CIBSE Journal Podcast CIBSE Journal

Space cooling accounted for nearly 16% of the global building sector’s electricity consumption in 2020 according to the International Energy Agency.



Global demand for space cooling and the energy needed to provide it will continue to grow for decades to come, with the demand for cooling expected to triple by 2050.



This podcast sponsored by Daikin discusses the challenges of decarbonising cooling across a building's lifetime with four expert guests discussing how best to reduce both operational and embodied carbon.



Subjects tackled include training, embodied carbon calculations, and the role of digital twins in managing building data.



The panel concludes that engineers must also consider occupant comfort and flexibility in building design to reduce the requirement for cooling.



The guests on the podcast, chaired by CIBSE Journal editor Alex Smith, are:



Carl Collins, head of digital engineering at CIBSEMatteo Dall’Ombra, product commercial Daikin UKClara Bagenal George, associate at IntrobaAndrew Mitchell, head of sustainability operations director at Mace

Covid has radically altered the way we work, with a hybrid approach seeing people spending as much time working from home as in the office.For companies to persuade people back to the workplace and attract new talent, they now have to offer attractive, comfortable spaces that provide opportunities for creativity and collaboration.Lighting has a large part to play in making people feel healthy and comfortable at work, whether it’s through human-centric lighting or access to daylight and exterior view.Of course, any lighting strategy has to minimise the energy used. With lighting making up around 17% of energy use in an office, it’s imperative that designers look at strategies that minimise energy use, therefore reducing costs and the carbon in their projects.Our podcast will explore the current trends in lighting around design, people and performance and will look at how automated controls can help reduce energy use.Guests discuss the key trends in commercial lighting, including tuneable white light, flexibility, access to daylight, the digital transformation, and how automated controls can help reduce energy use. The guests also emphasise the importance of refurbishing and the reuse of materials and look at CIBSE’s TM66 guide to circular lighting.



The guests appearing in the podcast chaired by Alex Smith are:

Miguel Aguado, marketing and technology manager at Lutron Electronics.

Juan Ferrari, a lighting designer who leads the London Lighting Design team at Hoare Lea.

Bob Bohannon, head of policy and academy at the Lighting Industry Association. He is also a past president of the Society of Light and Lighting, and led the team that wrote CIBSE’s TM66 on circular lighting. 

Gle​nn Miller and Danny Staerk from Grundfos Pumps discuss how distributed pumping can unlock savings in HVAC systems

In this podcast, sponsored by Grundfos Pumps, we discuss the benefits of distributed pumping in HVAC applications.

Danny Staerk and Glenn Miller look at how this approach helps save energy, simplifies balancing and reduces commissioning time.

The Grundfos distributed pumping solution distributes chilled water in HVAC applications without the need for pressure-regulating valves.

Staerk and Miller explain how savings of up to 54% in pump energy can be achieved by replacing throttling valves with intelligent pumps in HVAC retrofits.

They explain how intelligent pumps perform to the exact building load meaning there is no need for balancing or rebalancing through the building's lifetime and discuss how data available from the pumps offers insights into building performance that are not possible with valves. 

Guests in the podcast, chaired by CIBSE Journal editor Alex Smith, are:

Glenn Miller, product and solutions manager at Grundfos Pumps who joined the company in 2005. He has a strong electro-mechanical background and extensive experience of delivering solutions to the commercial building services industry. 

Danny Staerk, leads solutions manager for HVAC and CBS Systems at Grundfos Pumps. He joined Grundfos as controls product manager having previously worked supporting wind power management SCADA systems.

For more information on distributed pumping, watch Grundfos' interactive film here.

In this podcast, sponsored by Grundfos Pumps, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of realising the government’s ambition of significantly growing heat networks in the UK.

The Committee on Climate Change has recommended that up to 18% of heat demand should be met by heat networks by 2050, and it has emphasised the importance of connecting non-domestic buildings to networks. It states that these should account for 53% of total heat delivered by heat networks by 2050.

Grundfos’ Glenn Miller and Kim Hansen will share the Danish company’s extensive experience of district energy networks, while CIBSE's Julie Godefroy looks at the government policies that are being used to encourage the uptake of heat networks.

The podcast will look at the influence pumps have in overall system performance and the role they play in the efficiency of individual components in a district energy system.

Guests in the podcast chaired by Alex Smith are:
- Glenn Miller, product and solutions manager who has worked as an engineer in construction since 2005.
- Kim Hansen, business development and solutions manager in District Energy, who has been specialising in developing digital solutions for district heating networks that are driving improved energy efficiencies.
- Julie Godefroy, who is the head of sustainability at CIBSE and has been involved in CIBSE’s response to the government's proposals on growing the number of heat networks in the UK.

This podcast, sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric looks at designing heat pumps for commercial buildings. Industry experts will discuss the impact heat pump technology is having on the commercial market, and the participants will look at optimal design solutions for minimising energy use and carbon emissions.

Podcast contents


Future-proofing developments
Exploring the pressure on developers and owners
Impact on the commercial heating market
Design implications
The embodied energy of heat pumps

Podcast guests


Bean Beanland, director of growth and external affairs at the Heat Pump Federation
Cherry Chan, mechanical engineer at Elementa Consulting
James Chaplen, senior product manager at Mitsubishi Electric
Tim Dwyer, visiting professor at UCL as well as the CIBSE Journal’s technical editor
Mark Poulter, project director at ChapmanBDSP
Bill Watts, senior partner at Max Fordham

The authors of CIBSE's Natural ventilation guide discuss the best practice for minimising the risk of the virus as we emerge from lockdown


Minimising the risk of Covid-19 in the built environment is the topic of the latest podcast by CIBSE Journal. The authors of CIBSE's Covid-19 Ventilation Guidance discuss the physics of virus transmission and how the infection risk can be minimised in buildings.

Appearing on the podcast are Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, director at the Centre for Climate Repair, University of Cambridge; Eimear Moloney FCIBSE, director at Hoare Lea; Dr Chris Iddon, chair of the CIBSE Natural Ventilation Group; and Abigail Hathway, lecturer at the University of Sheffield.