Building Design

MECHANICAL SYSTEM (COOLING)

INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING SERVICES

INTRODUCTION

The primary function of buildings is to provide shelter to its occupants but in our modern world, all building should be designed in such a way to provide an environment where peoples can feel comfortable, work, live and achieve. Basically “building services” is what make the building comes to life i.e. what makes the building work. They contribute largely to the sustainability of the building. There are many types of building services, as mentioned below, and each of these provide for a different function. For examples imagine yourself in your dream house and now take away the lighting, heating and ventilation, the lifts and escalators, acoustics, plumbing, power supply and energy management systems, the security and safety systems...and you are left with a cold, dark, uninhabitable shell (Dublin Institute of Technology 2012). How will you feel????

Building services include:

·         Energy supply – gas, electricity and renewable sources

·         Heating and ventilating

·         Water, drainage and plumbing

·         Day lighting and artificial lighting

·         Escalators and lifts

·         Ventilation and refrigeration

·         harnessing solar, wind and biomass energy

·         Communications, telephones and IT networks

·         Security and alarm systems

·         Fire detection and protection

·         Air conditioning and refrigeration

·         Façade engineering (CIBSE 2012)

Building should be design with features to provide better lighting, comfortable space, temperature and air quality, convenient power and communication capability, high quality sanitation and reliable systems for the protection of life and property. Building services are mainly divided into mechanical, electrical and building operation system. They are all very important and should be put into consideration during planning, designing and construction.

Mechanical systems include:

1-      HVAC Systems: heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

2-      Site drainage: water, drainage, sanitary disposal, gas supply.

3-      Plumbing: water distribution, water treatment, sanitary facilities.

4-      Fire protection: water supply, stand pipe, fire and smoke detection, annunciation.

Electrical systems include:

1-      Electrical power: normal, standby, emergency power supply and distribution.

2-      Lighting: interior, exterior, emergency light.

3-      Auxiliary: telephone, data, audio and video sound

Building operation systems include:

1-      Transportation: elevators, escalators, moving walkways.

2-      Processing: product, food, services.

3-      Automation: environmental control and management.

Today with the advancement of sciences and technology, all those building services listed above are more modern and became indispensable for buildings. As an example certain types of building such as department store or industrial buildings are almost 100% dependent of electrical lighting, ventilating an and space heating and high rise buildings rely on vertical transportation and high speed pressure for water supply.

Although those services are indispensable for modern buildings, they also have an impact. In fact the implementation of those services demands a considerable amount of floor and ceiling so proper planning is necessary for their allocation. Increase of ceiling and floors will lead to an increase of the cost of construction to which building construction team should be aware of. One of the considerable impacts on building is the increase of energy consumption which does not only affect the building but the environment as well (Mohd Rodzi Ismail 2012).

In fact designing, construction, operating and maintaining buildings demand a considerable amount of energy, water and other resources which lead to a large amounts of waste. According to the greening EPA (2012), in the united states building construction account for 36 percent of total energy use and 65 percent of electricity consumption, 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, 30 percent of raw materials use, 30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually), and 12 percent of potable water consumption. That is why construction should be based on sustainability which highlight long term affordability, quality and efficiency and also minimize the use of water, raw material, energy, land… over the whole life of the building.

The complexity of mechanical and electrical systems varies according the living standard of the society, the climatic conditions of the region and the occupancy and quality of the building.

In this section a deep study of building services will be done to see how important they are and also how they affect our life. For reference to architect and drafter, each section will be supported with drawing to see how building services are viewed in elevation as well as in a floor plan.

LIST OF CONTENT

BUILDING SERVICES

List of content

Topics                                                                                         Pages

1)      Introduction of Building service…………………………………………….          1

2)      Mechanical Systems…………………………………………………………         3

3)      Cooling Systems……………………………………………………………..         3

4)      Escalators…………………………………………………………………….         9-12

5)      Fire Safety Systems………………………………………………………….         13-14

6)      Water Systems………………………………………………………………          15-17

7)      Electric Systems…………………………………………………………….           18-25.

8)      Communication System……………………………………………………             25-31

9)      References……………………………………………………………………         32-33