Comfort Conditions Inside the Buildings: the Collection of Engineering Systems - Essay Example

 Drainage units refers to the collection of engineering systems provided to carry and dispose the liquid wastewater generated from residential, industrial and other places without causing any nuisance to the neighborhood environment. Drainage systems are also provided to carry the storm water to eliminate any chance for flooding in any location (Apple drains, 2008). The proper drainage systems undertake diverse roles like prevention of environmental contamination, very low energy consumption in disposal operation and ensures proper hygiene and sanitation. The fluid flow in any drainage system is considered as free surface flow and hence are designed using Manning’s formula. The Manning’s equation is given as Where V is the velocity of flow through the drains, R is the mean hydraulic radius, S is the slope of the channel and n the Manning’s coefficient. As the flowing liquid would contain different types of materials like floating debris and other suspended particles, necessary care must be taken to prevent any potential problems that would adversely affect the flow. In order to maintain the fluid flow , a minimum velocity need to be maintained. This velocity, termed as self cleaning velocity, is necessary to prevent any particle deposition in the channel bed. Similarly, very high velocity could also harm the channel durability. The liquid flow at high velocity could damage the surface lining of the drains especially when the liquid being conveyed is highly abrasive. Precautions in drainage planning All drainage works must be prepared and laid as per the prevailing building regulation rules (ADS Inc, 2008). A minimum diameter of 150 mm must be adopted for all the drainage pipe connections involving more than 10 user locations. Grease separator must be included to all the drains connected to hotels or any cooking related centres. Addition of drains to the existing network must be through prefabricated units to avoid the use of saddles (ADS Inc, 2008). Appropriate precautions to limit the effect of surcharging drains must be considered. In the case of new development projects necessary allowance for the expansion of both private and public drainage systems must be provided. Necessary construction precautions must be taken if the drains would have to pass through the walls (ADS Inc, 2008). In such situations either Rocker pipes or filling compressible materials around the drains are the measures adopted. Finally, the rodent control measures like sealed inspection chambers, intercepting traps and solid gully covers are also very essential (ADS Inc, 2008). Rainwater systems The rainwater collected is not allowed to be discharged to the existing sewer lines. In the case of unavoidable situations , the order of priority of rainwater discharge is initially to a soakway then to a water course and finally to sewer (ADS Inc, 2008). The soakways proposed for such situations must be designed based on the data on the rainfall intensity, soil porosity tests and storage capacity. The details of swales, filters and the detention ponds may also be used. The modification to the roof area and gutter sizes besides providing symphonic and eaves drop system need to be followed as per the guidelines (ADS Inc, 2008). The locations that have more chance to produce the contaminated drainage must be separately handled. The areas affected by the petrol spill must try to direct all drainage to an oil interceptor before further segmentation. Inorder ensure sustainable use of resources the rainwater is put into different types of reuse operations. It is estimated that roof area of atleast 2000 sq ft would be able to gather atleast 1246 gallons during 1 inch rainfall (DoE, n.d.). It could be stored in small tanks placed below the ground surface and could store water when the rain water beings in considerable volume. In addition to the storage systems different types of recharge methods also could be adopted. This would result in significant improvement in the ground water level in the neighborhood area and helps to conserve the resource. Different type of drainage systems are currently being promoted cross the globe. The choice to be made must be suitable to the local need and the specifications proposed for long term utility of the product. Reference ADS Inc (2008), Drainage handbook http://www.ads-pipe.com/en/documentlisting.asp?documenttypeID=682 [Accessed on 27 November 2008] Apple drains (2008), Roof water http://www.appledrains.