Legislation combined with new financial incentives should create fresh impetus in the commercial heating market this year.

The launch of feed-in tariffs (FiTs) in April should stimulate investment in renewable technologies and demonstrate that it is possible to make money from generating and using your own electricity on site.

This will be followed next year by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which turns the focus specifically on to increasing the share of the UK's usable heat that comes directly from renewable technologies - currently this is less than 1 per cent of total heating demand.

Alongside these industry specific incentives, there are also zero interest loans of up to £400,000 available from the Carbon Trust to put towards the capital cost of energy efficiency improvements and to install microgeneration and renewable equipment. These can be repaid from the energy savings the new systems deliver.

From next year, around 20,000 organisations will be, at least partly, included in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency scheme (CRC). At least 4,000, whose annual electricity consumption exceeds 6,000MWh, will be forced into mandatory carbon credit purchasing, while the rest will have to report their emissions to gauge whether they need to be included in the carbon trading scheme or not.

Radically

It also seems likely that, under the terms of the revised Energy Performance of Buildings directive (EPBD), the private sector will become subject to mandatory Display Energy Certificates that show actual energy consumption. Having to produce an actual usage figure that is updated every year could radically change the attitude of building managers.

To meet these legislative and financial commitments, thousands of building owners and managers will have to start looking closely at their energy consuming plant.
However, there will be a temptation to go for low cost options in a rush to ensure the building meets minimum standards for compliance. There is also a danger of being seduced by the so-called 'green bling' and covering buildings in renewables to take advantage of whatever grants are going.

When the decision to refurbish has been taken, then building operators should take a step back and examine what is going to be best for their building in the long run. Whole life costing is a crucial issue and FMs must be clear about how they are going to operate the building into the future.

This is not just about ripping out the old and putting in the new. Renewables certainly have their place, but of greater importance is an overall strategy for a building that has to be operated sustainably throughout the rest of its lifetime.

Heating plant is an obvious place to start when looking at building operating efficiencies. The FM must ask the question: 'Would it be more cost-effective to rip out and replace my existing, traditional heating system and replace it with a more modern, high efficiency system capable of delivering an improved service at 30 per cent less running cost? Or should I just stick a wind turbine on the roof so everyone passing will think I have gone green?'

We must design for maintenance as well. Is it more sustainable to use high cost, but low maintenance components, or look at cheaper alternatives that will give me breakdowns and headaches in the years to come?

However, budgets are under so much pressure these days, so a clear hierarchy of priorities must be established. What can we actually afford to tackle and how can we get the best value for what we do spend? And how can the building team speed up delivery of these changes, get better certainty about the finished product, keep the project costs under control and still be sustainable. The answer has to be offsite prefabrication.

Footprint

Offsite pre-fabrication allows systems engineers to factory test the finished article and pre-commission complete plantrooms and ancillary systems before they are delivered to the building. Pre-fabrication has long been an established approach to new build projects, but it is now also coming into its own in the refurbishment arena as we step up efforts to improve the carbon footprint of all our existing buildings.

Offsite fabrication is the very foundation of sustainability because it reduces waste, improves health and safety, cuts costs and delivers a quality end product. It ticks all the boxes.

Some 13 per cent of all materials used in construction projects are simply thrown away adding to our catastrophic landfill problem. With the offsite approach components are sized to fit in advance and any offcuts can be re-used. The supply chain is also more manageable as suppliers are bringing materials to a factory rather than a building site.
Pre-fabrication cuts down disruption in an operational building because whole sections of the project can be brought in at once, so reducing the amount of work that has to be done on site. Pre-fabricated systems are factory tested and the contractor only has a minimum of pipework connections to make.

The traditional method of delivering building services systems is inherently wasteful and, therefore, not sustainable. Fortunately, there is another way.