Building physicists wanted
M&E engineers must take greater responsibility in the push for sustainable buildings, visitors to this week’s Sustainability Live exhibition heard.
"Architects shouldn’t even start a building without talking to a building services engineer," said former M&E Sustainability chairman David Frise. "They don’t know how to orientate a building properly. We are entering the Era of the Building Physicist – someone who can do a bit of architecture and a bit of engineering to get our future buildings right."
Mr Frise (pictured above) was one of the speakers at a seminar held during the exhibition by M&E Sustainability. Delegates in the packed seminar room heard that more and more clients, developers and end users are turning to m&e specialists to try and deliver sustainable projects.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for our industry," said Mr Frise. "But with opportunity comes responsibility. PI insurance for low carbon consultants is higher because insurance companies see providing advice on sustainability as high risk."
He added that the industry would also have to get better at working with planning offices because planning policies would drive the sustainable building market faster than the Building Regulations,.
Mike Malina, a consultant to M&E Sustainability, said it was a “national scandal” that so much energy was being wasted by large central power stations and that the Government should do more to encourage the take up of combined heat and power (CHP).
“More than two thirds of the electricity generated by power stations is wasted,” said Mr Malina, principle of the energy management company Energy Solutions Associates. “By the time you factor in poor energy efficiency in buildings, we can see that British consumers are receiving about 20p worth of usable electricity for every £1 they pay to the generators.
“We should be using far more CHP to produce electricity at the point of use to avoid the massive transmission losses from central generation and to capture and use the waste heat that is simply thrown away by power stations.”
The session, which was chaired by HVCA Head of Communications Jack McDavid, also debated the growing problem of end users receiving “poor advice and inappropriate technologies” for their projects.
“There are a lot of exaggerated claims being made about the performance of some renewable technologies,” said Mr Frise. “The people who promote and champion these technologies must be challenged and forced to prove their claims.”
M&E Sustainability is calling for the Government to support a wide programme of awareness training so end users get a better understanding of the issues. It supports the creating of an ‘Energy Hierarchy’ where basic energy efficiency measures are taken to reduce demand before building users consider applying renewable or low carbon technologies.
“People are being sold a pup,” said Mr Malina. “There are some excellent technologies out there, but you have to make the right choices from the outset and that means only using appropriate technologies at an appropriate cost. Trading Standards Officers should be investigating some of the totally unrealistic payback claims being made for certain products. Photovoltaics (PV) is going into some projects where it really shouldn’t, for example,” he explained.
There are problems with most of the renewable technologies if the engineers applying them do not know what they are doing, the group heard.
“If you do not size a ground source heat pump properly you can easily exhaust the ground and end up creating permafrost,” said Mr Frise. “We get a lot of enquiries about heat pumps, but often they are simply not the right solution for the project in hand. Users must be very careful to employ firms who understand the technologies and how they integrate with buildings.
“People don’t know what they don’t know – and there is a skills shortage in this area.”
Entitled ‘Delivering Sustainable Projects’, the seminar looked at what building owners could do to improve their sustainability on modest, medium and more generous budgets. They were told that the lowest cost option is to address the problem of buildings being “out of balance” due to poor or non-existent commissioning.
Many buildings are too hot at one end and too cold at the other leading to costly short-term remedial measures when a re-commissioning programme might be all that is required to improve comfort conditions and reduce energy waste.
Occupiers were urged to address some easy, low cost building fabric issues i.e. improving insulation and replacing or repairing door and window seals to stop the building “leaking like a sieve”. Re-calibrating the building management system (BMS) and any local sensors will improve system performance and avoid heating and cooling systems working against each other.
“Energy is the key controllable operating cost in any building,” said Mr Malina. “If an organisation has never actively tried to manage its energy before, it can save between 30 and 40% by taking a number of simple measures like commissioning services and upgrading controls.
“Everybody wins as any savings go directly to the bottom line.”
Communication was a key element in the success of the major sustainability project carried out by NG Bailey, according to the company’s chief mechanical engineer Paul Hancock.
“Clients often don’t realise what they want or need – so they must be supported through the process,” Mr Hancock told the seminar.
He described how his company had set about achieving an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating for its Central Scotland office in Strathclyde, which cost around £6m to construct. It involved all aspects of sustainability, including future proofing the structure, working collaboratively with supply chain partners, using innovative technology, integration, meeting CSR targets and ensuring the working environment was ideal for occupants.
“We had to look at water, energy and noise issues as well as the use of materials, waste management and the use of phase change materials to improve the performance of the building’s fabric,” said Mr Hancock. “Also, you cannot get an Excellent rating without total buy-in from the whole construction team.”
The total building costs included £837,000 extra spent on the elements needed to achieve its high sustainability rating, but this has reduced its annual running costs by over £51,000, according to Mr Hancock.
“These things do cost money and they require extra time,” said Mr Hancock. “You need to integrate the delivery team from the start and make sure you have the right team – and the client must be involved at every stage.”