TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM HIGHLIGHTS
advising on system sizing and selection. Many of these technologies are new and
require a fair level of understanding before being accurately specified, which makes studies by engineering researchers extremely welcome. Understanding the nuances of technologies such as biomass are fundamental in the successful implementation of newer technologies. And, if the specifier doesn’t even know what he’s specifying, how can the operator be expected to know how he/she should be operating it? As Earp highlighted, for the last 30 to 40
years we have had a cheap and constant heat source in the shape of gas boilers, leading to a culture of specifying ‘equal and approved’. However, new energy sources are harder to compare like-for-like and, perhaps, demand a more rigorous process of performance analysis before being specified. A presentation from Ana-Maria Lorente, of Universidad de Zaragoza, and Dr Gina Barney, of Gina Barney Associates, gave a flavour of what’s to come with respect to the energy classification of lifts. A number of us will be familiar with BREEAM’s requirement for the demonstration of lift efficiency and it is hoped
that the work being done in developing ISO 25745 will help standardise this process. It is proposed that this energy calculation
will take into account the energy used by the lift when running, idle and standby, and that the new methodology will also be included in the next edition of CIBSE Guide D when it is revised in 2015. The calculation would appear to be more involved than the current process, but if it provides a more accurate and holistic classification system it should be welcomed. As the event edged towards its conclusion,
B&ES chief executive Blane Judd took the stand and outlined the merits of direct current power use in building.
www.cibsejournal.com
Judd suggested that by placing a single
rectifier centrally within a building’s electrical distribution, we could remove the need for numerous rectifiers and switch-mode power supplies that we currently require to operate many pieces of electrical equipment. It would also be a way of centralising the heat produced by these types of devices, which could potentially then be recovered and used more usefully elsewhere in the building. It certainly provides food for thought and illustrates the breadth of thought that will be required as designers strive to meet the challenges of future energy efficiency targets. All the symposium papers are available at
www.cibse.org/symposium2013 CJ
The need for external advice was interesting, given that the buildings were less than 10 years old and had a team of building engineers looking after them
l MARCUS HAYDON is an engineer at Skelly & Couch LLP and gained an MEng in Civil & Architectural Engineering from the University of Bath
Best in class Top presentations awarded prizes during CIBSE’s Technical Symposium
David Nicholson-Cole and Samantha Mudie were both awarded prizes for their presentations. David Nicholson-Cole’s was awarded the ‘Most effective delivery of material’ for his paper on solar earth charging and follows last year’s success, when he won best paper for the same subject. Nicholson-Cole is a trained architect and has been a lecturer at the University of Nottingham since the 1970s. He is using his own home to see whether storing energy in the ground from solar thermal sources can improve the energy efficiency of his ground source heat pump. To measure the effectiveness of solar earth charging, Nicholson-Cole created a model using geometric description language, a programming system within ArchiCAD. The data enabled Nicholson-Cole to understand the natural recharge rate and revealed that charging the earth with solar thermal energy can help the heat pump perform more efficiently all year round, not just in the summer. See more at
www.chargingtheearth.blogspot.com Of the symposium, Nicholson-Cole said: ‘If you have a technical innovation, this is the best forum
to tell people about it. The audience won’t be mystified by it – they understand the relevance of building services innovations.’ Samantha Mudie’s paper, Benchmarking
energy use in licensed restaurants and pubs, won the ‘Most significant contribution to the art and science of building services engineering’. It revealed the results of monitoring more than 700 pub and restaurant kitchens. Mudie is studying an engineering doctorate at Reading University on energy reduction in food preparations in commercial kitchens. She says the benchmarks for the sector are out of date, so she created her own benchmark by installing 1,500 energy meters across Mitchell & Butler’s pub and restaurant estate, of which 772 were used as the sample set. Mudie found that the energy used by catering facilities in pubs and restaurants was more than twice that predicted by existing benchmarks. Speaking of the symposium, Mudie said: ‘I’ve enjoyed the networking, and finding out about the benchmarking work being done by UCL researchers. You don’t hear about these projects by staying at home.’
May 2013 CIBSE Journal 15
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