facilities management update issue 129

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Issue Number 129 16 December 2015

CONTENTS1 Surveillance camera

certifcation scheme launched2 News4 Asbestos: recent prosecutions6 How to build confdence in

your ability to stay in business9 The on-site fltering of fre

alarm signals11 Smart buildings15 An LPG future16 Not sustainable? How FM can

help promote sustainability 19 Degree day data

AUTHORSDaniel KenningChartered Energy EngineerSplendid EngineeringRobert SpicerBarristerFredrick Place ChambersBristolJeff CooperEnergy ConsultantDavid HowellNexus PublishingMike SoppHealth and Safety advisorAlan FieldHighdown Management Services

DEVELOPMENT EDITORAnna [email protected]

n Surveillance camera certifcation scheme launched

A new third-party certifcation scheme has been launched by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC) for England and Wales.

The certifcation process is designed to be simple, accessible and affordable. It enables organisations to demonstrate that they comply with the surveillance camera code of practice. There are two steps to certifcation.

1. Desktop certifcation is aimed at organisations that are working to achieve full compliance with the code but are aware that they may need more time to become fully compliant.

2. Full certifcation is for organisations that are close to or fully compliant with the code — it involves a visit and full audit from a certifcation body.

The accredited certifcation bodies are the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) and the Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board (SSAIB).

Successful organisations will receive a certifcate and be able to display the commissioner’s certifcation mark on their website and other publicity material. They will need to reapply for full certifcation after fve years.

Desktop certifcation will be valid for a year and will be awarded with the understanding that within the year the organisation will work on putting measures in place so that to be in a position to apply for the full certifcation. The full certifcation process involves an auditor from one of the above mentioned organisations visiting your organisation’s control room to audit the system, cameras and procedures working with a checklist against the 12 guiding principles in the Code.

During 2016, the SCC has said it will focus on developing standards that address the technical requirements for body-worn video for the police, exploring unmanned aerial vehicles that use camera technology, looking at algorithms that are capable of predicting behaviour from video imagery and understanding how technological developments impact on the Protection of Freedoms Act.

More details can be found at www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473825/Cert_Policy_Document_-_FINAL.pdf

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n News

Climate change news

History has been made with at the agreement at the COP21 conference on climate change in Paris, where the world has agreed a legally binding agreement to keep global warming to below 2° and even to aim for 1.5 °C. Just before the conference, the Department of Energy and Climate Change announced that it has scrapped a £1 billion fund to commercialise carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the UK in the wake of budget cuts.

COP21 is the 21st meeting of the “Conference of the Parties”, that is the countries that have signed up to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The historic Paris agreement, at one stage thought impossible to achieve, also agrees a $100billion a year to support developing nations to mitigate climate change, but crucially does not provide for any liability or compensation for previous loss and damage – a key requirement if the USA was going to sign up. Commenting on the deal COP21 President Laurent Fabius, hailed the agreement as historic and claimed that the final text “contains the principle elements that we thought would be impossible to achieve”.

The city of Bristol, the current European Green Capital, and heralded as a beacon of best practice for sustainable cities at COP21 is sharing an online toolkit to help cities “go green”, covering energy, resources, transport, food and nature. Bristol has reduced carbon emissions by such measures as installing 20,000 LED streetlamps and introducing a fleet of “poo-powered” buses.

The Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS), also attended COP21, reiterating that the built environment has a vital role to play in helping Government meet their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets. Buildings are some of the biggest emitters of CO2, accounting for one-third of global greenhouse gasses plus commercial and residential buildings also account for 40% of the world’s energy consumption.

In related news, a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) has found that air pollution is responsible for up to 430,000 premature deaths a year across Europe. The UK alone saw nearly 38,000 such deaths in 2013. However, researchers suggest that 4000 people die every day in China as a result of air pollution.

This EEA report indicates that air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe, contributing to serious illnesses such as heart disease, respiratory problems cancer. “Despite continuous improvements in recent decades, air pollution is still affecting the general health of Europeans, reducing their quality of life and life expectancy. It also has considerable economic impacts, increasing medical costs and reducing productivity through working days lost across the economy.”

Will business rate reforms reward poor payment practice?

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has suggested that Chancellor George Osborne’s business rate reforms will reward poor payment practice. The FPB believes that London’s councils will have to change the way in which they pay their suppliers if the reforms, in which councils will receive all the proceeds from business rates, are to succeed.

Analysing results from a recent freedom of information request, the FPB found that London was the worst of any region at paying their small business supply chain. Although London councils ranked highest at paying their suppliers within 10 days, in contrast their average time taken to settle bills was the longest at 22 days.

The north-west and the West Midlands had the shortest average time to settle bills, both at 14 days, but only paid about 60% of bills within 10 days compared to London’s 66%.

A comparison between the rateable values of commercial premises and the time taken to


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settle bills shows that London will beneft from any move to give 100% of the proceeds of business rates back to councils. In contrast, the Midlands and north-east will be penalised by the proposed policy.

Also of concern was the fact that many councils were not able to report how many bills are paid within 30 days, suggesting possible operational problems. Only half of London’s councils reported any fgures.

Ian Cass of the FPB said: “London councils either pay promptly or the invoices appear to go into a black hole. The Chancellor’s vision to give more business rates to local councils will in effect reward councils in a city which has increased payment terms over the last three years. Is this the sort of behaviour that should be rewarded?”

Workplace infuences

Studies about the infuence of the workplace on both wellbeing and productivity continue to fourish.

Most recently, a YouGov survey indicated that 35% of London employees believe their working environment makes them feel unhealthy. In fact, 40% think they do not get enough fresh air at work while only 50% think they get enough natural light.

Half of the 1000 Londoners polled said they would think about going to a new company if it had better offces or an environment more focused on health and wellbeing. People also want to be able to control lighting and temperature levels.

As far back as 1984, the World Health Organization suggested that up to 30% of new and remodelled buildings worldwide may be the subject of excessive complaints related to poor indoor air quality (IAQ).

In other research, the Leesman Index, points to a greater variety of workplace settings “enabling productivity”. This workplace satisfaction survey has been completed by more than 120,000 people over the past fve years and suggests

that offering employees’ choice is the key differentiator in workplace satisfaction.

When asked if their workplace enables them to work productively, 60% of those working in private or shared enclosed offces agreed, compared to only 35% of those with a limited choice of working options. In contrast, a massive 85% of workers who are able to choose their workspace (including working from home or using co-working spaces) agreed that their fexibility enables them to work productively.

