Controls


www.heatingandventilating.net


Smart route to carbon neutrality


Jon Belfield, president of the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA), looks at the opportunities the building controls industry can take advantage of in the coming years to help steer the UK towards a carbon neutral future


O


ver the past decade, technology has moved at a pace that has been difficult for the whole supply chain to keep up with, but during the next 10 years we might actually catch up and get both existing and new technology working better and smoother to deliver the real potential for efficiency and comfort.


The Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) sector has emerged from the shadows in recent times, from something that’s often been considered something of a ‘problem child’ during the construction phase to being acknowledged as a key factor in achieving the occupied performance of a building. The BEMS we design are now adding real performance value to buildings and this is the opportunity for a ‘new professionalism’. This can be defined as expanding up the supply chain into a gap that has opened up to support consultants and building occupiers, openly providing that professional expertise and collaboration to ensure that the standalone complex systems specified in a building become effectively specified and integrated so they function as a ‘smart building’.


Add to this the generational challenge with many business leaders and strategy makers being in the last third of their careers and many engineers designing and commissioning new technology being in the first third of theirs, this is a fascinating juxtaposition and embracing this and all diversity is a real opportunity for us in the 2020s. ‘Reverse mentoring’ might not be a new initiative but is one that shouldn’t be ignored.


The energy agenda


In this new climate of openness and collaboration that is being led by our young engineers, we can also benefit from reporting and sharing the changes we make so we can be seen as a sector of industry that isn’t just talking about change, but actually making change and nudging the energy agenda in the right direction. Let me give you an interesting example of a


!" March 2020 www.heatingandventilating.net


request received in recent months for a multi-storey office fitted with a significant number of heating and cooling 4-pipe fan coil units: “We would like the summer room setpoint at 21˚C and the winter room setpoint at 23˚C, please advise when these changes can be made.”


Potentially, this is a tricky situation as the customer can actually demand what they want; it is they who pay for the work to be done and they who pay for the energy. There is no law against energy inefficient settings such as this and their priority is on the comfort, well-being and productivity of their staff, which isn’t unreasonable as this is key to keeping their business successful. Equally, I could easily make the case that my responsibility is to provide a BMS engineer to give them what they ask for. This


example highlights the corporate/social and personal responsibility conundrum. There will be many views out there ranging from “do as they ask” on one side to “just say no” on the other.


Perhaps as part of the bigger picture we have a role to play to communicate understandable connections between situations such as this and achieving the targets that are being set. Perhaps there is a parallel challenge to promote the ownership of these ‘targets’ as being everybody’s and not someone else’s, such as governments. If I turn this thermostat up and leave it turned up, energy


will be consumed and CO2 emitted – will this become a conscious connection that, in time, each of us will make? Perhaps this is the change in our relationship with energy that we seek.


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