< PreviousTECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B8 Welfare © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT COMMENTARY Occupant welfare and comfort is affected by a variety of factors, which includes humidity levels and thermal (for example room temperature), visual (for example light levels and glare) and acoustic (for example noise levels) conditions. It is alleged that by far the majority of complaints from the public received by licensing authorities and premises operators alike relate to welfare (both nuisance and lack of comfort). To maintain comfortable conditions in an entertainment premises usually requires energy to be consumed. The choice of internal conditions, particularly thermal conditions, therefore has a significant effect on energy consumption. It is, however, not normally possible to satisfy all the occupants of a space at the same time due to a variety of factors. The aim therefore should be to minimise the number of occupants feeling uncomfortable by the selection of optimal environmental conditions. However the particular needs of disabled people must be considered and, where reasonably practicable, accommodated. A more detailed explanation of human comfort can be found in the CIBSE Guide A: Environmental design. Thermal comfort Space temperatures should be selected with due regard to the external temperature, and should take into account: •the type of space •the occupancy type and the needs of the occupants •the type of activity and clothing level of the occupants (special provisions may be necessary in premises with dancing, for example in dance halls, stages, dance studios, clubs) •the duration of occupancy •differences in temperature between inside and outside due to seasonal variations and weather conditions Guidance on suitable space temperatures can be found in Section F4. Humidity The relative humidity (RH) and its rate of change should be maintained within an acceptable range: •for the protection of the building fabric and any assets or features of particular importance •for human comfort, health and well-being •to reduce the risk of damage and/or deterioration to musical instruments including the human voice •to suit the nature of the performance or type of event •with due regard for the acoustic responses of the space Humidity levels between 40% – 60% RH are generally comfortable for sedentary, lightly clothed people with temperatures of less than 26°C – 28°C. Humidity levels outside this range may result in increased risk of, for example, static discharge and dust generation at low levels, and condensation and mould growth at higher levels. Where voice is an essential and substantial part of work, for example singers and actors, the relative humidity should not drop below 40% or exceed 60% whilst the temperature should not exceed 24 o C. To continue working in such conditions could cause injury to the voice. Where there may be a problem a qualified specialist should be consulted. B8 Welfare TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B8 Welfare © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT Quality air The quality of indoor and outdoor air, and the presence of contaminants, affects the comfort and health of occupants. Guidance can be found in Section F3. Visual comfort A high quality visual environment is often a key feature of entertainment premises. This may be a mixture of both daylight and electric lighting. Visual comfort is affected by light level, contrast, glare, colour temperature and rendering, and the intricacy of the task being undertaken. A balance should be struck between visual comfort, artistic needs, safety, and energy consumption. This is described in more detail in Section F2. Acoustic comfort Room response and background levels of noise should be suitable and appropriate for the intended use and range of activities. A good room acoustic is an important feature of most entertainment venues. Ideally spaces should be designed and operated to optimise their natural acoustic to obtain the best response for their intended use (music and/or voice). Speech intelligibility requires special consideration. Guidance on noise control can be found in Section B6. A person competent in acoustics should be consulted before any significant work is undertaken, for example that involving a new build or substantial refurbishment of the premises, in order to ensure that both the room acoustic and the control of noise are satisfactory. Spatial comfort Section B3 provides guidance on the numbers of persons permitted within a space to avoid overcrowding. However in order to ensure the comfort of occupants a different approach is usually necessary. Designers of foyers and bars should provide at least 0.5m 2 per person and preferably 0.75 m 2 or even 1 m 2 per person. There are several issues in respect of comfort in auditoria – these include sightlines, seatway widths and the design of the seating. For seatway widths see Section C2. Depending upon the design of the seat the back-to-back distance between rows of seats should be between 850mm and 900mm. People are also getting larger; advice on appropriate spacing is best sought from specialist seating suppliers. Advice on sightlines and general comfort in theatres and similar auditoria may be found in Theatre Buildings A design guidance. TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B8 Welfare © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT TECHNICAL STANDARDS 1. The premises should be designed and constructed, maintained and managed so as to ensure the health and safety and welfare of all the occupants. 