Employees like frms that do their bit

Encouraging staff to become involved with voluntary work makes sense for companies because it not only helps to develop new skills but also makes the employer more attractive to future recruits.

This is according to research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) into employer-supported volunteering (ESV).

The research highlights the signifcant gaps in employer knowledge about volunteering and questions why people are less likely to volunteer in their professional capacity than for typically unskilled volunteering tasks such as painting or gardening.

The CIPD/NCVO report, “Building sustainable partnerships between companies and voluntary organisations”, is available at www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/on-brink-game-changer_2015.pdf. It looks at ways of developing effective programmes and partnerships, as well as how the costs and benefts are balanced.

Researchers found that 81% of those who took part in volunteering reported increased community awareness, 65% had increased communication skills and 59% reported an increase in confdence.

While 65% of respondents said that they would be more likely to work for an employer that encourages and promotes volunteering


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however, 39% said their employer did not engage in this area.

Katerina Rüdiger, Head of Policy Campaigns — Community Investment at the CIPD, said: “Simply put corporate volunteering can deliver big business benefts, not only through helping organisations build relationships within their local communities, but also by giving employees the chance to build new skills and capabilities that they can then transfer back to their day jobs.”

Do not slip up: prepare to action winter maintenance and safety procedures

Employers are being urged to prepare to action their winter maintenance plans, for example, with gritting and snow clearance operations, in order to reduce the risk of slips on ice, frost or snow, as the colder weather draws in.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), slip and trip accidents increase during the autumn and winter season for a number of reasons, including that:• there is less daylight• leaves fall onto paths and become wet and

slippery• cold weather spells cause ice and snow to

build up on paths.

The HSE says it is important to identify outdoor areas used by pedestrians which are most likely

to be affected by ice. Such areas could, for example, include building entrances, car parks, pedestrian walkways, shortcuts, sloped areas and areas constantly in the shade or wet.

The HSE advises employers to put a procedure in place to prevent an icy surface forming and/or keep pedestrians off the slippery surface.

Solutions might include:• the use of grit or similar materials on areas

prone to be slippery in frosty, icy conditions• covering walkways, eg by an arbour high

enough for people to walk through, or using an insulating material on smaller areas overnight

• diverting pedestrians to less slippery walkways and putting barriers around existing ones.

A number of companies which supply winter maintenance and safety services have urged affected organisations, such as retail outlets, offces, hospitals, and local authorities, to make plans before the snow and ice sets in.

Vicky Lopez, Director at De-ice, says that weather forecasters have predicted “very unsettled weather ahead” this autumn and winter, with the El Nino climate pattern predicted to be exceptionally strong this year.

She said, “We have and always will continue to plan for the worst. That way, we and our customers will never be caught out.”

n Asbestos: recent prosecutions

Employers and others have a general legal duty to protect any person from exposure to asbestos. Robert Spicer illustrates the range of situations in which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has brought asbestos-related prosecutions.

Asbestos is a general term covering a number of fbrous materials which cause serious, adverse

health effects when the fbres are released and inhaled.

Approximately 4500 people die each year as a result of breathing in asbestos fbres. This makes it the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK. Airborne fbres can become lodged in the lungs and digestive tract, and can lead to lung cancer or other diseases. Symptoms may not appear for several decades.


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Prison sentence

In June 2015, Brian Roberts, a builder, was sentenced to imprisonment for exposing workers to asbestos.

Roberts was engaged to remove asbestos from a commercial unit on an industrial estate in Colwyn Bay. He removed asbestos insulating board (AIB) from the unit, despite not holding a licence to work with this material.

The HSE was alerted to the unlicensed work by a licensed contractor. Roberts and three men working with him were exposed to potentially deadly asbestos fbres.

Roberts received a 26-week custodial sentence for a breach of regulation 8(1) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 for undertaking work with asbestos without a licence.

An HSE inspector is reported to have made the following comments after the case.• Asbestos is the single greatest cause of work-

related deaths in the UK. Its safe removal requires a high level of skill and technical knowledge.

• The outcome of the exposure in this case could not easily be assessed. Those involved now have to live with the fear of becoming ill with a life-threatening lung disease.

Exposure at school

Labform Ltd, a specialist laboratory design and installation company, was fned in May 2015 following the exposure to asbestos of workers, pupils and teachers.

In July 2012, Labform was managing the refurbishment of parts of a science block at Newmarket College School. Subcontractors disturbed asbestos as they were removing a wall and channelling the foor.

The company had not arranged for a detailed refurbishment and demolition asbestos survey to be undertaken.

The company was fned £22,400 plus £11,700 costs for four breaches of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

An HSE inspector commented that exposure to asbestos was a serious and well-known health risk, so it was essential that dutyholders took suitable and suffcient measures to prevent the disturbance, spread and exposure to asbestos. Failing to take action to identify asbestos while planning work, and to ensure that any contractors who may disturb asbestos are aware of the location and type of asbestos present, and not taking appropriate measures to protect the health of others, is totally inexcusable.

Restaurant serving

In April 2015, Aman Ullah, the leaseholder of a restaurant, was fned for illegally removing asbestos from the premises.

Ullah was in control of construction work at the restaurant. This included the removal of asbestos insulation board soffts. The board was removed with no controls to prevent the spread of asbestos fbres.

A prohibition notice was served which prevented any work for removal of the material except by a licenced contractor. Ullah failed to comply with the notice.

Ullah failed to take suitable measures to prevent the spread of potentially deadly asbestos fbres. The asbestos was removed in an uncontrolled manner and then left at the side of the building and in an area to which the public had access.

Ullah was fned £10,000 plus £5000 costs and a victim surcharge of £500 for failing to comply with a prohibition notice (s.33 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974) and regulation 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, for failing to reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable the spread of asbestos.

£14,000 fne

Two companies were fned in December 2014 following a routine safety inspection that discovered serious asbestos-related failings.

Lifting Systems had contracted Durasteel to refurbish an asbestos cement roof at its site in Northamptonshire.


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In October 2013, HSE inspectors visited the site. They found that asbestos insulation board had been removed and stored on the premises and debris containing asbestos had been placed in skips. The inspectors issued a prohibition notice preventing further work.

