in the solar irradiance between example locations at approximately the same latitude (Amsterdam, Birmingham and Limerick) or even for those in the more northerly locations (Belfast and Edinburgh).
www.cibsejournal.com
There are strong reasons for solar thermal to be considered, even in maritime temperate climates such as the UK. Properly sized and installed systems
are responsible for almost no direct or indirect operational carbon emissions and, when combined with solar photovoltaic (PV) sourced power, the parasitic power consumption of the solar system pumps can be practically eliminated. So when predicting life cycle costs for solar thermal, the costs are independent of the vagaries of fuel prices, as well as there being a
certainty of fuel security (although in operation the remainder of the domestic hot water system is unlikely to function without external power). The principal components of solar thermal systems have typically-quoted life expectancies of in excess of 20 years and, in a number of studies3,4,5
(both in the UK and in other
climates), such systems have been shown to have carbon payback well within the lifetime of these components. (‘Carbon payback’ is the CO2 emissions due to system manufacture and installation,
May 2012 CIBSE Journal 55
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Figure 1: Average daily total normal irradiance in Amsterdam, Holland; Birmingham, UK; Limerick, Ireland; Belfast, Northern Ireland; and Edinburgh, Scotland (based on PVGIS2
data)
Amsterdam Birmingham Limerick Belfast Edinburgh
kWh per day per square metre (normal irradiance)
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