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=54 [Accessed on 28 November 2008] DoE (n.d.), Drainage system components, Managing drainage on coastal bluff, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/pubs/95-107/components01.html [Accessed on 27 November 2008] Building Fabric for Reduced Energy Consumption The rising cost of energy has resulted in exploring different methods of energy efficient building systems. This could either be in the form of selection of energy efficient construction materials or adopting suitable methods of construction practices that could bring down the overall energy consumption along its use after occupation. Thus, the current thrust is in the reduction of life cycle energy cost of the building systems that are considered as very vital for the promotion of sustainable building practices (eto, n.d.). The cost effective solutions towards incorporating the energy efficient concepts in building units aims in incorporating appropriate insulation in the building fabric and air tightness. The primary objective shall be to increase the U value of the building fabric. This could be achieved through providing necessary internal insulation to the walling systems and also to the roof units at the level of ceiling. In addition , the houses shall be ensured to have effective draught proofing to ensure adequate air circulation and ventilation. Replacing the windows based on the U value rating and double glazing would result in the minimizing the internal heat gain to a considerable levels (CLEA, n.d.). The most significant component to be considered is the overall thermal comfort that could be ensured in the buildings. Selection of materials with high thermal capacity would be very advantageous in this situation. During the winter months, the high thermal capacity of the materials helps them to store the excess heat that they receive from the solar rays falling on the surface. During the night when the ambient temperature falls the stored heat from the materials initiates the flow into the rooms and helps to elevate the temperature (CLEA, n.d.). Thus the use of room heaters could be minimized by judiciously selecting the building materials. Also, during the summer months, these materials store excess hear available from the radiation without allowing the complete transmission of energy to indoors. Appropriate passive cooling designs could help to counter the heat flow during the lower ambient temperature conditions. On the other hand light weight timber framed buildings though considered as cost-effective choice in the building construction cannot assure the energy efficiency as the former. The light weight materials are unable to harness the heat gains and also create over heating during summer months (CLEA, n. d.). The reports available says that the most effective local level practices shows the materials selected for wall construction need to be atleast 50 cm thick to enable high storage of thermal mass. Usually any clay based building material for walls would be able to satisfy this condition. The most cost effective roofing solution identified is using prefabricated concrete panels made from locally sourced materials (eto, n.d.). By paginating them using eco-emulsion could give better durability. Similar solutions are also proposed for floors. By using the bee-wax saturated paving tiles or thin slabs and by fully grouting the joints the need for any additional carpets could be eliminated. In order to provide comfortable living environment during summer months in the buildings , accepted and proven techniques of passive solar cooling could be proposed. The building systems must be flexible enough to adapt to the diverse needs of winter and summer months. Design of shading devices shall be done carefully to create more of sunspaces in the building during winter period to enhance the heat gains. The heat flow regulation in the building could be established using passive ventilation units which helps to recover the cooler air in addition to lowering the heat gain (eto, n.d.). Another important factor to be considered in the energy efficient building design is selection of proper colouring scheme to the fabrics chosen. The ideal combination usually proposed are lime wash to all the walls rendered with green oak or locally grown red cedar weather proofing for higher stories. The pitched roofed type houses facilitates easy positioning of solar panels thus helps to incorporate the renewable energy products during the construction time itself (eto, n.d.). The comfort conditions inside any enclosure is related to the quality of walls , roof, windows and floor - commonly referred to as the fabric of the building. The heating is estimated to account for 60 percent of the building energy need and majority of this would be lost through the fabric (Carbon trust, 2005). The poorly designed fabric would make the building very cold in winter and very hot in summer. Thus in an effort to create better comfort conditions inside the buildings , a proper choice of the fabric as discussed in earlier , would reduce the dependence on external energy considerably. References Carbon trust (2005), “How to improve your building fabric” http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/publications/publicationdetail?productid=GIL159 [Accessed 27 November 2008] CLEA (n.d.) Comfortable low energy architecure, Building fabric, http://www.learn.londonmet.ac.uk/packages/clear/thermal/buildings/building_fabric/index.html [Accessed 28 November 2008] Eto (n.d) , Improving the existing building fabric and energy efficiency of terraced houses, Energy + Architecture, http://www.eto-architect.co.uk/improving_existing.php [Accessed on 29 November 2008] Read More