What are Building Services?
The building services (often referred to simply as ‘services’) in a modern school are a very important part of the building and will affect the comfort conditions of all spaces as well as providing power for the numerous pieces of equipment.
Building services are traditionally divided into two parts:
Mechanical services – these include water and gas supply into the building and all the heating plant, including boilers, pumps, pipes, valves and heat emitters such as radiators and convectors. They also include the ventilation system, including fans, ducting, grilles and dampers, as well as filters and heating or cooling coils if the ventilation system provides air conditioning. Other wet services, such as hot and cold water and fire sprinklers are also included in mechanical services, as well as the supply and storage of oils and gases.
Electrical services –,these cover the main electrical supply into the building, switches and circuit breakers and the wiring to separate power and lighting circuits including mechanical services plant. They also include light fittings and specialist installations, such as telecommunications, computer networks, alarm systems, access controls, lifts and escalators.
It is important to understand how services control the environment as well as power equipment. Mechanical and electrical services will be used to control the internal environment of a new school by modifying the temperature, air flow and light levels at different times of the day. It is important for clients to realise that much of this can be achieved by using the building fabric, if the architect and engineers have done their job properly, with the services used to modify those more extreme environmental conditions which the fabric cannot.