Concept of Building Services

Surface and ground water sources; quality and quantity; the nature of impurities and the need for treatment; potability standards; and per-capita water demand and building storage.

Environmental sanitation and sanitation in buildings; building drainage — soil, waste and vent pipes, traps and the water seal; the arrangement of sewerage in housing and the septic tank; and rainwater disposal, storm-water drainage and rainwater harvesting.

Basics of electricity; single- and three-phase supply; protective devices and earthing for safety. Principles of illumination — luminous flux, candela, lux, the laws of illumination, utilization and maintenance factors, and the lumen method.

Pumps — uses, types, selection, installation and maintenance; hot-water boilers; and basic refrigeration — heat and temperature, sensible and latent heat, change of state, saturation, refrigerants and the vapour-compression cycle.

Sound waves — frequency, wavelength, intensity and the decibel scale; speech and music; noise, transmission loss and sound insulation; absorption and the absorption coefficient; and reverberation, echo and the reverberation-time calculation.