Protecting the past

A number of the UK’s best loved heritage sites have also undergone a retrofit BMS upgrade.

Preservation: The right temperature and humidity levels can play a crucial role in protecting ancient building fabric. At Westminster Abbey, new heating and ventilation controls are helping to preserve a host of important artefacts, especially in the museum, which needs to be kept at a constant 20°C, with humidity at 50 per cent. Existing sensors and cabling were reused, which meant that a leap into the 21st century did not result in damage to the fabric of the building.

Energy efficiency: Older buildings can be notoriously inefficient, but reducing energy consumption (and therefore spend) means that money can be invested into improving precious properties. At St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in north Wales, the high ceilings, large corridors and stained-glass windows presented obvious challenges in terms of heating and general energy consumption. But the recent installation
of a BMS – replacing an ailing PLC-based system – has allowed the staff to dramatically reduce energy consumption, and therefore the site’s overall carbon footprint. Integral to the project was the specification of new space and air temperature sensors, making it possible to achieve better control of the variable temperature heating circuits.

Visitor comfort: Historic buildings, particularly churches and chapels, are notoriously chilly. The vaulted ceilings and thick stone walls that give them their character also make them hard to heat, leaving them feeling draughty and unwelcoming. At St Paul’s Cathedral in London, it used to take a week to heat the building from cold. After a major BMS retrofit upgrade and plant room refurbishment, it now takes one day, and facilities staff have complete control over temperature requirements. In addition, the heating runs 24/7 on weather compensation, which means a small outdoor sensor is fitted to adjust heating controls according to outside temperature changes, making the system more efficient.

Scalability and flexibility: Selecting BMS technology that can be adapted for future building upgrades means that heritage site managers can truly future-proof their estates. One such building to take this approach is Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, a 15th century listed structure that features in the film The Da Vinci Code. The chapel’s BMS was installed as part of a wider refurbishment project involving the construction of a new visitor centre and a biomass plant that heats the whole site. The BMS control panel is modular in construction – which means it can easily be extended at a later date. The high processing speed, extensive memory and built-in safety features of the BMS ensure the system’s reliability and continuity, both now and in the future.

Maintenance: Improved visibility and control of HVAC systems can greatly reduce the workload of facilities staff at historic sites. At St Paul’s Cathedral, an upgrade to the front-end user interface has drastically cut down the time spent changing settings and addressing faults. “It’s possible for me to view the system with a web browser on my PC, from either our internal network or remotely,” states Tom Fletcher, clerk of the works. “It’s in such an easy format, which makes it simple to understand. What’s more, if I need to change anything, I just click a button on the screen.”