To cater for Birmingham Airport’s increasing business demands and development programme, Hulley & Kirkwood have recently completed works on a New International Pier in order to cater for modern and future aircraft fleet and to aid the passenger experience.
We designed an energy strategy and sustainable solutions for the development with a view to radically improving on Building Regulation requirements and which meet the Airport’s energy policy. The result is an energy efficient International Pier with an emission rate of 55.9
The Airport’s Engineering Department were fully engaged throughout the design process, together with full liaison with the Airport’s Energy Manager so that systems could be designed, not just for energy saving purposes, but also to allow for easy monitoring and logging of energy use via the Incumbent Data Acquisition System.
The building utilises high efficiency low NOx boilers, air cooled chillers and a gas fired CHP unit linked to a central accumulator feeding individual Heat Pump Fan Coil Units to allow simultaneous heating and cooling in different areas of the building. Glazing, which equates to approximately 40% of the building facade, is solar treated to meet requirements at 1.6 W/m2.K compared to the Building Regulations Part L area weighted requirements of 2.2 W/m2.K.
The roof has been provided with a U-Value of 0.19 W.m2.K as opposed to the Building Regulations Part L requirement of 0.25W.m2.K. The internal environment is maintained via automatic monitoring of temperature and Co2 levels to ensure the desired temperatures and quality of environment are maintained relative to occupancy and revert to a setback condition when spaces unoccupied for energy saving. The Vertical Circulation Core’s (VCC’s) are naturally ventilated as they are transient spaces also to reduce energy use.
Internal lighting was designed to minimise energy use whilst bettering the requirements of Building Regulations L2A, achieved by selecting luminaries with high efficiency control gear and lamps each of which is controlled by a Lighting Management System. The Lighting Management System monitors external day light contribution via local daylight sensors and regulates the luminaire output and consequently power output to suit the internal environment. Lighting Presence detection was also utilised to control the general lighting to meet the energy requirements with the external lighting being Photocell Controlled with BMS override.
Energy performance and Co2 emissions are being constantly monitored against other similar buildings by the Airport’s Energy Team with regular feedback to H&K. An Energy Performance Certificate has been undertaken for the building achieving an asset rating of 48 (B grade). Similar piers on average achieve a rating of 130 (F grade) - a significant improvement in energy consumption.
The pier has already been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard as an endorsement of the building’s achievements in carbon reduction.
