London South Bank University (LSBU) Centre for Low Energy

							           London South Bank University (LSBU) Centre for Low Energy
                     Project Update Meeting 6th April 2009

Attendees: David Foreman – LSBU, Zoe Le Grand- Constructing Excellence

Background
The Centre for Low Energy will be used as a training tool for building services students
in the built environment faculty at the London South Bank University. Although, located
on the London South Bank University site, the final building will also be used by two
other local universities. The centre will host up to 50 students and will have state of the
art audio and visual equipment which will be used to monitor the renewable energy
technology on site and the Building Management System of the Keyworth 2 Building.

Progress
The Centre for Low Energy project is currently at second stage tender with Lakehouse
as the preferred bidder. The high profile nature of the project has generated a lot of
interest and the Managing Director of Lakehouse has taken a personal interest in the
project.

Construction has been slightly delayed as it is dependent on the completion of the
Keyworth 2 building which is now due to be completed in August 2009. This delay will
add to the project costs. As the Centre for Low Energy project is on a small scale there
is little scope for savings or reduction of the project timetable. The amount of new
technology in the Energy Centre will require a long commissioning timetable of three
months.

Renewable Energy
The Centre for Low Energy will be used to demonstrate renewable energy technology
including:
     Photo voltaics
     Solar panels
     A weather station
     Phase change material
     Light tubes that track the sun as it moves across the sky

Sections of the flooring will be transparent so students can see the underfloor VrV units
and clear, recycled glass roof sections will also display the air handling units. In
addition, a wind turbine is due to be transferred to a near by building and students will be
able to view and monitor the energy produced by the turbine. The technologies will be
closely monitored so the viability and efficiency of each technology can be recorded.

The Keyworth 2 Building will be heated and cooled through geothermal piles combined
with high thermal mass. The building will be closely monitored to assess the
performance of the heating and cooling system. As the Energy Centre will be located
next to the plant room of the Keyworth 2 Building one of the walls will be glass so
students can view the plant room.

Challenges
The Centre for Low Energy will contain advanced monitoring equipment for the
renewable energy technology on site and also a Building Management System for the
Keyworth 2 building. The high level of monitoring needed and the advanced audio visual
equipment that will be used to display the data require advanced software. The
University is working with software providers to develop bespoke software for the
system.

Solutions
The feasibility of a number of technologies were investigated for inclusion in the project.
A hydrogen fuel cell was considered, however it was decided that transporting the
hydrogen fuel to the top of the building would be impractical. A “plug and play” system
will be included in the building so that as new renewable energy technology is developed
and becomes more cost effective it can be installed post completion.

The external walls and roof will be constructed using laminated solid timber panels. The
advantages of these are seen to be:
    Ease of construction due to few junctions with different materials
    Efficient wall thickness- Approx 350mm will maximise the internal volume
    Good inherent fire and sound resistance.
    Low U values can be achieved
    Lower carbon footprint

The carbon footprint of the Keyworth 2 building will be monitored and the university is
working with “Building Sustainability” to monitor the building on a room by room basis.

Procurement
The University wants to work with the appointed contractors to achieve best value for the
project. Contractors go through a quality assurance procedure and the final decision will
be made on a 55/45 cost/quality ratio. As a large amount of the cost of the project will be
M&E (around 4/5 of the total project cost), an M&E consultant has been employed to
assist in the procurement of the contractor.

Where possible, the University wanted to employ local labour. However the specialist
nature of the project has meant that there are not many suitable local contractors.

Key Lessons so far:
    Appointing the M&E Contractorsultant as the lead consultant has meant that they
      have engaged their most senior and experienced staff in the project.
   The main Client contact is a qualified surveyor. Having an experienced client will        Formatted: Bullets and Numbering
      hopefully lead to a more successful outcome.

Actions
DF to send ZLG stage E project report

Next Meeting
Next Meeting to be held on 10th September 2009