Policies encouraging gas-fired CHPs in London are going into reverse. David Blackman looks at how new air pollution policies will affect the future of heat in the capital
Category: Technical
On the right track: services retrofit saves TfL’s Palestra £400,000
Like most large offices, TfL’s Palestra building is complex. To realise its true potential, it underwent significant interventions resulting in £400,000 of energy savings. Andy Pearson explains how an energy performance contract made the building 6% better than good practice
Industry wakes up to reality at Futurebuild
At the conference formerly known as Ecobuild, there was a large focus on housing and monitoring performance, as well as debates on the future of heat and integration of electric vehicles. Alex Smith and Andy Pearson report
How using turmeric waste as biomass cut carbon emissions by 60%
In 2018, GSH Group India won a major environmental award for a project with FMCG firm Kaleesuwari to replace coal with turmeric and mixed biomass at two refineries. Director of operations Anand G D Chennai explains how
Researching new methods for estimating design water flowrate
It is recognised that using the traditional loading units method overestimates the design flow for hot and cold water systems. Heriot-Watt University’s Achala Wickramasinghe explains how the Luna project aims to address the issue and calls for data to help validate a new method
Silent treatment: acoustic design in an open plan school
The design brief for Trumpington Community College was for open teaching spaces overlooking a large, airy atrium. The challenge for Max Fordham’s acoustic engineers was ensuring teachers were not disturbed by noise from neighbouring spaces. Andy Pearson reports
To close the performance gap, choose Option D
IPMVP Option D offers robust measurement and verification to give building services engineers and their clients a better insight into how a design energy performance rating can be validated during operation. Nazli Dabidian explains how
Hotel study reveals predicted hot water use is double the reality
Analysis of two hotels by Elementa Consulting revealed that actual hot-water use is around half of what systems are capable of supplying. Elementa’s David Glossop says this is resulting in much lower carbon savings in new services designs
Countdown to zero – Leti roadmap to zero carbon buildings by 2030
The London Energy Transformation Initiative aims to support the construction of zero carbon buildings by 2030. It is creating a roadmap describing how this can be achieved, and newly crowned CIBSE Building Performance Engineer of the Year Clara Bagenal George says anyone in the industry can get involved
Cost model – battery storage
Advances in battery technology and steep falls in prices for PVs and storage is making smart energy grids an attractive commercial proposition. Aecom’s first cost model of the year assesses the viability of batteries across a number of scenarios