Lifting Systems had removed most of the old asbestos cement roofng panels. It did not have an up-to-date asbestos register, nor had it carried out a demolition and refurbishment survey which would have identifed areas of asbestos to be considered during the refurbishment.

Durasteel had failed to assess the potential for asbestos to be disturbed and had not put effective control measures in place. Neither company had a licence to remove asbestos.

Lifting Systems Ltd was fned £14,000 plus £500 costs for three breaches of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, while Durasteel Services Ltd was fned £10,000 plus £500 costs for one breach of the same regulations.

Regulation 5 of the 2012 regulations states, in summary, that employers must not undertake work which exposes or is liable to expose employees to asbestos unless either the employer has carried out a suitable and suffcient assessment as to whether asbestos is present or if there is doubt as to whether asbestos is present, the employer assumes that asbestos is present and observes the applicable provisions of the regulations.

Regulation 16 states, in outline, that every employer must prevent or reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable the spread of asbestos from any place where work under the employer’s control is carried out.

Supplying asbestos

Robert Marsh, sole director of RM Developments (2005) Ltd, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment in June 2014 for illegally supplying roofng panels containing asbestos.

Marsh supplied pre-used roofng sheets containing white asbestos to a farming partnership which was building a barn. The partnership agreed to pay £4000 for what it assumed would be substantial roofng material. Marsh supplied poor quality, second-hand roof panels for which he had paid nothing.

A construction worker who had been roofng the barn fell through the fragile material and suffered fatal injuries. Following the fall, Marsh tried to persuade witnesses to hide the sheets and gave false information to the deceased’s daughter. He later tried to persuade the deceased’s relatives not to report the incident to the HSE.

Marsh was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, disqualifed from being a director for six years and ordered to pay £10,000 costs, under s.37 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974, and article 67(1) of the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) Regulations 2008, for placing a restricted article on the market.

The HSE stated that the supply of materials containing asbestos has been illegal for many years. Marsh had demonstrated a complete disregard for the law for his fnancial gain. The weak second-hand panels that he supplied were a signifcant contributing factor to the death of the worker.

n How to build confdence in your ability to stay in business

Daniel Kenning asks how confident you are about your ability to stay in business in a changing future operating environment and how his concept of transition engineering can help you to be.

Introduction

The business operating environment is changing, especially relating to energy and the environment, and conficting messages from politicians and the media urge a focus


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on economic growth, while scientists say we must stop using fossil fuels. All businesses have enjoyed a long period of increasing availability of affordable energy and other resources, but are now facing change. But how do you build confdence in the future of a business?

How to be confdent in your business

Confdence is the basis of all business decisions. Everyone should be confdent that their decision-making is consistent with their future operating environment. The higher the level of confdence, the greater the risk that can be accepted, and in turn, the greater the potential beneft. False confdence based on unsafe assumptions about the future operating environment increases the risk of failure.

Since the Industrial Revolution, every generation of business leaders has had more resources available than their predecessors, so they could deliver more, newer, faster and better products and services for customers. Today’s business leaders must focus on meeting customer needs in the context of constrained energy supplies and climate change, and the need to stop using fossil fuels.

How can you be confdent that your business strategy will deliver long-term prosperity?• You can do what you have always done —

but in a changing future “business as usual” is obsolete.

• You can follow the lead of legislators — but they lack the technical capacity to design the future of complex engineered systems.

• You can ask your customers — and you should, but if you only ask the wrong questions you will get the wrong answers.

Alternatively, you can develop your own future narrative, using a thorough, robust, technically coherent approach, in which you can have complete confdence.

This article proposes that business confdence can be built up by proactively addressing the objective to “stay in business in the long term” and should augment (not replace) the objectives to “make proft” and “comply with legislation”.

Challenges and the need to build confdence

Compliance with legislation is not enough. Increasing legislation will not prevent bad business decisions or an organisation going out of business. Competitors will be making plans to adapt and to establish new competitive advantages, so you need to as well. With the huge bombardment of conflicting advice about all things “green”, a focus on confidence can help avoid unproductive distractions.

To be confdent that an organisation can continue to meet customer needs and generate revenue, it needs the confdence that the organisation is able to adapt to disruption while maintaining its business operations. A robust strategic approach to securing confdence in the future of the business is offered by transition engineering and management — providing the framework and processes to deliver confdence in the future. This framework is based on engineering and data, and consistent with economic, ecological and societal systems.

Ask the best questions!

To gather useful data about a changing operating environment on which to base a strategy, it is critical to ask really good questions.

The initial questions should be about the past, for example are as follows.• What external changes infuenced the

organisation?• How did the organisation respond to them?• Was the organisation forced to adapt or did it

choose to?• How has the organisation responded when

energy costs increased?

This will lead on to questions about the present and examining what data describe your current operating environment and the status of the business. For example are the following.


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• On what does the organisation depend?• How sensitive is the organisation to changes

in external factors such as energy, materials supply or transport?

• What is the core value proposition of the business that yields revenue?

• What are the capital assets, including financial, manufactured, human, social and natural capital?

• What is the system model; what is within your influence or control, and what is not? Include your current dependence on materials, energy, infrastructure, markets, policy and legislation, competitors ... etc.

Questions about the future should take into account that the future will not resemble the recent past. So what data can you find to describe the most likely future operating environment? The starting point should be future energy and climate constraints. From both the depletion and the climate perspective, steep reductions in energy between now and 2050 are likely.

A formal study to understand your past and present and to describe the future operating environment for your organisation will enable much better business decisions to be made with higher confidence.

Use the answers to adapt to the future

There are two sorts of optimists. The first is confident that the future will be great because nothing needs changing. They will resist change, permanently convinced they have somehow just arrived at an unchanging pinnacle of perfection. The second is confident that the future will be great because everything can be changed to make sure. They will take their understanding of the past, present and future, and use it to create their own future narrative.

The data you now have about your past and present, and about the future operating environment, are a valuable set of constraints within which to design a future strategy. If you

know the constraints within which you can be confident that a future strategy will work, you can set a new direction for the organisation and remove from “business as usual” and likely obsolescence and failure, towards long-term prosperity. This is the “path break concept” that is the core of a high-confidence future business strategy.

All relevant stakeholders, external and/or internal, need to realise the path break concept should be a core value proposition within the identified future operating environment. For this, the environment needs to be right with; a safe environment for creative thinking, using people with the right mindset is needed when getting out the flipcharts and releasing the combined brainpower.

