FEATURE
PILLARS OF CHANGE Chilled beams are an environmentally-friendly HVAC system that have been around longer
than you may think. Their energy efficiency, however, is not the only reason for landlords to consider chilled beams, as Andrew Gaskell, Chairman of the Chilled Beams and Ceilings Association (CBCA), explains.
Unless you have been living under a rock it won’t have escaped your attention that the Minimum Energy Performance Standard (MEPS) has finally come into play. Under the UK government’s Energy Act 2011 commercial premises must achieve a minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of ‘E’ before they can be let to new occupiers or renew an existing tenancy. Landlords and facilities managers who are ‘on the ball’ will have been working meticulously over the last few years to ensure their properties complied in time for the 1st April 2018 deadline. Those who have been sitting idly by with their heads in the sand will suddenly be finding themselves with empty buildings and wondering where to start in making their property more energy efficient.
While new builds are likely to be equipped with the latest energy-saving building automation and control functions, older buildings will not have been designed
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with energy efficiency in mind, and varying methods of upgrades are required to bring them up to standard. For some landlords this might prove to be a headache as they stare into the myriad of ways to improve their building’s efficiency. When discussions arise as to how a building’s EPC might be improved, familiar methods will of course crop up: switching the lighting system to light emitting diodes (LEDs), implement building controls, using solar technology and improving the insulation around windows and doors, to name a few.
Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) is generally responsible for a significant proportion of total building energy consumption. According to a recent report from the Carbon Trust, ‘Heating, ventilation and air conditioning: saving energy without compromising comfort’, HVAC systems account for almost half (49%) of all consumption, with cooling and humidification
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