This assessment has been designed to introduce some realistic practical activities into your study of Building Services.  It is hoped that by examining various aspects and issues raised by seeking to incorporate building engineering systems into a structure you will gain an increased familiarity with the role of the Building Services Engineer and the day-to-day problems he/she may encounter.

By focusing on a pseudo client brief this assignment will focus on the following major aspects of a Services project:

·         Heating Systems;

·         Ventilation Systems and

·         Domestic Hot Water Services.

Over the course of the last few years the university has experienced a significant increase in the number of students wishing to study health subjects.  The development in these courses initially saw the development of the Mary Seacole building which provided the required teaching and practice space to support learning activities alongside some limited medical research.  Senior management have recently acknowledged that the development of a dedicated medical research facility is required in order to further develop this area of the business and seek to become a centre of excellence in this subject.

Young and Simpson have been working with the university to develop initial design ideas for the building and the point has been reached where they can be used to begin to examine the possible building services systems that might be included in the completed design.  The outline plan for this building along with other useful information is included in appendix 2 of this brief.

You work for the building engineering services consultant George Smith and Co. who have been appointed to carry out initial services designs for the project.  As part of the services development team you have been charged with producing a professional report that must be formatted to include.

·         A front cover in the form of a title page.

·         A contents page listing the title and page number of all sections, subsections, appendices and reference listings.

·         Body text with use made of appendices if appropriate.

·         References deployed appropriately throughout the document in the Harvard format.

·         Appropriately numbered sections and subsections.

·         A choice of format and font that is accessible to the reader.

The final report is to address the following activities.

Activities

1.      Provide an introduction that clearly explains the relationship between building engineering systems and the needs of occupants and users.

2.      Heating Systems

Carry out the following.

·         The office space within this building is to be maintained at a room temperature of 21°C critically analyse what combination of heating system and type of heat emitters might the most suitable to achieve this condition.  The discussion provided must be justified.

·         Based on a design building heat loss of 50 W/m² calculate all room heat losses, determine the building heat loss and select an appropriately sized gas fired boiler, or boilers, for the whole building.  Present your calculations as a tabulated schedule.

3.      Ventilation Systems

When considering the means of providing ventilation within a building there are essentially two options:

·         Mechanical air handling and

·         Natural ventilation.

Compare and contrast the relative merits of both of these options with respect to functionality and sustainability, select a suitable ventilation system for the building and clearly explain why you feel the system is the most appropriate.

4.      Domestic Hot Water System

Explain what is meant by centralised and de-centralised domestic hot water systems and subsequently select an appropriate method of providing domestic hot water to the Catering and WC provisions.

N.B. All calculations are to be carried out to two decimal places.

Guidance regarding how your submission will be assessed is given in the Assessment Criteria section below.  This should be read in conjunction with the Assessment Rubric included as Appendix 1.

Pre-submission checklist

Use the checklist below to ensure that you have met the assessment requirements.

·         Have I proof-read my work using the grammar and spell check facilities of the word processor to find / correct any errors and ensure readability?

·         Does the report meet the requirement of the permitted word count?

·         Have I referenced all of the sources used correctly to satisfy the Harvard referencing system?

·         Have I made use of the Draft Submission facility on Turnitin to check for the percentage match with other published work?

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

1.      Describe building heat transfer mechanisms and carry out calculations for the determination of heat losses from buildings.

2.      Compare the provision of natural and artificial lighting within buildings.

3.      Explain the influence of the building and its services on the internal acoustic environment and compare calculated noise levels with recognised design criteria.

4.      Select, describe and explain the operation, control and sustainability of the various components which make up particular Engineering Systems.

5.      Apply environmental design criteria to ensure occupant thermal comfort whilst achieving good design practice in relation to energy conservation and control within buildings.

1.      To develop knowledge and understanding of the interactions between a building and its internal and external environments and hence develop an awareness of the physical and personal requirements for thermal and environmental comfort leading to a healthy working environment

2.      To provide students with a fundamental understanding of the principles involved in building heat transfer, occupant thermal comfort, illumination and acoustics.

3.      To explore the need for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Services within the building envelope and develop an understanding of typical Building Services systems technology.

4.      To develop knowledge and understanding of the wide spectrum of H.V.A.C. Engineering Services available for installation in today’s buildings and their impact on sustainability, health and safety.

5.       To develop an ability to appraise and critically analyse the choices available to the engineer when selecting systems to meet a services specification.

Your assessment should be presented as a formal fully referenced report with a strict word count of 2000 words.

The word count for this piece of work comprises of ‘relevant words’ i.e. words within the body text of the report.  It discounts details included on the title page, contents list, all titles and information included within appendices.

Words beyond the 2000 limit will not be marked.