1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,440 Hello and welcome. Thanks for listening to Carbon Climates, an energy podcast dedicated 2 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,200 to discussing all things energy, carbon and sustainability. We also like to talk about 3 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:28,880 what's getting hot, aside from our planet. I'm your host Enya and today I'm joined by 4 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:37,600 my Carbon Climate and co-host Connor. Hi Connor. Hello. Yeah. How are you doing? Yeah, very 5 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:42,640 good. It's a pleasure to be here. We touched on earlier, it's my first podcast ever and 6 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:47,560 I'm very excited. So if I go off on a tangent and you have to edit huge portions of this 7 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:53,280 out, I only can apologize. It's part of the job. So yeah, can you tell us what are you 8 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:58,720 doing this weekend? So this weekend, I'm actually going over to a good friend of mine's, Wesson 9 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:07,520 Wedding in Canterbury over in Kent. So ironically, there's myself and another one of my colleagues, 10 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:11,360 well not colleagues, but a good friend of mine who works with a competitor, technically 11 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:17,560 in terms of MEP. And then we're going over to our friends, Wedding, who's now a director 12 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:23,280 in an MEP company based down in Canterbury. So really looking forward to it and she's 13 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:27,480 been good fun and hopefully the weather kind of gets a wee bit brighter than it has been 14 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,880 the last couple of days. But I think it's supposed to be nice there. That's good. That'll 15 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:39,400 be nice. You have to get the sheets on. Brilliant. So can you tell us your job title? Yeah, so 16 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:44,880 I am a Principal Mechanical Building Services Engineer. I work with a company called Mott 17 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:52,120 MacDonald. I actually joined Mott MacDonald in 2012. So when I was doing a placement year 18 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:57,080 in university and then the director of the time asked me if I would stay on full time 19 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:02,680 while I finish off my masters. And I said, sure, why not? You know, makes sense to continue 20 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:07,920 learning as I'm doing work within the industry. And I kind of knew what I liked to do at that 21 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:16,200 point. So yeah, I've been with them since 2012. So that's going on 12 years. It is scary 22 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:20,920 when you say the length of time you've been working in this industry. I lied. Definitely. 23 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:28,360 So yeah, that's me. That's what I do and manage a team of engineers from graduate level to 24 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:35,120 engineer level. And then also within Mott MacDonald as a company, I sit as the global 25 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:41,920 chair for digital for building services within the company. So that's another item which 26 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:49,240 is difficult and important for the progress as a company. Very good. And so 12 years, 27 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:56,400 is that how long you've been in the sector fully? Not exactly. Because I suppose technically 28 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:02,920 from when I was about 15, I started working sort of over summers and stuff with insights. 29 00:03:02,920 --> 00:03:09,600 So initially worked doing shuttering and steel time when I was 15 and 16 in the summer. Probably 30 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:14,880 shouldn't have when I was 15. But from then ago, so we just kind of do things a bit rogue 31 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:22,200 sometimes. And then after that, I was lucky enough to do some work within a combined cycle 32 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:29,200 gas turbine down in Cork with a company called Jones Engineering. So yeah, so I've been in 33 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:36,200 the industry and thereabouts since I was about 15. So wow, okay. A long time. That's brilliant. 34 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:41,280 Well, same when you were at skill. Did you ever envisage yourself in this role? Yeah, 35 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:48,280 maybe not exactly this role, but definitely within engineering. I always had a real interest 36 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:53,840 within the industry and I was always quite practical in terms of things that I would 37 00:03:53,840 --> 00:04:02,640 have gone and like a mechanic was a Christmas present when I was a child. But I really enjoyed 38 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:09,080 it. And I knew that I wanted to do engineering. I suppose one of the things was the type of 39 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:13,280 engineering that I thought I was doing, I suppose it technically is, was always just 40 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:18,360 referred to as mechanical engineering. And I suppose one of the things that I found was 41 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:22,720 actually a lot of the stuff that I had done, say working with plumbing systems and sort 42 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:27,120 of been