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What are mechanical building services?
Mechanical building services are used in conjunction with electrical building services to create a comfortable and safe, living or working environment for people and processes by providing heating, hot and cold water, sanitation, ventilation and fire fighting. The mechanical building services engineer is responsible for the design of systems which can account for approximately 1/5th of the total capital cost of construction and a significant proportion of the total operating cost for commercial properties. Due to this, mechanical building services form an integral part of the overall building concept, involving the engineer at an early stage in the design process to enable maximum use of all possible energy and environmentally friendly measures to be used to meet the client's requirements, whilst complementing the architectural design. Where natural ventilation methods cannot be achieved in the building design due to either building layout and location, or process requirements, the mechanical services engineer is challenged to provide a mechanical ventilation system which may include air conditioning in a manner which is both energy efficient through the use of heat recovery and be of a flexible design to enable the building to be either adapted to a new internal layout, or incorporated in usage at a later date. Mechanical building services is a recognised specialist discipline within the building process. Qualifications required to become a fully chartered design engineer are completion of a 4 year (Masters) degree run by a CIBSE accredited institution, followed by a minimum of 5 years practical working where design, site management and communication skills are developed. A career as a mechanical building services engineer can be both rewarding and challenging due to the number of different types of projects the engineer is responsible for throughout his working life.
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