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www.heatingandventilating.net
Plan now to tackle extreme heat dilemma
By Mark Beaumont, head of strategic accounts – UK Building Products Siemens Smart Infrastructure, explores the role of modern HVAC technology in making buildings smarter in the face of predicted extreme summers
H
igh temperatures tend to make us turn up the air conditioning, sending staff and customers scurrying to fi nd cardigans and
jumpers; off er round iced drinks, that raise our core temperatures as our bodies over compensate for the rapid cooling; and open all the windows, that often as not lets more heat in. Environmentalists and meteorologists
are emphatic that the high temperatures we experienced in the summer, are to become a regular and frequent feature in our lives. Whether it’s commercial offi ces, retail outlets, warehouses, hospitals, care homes, hotels or universities, we need to learn to deal eff ectively with greater temperature fl uctuations and start making our short, medium and long-term plans. The challenge is continuing decarbonising to meet targets while providing day-to-day comfortable environments.
Look at the options
If you don’t have air conditioning, perhaps now is the time to look at the options available for heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), from single room air conditioner, fan and dehumidifi er units, to a system to provide heating, cooling and air quality control throughout your building or chain of buildings. Whatever the scale of your operation, start with sensors, as a low-cost route to gathering data on temperatures (even on days that are not extreme outside), humidity and maybe air quality, while you are at it. HVAC obviously is best designed into a building
28 November 2022
when it is being built but retrofi tting is viable and can be cost-eff ective in many situations. Whatever the solution you are favouring, you need to be able to monitor and control what is going on, you might be surprised at how often both heating and cooling are running at the same time or while windows are open. Unoccupied rooms frequently have lighting heating/ cooling running for periods during the day but also at night and weekends when offi ces are shut. Remember it is not just temperature that makes
us feel hot; humidity above 50% makes us feel hotter and, by the way, boosts dust mites, allergens, and bacterial growth. Equally, low humidity can make our eyes, skin and airways feel too dry and becomes uncomfortable. Some offi ce equipment, such as copiers, or refrigerated displays in shops or laundry machines emit heat when operating, so thought might be given to optimising the time and duration of operating. Proper monitoring will ensure that you continue to minimise your carbon footprint and energy bills. You might also wish to look at fl exible working
hours to favour cooler hours. Maybe hot-desking could also be cool-desking, as workers move to warmer or cooler areas of the building to suit their needs.
Look to the future
Temperatures up around the 40-degree mark place stresses on bodies and buildings that are not designed to cope with them, especially in the UK, which historically has a temperate climate of
cool, wet winters and warm, wet summers. Higher and lower temperatures, stronger winds, higher tides, lower water tables, rising river levels and other changes to the environment will place stress on the built-environment, working conditions and people. We should be looking to the future and
considering what we can do to take advantage of the opportunities and mitigate the stresses. More sunshine and wind may make the case for adding solar panels and wind turbines more attractive. Maybe we should be capturing rain water and planting roofs, balconies and ground areas. So when temperatures soar, the responsibility
for health and safety falls back onto employers, who have a duty of care for staff and customers. Building management systems (BMS) and building technologies go beyond energy effi ciency and can greatly improve our well-being. We should be looking for technology that will make a real contribution to making our buildings smarter and more intuitive. Accurate sensor data is essential to maintaining the balance between indoor air quality and energy effi ciency: temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and fi ne particulate matter (PM2.5) provide a good indication of ventilation effi ciency and viral transmission risks. Exciting developments such as electrochromic glass that automatically adjusts tinting as the sun moves round; batteries to store energy produced by renewables and improved BMS will all have an increasing role to play.
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