What caught our eye in the CIBSE Journal this month?
Government challenged on local efficiency targets (p6)
The High Court has given the green light for a legal challenge from the Good Law Project to the Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) that was issued by DLUHC at Christmas alongside the FHS/FBS consultation. LETI have already published their response to the WMS which threatens to undermine the ability of local authorities to set tighter local energy policies for new developments. See LETI response here.
The WMS has generated a widespread backlash, with Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud branding the move a ‘policy disaster’ and a letter, co-signed by more than 50 bodies, describing it as ‘unnecessarily draconian’.
CIBSE takes over as scheme administrator for NABERS UK (p7)
We knew this already, but nice to see it in print here.
Nearly 150 new and refurbished office buildings are setting Nabers UK Design for Performance targets, representing a ‘significant portion’ of UK office developments.
Embodying good policy (p13)
A good summary from Anastasia Mylona on why embodied carbon is important and how practical advice for how building services engineers should be factoring it into their design decisions.
Together with the UKGBC, IStructE, ICE, CIOB, CIC, RIBA, RICS, ACE, UK Architects Declare, and Part Z, the Institution called on party leaders to commit in election manifestos to reducing construction embodied carbon emissions within two years of taking office. By 2028, it wants them to introduce legal limits on upfront embodied carbon emissions for projects with a gross internal area of more than 1,000m2?or more than 10 dwellings.
Using less energy to keep fit (p20)
领英推荐
In a case study on the Max Fordham project, Ravelin Sports Centre at the University of Portsmouth, which won Project of the Year at this years CIBSE awards, I particularly liked this quote from Mark Palmer.
Engineering the sports centre’s low-energy design was ‘the easy bit’, says Palmer, who adds that it is often the execution, rather than the design, that prevents schemes from achieving predicted energy performance. For Ravelin, Max Fordham was novated to Wates Construction under the two-stage design and build contract, and appointed by Wates Building Services to develop its installation and record drawings in Revit. The engineer also worked with Wates’ offsite manufacturer, Prism, to integrate prefabricated service modules and plant skids. ‘It meant we were able to take responsibility for the design from concept to installation,’ says Palmer.
Plantroom pioneer (p30)
This article featured Phil Draper who won Engineer of the Year at this years CIBSE Awards. I was drawn to the part where he describes working with Darren Coppins at Built Physics (a fellow modeller). Spot on!
To assess the viability of a heat pump retrofit, Draper often works with Darren Coppins, of Built Physics, to model the building and its systems. The model references the metered operational data to confirm its accuracy. When the metered energy data does not match that predicted by the model, the team must assess whether the problem is with the building or the model, says Coppins. He adds that it might be down to problems with the existing controls or excessive infiltration, or parts of the building may not be working as they were intended.
‘We can drill into that data to see if it is something that needs to be addressed with building maintenance or whether the model needs to be tweaked to factor in something I’ve not allowed for,’ Coppins says.
When all parties are happy with the accuracy of the model, it is used to assess the operation of the proposed heat pump retrofit.
And finally… this from the In Brief section on p7 tickled me:
ECHR rules against Switzerland on global warming
(couldn’t find a weblink)
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