Product category:
Building management systems
News Release from: Seeley International (Europe) | Subject: Evaporative air-cooling
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 20 January 2005
Tighter regulations call for a rethink
on cooling
Companies looking at ways of cooling large areas have turned to evaporative air-cooling, which does not emit carbon into the atmosphere and costs less than air conditioning to install and run
The raft of regulations concerning energy conservation and carbon emissions that began with the Climate Change Levy in 2001 has been beefed up with changes to the Building Regulations Part L2, and in 2005 buildings may be required to possess an accredited 'energy' certificate, providing information about their energy efficiency and carbon emission performance Commercial buildings have to be heated, cooled, air conditioned, serviced with electrical power and lit to requirements that have resulted in a 65% increase in energy use in this sector in the past 25 years
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 17 Feb 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Energy consumption, particularly electricity, is now equated to carbon emissions that cause climate change.
In the UK, commercial and public buildings contribute the same quantity of carbon emissions as industrial processes.
The UK and Europe signed up to the Kyoto Climate Change Summit by setting environmental objectives that would cut the emissions of greenhouse gases that accumulate from the burning of carbon based fuels.
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Pegler Yorkshire has overcome high summer temperatures in its radiator valve assembly line by installing state-of-the-art Breezair evaporative cooling through UK distributor CoSaf Environments
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Patak Foods will install further Breezair Evaporative Cooling Systems in their bottling hall, after the success of the previous installation in reducing high temperatures in the frying/packaging areas
A better working environment for food packaging
Breezair coolers have helped resolve the conundrum of cooling Aimia Foods sealed, packaging area and providing its workforce with a more comfortable working environment
However, the Government has since demanded even stricter standards to be achieved in the Climate Change Programme.
The introduction of the energy label will be the first legislation to tackle energy consumption in existing buildings.
The label will enable building owners and occupiers to understand the energy performance of their building and will encourage building occupiers and landlords to pursue more energy efficient solutions.
The Building Regulations Part L2 are now in force and through the subtitle 'Conservation of fuel and power' are designed to bring about new standards in construction techniques and materials to prevent energy wastage.
They should also give rise to improved efficiency of installed services and their operation to reduce energy consumption.
Although they initially relate to new buildings, the regulations also apply to existing buildings when alterations occur.
With the advent of warmer summers, an increasing number of commercial and industrial establishments are looking at ways of providing cooling for their employees.
In factories and warehouses air conditioning is prohibitive not only because of carbon emissions taxes but also due to installation and running costs.
Companies looking at ways of cooling large areas have turned to other means such as evaporative air-cooling, which not only does not emit carbon into the atmosphere but also costs of a fraction of the cost of air conditioning to install and run.
Now the annual increase of energy use in commercial buildings is leaving all other sectors of industry behind.
Carbon emissions for these sectors together are 40% of the UK contribution of such climate-changing gases - about 57 million tonnes of carbon a year.
It would now seem inevitable that commerce, like industry, will soon be presented with strict emission guidelines and will be penalised if they are exceeded.
Like industrial environments, managers will need to look for ways of reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Evaporative air-cooling could well prove the solution to this problem as it offers 50 to 70 percent energy savings compared to conventional air conditioning.
The reason evaporative systems use less energy is that unlike refrigerative systems, they do not have an energy-consuming compressor to compress vapour and condense it back into liquid to repeat the cooling cycle.
Instead, evaporative coolers just use fresh water to achieve high efficiency cooling.
Evaporative air-cooling also has the additional advantage of being an open system as opposed to the closed ventilation system of refrigerant bases air conditioning.
Because a constant natural flow of 100% fresh air is drawn into the building and then expelled, odours, germs and airborne contaminants are removed and not recirculated around the building.
This has a positive effect on workers health helping to reduce illness.
According to the World Bank report, 4 million evaporative air-cooling units in operation in the United States provide an estimated annual energy savings equivalent to 12 million barrels of oil in addition to an annual reduction of 5.4 billion pounds of CO2 emissions.
Human comfort and low energy systems in buildings are not necessarily a contradiction in terms.
Using low energy light bulbs, installing evaporative air cooling instead of air conditioning, turning down heating controls on mild days and switching off computers when they are not being used will have a monumental effect on energy consumption and emissions without causing discomfort to personnel.
Article authored by Nigel Egginton, BEng (Hons) CEng MIEE, General Manager, Seeley International (Europe).
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