Putting it into practice

When the vision of what the business should look like in future has been formed a programme of change to execute it is needed. The back-casting technique requires you to mentally put yourself in the future and look backwards, to see how you would have got there. It is a lot more effective to focus on the desired destination than to start from your current situation and try to make the right steps. The back-casting study can also be completed in a workshop environment with stakeholders.

Overcoming inertia

A review of the factors that will affect change in the desired direction will yield those that support change, and the barriers to that change. A key barrier is the initial move away from “business as usual”. Every organisation will be “in a rut” to some extent. A “trigger event” — a small change that leads to large change — is needed. These are most often external, unplanned events that cause major disruption and change corporate direction. What you need to develop is an internal, planned trigger event that can cause enough disruption to enable desired change. This might include


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bringing in new expertise, or holding a future-visioning event for staff.

Summary

It is highly likely most organisations that do not adapt to the future environment will not exist in 2050. If they want to do so, they need a robust, data-based understanding of the future operating environment, and then adapt to it. This is not the same as compliance, or incremental change.

The key steps are described by the transition engineering process, of these the key innovative steps are understanding the future operating environment, plotting a path towards it, and

overcoming corporate inertia with small trigger events to yield large change.

All these steps can be accomplished through planned stages working with your internal and external stakeholders. The process can be good fun as well — it releases masses of intellectual energy from your staff as well as increasing confdence in the future of the business.

References

Transition Engineering: www.transitionengineering.org

The Natural Step; Back-Casting: www.thenaturalstep.org/sustainability/backcasting/www.splendidengineering.co.uk

n The on-site fltering of fre alarm signals

Mike Sopp looks at methods of reducing the number of false alarms and unwanted visits from the Fire and Rescue Services.

Introduction

In June 2014, the Chief Fire Offcers Association (CFOA) published revised guidance on the reduction of false alarms and consequent unwanted fre signals to Fire and Rescue Services (FRS).

Commenting on its release, CFOA stated that changes in FRS response strategies, infuenced by fnancial constraints and changes in legislation, require a partnership approach to deal with the problem of unwanted fre signals with “clear responsibilities and expectations” existing between all stakeholders.

With the CFOA guidance stating that “the ideal place to prevent false alarms from being transmitted to FRS as unwanted fre signals is on site”, it is clear that the responsible person must be aware of their responsibilities and how they can flter unwanted signals from the fre detection and alarm system on site.

Response strategy changes

A well designed, installed and maintained automatic fre detection and alarm system (FDAS) can be an effective fre (life) safety precaution. It provides for the early detection and warning of fre so as to enable all occupants of the premises to evacuate in a timely manner.

Despite a reduction in transmission of unwanted fre signals to FRS, it remains a signifcant issue. In the year April 2012 to March 2013, FRS attended over 249,000 false alarms, the majority of which were from automatic fre detection and alarm systems.

As CFOA guidance states, “the historical cautious presumption that the call is genuine, until proved otherwise, is becoming more diffcult to sustain with the large numbers of false alarms being generated”.

With FRS under considerable fnancial pressures and the reduction in resources, responding to false alarms can divert essential resources from real emergency situations. Consequently, many FRSs are now reviewing and changing strategies in relation to how they respond to fre signals from FDASs.


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The rationale for this originates from s.7 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, which requires FRS to make provision for frefghting but not to attend premises to ascertain if a fre exists.

As a consequence, FRS is introducing alternative response strategies that, depending upon the type of premises involved, range from non-attendance (unless fre situation is confrmed), reduced attendance and call-challenging arrangements to ascertain the situation before determining the response.

In addition, under the Localism Act, FRS now has the powers to charge for attending unwanted fre signals while under the relevant UK fre safety legislation, can take enforcement action against repeat offenders.

The need for on-site fltering

For the person responsible for fre safety, a reduction in false alarms from FDASs will reduce business disruption and will sustain occupiers’ confdence in the reliability of the system.

BS5839-1 contains guidance on rates that would be acceptable, based on the number of heads, with many organisations using this as a benchmark to be achieved.

However, as guidance from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) states “while there may be an acceptable rate of false alarms relative to the number of detector heads there is no acceptable rate for these false alarms being transmitted to the Fire Brigade to become unwanted fre signals (UwFS)”.

CFOA Guidance for the Reduction of False Alarms and Unwanted Fire Signals recognises this and states that one of the aims of the guidance is to ensure the responsible person has “effective procedures in place so that an alarm actuation is managed appropriately to minimise UwFS calls and ensure, as much as reasonably possible, that a call being passed to FRS is a fre event”.

Doing so has clear business benefts, not least limiting exposure to charges and potential enforcement action by the FRS. Therefore, as

well as reducing false alarms, organisations are being encouraged to consider the introduction of on-site flter arrangements.

Each FRS will have its own policies and procedures in relation to on-site fltering but in London, guidance from the LFB states that it should be considered if “there are suffcient false alarms to unreasonably impact on emergency services”.

However, the guidance notes that fltering measures should only ever be employed as a result of a suitable fre risk assessment. The assessment should take into account both the fre alarm system and the capability of management practices to support the fltering practices considered, particularly in relation to the protection of staff members who may be required to investigate the cause of the actuation.

When assessing the risk, there can be many factors to consider including:• the premises’ size, use, layout and facilities• capabilities and fexibility of the FDAS and

use of Alarm Receiving Centres• potential procedures to be used to gather

information on alarm causation• current fre evacuation strategies utilised in

the premise• investigation timescales available• communications during investigations• capabilities of staff involved in fltering

arrangements• safety issues involved with on-site fltering.

Arrangements and procedures

It should be noted that, in the majority of cases where on-site fltering is to be considered, the evacuation strategy will be one of immediate simultaneous evacuation, unless the fre risk assessment can justify other arrangements.

A key aspect of any on-site flter system will be the information to be used to determine the causation of the alarm actuation and need for the FRS to respond. Information sources may include building occupiers, dedicated staff pro-actively investigating the area of actuation


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and information from the FDAS and associated linked systems.

In respect of the latter, CFOA guidance notes that it is appropriate to consider the signifcance of the system information available and “AFA signals that alert of an incident with a high reliability indication of fre, such as sprinkler activation, co-incidence detection, call point actuation, multiple detector/type activation…may all, potentially, be considered suffcient reason to immediately request the attendance of the FRS”.

