Active cooling will be essential to avoid an overheating crisis in Britain’s care sector. HTA Design’s Serra Ardor presents a study evaluating a combination of passive and active strategies to find the most energy-efficient path to resident comfort
Category: Technical
Optimising heat network design
Optimising heat pumps and electric boilers to minimise capital costs and customer bills will be essential to realising the government’s ambitious plans for heat networks. Max Fordham’s Adam Reeve looks at three routes to affordable heat, including storage, Grid balancing and hybrid heat sources
The hidden damper danger: fire safety guidance
One of the key pieces of legislation relating to UK fire safety post-Grenfell is DW145, the BESA standard on fire damper installation, maintenance and testing. Richard Crews, of Swift Fire Compliance, says the guide is long overdue
Cooling the suburbs: air-to-air heat pumps
John Greengrass MCIBSE specified reversible air-to-air heat pumps for his 1930s semi-detached house, to supplement his solar heating – but the cooling function is now proving its worth, writes Alex Smith
HEM unlocked: modelling ventilation under the Future Homes Standard
With the Future Home Standard requiring more airtight, better insulated buildings, mechanical ventilation will become standard from 2027. Xinyi Zhang and Richard Fitton examine how these systems fare in the new Home Energy Model compliance tool
Joined up heating: integrated design
The fragmented nature of heat pump design and delivery can greatly undermine performance in commercial schemes, says Lochinvar’s Liam Elmore, who argues that an integrated approach is the best way to realise performance intent
TM39: Building metering and monitoring guide
The new TM39: Building metering and monitoring guide lays out the framework for developing a successful metering strategy. As well as case studies and analysis of real-life data, it includes key sections on validation, communications and cybersecurity. CIBSE’s Ellen Salazar provides an expert summary
View from the summit: key lessons from decarbonisation and heat pump conferences
The CIBSE Heat Pump Summit provided insight and lessons learned at the Manly Trust Skills Hub. Alex Smith and Cathy King report
Roundtable: Liquid cooling in data centres
As demand for AI pushes data centre rack power from 20kW to 130kW, the industry is hitting the physical limits of air cooling. Experts at a recent CIBSE Journal roundtable, held in collaboration with Tate, discuss how Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips are forcing a rapid transition to liquid cooling – and why engineers must design for a high-density future
Heat Pump Research Symposium: From performance to practice
What is really limiting heat pump deployment? Tim Dwyer looks at barriers and opportunities after considering research and evidence presented at the government’s recent heat pump symposium