Modern Building Services

14 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES MARCH 2022 FEATURE HEATING W hen the UK passed laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050, it became the first major economy in the world to do so. This was a landmark moment on the road to net zero globally. In order to reach this lofty but vital goal, all industries will now have to make tangible and impactful changes. The same is true of the owners and managers of commercial buildings, who are now tasked with meeting a significant number of standards, regulations and legislation in order to ensure they are prioritising carbon reduction. This net-zero goal provides its own challenges, but is equally a great opportunity to invest in lower carbon building services technologies, and embrace new approaches to the design and operation of commercial buildings. Heating must be at the heart of this. How we heat buildings and generate hot water is a significant contributor to a building’s carbon emissions. In fact, heating creates nearly a third (32%) of the total carbon emissions in the UK. The heat pump technology is already available to combat this and heat commercial buildings in a more energy efficient, renewable way. So, what benefits can heat pumps offer, and how can building managers be sure that they are the right solution for a commercial space? How regulation is driving the shift to sustainable thinking There are already regulations in place to help reach net-zero - from the Climate Change Act back in 2008, to the more recent Green Growth Strategy in 2017. There is also legislation – specific to commercial buildings –that focuses on how heat is provided to these spaces. This needs to be a key consideration when investing in heating technology. Part L of the Building Regulations is an example of this. It states that non-domestic buildings should be moving to low-carbon heat sources, the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) means it’s illegal to let any property with EPC rating of less than band ‘E’, and the Non-Domestic RHI has been extended until 2022, in order to help overcome barriers to investing in renewable heating. There is also growing interest in embodied carbon in commercial buildings, as well as the amount of carbon produced by a building across its whole lifecycle. When looking at carbon impact, building managers must consider the full environmental cost of the extraction, processing, manufacture, delivery and assembly of every single product or material used. Accounting for all of these factors may seem like a lot, but it’s also evidence that focusing on renewable heating now is the best way to future-proof commercial buildings for years to come. James Chaplen , Senior Product Manager at Mitsubishi Electric Why we must place renewable heating at the heart of our shift to be sustainable HEATING