Where staff members are to undertake a physical investigation, the responsible person must give thought to the safety of these staff, how they are to communicate with those who have overall responsibility for the fre emergency procedures and the training required to undertake the procedures required.

Clearly, as part of the on-site flter process, it will be necessary to consider the process for calling the FRS in the event that a fre has actually materialised.

Where this is through the traditional method of dialling of 999, it will be necessary to decide who will have responsibility for this and how they will be provided with the information they need (ie from those investigating or those interpreting data for systems).

Where the premises are linked to an Alarm Receiving Centre/Fire Alarm Monitoring

Organisation it will be necessary to consider introducing a time-related system and/or call-back procedure that delays transmission of a signal to the FRS. Even where such a system exists, it is recommended that a direct call using the 999 system is still made on any confrmation of a fre situation.

When a building is unoccupied, a signal from the fre alarm system is less likely to arise from a false alarm. However, CFOA guidance states that the responsible person needs to “establish how calls are received and confrmed when the building is empty”.

This can include the appointment of an appropriate number of key holders to attend the premises during incidents that can attend in no more than 20 minutes.

Further information

Chief Fire Offcer Association: www.cfoa.org.uk/10863• CFOA Guidance for the Reduction of False

Alarms and Unwanted Fire Signals• Code of Practice: Best Practice for

Summoning a Fire Response via Fire Alarm Monitoring Organisations

London Fire Brigade: www.london-fire.gov.uk• GN54: False Alarms Caused by Automatic

Fire and Smoke Detection

n Smart buildings

The opportunities for the development of environmentally smarter buildings are huge. Jeff Cooper examines a range of measures to ensure that buildings provide optimum working conditions at minimal environmental impact.

What makes a smart building smart?

Sustainability in the construction sector has become embedded in policies but is sadly

not always evident in practice, both for new buildings and those being retroftted. The construction sector in the UK, as with all countries, is hugely signifcant in both economic and environmental terms. According to the Institution of Civil Engineers, the construction sector in 2013 in the UK accounted for £94.2 billion (6.1% of GNP) and employed 2.1 million people (6.3% of the UK total). New leaner systems for construction are being implemented, including the leasing of major construction components, eg Tata Steel’s


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leasing of structural steel components in new buildings so that it can reclaim them during the demolition of the buildings.

The building stock in the UK, in common with the rest of the EU, accounts for 40% of the UK’s energy consumption and the associated carbon emissions amount to slightly less from their lighting, heating and use. Therefore, the 2012 EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires that all new buildings must be nearly zero energy by 31 December 2020, and public buildings by 31 December 2018. In addition, EU Member States have to set energy performance requirements not only for new buildings but also for major renovation of buildings and the replacement or retroftting of building elements such as heating and cooling systems, roofs and walls.

What is a smart building?

While new smart buildings can dramatically reduce each building’s environmental impact, other strategies can affect the impacts of the huge stock of existing buildings: retroftting the existing stock with a range of energy saving and other environmentally mitigating equipment but more importantly having personal commitment from staff at all levels to ensure they assist in using and maintaining the systems installed. This feature will, therefore, examine a range of opportunities to ensure greater sustainability of our buildings and their usage.

There are several different defnitions as to what constitutes a smart building but most focus on the energy use within the building and the extent to which this is supplied through energy generation systems within the curtilage of the building and through a smart grid connection. Smart buildings, therefore, provide services that deliver lighting, heating or cooling, air conditioning, sanitation and a range of other facility services at the lowest cost while minimising environmental impact over the whole lifetime of the building. By adopting practices used for smart buildings, businesses can mitigate the environmental impacts of their existing buildings and the activities that take place within them.

A smart building may be regarded as a set of systems that could be compared to the internet, whereby many components link in to provide the users or consumers with a network of systems that provide optimum working conditions at minimal environmental impact. There are many ways that a smart building can both save owners or occupiers' money and improve their environmental credentials, including:• balancing equipment to optimise cooling and

ventilation• matching energy usage to occupancy levels

so that when there are fewer people or activities, the building can adjust to provide optimum comfort levels

• proactive maintenance of equipment so that any problems in performance are fagged to main optimum effciency

• dynamic power consumption so that information from the power supplier or the electricity market changes the energy usage in the building by reducing energy usage if still within the parameters of the building.

Most of these changes assume that the building and its occupiers are linked into a smart power grid so that buildings can access a wider network of power supply enabling adjustments to be made to the energy demand for the building.

Reducing energy costs

The retail sector accounts for around 20% of carbon emissions for all businesses in the UK. Therefore, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) there is an onus on the sector to improve its environmental performance. In February 2015, the BRC issued a report, A Better Retailing Climate, building on its members’ earlier commitments to reduce the environmental impact of their operations, including production, distribution and storage of goods and services. The BRC claims that improving the energy effciency of its members’ operations is the most effective means of reducing energy costs.

For the public sector there are also opportunities to improve environmental performance and a


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good recent example is the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS generates 18% of all emissions deriving from the UK’s non-domestic building stock and admits that there is excessive use of energy in the NHS. Therefore, in 2013 there was a competition to allocate £49.3 million of Public Dividend Capital to NHS organisations to institute energy effciency improvements. The savings from the projects would then be available to fund front line services in the future.

Many of the projects involved changes to lighting, ventilation, heating and the introduction of combined heat and power units. One of the most interesting projects funded was the Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust. Because the Trust serves a large area, staff are required to travel long distances to attend local patients. The Trust, therefore, identifed electrifcation of its vehicle feet as a priority to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so the scheme included 40 kW of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to charge the electric vehicles.

Several issues arose from the decision to install the PV panels. The frst problem was that panels had to be installed in two locations rather than one because the existing electrical transmission infrastructure could not accommodate the original design. The need for full planning application for the PV panels also delayed their introduction. Up to 2015, 50% of the electricity generated was being fed back into the grid. The question that was raised after the system was installed was whether this was the best use of the electricity produced or would on-site storage of generated electricity to be used in the NHS facilities be more cost effective? Several other problems also affected the scheme, especially the compatibility of the generating system and the charging of the vehicles. Nevertheless, the scheme has been successful in both replacing the use of petrol and diesel by using the electric vehicles, so reducing GHG emissions and also the number and length of journeys made.

Although it is only the PV panels that fall within the remit of the smart building context in this case, this example is of wider applicability because a high proportion of journeys made

by businesses with cars and smaller delivery vehicles are short and could use electric powered vehicles with locally sourced renewable energy.

