Determining the Optimum Thermal Design of Buildings Housing Telecommunications Switching Equipment

The necessity to conserve diminishing energy resources has prompted a recent upgrading of that section of the UK Building Regulations covering the allowable thermal transmittance value (U-value) of the building fabric. External walls, exposed floors and roofs should not now exceed a U-value of 0.6 W/m². °C. Such a restriction if applied to telecommunications buildings housing switching equipment with high internal heat gains will in fact have the effect of increasing the energy consumption and running costs of the air conditioning plant. A computer model to determine the optimum U-value (ie. minimum air conditioning plant running costs) for such buildings has been developed and is presented in this paper.