May 2013 – Quarrying & Aggregates
A couple of the feature articles in this issue cover the topic of energy efficiency from starkly different perspectives.
On page 46 we consider efforts to make buildings more energy efficient in the face of an apparent falling out of love with renewable energy. On page 33 we look at how construction equipment manufacturers are making their machines cleaner and more efficient. I do not know whether the designers of buildings and machinery compare notes to any great extent, but there may be some interesting parallels to be observed if they did.
Machinery makers are compelled by law to make their engines cleaner and impelled by commerce to make them more fuel-efficient and less costly to run. They achieve this by improving the combustion process, recirculating exhaust gas, carefully controlled chemical reactions, filtering fumes and capturing kinetic energy for later re-use, adding to their power-per-pound.
Building designers are driven by similar commercial imperatives, to reduce the cost of ownership and improve performance, but whereas engines are – to a large degree – mass produced, buildings are – to a similarly large degree – one-off creations. For this reason, perhaps, I would venture to suggest that the mobile machinery manufacturers have demonstrated the greater progress on their journey of continuous improvement.
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