64 RACA Journal | November 2008 www.refrigerationandaircon.co.za

Personality profile

P ieter de Bod, a director at RPP Consulting Engineers is em-phatic and passionate about

his career and his company. His philoso-phy is simple: “Short cuts should not be the easy way out, and the best designs are not always the most expensive or the cheapest. The trick is to find a happy median in the design of air-conditioning and ventilation systems, that is innova-tive but simple, and to always keep in touch with latest technology trends”.

In February 2002 Pieter left South Africa for Dubai to work as a junior engineer on the projects RPP had in Dubai. This experience was to see him grow personally as well as develop into a competent and experienced technical engineer.

In Dubai he learnt how to multi-task between working with people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, and to apply different technical skills to what he had used in South Africa. The skills required are different due to the demanding nature of the climate in the Middle East. He also learnt about how reliant the region was on air-condition-

ing due to the fact that the ambient

conditions are so extreme both from a heat and humidity perspec-tive. The fact that

air-condi-tioning is a necessity in

DON’T TAKE SHORT CUTS!

the United Arab Emirates is very differ-ent to South Africa, where air-condition-ing in a commercial application is also a necessity, but in many cases and in particular in domestic situations, air-conditioning is a luxury.

RPP always strives to design air-con-ditioning systems that provide thermal comfort to the occupants in such way that they feel the cooling sensation without hearing or seeing it. This is a core design principle which is applied to all projects.

“Each project is special and unique in my mind” says Pieter; “it is critical that one continuously pushes office and per-sonal design standards to higher levels to achieve a customised solution for the client. This is certainly my aim”.

What of the future?“Although South Africa is classified

as a third world country, we do need to become more environmentally con-scious and we must learn and apply new techniques from countries like Japan, Australia and Europe to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and hu-man health”. With energy costs rising at a rate we have never experienced before it becomes necessary that green building elements are applied. These are fundamentally passive and active in their approach, for example the use of shading modelling programs that deter-mines optimum orientation of build-ings and smart positioning of external shading devices; this will allow indirect light into the building without solar rays entering the facade. The application of the correct amount of building envelope insulation is also important and we have to be careful not to over or under

insulate a building envelope. During hot seasons, heat can

be trapped in the envelope if over insulated which can put

strain on the HVAC system. We have to also use environmentally friendly con-struction materials like insulation with an ozone depletion potential (ODP) of zero. Buildings should also be designed to allow for capturing rain water, which when harvested can be re-used for other building services.

Pieter adds that “sometimes we have to take a step back on the technical side and re-design basic air-condition-ing items with the aim to save power, for example the use of 90 degree weather cowls in lieu of weather louvres. Not only is less metal used in the manufac-ture of the simple cowl, but the pressure drop thru the cowl is far less than the weather louvre, which means that less fan power is consumed”.

Another green principle in design is the re-use of waste heat energy gener-ated by gas generators. This energy is converted into cooling by the use of absorption chillers; this and other similar techniques are examples of how technology is advancing and also how these principles can be applied.

A method, not well known in our country, but worthy of serious consider-ation and robust debate, is the ASHRAE displacement ventilation concept which is internationally recognised as an air-conditioning and ventilation system of low energy consumption” he concludes.

In his spare time, Pieter is an indi-vidual who likes travelling the world. He loves being outdoors and has just completed the famous picturesque Otter Hiking trial near Plettenbergbay. He and his wife Henriette will be doing the Fishriver Hiking Trial in Namibia next year. Pieter is very mindful of need for mentoring in the office environment, and he has committed himself to men-toring some young engineers, in the same way he was and continues to be by other senior engineers at RPP. ◊