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The role and influence of building services engineers are undergoing rapid change and are pivotal to achieving low-carbon buildings. However, textbooks in the field have tended to remain fairly traditional with a detailed focus on the technicalities of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, often with little wider context. This book addresses that need by embracing a contemporary understanding of the urgent challenge to address climate change, together with practical approaches to energy efficiency and carbon mitigation for mechanical and electrical systems, in a concise manner. The essential conceptual design issues for planning the principal building services systems that influence energy efficiency are examined in detail. These are HVAC and electrical systems. In addition, the following issues are addressed: background issues on climate change, whole-life performance and design collaboration generic strategies for energy-efficient, low-carbon design health and wellbeing and post occupancy evaluation building ventilation air conditioning and HVAC system selection thermal energy generation and distribution systems low-energy approaches for thermal control electrical systems, data collection, controls and monitoring building thermal load assessment building electric power load assessment space planning and design integration with other disciplines. In order to deliver buildings that help mitigate climate change impacts, a new perspective is required for building services engineers, from the initial conceptual design and throughout the design collaboration with other disciplines. This book provides a contemporary introduction and guide to this new approach, for students and practitioners alike.

This chapter outlines strategic approaches to reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in buildings. The focus is on identifying appropriate generic design considerations that can be addressed in priority order as practical steps to promote energy efficiency. The emphasis is on zero or low-carbon energy supply and efficient distribution, along with energy-efficient systems. The use of renewable energy systems has, until recently, been considered the logical third stage of the hierarchical energy strategy. The operational energy performance of a building is, to a very large extent, determined by the location, shape and form of the building and the properties of the envelope in contact with ambient conditions: the roof, external walls and relevant floor slab(s). The intention, from an energy perspective, is for the envelope to modify the climate towards that desired for comfort through moderating and discouraging those aspects that are undesirable and enabling and encouraging those aspects that are beneficial.

This chapter introduces simple methods of load assessment for electric power systems in buildings. The specific requirements for load assessment are outlined, together with a review of the nature of load patterns and profiles for electricity in buildings. Electric power loads can be best understood on a system-by-system basis. Assessment of the load profile is required for design decisions affecting the strategy for minimising carbon emissions, such as assessing the viability of co-generation and the relative potential contribution for renewable electricity generation. The numerous items of electrical equipment in a power system will each have the own pattern of operation, but when the overall load is examined, the pattern will be seen to be diverse, with different items reaching the peak loads at different times. Chillers are regularly the largest items of load in the electrical distribution systems for air-conditioned buildings.

Air conditioning, as well as other thermal environment control systems for buildings, relies on a number of major technologies and equipment for the generation of the required cooling and heating energy, as well as the distribution of this energy to the various air handling plant and conditioned spaces. This chapter describes the major cooling and heating technologies and equipment employed for this purpose, their important characteristics and selection criteria. The cooling and dehumidification in air conditioning systems is provided in most cases either by chilled water or direct expansion refrigerant coils. The compressor is the heart of the refrigeration system. Its function is to pump the refrigerant round the circuit and provide the required pressure differential between the low-pressure evaporator side of the system and the high-pressure condenser side of the system. The performance of refrigeration and heat pump systems is expressed as the ratio of useful heat transferred to work input and is usually called the coefficient of performance.

This chapter provides the various collaborative activities through which the design of building services takes place as an integral part of the wider interdisciplinary development of the building design, alongside wider involvement in influencing the energy performance. The building services engineer's typical design involvement at each stage is described as a series of interconnected activities that can form part of the collaborative development by all disciplines. The design team - or professional team - on a construction project has traditionally provided a consulting service that links the client - as the procurer of the building - with the contractor, who constructs the building. The principal design disciplines are architecture, civil and structural engineering, and building services engineering. Architects have a wide-ranging role that usually includes responsibility for the appearance, shape, form, space usage, finishes and planning for the building, and may include other responsibilities.

Building heating and cooling load calculations can only be undertaken if the heat transfer mechanisms between the building walls, the internal and surrounding environment are identified. Heat transfer through building walls is caused by a difference in temperature between the exterior, interior surfaces of the wall. Various heating, cooling load calculation techniques are in use; however, the emphasis here will be on the methods recommended by the UK Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. In multi-layered constructions, it is the inside surface layer which primarily determines the admittance. The admittance procedure for cooling load calculation recognises that a person's feeling of thermal comfort depends on the heat exchanges between the body of a person to the indoor environment, by convective heat loss to the indoor air and by radiant heat loss to the indoor environment. The cooling load is influenced by the characteristics of the heat emitter in the space and the temperature used for the control of the system.

This chapter describes the elements of indoor environmental quality which should be satisfied in all energy-efficient buildings to provide a healthy and comfortable environment for occupants. The combination of the four elements is usually referred to as indoor environmental quality, which impacts the health and wellbeing of occupants. The four elements are: thermal, visual, acoustical and air quality. Indoor air quality (IAQ) has increased in importance and at the centre of considerations in the design of building services at equal terms with energy efficiency. In order to maintain acceptable IAQ in buildings, sensors are used to control the ventilation rates of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems or actuators in natural ventilation systems to provide additional ventilation should the sensed parameter be above recommended guidelines. Thermal comfort provision is as complicated as IAQ provision because human thermal comfort is influenced by a number of parameters, which in turn are influenced by external climatic conditions, construction of the building and solar and internal heat gains.

In all-air central air conditioning systems, the only medium providing both sensible and latent cooling in the conditioned space is air. Central systems employ one or more air handling units which are served by heating and cooling equipment located outside the conditioned area. All-air systems are applied to buildings with a large number of zones that require individual control of space conditions. Variable air volume systems satisfy the cooling and heating loads of a building by varying the supply air volume to the conditioned spaces. In air and water air conditioning systems, both air and water are distributed to the conditioned spaces to provide heating and cooling. Air and water systems consist of a central air conditioning plant, a duct distribution system and a room unit. The primary air is cooled and dehumidified in the summer and heated and humidified in the winter at the central plant. The primary air fan coil system is very similar to the induction system.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the module in Brunel University London's full-time and distance-learning MSc programmes in Building Services Engineering, Building Services Engineering with Sustainable Energy that cover the general issues related to building services design. It provides the background issues on the environmental impact of human activities, particularly climate change and the urgent need to minimise impacts, together with the need to maintain security of the energy supply. The book outlines the principal disciplines in a design team and how they collaborate to create integrated solutions. It describes generic strategies for achieving energy-efficient, low-carbon buildings. The book also describes how a formal post occupancy evaluation can play a key part in optimising the energy, environmental performance of buildings. It focuses on the distribution of thermal energy, including hydraulic systems, ductwork systems, variable-volume circuits, and low-energy heating and cooling systems for optimal energy and environmental performance.

This chapter provides the urgent need for energy-efficient, low-carbon buildings to mitigate climate change impacts arising from the use of fossil fuels. A separate impact of fossil fuel usage is examined through looking at the adequacy of infrastructures to meet the anticipated energy requirements in the near future. The global and UK performance for energy and carbon has shown that a transition is under way from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon alternatives. To understand the exceptional challenge for sustainable development in the context of the built environment, it is necessary to start from a perspective of the wider nature and range of environmental factors that threaten man's continued habitation on Earth and then identify those causes that specifically arise from the built environment. A major study was undertaken by a group of scientists in 2009 to identify the principal environmental processes that could cause significant disruption to human life on Earth.