Reducing water usage

Mains water supplies throughout the southern areas of England are under serious stress. It is also expected that this position will further deteriorate in future due to population growth and the need to build new homes plus the increasing variability in rainfall associated with climate change to recharge groundwater and reservoirs. Commercial and industrial buildings could economise in the use of water but rainwater harvesting (RWH) can provide a key method to mitigate the problem. For further information, contact the Rainwater Management Association (www.ukrma.org).

RWH involves the collection and storage for subsequent use of rainwater that otherwise would have been lost into soak-away or to surface water drainage. Collection is usually from a roof of a building and the water passes through a particle flter before going into a storage tank. Leaf guards are also necessary at the top of rainwater down-pipes.

RWH can substitute for mains water for most applications that do not require potable water, such as toilet fushing, vehicle washing and grounds watering. Normally, the storage tank will be positioned underground with the water pumped through a header tank. Other sources of non-wholesome water, such as the reuse of bathwater, known as grey water reuse, is not applicable in commercial and industrial buildings.

For businesses, there is a strong fnancial incentive to invest in a range of technologies that use water sustainably. The Water Technology List (WTL),developed and managed by Defra and HM Revenue & Customs in partnership with Envirowise, enables businesses to claim up to 100% frst year capital allowances (ie deduct some or all of the value from profts before paying tax) when they buy technologies and products that encourage sustainable water use.


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Of the 14 technology categories, RWH equipment would fall into the following:• rainwater storage tanks• rainwater fltration equipment monitoring and

control equipment• rainwater treatment equipment.

Details are available through www.eca-water.gov.uk.

The need for careful consideration of the location of the water tank and robust methods of control and management need careful consideration. In 2013, the Royal Borough of Greenwich experienced a catastrophic food in the basement of one of its newest buildings: the Woolwich Centre, architecturally award-winning and constructed along smart building principles. Due to the constrained footprint of the site, the rainwater harvesting tank was located in the basement to provide water for the toilets. Unfortunately, the council’s computer servers were also situated in the basement. The control mechanism that should have stopped the rainwater harvesting tank flling beyond its normal cut-off level failed. The resulting food necessitated the complete replacement of the servers.

Energy storage

The main means of improving the energy performance of buildings is by ensuring good insulation. When retroftting commercial and industrial buildings, the choice is between external cladding and internal ftting of panels. Generally, it is easier and considerably cheaper to undertake external cladding, which also often has the advantage of stopping problems with brickwork such as porosity and non-structural cracks. However, in conservation areas external cladding may not be permitted.

Sustainable designs for new buildings — sometimes applicable for retrofts — use solar gain and shading as well as air circulation to ensure more natural optimum heating and air conditioning throughout a building.

Beyond insulation several options can assist with the storage of energy but these are often quite expensive and more suited to local

distributed energy systems. Therefore, linking electrical generation into the wider grid system will usually be more cost effective.

There is a distinction between those systems that store thermal energy and those storing electricity, although thermal storage can be used to generate electricity. Excess thermal energy, eg from air cooling or conditioning systems, can be stored in tanks of molten salt or pea-sized gravel and utilised later. One of most elaborate systems is that at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport, which stores excess heat from the summer to heat the building in the winter. Pumped heat storage is a good option for buildings for maximising the effective use of electricity for provision of heating.

The storage of renewable electricity for later use can be effected with the use of battery systems. There are a large number of different battery chemistries and the choice of system for a building or group of buildings will depend on the demands to be placed on the system. For more than a century, for instance, lead-acid batteries have been used in telephone exchanges. Now newer battery chemistries are being tried but there is no consensus as to which one holds the greatest potential.

Apple announced in February 2015 that its two new data centres in Europe — in County Galway, Ireland and Viborg, Denmark — would be powered by renewable energy which again would require electricity storage. In the case of the Viborg facility, the excess heat from equipment will be reclaimed for use in the local district heating system.

Other aspects of sustainability

In addition to the main perspectives covered earlier in this feature, there is a whole range of small but locally signifcant measures that can be undertaken to make buildings more sustainable. These include:• green roofs to provide natural insulation both

for heat and cooling and to ameliorate the rate of precipitation, especially from large roof areas (this option is not compatible with rainwater harvesting)


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• roof gardens, which may have the virtues associated with green roofs plus all the positive perspectives of gardening for employees if they are permitted access to roofs, which is not always possible on health and safety grounds, eg in Canary Wharf

• bee hives to beneft from the biodiversity of urban environments and to provide honey

and bees’ wax, eg on the department store roof of Fortnum & Mason in Mayfair.

The opportunities for the development of environmentally smarter buildings are huge. The frst step is ensuring we work towards reducing our environmental footprint in all our actions.

n An LPG future

With energy prices following an inexorable upward trend, facilities management (FMs) are constantly looking for ways to reduce these costs. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can be effectively used as an alternative energy source but is often overlooked. Dave Howell reports.

The drive to reduce the carbon footprint of all businesses and organisations means looking closely at their energy consumption. FMs have been tasked with driving down their company’s carbon emissions by utilising a number of techniques. One area that can be overlooked is how alternative energy sources can be used to bring tangible improvements in the environmental impact that businesses have.

Furthermore, a proportion of off-grid businesses may be affected by the introduction of the mandatory Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) audit process. ESOS has been introduced to help UK frms to identify areas to cut energy use across company buildings, transport and industrial activities.

Set to apply to 15,000 businesses across the UK, companies that either employ over 250 people or have an annual turnover of more than £38 million must survey a representative sample of their property portfolio to identify energy ineffciencies and areas for improvement. Firms must complete and submit an audit by 5 December 2015.

Moving to LPG as a component of an organisation’s energy requirements can be

sensible and economic, as LPG has been developing for decades and all FMs can now take advantage of the energy infrastructure it offers. LPG usage needs to be carefully planned and will not offer a wholesale alternative to grid power for most FM needs, but FMs should investigate where LPG could offer a viable alternative and additional energy source.

Fuel security

UKLPG is the trade association for the LPG industry in the UK, representing companies that are producers, distributors, equipment and service providers, and vehicle converters.

Facilities Management Update spoke with UKLPG Chief Executive, Rob Shuttleworth and began by asking whether FMs can see a tangible improvement in their companies’ carbon emissions by adopting LPG?

