Joined-up thinking and working together are key factors if the building services industry is to realise its full potential in reducing carbon emissions, says Steven Henry of Chalmor
WHETHER we like it or not - and personally I think we should seize the opportunity - the building services industry finds itself in the front line of the battle to reduce carbon emissions. Improving the energy efficiency of building services, alongside other emission-reducing schemes, has the potential to slash the country's carbon emissions.

To achieve that potential, however, we've got to get our act together and there are some areas where we most definitely are not reading from the same script. What's needed is more joined-up thinking right the way through from product design and system design to ensuring end users know how to operate their systems and understand the benefits available to them.

And while there are some very good initiatives aimed at new buildings, the majority of our building stock does not fall within the remit of these initiatives so much more can be achieved through a stronger focus on the energy efficiency of existing buildings, where the plant itself may have many years of use left. Here, the key is often relatively simple controls that will produce almost instant results and a very fast payback.

As an example, a while ago we supplied heating controls to a school with very old boilers to help them optimise the running of the boilers and savings were achieved immediately. Some time later, they installed new boiler plant with a plate heat exchanger between the primary and secondary hot water circuits.

Unfortunately, this failed to deliver the expected improvement and the installers were called back. As is so often the case, their first response was to blame the controls - however it eventually emerged that the heat exchanger had been installed the wrong way round.

OK, these things happen but this does illustrate the point that we can achieve more as an industry by working together to analyse and solve problems rather than immediately trying to blame someone else.

This anecdote also illustrates a more important concept - it is the system as a whole that delivers the performance. For instance, thanks to drivers such as the Energy Technology List, most new plant is more efficient than its predecessors. The specifier then needs to ensure that the various items are compatible, and the installer needs to be sure they are installed correctly and thoroughly commissioned.

Once in, the system has to be used properly and it is up to controls manufacturers like ourselves to ensure that the person who is responsible understands how to operate it.

To that end, we have to create a simple, intuitive front end that non-experts can use easily without having to refer to a manual.

Lastly, the end user has to be educated in the benefits of running the system properly. Returning to the example above, the heating controls were deliberately configured to be very simple.

Using optimised time control, the heating is configured to ensure the school is warm when staff and pupils arrive and to go off at the end of the normal school day.

There is also an override to extend the heating period to allow for events such as parents' evenings - as well as a holiday setting which provides frost protection when the school is closed.

Couldn't be simpler, you may think.

However, the heating was left on throughout the last Christmas break, simply because nobody had bothered to press the button that activates holiday mode.

So end users, irrespective of the type of building they occupy, also have to take some responsibility for the way their systems perform.

We can do our best as an industry to give them the best kit and the best system for the job but we also have to persevere with complacent end users and make certain they understand their role as well.


www.chalmor.co.uk