Planning Ahead - The Choice Between an A and a G!
Commissioning is a neglected art, but the growing legislative
responsibilities on building owners means it is about to
come into its own, says Mike Malina*.
The industry is entering a period of unprecedented legislation
designed to focus minds on sustainability and energy conservation
following the enactment of the Kyoto Protocol in February.
As well as the new Parts L, P and F of the Building Regulations,
the Government’s Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act
sneaked into effect almost unnoticed last year.
Next January sees the appearance of Energy Labelling of buildings
under the provision of the EU Energy Performance directive
and Building Regulations Part L2 along with the delayed Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE). At
the same time, publicly displayed Energy Certificates will
become mandatory.
And if all that was not enough, the Government’s Code
of Sustainable Buildings comes into action next year, aimed
at increasing recycling, reducing waste and improving the
environmental footprint of our work.
Clients are now looking to us – the ‘professionals’ -
to help them comply with this mountain of regulation and
meet their own corporate responsibilities. If we can’t
come up with the answers then who will?
Commissioning has a critical role to play in all of this.
If it was not done properly in the first place, then it will
have to be done now to get building services systems back
on the right track in terms of energy performance and meeting
the needs of occupants.
Ideally, commissioning should take place at all stages of
the design process from concept, through installation and
pre-commissioning on to balancing, performance testing and
final handover. Ideally, the systems should also be subject
to ongoing independent validation after the occupier takes
possession to ensure that buildings continue to perform to
their design targets throughout their lifetime.
The advent of the new Building Regulations, which are the
main tools deployed by our Government to comply with the
EU directive, will inevitably lead to the effective re-commissioning
of building services in a very large number of poorly performing
buildings. What alternative is there, if end users are going
to get their buildings up to scratch? Ripping out and starting
again is rarely the answer.
Planning ahead is where the biggest improvements are to be
made, of course. This is particularly important in buildings
that are in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week such as
hospitals, hotels and prisons. We have to ensure they are
set up properly from the outset – you only have one
chance with 24/7 buildings as you can’t shut them down
and start again once they are occupied. That means commissioning
managers should be involved at every stage from concept design
onwards.
Clarity of purpose makes the commissioning engineer’s
job much simpler and helps remove areas of potential conflict
with other members of the design team. By ensuring as much
testing and commissioning takes place off site, for example,
the services designer gives himself much more room to manoeuvre.
Some key rules of thumb include:
Minimise on site commissioning by using things like factory
calibrated VAV boxes – get as much testing done in
the factory as possible.
Be clear about the designer’s objectives for the
building.
Review the design information to make sure it is reliable,
accurate and complete.
Make sure detailed schedules exist for the plant and equipment.
Review the controls strategy.
Consider operational efficiency – is there a better
way?
Develop a strategy and programme for on-going validation
of the services and introduce innovative checks and technologies,
for example the use of thermal imaging to look beyond conventional
methods.
The long view
Our industry is very good at developing new ideas and coming
up with clever technical solutions to problems, but we are
not so good at taking the long view and designing for maintenance,
validation and replacement of plant at the end of its life.
Issues like plant room access and providing lifting beams
can avoid serious problems in the future, but are often overlooked
at design stage.
Architects love to streamline their service cores, but they
can make service and maintenance difficult as a result. We
have to be firm - the chances are that our first thoughts
were right and if we compromise it will be to the detriment
of the building occupants. However, persuading the architect
to change course depends on us being very clear about our
strategy and having a detailed programme to support our arguments.
Designing spare capacity into the system to allow for changes
in the use of a building and to give occupants the flexibility
to move wards, offices, classrooms and people around and
to accommodate new tenants is another vital area often overlooked.
And it doesn't have to be expensive if you do it at Day One.
Some developers are looking to lower end user expectations
to keep commercial rental costs down, which means they will
go for cheaper alternatives.
As members of the design team we should be able to pose the
question: ‘Is that the best way – can the building
operate more effectively if we do things differently?’
The mass of new legislation piles on even more pressure to
squeeze better energy performance out of existing buildings
too - particularly highly glazed ones. The thermal performance
of glazed facades is coming under close scrutiny and better
control strategies and improved insulation levels will be
required to get buildings through the inspection process.
Buildings have an asset value for their owners and the Energy
Labels will have an impact on the marketing of those buildings.
Would you want to rent a building that rates a ‘G’ for
energy performance?
Annual ‘Building MOT’s’ could check the
safety and business critical processes of a building – like
fire alarms and power back-up systems – are in full
working order and monitor energy performance.
As an industry, we do design wonderful systems, but if they
are not tested properly and commissioned, then they will
not work as intended and the design will be a failure. Sometimes
it takes years to fathom why systems are not working properly
and because of the time pressures to finish buildings, it
is often difficult to complete testing, but a proper commissioning
strategy means testing can go on at all stages of the project
and does not need to be left to the end.
We need to think about design for commissioning and testing,
to record the process and then ensure the documents are kept
safely somewhere on site so that the occupants can continue
to run the building as intended. By keeping this documentation
up-to-date, building users have a full record of the current
status of the building rather than an historic record of
how it was meant to be.
People don’t like being told what to do, but sometimes
there is no alternative. There was precious little progress
on improving the energy performance of buildings before legislation
was threatened and now it is upon us we have to act. Time
for the ‘Professionals’ to stand up and show
leadership.
*Mike Malina is Manager of Energy Division of The Commtech
Group.
Commtech Group,
Breakfield
The Ullswater Business Park
Coulsdon
Surrey
CR5 2HS
Tel: 020 8668 0312
Fax. 020 8668 0975
enquiry@commtechgroup.co.uk
