CIBSE Guide F: Energy Efficiency in Buildings (3rd edition)
About this book
CIBSE Guide F, "Energy Efficiency in Buildings," is a comprehensive technical reference published by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers that provides guidance on achieving energy efficiency in new and existing non-domestic buildings. As the dedicated energy efficiency guide in the CIBSE stable, Guide F covers the full range of energy management strategies, from building envelope performance through HVAC system efficiency to energy monitoring, management, and auditing. The guide addresses energy management at multiple scales: at the strategic level, it covers how to set energy performance targets using energy benchmarks and key performance indicators; at the systems level, it covers efficiency measures for heating plants, cooling systems, ventilation, hot water, lighting, and building controls; and at the operational level, it covers monitoring and targeting, energy auditing, and the management practices that sustain energy performance over the building lifecycle.
A particularly valuable section covers energy benchmarks for a wide range of non-domestic building types: offices, schools, hospitals, retail, hotels, sports facilities, and others. These benchmarks, expressed as energy intensity figures (kWh/m² per year) broken down by fuel type and end use, allow building managers and auditors to assess whether a building's energy consumption is typical, better than average, or poor relative to its peers. The benchmarks are calibrated against real building performance data collected through the UK's Display Energy Certificate program.
The building controls and energy management chapter is one of the most practically useful in the guide, covering building management systems (BMS), automatic meter reading (AMR), and the key control strategies — time scheduling, setpoint optimization, demand-controlled ventilation, variable speed drives, and high-performance sequences of operation — that collectively determine whether a well-designed building actually performs efficiently in practice. Successive editions of Guide F have incorporated tighter energy benchmarks and new coverage of topics including demand response, battery storage, electric vehicles, solar PV systems, and heat pumps, reflecting the changing landscape of building energy systems as decarbonization targets drive the electrification of heat and transport. Sources: CIBSE (cibse.org); CIBSE Guide F 3rd Edition official publication; CIBSE Journal technical articles.