ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the key design features that can improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions arising from the main energy-consuming electrical systems, together with the controls, metering systems that can enable effective energy management across all active building services systems. The fluid power requirement necessitates that, at a minimum, fans and pumps should have high efficiency plus appropriate and rigorous time control arrangements to suit occupancy in order to manage the demand. A key design challenge, therefore, is to understand the occupancy patterns and the need for flexibility and then select the most suitable mix of automatic, manual controls to provide a practical solution. The basic requirement is for the control system operation to provide acceptable lighting levels for occupants throughout the period of usage, hence avoid wasting energy. The nature of control provided for such closed-loop systems is that a controller seeks to control a variable, the value of which is continually measured by a sensor.
