University College Cork – Beaufort Building
The Beaufort Building is a new marine and energy research building built by UCC on a brownfield site in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork. RPS supported UCC by providing mechanical and electrical consultancy services. Given its role as an energy research centre, the use of sustainable and low energy options formed a key part of all mechanical and electrical designs.
The 4,500m2 building comprises laboratory areas, offices, workshops, and a large tank hall with three separate wave generation tanks. The building is occupied by three separate research groups, CMRC (Coastal Marine Research Centre), HMRC (Harbour Marine Research Centre), and SERG (Sustainable Energy Research Group).
Key details
Project name
University College Cork – Beaufort Building
Client
University College Cork
Location
County Cork, Ireland
Services provided
- Building Services
Challenge
Given its role as an energy research centre, the use of sustainable and low energy options formed a key part of all mechanical and electrical designs.
Solution
At the concept design stage RPS engaged with the building users (who themselves have a large amount of expertise in energy and energy management) to investigate how best to design and manage the energy requirements for the project. A list of low and sustainable energy options was compiled and the feasibility of each was evaluated. This resulted in the implementation of a number of sustainable energy options such as natural ventilation and passive cooling using automatic opening windows and exposed concrete slabs, low energy lighting with presence detection and daylight controls, rainwater harvesting, and use of solar panels to generate domestic hot water.
UCC recently became the first university in the world to achieve ISO 50001 accreditation for Energy Management, and the energy assessment method used on this project played a key role in achieving this status.
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