“A low-carbon fuel that is portable, widely available and easy to install, LPG, which is a mixture of propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10), is derived during the exploration of natural gas felds and is also produced during the oil refning process. A lower carbon alternative to solid and liquid fossil fuels, its combustion emits 33% less carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal and 17% less than heating oil.

“The lowest carbon fuel available in non-mains gas areas, LPG has been used within commercial applications for the past 40 years. It is a particularly attractive option for larger organisations required to report on their carbon emissions.


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“Indeed, LPG is fast becoming a fuel of choice for industrial properties where the natural gas distribution network is not available. It also works well in small-scale gas networks and as part of a hybrid system to complement renewable installations, such as solar PV and heat pump technology.”

Are FMs overlooking LPG as a means to improve their energy security?

“An increasingly attractive option for commercial properties is the integration of LPG with low-carbon and renewable technologies to combine a reliable year-round power supply with carbon savings. Indeed, the LPG industry is experiencing a new generation of research and development, which is set to coincide with a growth in the market over the coming fve years.

“Various solutions have been developed, with the European market specifcally investing in gas-fred engines, as well as absorption and adsorption technologies. While the size and capital cost of these products has hindered take–up to date in the domestic market, commercial gas heat pumps are now available in the UK today.”

LPG initiatives

Poultry business F&H Panton Brothers replaced a direct-fred heating system with an LPG-fuelled indirect system to save on running costs and improve chicken welfare.

David Panton, joint MD of the business, said: “Keeping the poultry houses warm is vital.

Modern hybrid birds are like Formula 1 racing cars and need treating with care. We need a reliable and cost-effective heating system; any loss of heating at the wrong time would be catastrophic.

“When I looked at different systems, one of my most important considerations was both the cost and continuity of fuel. In the 45 years we have been using LPG, we have never been let down on a delivery.”

Suppliers typically own, and are therefore responsible for, the upkeep and maintenance of the LPG tank installation. Each time a delivery is made, the tank is checked by the driver and, periodically, the installation is checked by a qualifed engineer to ensure peace of mind.

UKLPG’s Rob Shuttleworth concluded: “As a complement to renewable energy and energy effciency measures, it’s clear that conventional fuels like LPG can still form part of the development of a more sustainable energy future. We are seeing many businesses looking to take advantage of the low-carbon properties of LPG to help them meet their targets. LPG has a low-carbon to hydrogen ratio, which means that it will generate lower amounts of CO2, while producing the same amount of heat as alternative options.”

Moving away or at least supplementing the energy needs of your business with LPG is a sensible move even if your organisation is not based in a rural environment. Focusing on certain aspects of your business such as its feet vehicles and how these could be adapted for LPG can deliver massive economic and environmental savings all FMs will appreciate.

n Not sustainable? How FM can help promote sustainability

This year’s British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) report, Annual Sustainability in FM Survey 2015, draws trend information it has gathered over a decade and shows how attitudes have developed. However, there are always

challenges, especially where clients — internal or external — are at a different point in the sustainability life cycle from the FM professional. Alan Field looks at these challenges and some potential solutions.


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One business — one sustainability policy?

The BIFM report makes for inspirational reading, but an FM business may have views about sustainability that are at variance with those of its clients. In other words, the managing agent or landlord of premises will often have their own ideas — and fnancial limitations — on how far to pursue sustainable policies, options and investment. This can even apply to in-house FM professionals where both premises and space planning can be infuenced by wider budgetary policies over and above sustainability.

When to say no

The frst thing an FM business needs to defne is its own sustainability policy. The BIFM report found that 41% of the respondents had not done this. Without leadership championing sustainability, an organisation it will fnd it diffcult to achieve any dialogue with clients on the topic. After all, in the space of, say, 30 years, the notion of a corporate sustainability policy has gone from being seen as something on the fringe to a mainstream concern. Drawing a parallel to safety policy, the failure to acknowledge and pursue sustainability issues is now a reputational one and shareholders look at such questions when they take investment decisions. This is even before one starts to consider the more conventional concerns of environmental compliance, eg waste streams and biodiversity.

Once an FM provider defnes its own sustainability policies, this can help it select the type of clients it wishes to become involved with. Of course, some providers will go after every opportunity that presents itself, but those who have a selective tendering process can use policies aligned to sustainability as another factor in deciding whether to tender for business or not. Equally, if the tender is for a second or third tier contracting role then a similar shifting approach can be taken; does the frst contractor hold the same (or a similar) approach to environmental compliances and sustainability? Sometimes looking at what potential clients and

competitors do in these areas can also provide inspiration for reviewing one’s own policies.

Where the FM provider is acting as consultant to a client there are wider opportunities to offer added value by giving advice on sustainability; and where the FM provider manages the procurement of the hard and soft services contractors sustainability can be one factor in selecting contractors. Of course, this assumes the client has allowed suffcient margin for this to be done. This is where, sometimes, an FM provider already operating in more sustainable ways can have a competitive advantage. This is because additional costs may not need to be generated at mobilisation, eg where agreed protocols and trained staff are already in place and can monitor energy consumption and produce accurate recycling metrics.

One other policy driver is innovation. Some landlords will want to experiment with sustainable technologies, eg anything from ground source heat pumps to more water effcient plumbing sundries. While such policies can be done on an ad hoc basis, often it is better to have an overall strategy not just in terms of investment and payback but the innovations that are going to be pursued. Innovation is all about choice and the strategy behind the choices made. This is often more than just a technical decision. The FM professional can contribute to these discussions, especially where maintenance and other operational issues over different choices can have an impact on reliability or reactive maintenance budgets.

Green measurement

The BIFM refers to the importance of performance measurement with sustainability. Often it is the organisation without sustainability policies that does not have metrics either.

Organisations measures what is important to them but often they also want to test their policies with these metrics. Sustainability policies can generate the need for hard measures, eg whether recycling targets are being met. Softer targets such as improved awareness of, say, biodiversity or energy


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conservation can be measured in a softer way, eg reporting on the outcomes of stakeholder consultations and toolbox talks. In short, discussing and agreeing a sustainability policy should provoke a desire to test whether the policy is the right one for both the time and place that has been agreed.

Sometimes, a performance measure devised for one reason can have a positive impact on the environment for another reason.

Life cycles?

