Building services jobs are all about control. As businesses respond to the pressures of increasing fuel prices and tightening legislation regarding energy efficiency, to perform well in building services jobs is to identify and utilise complete, integrated and cost-effective building control solutions.

From heating and ventilation to lighting and air conditioning, those with building services jobs can help their clients integrate a building’s numerous services and their separate controls into a central management system. The key component is a common platform with open protocols, through which different products can communicate with each other. Such direct communication enables those with building services jobs to achieve considerable savings in cabling and energy costs.

Take building façade management for example. Those with building services jobs need to take into account the climate conditions outside a building as well as the varying day-to-day activities within it. They should also try to optimise both natural and artificial lights and take advantage of temperature exchanges between external and internal environments.

In this sense, one specific aspect of building services jobs is to keep the building cool by shading it during hot periods, then to lower its temperature through natural ventilation and night cooling. The solar heat gain can be used to warm up the building during colder periods, so that the need for additional heating may be reduced. Those with building services jobs can help their clients integrate the control of these separate elements in order to achieve optimally efficient façade.