BSEE PUMPS
The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards have enjoyed much press attention recently, but are they going to be as effective as initially thought? Perhaps not, according to Xylem’s Mark Bradley, who has uncovered a sticking point that may turn the UK’s green agenda into more of a grey area.
hen the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards were first introduced, they were met with a mixture of approval and apprehension. Approval, because they increase the accountability of private, non- domestic landlords in making their buildings more energy efficient, meaning lower bills for tenants. Apprehension because they are a muddle of various bits of legislation that are, in themselves, rather complicated. The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (or MEES) revolve heavily around Energy Performance Certificates (EPC). It is now a minimum requirement for non- domestic properties to hold a Category E rating EPC. As simple as this seems, the guidance surrounding the different requirements for EPC ratings are problematic. More worryingly, you don’t have to dig deep to find these problems. In fact, they’re right there in black and white on the EPC’s Frequently Asked Questions page. A conflict exists between what an EPC considers to be energy efficient, and what other measures, such as Environmental Impact Ratings, consider efficient. One question demands why an EPC is
W BESA CONFERENCE
The first national conference hosted by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) will tackle the big commercial and technical challenges facing the sector. The full‐ day event on Thursday, October 19th at the four‐ star Park Plaza Riverbank hotel in London, will focus on how companies in the building engineering sector can achieve technical
compliance and business efficiency to meet the many commercial challenges they now face.
BESA conference to focus on business challenges I
n addition to a series of highly tailored and interactive workshops, BESA’s first national conference will feature a number of high profile keynote speakers including Mark Farmer, who led last year’s hard-hitting review of construction’s labour and financial woes.
He will be joined on the speakers’ rostrum by the BBC’s ‘Business Doctor’ Dr Paul T Thomas and the deputy Mayor of London Shirley Rodrigues, who will debate important changes to the capital’s planning laws and environmental strategy.
The conference will also have a strong technical content with streams covering: Indoor Air Quality (IAQ); District Heating; and Refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps. Leading authorities on mental health, diversity and training funding will also address the conference and offer practical support. Mr Farmer pulled no punches in his review, which he carried out on behalf of the Construction Leadership Council. In it, he established that many of the industry’s problems could be traced to poor profitability that, in turn, starve employers of investment in skills and innovation. The BESA conference will be a rare opportunity to discuss the report’s findings with its author and establish how the building engineering sector is responding by developing new models to manage projects more effectively – including the wider use of digital processes.
Safe havens
The technical sessions will consider how buildings can be turned into ‘safe havens’ to protect occupants from rising air pollution. The Association has recently
28 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER OCTOBER 2017
announced plans to develop the industry’s first comprehensive guide to good practice and the latest updates will be released on the day.
BESA also has a working party developing guidance for tall buildings to reflect the surge in planning applications for high structures throughout the UK. A session on this topic will, inevitably, include the latest thinking on fire safety following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Making district heating schemes more efficient will be another important technical stream as will sessions on the likely impact on the refrigeration and air conditioning sector of the growing popularity of heat pumps and a rapid shift in the use of refrigerant gases as a result of the F Gas phase down of HFCs. The BESA Conference will also examine the difficulty the sector is experiencing in embracing modern digital working methods and pinpoint solutions that can help firms take advantage of the efficiency gains available from initiatives like BIM and data capture.
There will also be a series of seminars led by the Association’s commercial and legal team offering tailored advice on day-to- day contractual issues, late payment and staff engagement.
As well as the busy conference programme, there will be an exhibition of innovative products and services drawn from across the industry. The event will conclude with a black tie awards dinner celebrating the best of the sector’s national apprenticeship talent and announcing BESA’s annual management and Contractor of the Year awards. For more information and to register for the BESA National Conference and Awards go to:
www.thebesaconference.com ‘
This is a significant new event – both for the Association and the industry as a whole. The interactive nature of the conference means we will have the opportunity to share our growing body of knowledge with others while also capturing latest thinking from other experts in their fields. By linking the conference and our National Awards, we are also creating a great networking and social opportunity. It is a ‘must attend’ event for contractors, designers, manufacturers – in fact anyone interested in the art and science of building engineering.
BESA Chief Executive, Paul McLaughlin
’ VISIT OUR WEBSITE:
www.bsee.co.uk
recommending that a landlord exchange their conventional electric heaters to storage heaters. The landlord then responds, asking; “the resultant change makes the Environmental Impact Rating worse rather than better – why is this?”. According to the EPC website, an EPC rating measures the cost- effectiveness of an appliance, whereas other legislation, such as the Environmental Impact Rating, measures the energy-efficiency of the device. The interrogator is duly informed that their storage heaters are cheaper to run but use more electricity, hence a higher EPC but a lower Environmental Impact Rating. This seems ridiculous. How, as a society, can we achieve a measurable impact on our CO2 emissions, if we cannot even decide what the true measure of energy efficiency is?
With the introduction of MEES, it was presumably the intention of the government to make non-domestic properties, which are responsible for 12 per cent of the UK’s emissions, more carbon-neutral. Instead, the main goal seems to be protecting the back pocket.
While the need to lower energy costs for both landlords and tenants is understandable, lowering our
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A QUESTION OF COST OR CARBON What really matters in the fight for greener energy?
energy consumption should be of equally high priority. Furthermore, if government departments are unwilling to communicate to the point where meeting one rating comes at the detriment of another, this is hardly going to encourage society to take a more active involvement in lowering CO2 emissions and consumption of natural resources.
In a perfect world, legislation such as the MEES would encourage landlords to find solutions that lower both costs and energy
consumption. These do exist, and companies such as Xylem are leading the charge in delivering and installing them to properties every day, with products such as low cost, energy efficient circulator pumps and variable speed drives. It’s time to decide once and for all where our priorities lay, and ensure that all areas of government are aligned to make our non-domestic properties more sustainable for generations to come.
www.lowara.co.uk
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