Portfolio - Hirwaun and Aberdare Fire Station
Description:
A contemporary, high performance, BREEAM Excellent rated building to current South Wales Fire & rescue Service standards replacing outdated premises on the same site.
Completed in 2014, this project has won numerous awards, including Best Light Industrial Building, Most Functional Building and First Place overall at the 2015 Rural & Industrial Design & Building Association FAB awards as well as Best Commercial Building at the 2015 LABC Regional Building Excellence awards.
Howard Doolan associates were appointed to design the mechanical and electrical engineering services for these proposed developments to replace/refurbish the existing fire stations, whilst maintaining a fully functioning service to the existing stations
The services design for the new buildings had to contribute to the building achieving either a BREEAM excellent or very good rating. We have provided m and e designs for many buildings to achieve this and were aware of the strict requirements that would most cost effectively achieve this for the SWFRS
We carried out full preliminary sbem energy calculations for the schemes, altering the designs as the results were confirmed to always maintain this high level of energy performance from the scheme design whilst remaining within the capital budget
We carried out a full renewable technology feasibility study for the Hirwaun project and as a result of its findings we included the following within our design briefs, performance specifications and indicative drawings for the schemes
Heating System
The complete design and specification of the low pressure hot water heating system with particular regard to the design of systems incorporating renewable energy technology, in this case the inclusion of a twin coil cylinder fed from roof mounted solar thermal panels
As a Practice the minimum standard adopted is the use of condensing boiler technology to provide excellent energy savings to even the most basic schemes
Solar Panel Hot Water Generation
The complete design and specification of the solar panel hot water systems capable of providing 50-70 % of the property's hot water requirements naturally from the sun
Water Conservation
The complete design and specification of the Rainwater Harvesting Recycling System together with water flow controls to reduce water waste within the Building.
Photovoltaic Panel System
The electrical system will have a system of roof-mounted solar PV panels to provide supplementary electricity and export excess generated electrical power back into the National Grid system.
SBEM Calculations
The Practice provided calculations, certified by a Registered Low Carbon Consultant, to indicate the proposed projects compliance with the required target carbon emissions rating to satisfy Building Regulations Part L2A
Building Thermal Computational Fluid Flow
To demonstrate that the building did not overheat for the room occupants and that sufficient daylight was provide we carried out a full dynamic thermal simulation of the proposed building , an example of the calculation is include below
