Spotlight
ViewPoint A
Different BIM needs for different deeds
wareness and adoption of BIM has no doubt risen since Level 2 implementation on centrally procured government projects
became mandatory. In fact, a recent NBS survey revealed that more than six in 10 (62%) respondents use BIM, a rise of 8% compared with the year before1
. Chris Meir, sales director at
businesses in England, Wales and Scotland – be they a manufacturer or professional services firm – can apply for a grant of up to £10,000 per company, to support the purchase of energy-saving equipment. Given the fact that poor temperature control, both in terms of process cooling and ambient air temperature, can dramatically increase a company’s monthly utility bills, investing in energy efficient technology sooner rather than later can result in a much more profitable total-life cost for the temperature control system.
What are your plans for the future?
Long-term, our mission will always remain the same: to deliver energy efficient temperature control systems to the UK market, and help end users overcome the various challenges they face in their diverse operating conditions. In the short term, we will be focusing our efforts on helping our customers get to grips with the pending changes to the Ecodesign directive, specifically targeting temperature control equipment, which will come into effect in 2018. As with any legislative update, there is an incredible amount of information accompanying the changes, and it is our duty as a manufacturer to help our customers digest the key areas that will affect them, and ensure they can make the most informed purchasing decision going forward. In terms of the wider political uncertainty, while it has been much talked about, our main focus is dealing with the landscape we find ourselves in at the moment. Ultimately, manufacturing has continued, and offices, schools and hospitals are still operating as usual. We’re here to ensure those businesses continue to function as efficiently and effectively as possible, and know that if disaster strikes, they have a trusted temperature control partner at the other end of the phone.
The i-Chiller range from ICS Cool Energy, which is available under the Green Business Fund
Andrews Water Heaters, explains how the company designs its BIM files so that businesses along a building’s construction and management cycle can reap the full benefits from this way of working.
BIM level 2 legislation, which came into force in April last year, presented a huge opportunity to make the transition from a building’s design and construction, to operation and management, much smoother. Having design and asset information, documentation and data stored electronically was also set to help prevent abortive work discrepancies and mistakes. In the water heating industry, BIM understandably became a hot topic very
quickly. However, in the beginning, there were no industry standards to follow, and no guidelines for file creation, so there was little uniformity between manufacturers. This became problematic because changes often need to be made during the design process. But a lack of interoperability meant that once a BIM file for a product was added to a design, it was difficult to make the necessary amendments. This led CIBSE to create a Product Design Template (PDT) for each product group which significantly helped the industry to implement BIM, but the level of detail (LOD) provided by manufacturers in their BIM files differed widely. Some were very basic, with just the bare minimum amount of detail, whereas others were very comprehensive, and included vast amounts of information on things like energy savings and service and maintenance schedules. But the more comprehensive files presented some major issues, as larger files took longer to upload and manoeuvre. And, in the early stages of a building’s design, products need to be moved around (which is one of the key benefits of BIM). The water heating system is of course only one part of a building – so if a specifier or designer was uploading very detailed files for every product and piece of equipment, the overall building model became very difficult to work with. Market research carried out by Andrews Water Heaters revealed that in
reality, detailed information is only needed in the BIM files during the latter stages of a project. For example, when the building is handed over to the owner or operator, it is only then that BIM data such as service intervals and when parts need to be replaced is required. This insight has led Andrews Water Heaters to develop files with minimum detail for the initial stages of projects while designs are still being finalised – LOD 3 – and more detailed files – LOD 5 – for the latter stages. Our Autodesk Revit BIM files have been created in line with the CIBSE PDT
standards. We launched our storage water heater files in conjunction with CIBSE releasing the PDTs for this product group, which are available at
www.andrewswaterheaters.co.uk Manufacturers such as Andrews Water Heaters have a key role to play in
improving collaboration and promoting transparency between all parties at each stage during a property’s life cycle. In doing so, not only can we help contractors win more work now and in the future, but also help position the UK as a global leader in building and construction services on the international
market. 1
www.thenbs.com/knowledge/nbs- national-bim-report-2017
www.heatingandventilating.net June 2017 11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54