2. Suitable provisions should be made to enable all people to use the premises. All of the Technical Standards are listed in Section A2. Section A3 has some details of definitions and explanations. Section A4 lists the publications referred to in Technical Standards for places of entertainment and their publishers. RECOMMENDATIONS B8.01 Welfare should not be seen as separate to the other issues that should be considered in the design and operation of places of entertainment. It is integral to achieving the aims of The Technical Standards .TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B9 Conservation of energy © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT B9 Conservation of Energy COMMENTARY Places of entertainment are often highly visible both to the local and to the wider community. They can have a significant role in informing and educating the public. The UK is constantly looking to improve energy efficiency in new and existing buildings, primarily through regular updates to the Building Regulations 2010 for England and Wales and specifically with AD L2 Conservation of fuel and power other than dwellings . For future advice contact the local planning and building control authorities. BREEAM is increasingly being adopted as a tool to measure sustainable development and may be required under planning authority development policies. Where possible a coordinated energy strategy should be developed. Where specialists such as theatre or audio visual consultants are involved their input should be sought from the outset and coordinated with the core building services design. This will help remove issues such as the over- design of air conditioning, for example, the over-cooling of rack rooms. Energy recovery systems should be considered where possible, such as thermal wheels and/or energy recovery passenger lifts. There is guidance for designing energy efficiency into electrical installations in BS HD 60364-8-1: Low-voltage Electrical Installations: Energy Efficiency and BS 7671: Requirements for Electrical Installations IET Wiring Regulations also has design guidance in Appendix 17. Renewable energy should be considered; however for local requirements the local or unitary authority planning requirements should be consulted. Places of entertainment are also very often energy intensive buildings. They should therefore be seen to be leading the way in reducing energy consumption and as sustainable, flagship buildings. This is important both in new and existing buildings, although it may be difficult to apply modifications to existing buildings; guidance can be found in AD L2 Conservation of fuel and power other than dwellings. Both maintenance and monitoring are essential to ensure systems are operating within design parameters and not wasting energy. Metering of large loads (for example performance lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and setting of targets is important when managing energy consumption. For example the energy consumed by mechanical ventilation and air conditioning typically makes up 10% - 20% of the fuel consumption of a theatre building. Where possible, a post occupancy evaluation should be carried out to assess opportunities to reduce energy demand. This information should feed back into the building’s user manuals. Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) are required for all commercial buildings for sale, rent or construction. Display Energy Certificates are required to be displayed on larger public buildings. Training of users of the building is crucial. In order to understand how to get the best out of the building the users’ guidance should be updated as the use of the building evolves. It is essential that the regular updating of the building’s operation and maintenance manuals and logbooks is followed by the continued training of the users. More guidance can be found in CIBSE TM31 also the Planning Portal website www.planningportal.gov.uk Once a building is open it might be thought that all is done apart from updating maintenance TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B9 Conservation of energy © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT manuals and keeping logbooks. Reducing CO 2 is not likely to be sufficient on its own to provide cost savings sufficient to keep the typical place of entertainment commercially viable. UK legislation requires national greenhouse gas emission to be net zero by 2050. The key to reducing energy use, emissions and operating costs is a clear and effective energy and emission management strategy. Whilst this may be relatively easier for larger buildings it may prove more problematic for smaller venues. But the attempt will have to be made. This will almost certainly need investment in the building’s fabric and systems even after unnecessary consumption has been controlled. Theatres and other places of entertainment are unique so require specific benchmarks for total energy and end use loads to be developed. For instance, on electricity, consider general lighting, FoH and auditorium lighting, production and stage working lights, catering, use of heat, fans, pumps and cooling. Consider how the application of energy efficient technological solutions may improve performances before refurbishment or plant replacement. Solutions may include low energy lighting, variable speed drives to fans and pumps along with presence and absence detection control of lighting. Energy efficiencies The target is always to achieve low cost / no cost solutions. However in practice additional investment is often necessary to achieve any improvement. The risk is the initial cost may exceed early savings and stifle any possible initiative. Matters to consider include: •obtain half-hourly data for the electricity, gas and water supplies and avoid wastage •have a building strategy and check scheduling weekly/monthly/quarterly/annually/five- yearly •reduce heating and cooling by careful and continuing consideration both of time of day and time of year •ensure that the staff understand, accept and act •establish energy targets and reconsider annually Building fabric Insulation and air tightness in most buildings should be improved. Whilst it is more difficult for old theatres there are usually ways to improve thermal energy efficiency whilst also providing comfort throughout the year. Consider what improvements can be made when any repairs are planned such as glazing and roof repairs. Fabric improvement is not just pretty paint. Sub-metering of electricity Half-hourly data obtained from the energy supplier (this could be via a smart meter, power logger or installed metering) can be very useful in identifying where improvements in energy efficiency could be made. With care of re-commissioning using appropriate