Sustainable delivery

The main force behind the conference is the Institution’s new president Graham Manly. Business development director at Gratte Brothers Group, he brings 40 years of industry experience in contracting and education to the role.

Life sentence
The growth in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects has meant that more attention is being paid to how a building will perform over its lifetime. Contractors and building designers are looking beyond the handover stage to the whole-life cost of the building.

The question has moved on from: ‘has the building been delivered to specification at handover?’ to ‘what are the whole-life costs of the building, including maintenance, energy and operating costs?’ The conference will include a review of current techniques that can be applied to estimate lifetime energy use of m&e plant.

Another presentation will review the sustainability benefits of off-site prefabrication. There is much accumulated experience from the many projects that have included varying degrees of prefabrication. This paper will review the supply chain sustainability benefits and implications.

There will also be a case study on commercial green construction by a leading firm of consulting engineers. As funder, owner, occupier and designer of the building, the firm will have a unique view of the challenges of bringing a sustainable design to fruition.

Initial monitoring of the building will take place in collaboration with the University of Nottingham School of the Built Environment. Features include:

• super-insulated, breathing wall construction using blown insulation made from recycled newspaper;
  
• night cooling through a low pressure, mechanical ventilation system coupled to floor slabs;
  
• a heating and cooling system integrated into the raised access floor and served by a heat pump.

The huge construction project that is Heathrow Terminal 5 will be the subject of a presentation on its district cooling system. The central chilling plant incorporates ammonia as the refrigerant and open circuit cooling towers to maximise the coefficient of performance of the chillers. Twin compressors will result in good part load performance and 11 kV motors avoids the cost and energy losses of transformers. A free cooling system and elevated return temperature will also be employed.

To reduce the installed capacity of the chillers, thermal energy storage (TES) was used to meet the short duration peak demands. Chilled water was used in preference to ice storage, giving a lower capital cost and higher system efficiency. The TES consists of an unpressurised 3600 m3 buried concrete tank. This is hydraulically connected to the chilled water system with pressurising pumps and throttle valves to control the flow of chilled water into the store.

Sustainable thinking
The very concept of sustainability will be questioned. Many people in the contractual chain pay lip service to sustainability without acting on or even understanding the concept. The solution starts at the design stage, with a good specification coupled with educating designers, contractors and manufacturers on how to put sustainability into practice. Another problem that must be overcome is the limited availability of sustainable materials for all stages of the development.

Self-generated power supply using renewable energy will play an increasingly important role in sustainable buildings. New research into the performance of Savonius wind turbines will show their viability.

Wind turbines come in two general types: those whose main turning shaft is horizontal and points into the wind, and those with a vertical shaft that points upwards. The Savonius is an example of the latter. It consists of two simple scoops that catch the wind to turn the shaft.

The model used for the research was modified to incorporate a Darrieus feature at the tips of the blades to augment the lift characteristics and improve performance.

The conference programme has been created from a mix of invited experts and a selection of the very best papers received from an open call. Only presentations offering real solutions to the implementation and delivery of sustainable, energy efficient buildings will be included on the conference agenda.

All information presented will be cutting-edge; no previously presented material will be allowed at the conference.