Construction and Maintenance of Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Construction and Maintenance of Building - Essay Example In addition, the primary source of energy for the building will be generated from a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit. Combined power and heat integrates the production of usable heat and power (electricity), in one single, cost effective and highly efficient process. The CHP system is sustainable, clean and renewable. CHP generates electricity while also capturing usable heat that is produced in this process its efficiency is greatly increased. This is unusual contrasts with conventional ways of generating electricity where heat is simply wasted and in the process impacting negatively on efficiency. In today’s coal and gas-fired power stations, up to two-thirds of the entire energy consumed get lost in such a way, frequently witnessed as a cloud of smoke rising from the cooling turrets, the process is very environmentally unfriendly. This will be a very eco-friendly aspect of construction as it is very efficient in its purpose and design. Sub-structure or Foundation- is the lower section of the building, located below the ground level and the damp proof course. A foundation is part of the structure that is in direct contact with the ground to which the loads are equally transmitted to the supporting surrounding soil. Shrinkable soils are those types whose contents are made up of more than 35% have a modified plasticity index greater or equal to 10% and of fine particles. The fine soil particles are having nominal diameters of 60 Â µm. Plastic index of a given soil is its measure of the change in volume potential that is determined by Atterberg Limits test. Soil particles whose nominal diameters after the test are greater than 425 Â µm are eliminated through sieving in advance. Particles with diameters smaller than 425 Â µm are promptly reported for Atterberg Limits test. The Plasticity index of the soil multiplied by the real percentage of particles with contents less than 425