sub-metering, health checks with corrective measures, efficient controls and energy efficient lighting savings can be achieved. Lighting Significant savings can be made particularly in Front of House areas by using LED lamps in place of tungsten and other light sources. LED sources do not emit a continuous colour spectrum and the apparently simple descriptor such as ‘warm white’ will exhibit significant differences between manufacturers. TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B9 Conservation of energy © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT Water saving Half-hourly water meters help to identify waste such as high overnight usage caused by male urinals which continue flushing when a building is closed. Water use can then be reduced by installing appropriate systems such as a combined water management and urinal dosing system Cooling Energy efficient lighting in general can provide significant savings in costs of air-cooling systems. However in some areas such as dimmers and equipment rooms specific cooling may sometimes be needed. Evaluation of half hourly data may show that a significant saving could be made by investing in separate air conditioning units for these areas. However, these rooms can be significantly over- cooled by using simple ‘boiler plate’ ratings on equipment such as computer servers. For example, a computer with a 500 watt power supply rarely consumers more than 150 watts. The venue management should be consulted to ensure occupied areas, such as auditoria have appropriate settings and controls for audience comfort. Waste management A significant amount of waste is sent to landfill. The costs of removal and landfill are significant and will continue to increase. It is generally possible to recycle significant quantity depending upon the material. Some areas have separate collections for glass, plastics, cans, paper and card, electronic and electrical equipment, wood, metal, batteries, toner cartridges and food waste recycling. In one (major) centre 85% of all waste was previously destined for landfill. With a new waste contractor and segregating around 56% on-site the centre has achieved a recycling rate of about 90%. Electrical Installations For new electrical installations there are many opportunities for including energy efficiency measures. There will be scope to make improvements when electrical installations are renewed or upgraded, although it might be more limited in scale. When planning improvements, consideration should be given to improving electrical energy efficiency through: •Limiting volt drop within cabling by increasing cross-sectional areas of conductors •Installing power factor correction and harmonic mitigation measures •Installing lighting control systems such as occupancy sensors or ambient light sensors •Motor sizing and controls. TECHNICAL STANDARDS 1. The premises should be designed and constructed, maintained and managed so as to ensure the health and safety and welfare of all the occupants. 3. The premises (new or existing) should be designed and constructed, maintained and managed to incorporate energy efficiency. All of the Technical Standards are listed in Section A2. Section A3 has some details of definitions and explanations. Section A4 lists the publications referred to in Technical Standards for places of entertainment and their publishers.TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 B9 Conservation of energy © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT RECOMMENDATIONS B9.01 Energy efficiency should not be seen as separate to the other issues that should be considered in the design and operation of places of entertainment. It is integral to the Technical Standards and therefore the associated guidance is contained in the recommendations within each Section.TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 C1 Horizontal escape © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT C1 Horizontal Escape COMMENTARY In case of emergency people should be able to escape quickly and easily to a place of safety. Exits should be arranged so as to provide ready means of escape from all parts of the premises. Consideration is based on escape from fire but the precautions taken will usually enable escape from other emergencies. Careful planning of exits and means of escape is necessary to ensure that there will be an escape route reasonably close to every occupant, easily accessible and likely to be available in emergency. Conversions of existing buildings require particularly careful consideration as the existing arrangements may not be satisfactory for entertainments use. Sometimes it will be necessary to provide new exits. Escape routes should be designed so that someone confronted by a fire can turn away from it and escape in another direction. A recommended maximum travel distance is given so the time of exposure to the fire is kept to a minimum. Travel distances take into account the fire resistance of the surrounding construction and the rates of surface spread of flame across walls and ceilings. The travel distance is the actual distance to be traversed by someone escaping to a storey exit. This distance can easily be measured where there is a closely-seated audience. However travel distances in open plan areas are more difficult to assess. They can easily exceed the shortest (straight line) distance from any position on the floor to the nearest exit, for example temporary display stands in a multi-purpose hall might obstruct the direct route. Loose furniture in public houses and restaurants may also present obstructions, which would increase the travel distance. Exits should be sited so that, in the event of a fire, people can turn their backs on the fire and move away to an exit to escape. There should, therefore, be a minimum of two exits from any enclosure unless it is only a small room. The two escape routes should be in significantly different directions so that both routes are unlikely to become impassable at the same time. Routes which diverge less than 45° must always be considered as providing escape in one direction only, unless they are separated by fire-resisting construction. See Figure G. The capacity of exits