OPINION
Part 2.11 of CIBSE’s response was misinterpreted in the ‘How to engineer demand for renewable heat’ article. For CIBSE’s full response to the consultation, visit
www.cibse.org/ consultationresponses
(CHP) for now – I’m trying to broadly summarise. Biomass boilers are a combustion appliance, and therefore have the same risks as other combustion appliances. This includes abuse and neglect by their owners, as well as fl ue emissions/ pollutants and specifi c risks associated with getting fuel to them. I am a strong advocate of using biomass for heating and it was I who raised the potential issue of carbon monoxide (CO) in pellet stores with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 2011. I persisted with the need to air this issue until eventually we got the HSE warning. Unfortunately, the two separate risks became confused in the process – it is not the HSE’s role to give chapter and verse on why and when CO may be present in a pellet store. De-gassing occurs early in the life
of a pellet and is therefore more likely in large stores supplied with very fresh pellets. CO in small-scale heat installations occurs because of poor design, invariably due to fl ue gasses back-fl owing, not de-gassing of the pellets.
Whether you use longhand methods,
software or the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ nomographs, the basic principles of no horizontal fl ue runs (certainly <1.5m), stabiliser/back-fi re relief and ensuring suffi cient draught according to the manufacturer’s specifi cation will go a long way to mitigating risk. To summarise the summary:
• Using biomass effi ciently is several decades away from impinging on
• All combustion appliances have risks that need managing
sustainability objectives
• The science and art of proper fl ue design needs professional recognition
Nick Monether, Greenfi elds Consulting CIBSE Low Carbon Consultant
18 CIBSE Journal February 2013
‘Anyone’ can be an engineer In response to the letter from P Childe (December Journal) I felt it was an insult to say all engineers are not adequate in their trade. To say that those who have years of experience cannot carry out their jobs correctly is wrong; it is consumers who are too lazy to research the trade. My father has been an engineer for
the last 30 years and has carried out his craft to perfection. As the consumer it is our responsibility to research who we invite into our homes. If we suffer
The science and art of proper fl ue design needs professional recognition
one bad experience we now have the technology to tar all those who have worked hard for the title of engineer with the same brush. Do not insult those who have worked
hard for that title and are still learning on the job to make themselves the best they can be. Anonymous
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The offshoring of consulting engineering
CIBSE LinkedIn group
Eric Maddison: Most of our food is now imported. Most of our energy is imported. We have seen a lot of our manufacturing industry off-shored and we import much of our manufactured goods. Many of our service industries, such as call centres, are now off-shored. I have recently seen a vacancy for a mechanical electrical plumbing (MEP) principal to run a consultancy in India designing UK projects. Countries such as India have the expertise and the language abilities to do this. How long will it be before the majority of our consulting engineering services are carried out overseas where the same work can be done at lower cost? John Callaghan: Two years. Phil Dodd: Ten years ago. I worked with a company that
sent most of its CAD work and some of its engineering work to Manilla to be done. They had a couple of CAD operators in the UK offi ce checking and making minor corrections. It worked quite well as the engineers could fi nish a drawing at the end of the day, send it to Manilla and have a CAD version back on their desk the next morning. The engineering works OK, provided the overseas company understand all the UK regulations and use software that UK engineers are familiar with and can check properly. Alistair Fisher: Generally the quality level of off-shored deliverables has improved considerably in recent years, but schedule achievement, out-sourced staff turnover and retention is a problem. There is a very upwardly mobile, skilled engineering labour market in Mumbai, for example. Another common problem is the constructability of some black discipline designs – structural and piping. Guys who have served their time ‘on the tools’ instinctively know what can and cannot be fabricated, and what works and what doesn’t.
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Such experience is very lacking in a design offi ce comprised almost exclusively of university graduates. There’s no substitute for it and it cannot be out- sourced or off-shored. Close mentoring of the design as it matures is essential to avoid costly redesign and rework in the fab shop or (worse still) on site. (Such costs are invariably not factored into the original out-source calculations.) Andrew McCallum: Strange dilemma this one. Most overseas clients want western engineers to oversee a job due to their experience (especially the gulf states). Then we look to offshore it back to India or the Pacifi c Rim. Bit of a self- fulfi lling prophesy here, as the middle man will get cut out – that is, the UK engineer. With regard to design standards, a high number of UK universities are franchising their building services degree courses to places like China and Oman, so before long their graduates will be the same standard as – or better than – our own homegrown talent anyway…
www.cibsejournal.com
TCHARA / SHUTTERSTOCK
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