FEATURE DEGREES OF DIFFERENCE
Bedford College had issues with the cost and control of its heating and cooling systems - even after a major refurbishment of one of its buildings. Their mechanical and electrical design consultant Panda CES approached Genius Hub to consider these concerns and offer some intelligent solutions.
The situation Bedford College is the largest Further Education College in the South East Midlands, with multiple campuses catering for students and apprentices from age 16 onwards. In 2012, it retrofitted its Brundtland Building (named after a leading Norwegian environmentalist) as a showcase for applying alternative energy technologies and energy efficiency techniques in existing buildings. Despite new gas boilers and a building energy management system (BEMS), they still had some issues around heating and cooling, along with high energy costs.
The building contains workshops, teaching rooms and administration offices and suffered from many of the problems found in similar buildings of this nature: Large workshops are used for bricklaying, carpentry and electrical installation training were particularly difficult to heat, and draughty windows caused further heat loss. Fan blowers were used, with the heat coming from the new gas boilers. These were noisy and inefficient and didn’t
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direct the heat to where it was needed as the warm air would quickly rise to the ceiling.
The classrooms had problems with over-heating on warm days and under-heating on cold days. Some of the classrooms and offices had split-system air-conditioning units. These were often running at the same time as the radiators and wasting a lot of energy.
Furthermore, as there was no timing control, the air- conditioning units were also being left on overnight. If staff stayed late or classes were run in the evenings or weekends, the only option was to have the whole building on.
The right knowhow Intelligent, occupancy-based room sensors plus modern double panel radiators with smart TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) have been added to each room. This allows pre-heating of the rooms before they are occupied and then keeps them at a pre-set temperature while being used. As soon as a room becomes unoccupied, they automatically
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