is based on the number of people experience has shown can reasonably be expected to pass through an opening before a fire has had time to develop into a major hazard. With conversions of existing buildings it is not always possible to achieve totally separate means of escape in which case other precautions will be necessary such as the reduction of the maximum travel distance, increased protection against the rapid surface spread of flame and stringent control over fixtures and furnishings. In a small room where only a few people are accommodated, a single exit may be acceptable, provided the travel distance within the room is not excessive. This is more appropriate in staff areas than in those parts of the premises occupied by the public. A single exit may also be acceptable from ground floor premises with limited accommodation and good (quick and easy) access to a place of safety. However, narrow doors from stages should be avoided. Wide exits from a stage should ensure that the escape routes are adequate in all foreseeable circumstances even if large numbers of performers are present. Wide doorways will also facilitate the everyday operation of the premises, for example the movement of furniture and the use of bulky costumes. Exits and escape routes need to be obvious and should be designed with this in mind. Nevertheless escape route signs will usually be required. See Section J1. In the absence of guidance for signs TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 C1 Horizontal escape © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT for the use of members of the public the guidance for signs in the workplace should be used. It is important that large reflective surfaces do not cause confusion by conflicting reflections of exits and escape route signs. Mirrors can be particularly confusing to visually-impaired people and should be avoided where possible. The premises should be so arranged (and managed) that a safe and orderly evacuation will not be impeded and nothing is likely to cause or contribute to a fire, accident or injury. Escape routes need to be sited so that they are easily accessible and take into account possible crowding, especially near exit doors. Sufficient numbers of storerooms, cloakrooms, dressing rooms, offices and other ancillary accommodation should be provided so to discourage any improper use of public areas or means of escape. People should have easy access into the building when in use and without undue delay, move easily within and have ready exit from the premises. It is essential that furniture, fittings and equipment do not cause hazards from materials, locations or installation. Active staff should be fully aware of the locations and contents of storage, furniture and equipment. Staff should inspect the premises regularly and take action when necessary. People awaiting admission can cause overcrowding; where this may occur it is important that foyers are designed to accommodate those patrons who are in the premises awaiting the next performance before the previous audience has left. Accommodation limits need to address this issue; see also Section B3. Handrails including lower handrails will assist elderly and infirm people as well as people with mobility or visual impairments to negotiate long corridors. If lengthy – over 30m – passages have to be traversed in an emergency, refuges may be desirable to allow people with impaired mobility to wait for assistance. The guidance in this section may be seen to differ from other standards such as AD B Fire Safety: Buildings other than dwelling houses, AD M Access to and use of buildings, BS 9999 especially Annex D Recommendation for theatres, cinemas and similar venue and BS 8300 as consideration has been given to all factors in recommending means of escape and ease of circulation for all users. People in entertainment premises may be unfamiliar with their surroundings, possibly excited and have consumed alcohol, be infirm or disabled or confused. TECHNICAL STANDARDS 1. The premises should be designed and constructed, maintained and managed so as to ensure the health and safety and welfare of the occupants. 2. Suitable provisions should be made to enable all people to use the premises. 9. There should be adequate means of escape from all parts of the premises. All of the Technical Standards are listed in Section A2. Section A3 has some details of definitions and explanations. Section A4 lists the publications referred to in Technical Standards for places of entertainment and their publishers.TECHNICAL STANDARDS 2022 C1 Horizontal escape © ABTT+CIEH+DSA+IOL + TT RECOMMENDATIONS C1.01 Every escape route should lead to a place of safety. C1.02 Any escape route should have a minimum unobstructed height of 2100mm, other than within doorways, which should have not less than 2060mm clear height. (These heights may be reduced to 2000mm and 1960mm respectively in existing buildings.) Height is measured from the floor, except that the height of a stair is measured from the pitch line of the stair. C1.03 There should be no obstructions that could impede the free flow of people using the escape route. There should be no projections into any escape route (other than handrails, skirting and door furniture) from any wall or ceiling below the height of 2100mm. Seating, tables and chairs and other furniture and fittings should be so arranged as to allow free and ready access to the exits. C1.04Where significant two-way pedestrian traffic is likely in a corridor the minimum width of the corridor should be 1800mm. C1.05 Where there is a narrow corridor, it may be necessary to widen the corridor in places so as to allow people and wheelchairs to pass easily. It is essential that any widening of the corridor does not result in any sharp corners which could be a hazard during a crowd in an evacuation. Any recess or alcove should be kept clear of storage and any furniture, wall finishes and soft furnishings should meet the Recommendations of E2. From A and B at least one direction of travel is away from the opening. From C where the initial direction of travel is towards the opening, one of the escape routes is not less than 4.5m from the opening.Next >