New publication shows how buildings can reach their energy potential
The Chartered Institute for 黑洞社区 Services Engineers (CIBSE) has published a book to help engineers navigate the tricky waters of Display Energy Certificate (DEC) benchmarks. The book, called TM46, is available to order from CIBSE and is 拢18 for members and 拢36 for non-members until the end of the year, after that it goes up to 拢20 for members and 拢40 for non-members.
These benchmarks provide the reference values against which various types of building are measured when producing the certificates, which became a legal requirement on many public buildings at the beginning of the month.
Hywel Davies, CIBSE Technical Director and contributing author, said benchmarks were an important tool for hard-pressed building services workers:
鈥淲ith building management becoming more important and more demanding, there is growing pressure on the engineers responsible for the operational management of buildings to provide not only high quality engineering services but to run and manage them as economically and efficiently as possible," he said.
"The benchmark data contained in this TM are based on the original CIBSE Guide F and ECG 19 data, updated to take account of more recent additions to the data set. The focus should be on improving actual performance and therefore reducing carbon emissions and saving public funds. It is CIBSE鈥檚 intent that as energy use in buildings is measured better, so it will be better managed.鈥
DEC benchmarks have caused some concern among engineers. Fulcrum's Jules Saunderson recently noted that wildly differing building types have similar energy fingerprints. "A secondary school, a seasonal hunting lodge and a speedway track all show the same energy benchmark,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 pin my hat on this software for risk of being sued.鈥
No comments yet