Building Services Engineering Technology

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Student Number: 0478764

Short Assignment 1 – Building Services Engineering Technology

The need for Ventilation and Air Conditioning:

Ventilation is the process whereby used air is replaced with fresh air; ventilation is required in buildings to replace air which is contaminated with Carbon Dioxide, odours, micro-organisms, mites, moulds, fungi, water vapour, smoke, dust, organic vapours, combustion products and ozone and methane gases. Ventilation ensures a fresh supply of oxygen.

There are regulations educational premises need to comply with as stated in the ‘The ‘1996 version of the School Premises Regulations’:

Air conditioning is a mechanical means of ventilation which also treats the air, altering the temperature, humidity, cleanliness and circulation. Air conditioning is required more often in hotter climates, particularly if the building has poor insulation properties. Lack of ventilation particularly in modern highly insulated buildings can result in Sick Building Syndrome (SBS).

Controlling the air flow to create a comfortable air velocity, in the range of 0.15 and 0.5 metres per second as stated in ‘’Building Services Technology and Design’ should be the target.

Natural ventilation allows air to pass through the building by means of ventilation bricks and vents and ducts allowing air to flow in a controlled pattern replacing used air with fresh. Natural ventilation works best when there are openings at both high and low levels of buildings to create buoyancy, which is also known as the stack effect.

I would advise the client incorporate air vents in both high and low levels and have them mechanically controlled by a Building Management System (BMS) to ensure the best performance. A passive stack can be generated through large open spaces, as they have little resistance to air flow; this is why atriums are featuring more in construction today.

I would recommend the building incorporate a high thermal mass (HTM) design; this would ensure that temperature remained more constant internally all year round. HTM encourages night ventilation, which provides passive cooling by air from outside being absorbed and stored in the building’s fabric; this is then available to offset heat gains or losses.

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Air conditioning would not be required as often in a HTM building as temperature remains more constant - however if required, air-conditioning could be called upon.

The Criteria for Selecting a System for the Block

You should ensure rooms such as those containing numerous computers have sufficient ventilation and air conditioning as this not only helps improve the performance of the computers but also makes the environment more comfortable as heat is a waste product given off by them.

Other considerations are solar gain from windows and density of people in the room. I would ...

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