Mechanical and Electrical Building Services
New measures to make buildings more energy efficient, saving one million tonnes of carbon a year in the process, came into effect on April 6 this year. The new Building Regulations Part L, taken together with 2002 Building Regulations, will improve standards by 40%. They will also call for a new way of working for building services engineers throughout the construction industry.
To achieve the required levels of energy savings and still create a pleasing aesthetic, mechanical and electrical engineers will need to become involved at a much earlier stage of a construction project than has often been the case in the past in the industry. Some commentators have said that this will cause a culture change in the industry but Rolton Group's approach has always been to work closely with clients and to understand their business, so that we can offer them the best engineered solutions for their needs.
The new measures call for a methodology for calculating energy performance of buildings to take in to account fabric heat losses, daylight calculations, internal lighting efficiency, air-tightness of the envelope, heating and ventilation system type and efficiency.
The aim of the new regulations is to reduce the overall energy consumption as measured by the total annual carbon dioxide emissions. For non-domestic buildings, the general requirement is to reduce the energy consumption by 20% for air-conditioned and mechanically ventilated buildings and 15% for naturally ventilated buildings and to make a 10% renewable contribution, where appropriate. In the majority of non-domestic buildings the energy reduction needs to be 28% compared to the same notional building conforming to the 2002 Building Regulations.
The new regulations not only require buildings to be more energy efficient, they also provide more strategic approaches to achieve those goals. Rolton Group's approach is to make sure that that clients are fully aware of the choices they have and to make sure that they have information in plain language that they can understand, so that they can assess the information and make important decisions for the benefit of the long-term stability of their businesses as well as of the environment.
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The energy performance of a proposed building needs first to be demonstrated before construction and technology has a key role to play here. For years now we have been using state of the art IES Virtual Environment Software, which is an integrated system for assessing building performance.
The software allows us to design and model a proposed building and know exactly how it would perform and operate once it was built. This approach delivers significant benefits for our clients because, with early involvement in a project, it allows us to compare different scenarios and test the consequences of alternative designs at the click of a mouse.
Our building services engineers have used the system and our approach to great effect on award-winning buildings and our work shows that beautiful design can be both functional and environmentally responsible.
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