Clearview Midlands March 2014 - Issue 148 | Page 79

businessNEWS

New guidance
on benefits of
building controls
& building energy
management
BRE has published two
Information Papers to help
non-technical clients and
building occupiers specify
building controls to provide
a comfortable climate for a
building’s occupants with
the lowest possible energy
consumption.
Information Paper 1/14:
Understanding the Choices
for Building Controls has
been produced by BRE, with
support from the Energy
Services Technology Association
(ESTA) and Siemens Building
Technologies.
Many building controls
specifications are currently
focused on providing minimum
controls requirements rather than
innovative, energy saving controls
solutions, because cuttingedge controls technologies are
perceived to be too technical and
complex to operate.
This 16-page document has
been produced to overcome these
issues by helping clients and
building occupiers select the most
appropriate controls strategy and
technologies for a building in
order to help reduce its carbon
footprint and to provide a better
environment for the occupants.
With simple explanations of the
different control systems available,
it offers guidance as to where and
why each system can, and should,
be used along with advice on how
to apply a technology to get an
effective solution in practice.
The paper, produced by BRE,
with the support of Schneider
Electric and ESTA, has been
produced to help the many
building users who have a

poor understanding of the
operation of a building energy
management system and so
fail to realise potential energy
savings. The situation is often
compounded by a user’s failure
to properly maintain the BEMS
and to update it to reflect
changes in building layout and
variations in use. The 12-page
document provides users with
practical instructions on how to
effectively operate a BEMS to
realise potential energy savings.
It outlines the risks that should
be considered, and provides an
overview of strategic issues that
will impact on the operation of
the BEMS. As well as covering
standard technologies, the paper
also covers the latest building
management software such as
Analytics and automatic HVAC
optimisation.
Alan Aldridge, former Executive
Director of ESTA said: “The
control of energy in buildings
is generally poor, despite the
availability of a range of tried
and tested systems incorporating
both mature and innovative
technologies. These papers will
help clients and occupiers better
understand controls solutions and
help them select an appropriate
controls strategy that will save
energy”.

Copies of IP 1/14
Understanding the Choices
for Building Controls and
IP2/14 Operating BEMS: A
practical guide to building
energy management systems are
available to order or download
from www.brebookshop.com

To read more, visit www.clearview-uk.com

Cameron pledges
to cut red tape
for small business
Thousands of rules affecting
business are to be scrapped
or amended, David Cameron
has told a Federation of
Small Businesses (FSB)
conference.
More than 3,000 rules will
be dropped or changed, saving
more than £850m a year, he
told the FSB.
They include 640 pages of
cattle movement guidance, 286
pages of hedgerow regulations
and 380 pages of waste
management rules.
Mr Cameron said he wanted
to “get out of the way of small
business success.”
He said his government
would be the first in history to
end a term in office with less
regulation on the statute books
than when it came into power.
Citing some regulations
he thought should go, Mr
Cameron said: “If you want to
sell oven cleaner in this country
you need to have a poison
licence.”
Cutting the country’s deficit,
reducing taxes and freezing
fuel duty was part of the
government’s “clear long-term
economic plan”, he said.
Reducing red tape, cutting
business rates, and scrapping
the jobs tax from April 2015
were ways the government was
supporting small businesses,
said Mr Cameron.
“We need to be a country that
celebrates enterprise and backs
risk takers,” he said.
The Department for
Environment, Food, and
Rural Affairs (Defra) says will
have slashed 80,000 pages of
environmental guidance by
March 2015, saving businesses
around £100m per year, the
government announced.

And housebuilders will
see 100 “overlapping and
confusing standards” applied
to new homes reduced “to
less than 10” - reforms the
government estimates will save
the industry about £60m.
Other proposed measures
for small businesses include
a £1.1bn package of business
rates relief, £100m of
broadband vouchers to help
businesses get online, and
up to £2,000 each in growth
funding for 20,000 small
businesses. Mike Cherry,
the FSB’s policy chairman,
said he wanted the conference
to help set the agenda for
a sector that is frequently
portrayed as an engine for
growth, skills, and economic
recovery.

‘We need to
be a country
that celebrates
enterprise and
backs risk takers’
“The government must focus
on how they can support these
businesses in job creation
and growth while the UK’s
large businesses need to play
their part, too, in supporting
ambitious small businesses, for
example, through paying their
smaller suppliers promptly,”
he said.
Despite multiple support
schemes for small firms,
research suggested only limited
take-up or support. The FSB
has called the current system
“congested and confusing”,
pointing to the US as a better
model.

MAR 2014

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