News analysis with BESA


Focus on health & well-being


new special interest group. The well-being of people is by far the biggest


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economic factor in the life of a building, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted serious health threats to occupants caused by the amount of pollution in the air used to supply building ventilation systems. As a result, it has called for much more effective ventilation and air purification designs. As well as the obvious economic argument, there is also a strong social and moral element to this: Poor housing costs the NHS more than £2bn a year in treating people suffering from a wide range of illnesses linked directly to living in cold and damp homes. Nathan Wood is the first chair of the new BESA


Health & Well-being in Buildings Group and believes greater power in the hands of building occupants is creating a huge momentum for change, which should be to the benefit of specialist building services providers like BESA members. “Building occupants are also gaining more


awareness of their indoor environments because they have access to powerful data about temperature; air quality; lighting levels etc. directly from their smart phones and other portable devices,” says Mr Wood, who is managing director of Farmwood M&E – winner of last year’s BESA Contractor of the Year award. “This makes it increasingly likely that property managers will have to develop separate well-being policies for their buildings – going further than the measures included in existing health & safety and sustainability plans.” There is a pressing need for establishing


performance benchmarks for the whole industry and the new BESA Group will, therefore, work with a group of like-minded industry bodies to help draft the UK’s first British Standard for the health and well- being performance rating of commercial and domestic buildings. The BESA group has offered its support to EFT


Consult, which proposed the new standard, and the BSI to map out the required improvements in design, installation and better build quality as well ongoing long-term maintenance. The ultimate aim is to produce a benchmark standard (PAS) for health and well-being that can be adopted by building services professionals worldwide. Creating the new PAS will involve establishing


health and well-being performance-ratings and deliver a step change in managing data, which supports improved planning, co-ordination and delivery of better indoor conditions. There will be a special session at this year’s BESA National Conference on November 21 outlining the health and well-being challenge and explaining our role in the proposed performance benchmarks. www.theBESA.com/conference


12 November 2019


surge in awareness around the impact of buildings on human health, welfare and productivity has prompted BESA to launch a


BESA Conference takes on big issues


This year’s BESA National Conference and Awards will take place at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London on November 21


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aking its overall theme as ‘Competence, Compliance and the Climate Challenge – turning theory into practice’, the


Conference will consider how the building engineering industry can meet many of the technical challenges it is now facing. These include turning the government’s pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 into practical actions; delivering the building safety solutions highlighted by the Hackitt Review; complying with ever tightening refrigerant legislation; and achieving higher standards in pipework, ventilation and off-site manufacturing.


‘Pivotal’ HIUs face testing time


Heat Interface Units (HIUs) will play a pivotal role in the UK’s journey to a low carbon economy, according to industry experts. Two key parliamentary committees – Climate Change and Science and Technical - have identified the decarbonisation of heat as the country’s single biggest challenge in the transition to net zero carbon emissions and have urged wider adoption of heat networks. Heating specialists have pointed out that the


performance of the HIUs connected to the heat networks is critical to their overall efficiency and effectiveness, but historically this issue was largely ignored. BESA has, therefore, developed a new UK Test


Standard and delegates at the conference will receive the latest updates on the test methodology, which is now being rapidly adopted by HIU manufacturers and heat network developers.


Health & well-being on the menu


A report from the global management consultancy McKinsey identified human ‘wellness’ as the next ‘trillion dollar industry’. Building engineering sits at the heart of this booming market because people spend up to 90% of their time indoors. The theme of health and well-being in buildings will be at the heart of the conference with technical experts considering the impact of rising pollution, overheating and poor humidity control on the physical and mental health of building occupants. Nathan Wood, chair of the new BESA Health &


Well-being in Buildings Group says: “The building engineering sector has tended to measure its success in terms of energy performance, and the scrutiny on that will only increase as we look for ways to deliver the government’s vision of a net zero carbon economy. “However, growing concern about how the indoor environment affects physical and mental health means we have a much wider social responsibility. The focus on reducing carbon is an opportunity to address quality issues in the widest sense and ensure our built environment is fit for the future.”


Fire experts to speak out


A range of experts have agreed to share their insights into the future of fire safety in buildings at this year’s BESA National Conference. Chaired by BESA chief executive David Frise, this high profile panel


www.heatingandventilating.net


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