LOW CARBON BUILDING PORTFOLIO – BRIEFING REPORTS

LOW CARBON BUILDING PORTFOLIO – BRIEFING REPORTS

MODULE AIM
To provide students with a critical appraisal of global warming, the philosophies of green
building  and  carbon  reduction.  These  concepts  will  be  applied  to  current  and  future
methods of building services provision, including a review of design codes and regulations.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
•  Critically  appraise  current  views  on  global  warming  and  climate  change,  carbon
reduction and the interaction between politics and policy, regulation and practice;
•  Appraise options for carbon reduction in buildings including both new building and
refurbishment.  Evaluating options for design and installation;
•  Apply  environmental  assessment  and  CO2  emission  modelling  techniques  to  a
building project.

P2 of 6

INTRODUCTION
A group of 5 students prepare a briefing paper (maximum of 3000 words) and conduct a 15
minutes verbal presentation. Each student shall be responsible for each part of thorough
research on the subject area below for the planned new community centre in Hong Kong.
Student A – Energy
Student B – Material Use and Transport
Student C – Health and Well Being and Management
Student D – Water Consumption, Pollution and Innovation
Student E – Construction Waste Management, Land Use and Ecology
All students will produce a group report, which provides essential, important information,
together with guidelines for further reading. The group report should clearly provide the
above five major sections for ease of assessment and all main texts should be referenced in
the standard Harvard referencing system.

P3 of 6

THEME BUILDING
This assignment concerns the production of a briefing document relating to the planned
new community centre in Hong Kong. This is a community centre serving for the public. The
building is required to obtain the rating of “Very Good” of the BREEAM Rating.
As a consultant building services engineer, you are required to conduct an in depth study of
the planned new community centre including but not limited to the following:-
•  Identify the appropriate location of the new community centre in Hong Kong.
•  Evaluate the energy performance between the conventional design and the design
to meet the rating of “Very Good” of the BREEAM Rating;
•  Propose the new design criteria to be incorporated in the new development;
•  How  Low  or  Zero  Carbon  (LZC)  technologies  may  be  incorporated  within  the
envelope of the new community centre;
•  Define any constraints and justifications for the selection of the LZC technologies as
appropriate
•  Advise any key areas for consideration with regard to the future performance of the
building and how best to bridge the possible performance gap between predicted
and actual energy consumption and evaluate possible reasons for such differences

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In normal practice, the following U-values of conventional building design shall be used for
heat gain calculation applicable in Hong Kong:-
•  U-value for composite wall panel = 2.32 W/ m2°C (non-structural wall)
(For 5mm white mosaic tiles + 10mm cement/sand render + 100mm concrete panel
+ 10mm gypsum plaster)
•  U-value for composite structural wall panel =1.91 W/ m2°C
(For 5mm white mosaic tiles + 10mm cement/sand render + 300mm concrete panel
+ 10mm gypsum plaster)
•  U-value for composite curtain wall panel at the floor slab = 0.41 W/ m2°C
(For  8mm  black  glass  +  75mm  mineral  wool  felt  insulation  +  50mm  air  space
resistance + 2mm pressed steel panel)
•  U-value for the 8mm black glass = 4.1 W/ m2°C
•  U-value for roof panel = 0.37 W/ m2°C
(For 25mm concrete tiles + 20mm asphalt + 50mm cement/sand screed + 50mm
polystyrene insulation + 600 mm re-enforcement concrete + 10mm gypsum plaster)

P4 of 6

Regarding the glass panel, the following shading coefficient shall be used for heat gain
calculation:-
The shading coefficient of black glass = 0.73
All  other  requirements  shall  follow  the  Module  Assignment  (version  2014)  of  the  Low
Carbon Buildings.
As a consultant building services engineer you are required to conduct an in depth study of
the  building  and  subsequent  likely  performance  of  the  building  services  solution,  the
consultants report should cover the following five items:
(a) An outline of the performance of the existing building, denoting areas for potential
redesign and performance improvement with reference to a relevant design code
such as BEAM / LEED or BREEAM and performance requirements for buildings of this
type;
(b) Review the provision for improved health and well being of users of the building;
(c) Appraise  and  review  solutions  to  improve  water  consumption  and  handling,
including waste water, pollution and innovation;
(d) To make a technical proposal noting the new design criteria to be incorporated in
the  building  and  how  LZC  technologies  may  be  incorporated  within  the  existing
building  envelope  noting  any  constraints  and  justifications  for  their  selection  as
appropriate;
(e) Provide  advice  upon  key  areas  for  consideration  with  regard  to  the  future
performance of the building and how best to bridge the possible performance gap
between predicted and actual energy consumption and evaluate possible reasons for
such differences.
ADVICE
Each project group will comprise five students, each student will complete one of the five
listed objectives.
The research must be based on RECENT published work ( normally post 2008 ) which relates
to the chosen building type.  The references may include, for example, conference/research
papers, design reports, post-occupancy studies, building energy monitoring, research and
thermal  modelling,  product  testing  and  control  strategies/systems  etc.  Authoritative
references should be researched and analysed for inclusion in the briefing paper.
Agreement on the selection of case study building must be finalised during teaching week 3
of  the  module.  Tutorial  support  and  progress  review  meetings  will  be  held  during  the
semester.

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P5 of 6

The report should follow the following structure:
•  Introduction and methodology (brief)
•  Selective, critical review of relevant technical literature
•  Identification of areas of current good practice and issues requiring further work
•  Identification/analysis of issues contributing to the performance gap of buildings
•  Summary of main findings and conclusions reached
•  Bibliography

ASSESSMENT
This exercise will count for 50% of the total module mark, 30% for the written report and
20% for the presentation to staff and peer group students.

MARKING  SCHEME
This assignment is worth 50% of the total module mark.
Technical Report
Research and review of an appropriate range of technical literature           10
Analysis of findings to identify good practice and design issues issues
for each of the five items denoted, ie
(a)  An outline of the performance of the existing building, denoting
areas for potential redesign and performance improvement with
reference to BREEAM and/or LEEDa relevant design code such as BEAM
/ LEED or BREEAM and performance requirements for buildings of this
type;
(b)  Review the provision for improved health and well being of
users of the building;
(c)  Appraise and review solutions to improve water consumption
and handling, including waste water, pollution and innovation;
(d)  To make a technical proposal noting the new design criteria to
be incorporated in the building and how LZC technologies may be
incorporated within the existing building envelope noting any
constraints and justifications for their selection as appropriate;

10 per student

P6 of 6

(e)  Provide advice upon key areas for consideration with regard to
the future performance of the building and how best to bridge the
possible performance gap between predicted and actual energy
consumption and evaluate possible reasons for such differences.
Presentation, bibliography and authoritative citation

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10

TOTAL

30

Presentation of findings

Content and level of understanding of technical proposals
10

Effectiveness of presentation and response to questions

10
TOTAL         20

PRESENTATION GUIDANCE

1.  The presentation of the Low Carbon Building reports will be held 4
th
and 6
th
of August.
2.  All students are required to attend all the presentations and to contribute to the
question/discussion period
3.  Each presentation will last for a maximum of 15 minutes and time should be allowed within
this period for questions/discussion.
4.  In order to ensure fairness and equality, no over- runs on the presentation time will be
permitted
5.  The briefing reports must be submitted using x stream for marking and dissemination at the
end of the presentations.
6.  Low Carbon Building portfolios will be available for collection during the Examination period.

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