FM professionals always need to be thinking about what their clients want and also what potential clients want. This, in itself, is a life cycle. Landlords and managing agents are thinking more and more about their potential tenants’ clients, who want to be seen as using carbon effcient buildings. The only way to prove this is to agree the targets — or metrics — that are important to establish to these client/tenant groups. While sustainable options may seem expensive, it can often be the commercial return they will generate that will be an important driver. Of course, not all estates will generate such a driver but policy and metrics should always take into account what the FM provider is there to support.

Where the FM professional is acting as a consultant, there could be two drivers for advice. One relates to compliance. Many landlords do not necessarily understand the strict liability nature of some offences relating to the duty of care and, as all FM professionals are aware, waste management is the area where these liabilities — and risks of reputational damage to a client — are the greatest. In some contexts, biodiversity can be equally important. One bat colony, inadvertently disturbed by a contractor, can create negative publicity for a landlord seeking “blue chip” tenants who can

afford to be choosy where they take their real estate business. Greater awareness of why it is commercially important, both to landlords and managing agents, to spend time on agreeing sustainable policies and metrics certainly added value to an FM consultant.

This in turn can lead to FM contracts being awarded with a more focused connection between being seen as “green” and providing a commercial return as well as protecting all parties from the risks of pointless and expensive litigation.

Where the consultancy assignment involves helping a client select FM contractors or monitoring their performance, then defning the sustainable policies that are expected both assists selection and helps differentiate between contractors who have put a professional team together and those that have done this purely in terms of cost effectiveness. More importantly, it also helps the FM consultant to get into a dialogue with their client as to what they really want and expect, rather than what they think seems a good idea.

Conclusions

The BIFM is right. Sustainable policies, and performance measurements to support them, are important to the FM professional. There are many reasons for doing this — from trying to future proof the business to keeping up with competitors. The real reason for doing this should be to look at what the business wants to achieve and how better compliance and sustainability awareness will help deliver this.

Further information

The BIFM’s report Annual Sustainability in FM Survey 2015 www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/knowledge/sustainabilityinfm/2015


Published by Wolters Kluwer (UK) Limited, 145 London Road, Kingston upon Thames KT2 6SR, United Kingdom. Tel: 020 8247 1175. Fax: 0844 381 4946. Web: www.croner.co.uk, email [email protected]

Copyright © 2015 WOLTERS KLUWER (UK) LIMITED All rights reserved. ISSN 2046-097X. Head of Content: Michèle Wheaton.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

Although great care has been taken in the compilation and preparation of Croner’s Facilities Management Update to ensure accuracy, the publishers cannot in any circumstances accept responsibility for errors or omissions or

advice given in this publication. Subscribers should be aware that only Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments have the force of law and that only the courts can authoritatively interpret the law. Crown copyright material

is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.

UP/FAC-EI15129

n Degree day data

Weekly heating degree days (15.5°C base temperature)

Region 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

27/11/2015 78 77 64 52 66 82 80 75 64 80 80 84 62 79 83 54 70 62

20/11/2015 38 43 32 34 37 46 48 54 51 57 47 50 56 66 76 36 62 66

13/11/2015 24 33 28 26 24 33 38 48 44 42 37 37 40 50 62 28 44 54

06/11/2015 15 18 14 13 18 27 25 32 34 38 30 34 34 39 48 18 32 32

30/10/2015 23 27 20 18 26 30 29 30 28 37 33 28 29 35 40 18 33 31

23/10/2015 32 40 30 23 31 35 34 36 32 34 32 37 36 38 40 30 41 40

16/10/2015 33 38 30 28 36 41 41 46 36 40 36 34 37 44 44 32 42 36

09/10/2015 18 20 19 19 19 25 26 36 36 32 23 21 28 36 38 24 31 34

02/10/2015 18 21 13 13 19 25 28 29 28 33 24 22 26 29 29 21 31 20

25/09/2015 17 21 14 15 17 19 24 26 21 23 17 18 21 25 30 20 25 30

18/09/2015 12 15 8 14 15 18 26 24 24 22 19 18 26 32 28 16 28 26

11/09/2015 10 13 9 7 11 15 18 23 19 20 15 14 19 21 24 14 16 17

04/09/2015 15 15 10 10 12 16 20 27 14 21 15 13 23 24 23 16 21 21

28/08/2015 5 10 6 3 10 9 9 12 4 7 5 6 13 8 12 15 15 16

21/08/2015 4 6 7 9 8 6 9 13 11 8 5 5 11 15 10 12 18 13

14/08/2015 2 3 3 4 4 6 8 11 8 8 6 4 12 13 14 4 13 13

07/08/2015 3 4 5 4 7 6 11 11 5 9 5 4 14 13 12 7 16 12

31/07/2015 16 16 8 9 11 20 24 23 17 22 16 16 22 25 27 13 24 17

Monthly heating degree days (15.5°C base temperature)

Region 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Nov-15 712 193 158 141 162 206 211 235 221 242 218 229 216 267 306 156 235 244

Oct-15 116 136 106 95 120 145 146 162 144 158 139 133 146 167 180 113 165 152

Sep-15 63 74 48 52 64 80 98 109 92 103 77 74 96 114 116 73 100 100

Aug-15 19 27 22 22 33 31 44 56 33 38 25 23 57 57 55 43 70 62

July-15 34 34 27 19 33 50 61 76 50 61 47 44 65 78 89 36 76 76

Jun-15 58 63 46 49 57 77 86 102 97 97 80 78 100 119 125 60 100 135

May-15 121 132 105 113 125 155 164 193 176 175 148 152 178 192 208 139 190 194

Apr-15 156 168 144 139 160 183 191 226 211 195 184 187 208 215 225 165 210 217

Mar-15 252 256 239 222 250 283 290 298 273 289 273 282 268 282 288 248 284 254

Feb-15 298 305 279 248 285 324 327 318 271 320 313 316 277 296 307 258 289 249

Jan-15 347 338 264 244 316 369 389 343 310 388 368 378 302 358 346 263 322 278

Dec-14 319 303 234 228 298 334 335 308 290 359 338 334 268 332 325 226 299 257

Key to regions

1. Thames Valley 4. South Western 7. West Pennines 10. North Eastern 13. West Scotland 16. Wales

2. South Eastern 5. Severn Valley 8. North Western 11. East Pennines 14. East Scotland 17. Northern Ireland

3. Southern 6. Midlands 9. Borders 12. East Anglia 15. North East Scotland 18. North West Scotland

Data supplied by Degree Days Direct. Tel: 01531 822121. Email: [email protected]