It takes more than a desk to attract people into the office these days. In fact, the future of offices is still being determined. This article from Toby Horne, looks at the pressures facing office transformation today and the finance solutions that make digitalisation possible.

Graeme Rees, Vice President of the Building Controls Industry Association, gives a step-by-step guide on how building operators can select and manage their building management systems.

With the built environment becoming ever more complex, choosing the right products and materials can seem like an unfathomable maze.  Daniel Smith, BIM Manager for Conex Bänninger, discusses the growing importance of Business Information Modelling and how manufacturers can help smooth the MEP design path for specifiers.

With pumps consuming 10% of the world’s electrical energy, optimising the energy they use has environmental and economic benefits. According to Grundfos, selecting the best pumps for a specific task such as circulating water in heating and air-conditioning systems can achieve energy savings of at least 80%.

Airedale has responded to market demand for a compact, efficient high-capacity scroll chiller with the 460 to 930 kW air-cooled DeltaChill and 450 to 1010 kW DeltaChill FreeCool. These chillers use R410A and are available in 182 models with two sound variants and three efficiency levels. For applications where space is limited, a more compact chiller can be selected with a standard efficiency level. An 820 kW unit from the high-capacity DeltaChill FreeCool range is illustrated.

How good an investment is an energy-saving measure such as replacing T8 fluorescent tubes with T5? David Churcher of BSRIA takes a detailed look at the figures.

Airedale’s OptiChill FreeCool large-capacity chillers maximise the use of free cooling to save more than half of the energy used by a conventional chiller. For up to 30% of the year these chillers can operate purely in free-cooling mode with an EER of up to 75 (15°C return water, 20% ethylene glycol, 3°C ambient and based on total input power to the fans). Some free cooling is available for 95% of annual operating hours (in London).

The construction costs of a building are typically less than 10% of its total costs over its life, which motivates Ian Ellis of Siemens Building Technologies division to argue the importance of a specifying an adequate building-management system and making full use of its capabilities.

Given an adequate demand for heat, the ‘free’ electricity generated by a combined-heat-and-power installation makes a very powerful whole-life-cost argument. Marcus Dodsworth of Shenton Group explains.

John Durbin of Daikin UK looks suggests how today’s highly sophisticated energy-efficient climate-control systems can significantly reduce whole-life costs.

Building services are the single most adapted elements of a building during its lifetime. Glan Blake-Thomas of AET explains how solutions that deliver greater flexibility, adaptability and re-usability can help cut the lifetime costs of commercial buildings and enable existing office space to be effectively recycled without automatically increasing first cost.

Paul Davidson of Aurora shares his enthusiasm for LED lighting, using its many benefits to dispel concerns about initial costs.

Helping to reduce energy and carbon emissions at Thomas Rotherham College in South Yorkshire is a solar-thermal system supplied by Stokvis Energy Systems to provide hot water for staff and public toilet. The system for this college for 16- to 19-year olds is expected to achieve energy savings of 2.6 to 3 MWh a year.

With energy being the major contributor to a building’s whole-life cost, the one-third energy and carbon savings of the new flagship Marks & Spencer at Cheshire Oaks compared to the company’s traditionally built stores will have a big impact. Designed by Aukett Fitzroy Robinson and built by main contractor Simons Group, this store is one of the most high-profile sustainable retails projects ever undertaken in the UK.

The long-term running costs of providing heating and hot water for a new hospital in Yorkshire will be kept down by a combination of biomass and gas-fired boilers from Hoval. This combination gives East Riding Community Hospital in Beverley an efficient and responsive low-carbon heating system that also qualifies for income from the Renewable Heat Incentive over the next 20 years.

Hywel Davies of CIBSE sees a positive climate for whole-life costing emerging with the requirement for mandatory emissions reporting and the Carbon Reduction Commitment.