towards heating systems and ventilation, you know, sort of in summer jobs and things 43 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:33,520 like that were actually more akin to building services with mechanical bias. Yeah. So I 44 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:38,200 suppose when I went to university and I seen the course was energy and building services, 45 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:43,520 I kind of maybe was more focused on the energy aspect of that, but then transpired that I 46 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:48,080 sat in probably the first couple of lectures and realised that the second part that they're 47 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:53,040 talking about is actually what I really understand. How did I manage to stumble into this? It 48 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:58,760 was just kind of a wee bit of luck, to be honest. Very good. Yeah. But I always had 49 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:04,240 a real interest in being involved with engineering and I suppose probably coming from an early 50 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:07,720 age, my father was working in that industry as well. So I kind of thought, yeah, sure, 51 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:13,040 we'll just do the same thing. That's like, yeah, I have talked to a couple of people 52 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:18,240 who said, oh, my parents were in these roles. So it's like, yeah, like you see them, you 53 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:23,520 see them successful and you're like, yeah, I'm going to go do that. My dad's a chiller. 54 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:28,280 My mom's a holistic therapist. So I've not got like, you know, kind of nature towards 55 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:33,480 any of them. I remember doing a shift in his shop and I'm like, I'm not made for people. 56 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:40,640 I like people facing role. Not at all. Brilliant. Thanks Connor for telling us a bit about yourself. 57 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:46,320 Okay, so we're going to talk. Today's like subject is going to be just what you said 58 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:52,080 in your job title, building services, engineering and just how you became talk about how you 59 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:57,560 became a principal building services engineer. And I'm going to spit some facts at you. 60 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:04,960 They're going to be, you know, really tough. So just like, bear with me. Okay. Fantastic. 61 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:09,520 But before we delve into it, a bit of joke for you. Okay. Okay, let's go. Oh no, it is 62 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:16,000 actually terrible. No, no, I'm all for the pun joke. So I'm really excited. Okay. Did 63 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:22,160 you hear about the person who invented the escalator? No, they were mechanically inclined. 64 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:33,040 I'm holding up a sign that says laugh. That's really good. I'm definitely going to use that 65 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,880 this weekend. Yeah, there it is. That's my joke. Introduction joke to all the new people 66 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,440 I meet. You'll be like the star of the party. It was like, I know you're getting married, 67 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:47,640 but this is my time. Land wearing white as well. Okay. So we kind of touch on what building 68 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:54,160 services industry covers and then I shout out your, like, it was like your colleague, 69 00:06:54,160 --> 00:07:01,280 Max McComb, his episode and just everything it touches. I just want to go a bit more into 70 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:07,920 it. So according to sipsey.org website for training under why choose building services 71 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:14,840 on the career. Well, building services affects, directly affects people's lives. And they 72 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:18,360 kind of give us an example. Have you ever thought about the room or building your in 73 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:23,920 and how comfortable you feel? And this can actually have a direct effect on your health 74 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:29,160 and wellbeing inside, like an inside us all. We were able to feel the effect of a good 75 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:34,960 temperature. So I know when it's like too warm in the room, I'm like warm, I get distracted 76 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:40,560 or fall asleep and it just makes you lose concentration. And ventilation is especially 77 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:46,280 important for the likes of think all as we all learned a couple of years ago, like mitigating 78 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:53,040 the fact of contagious diseases. So that's good. And there has been a significant increase 79 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:57,720 of people entering the building service industry in the last 10 years. I know that was a long 80 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:03,280 time period, but when I was looking off, it wasn't invest and I, it was every UK national 81 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:10,680 career service set up by engineering, like from 20, no, from 2011 to 2021, the amount 82 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:16,440 of people that entered engineering has increased by like, it's just under a million. Yeah. 83 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:22,080 And to be quite honest, I think probably still need a lot more. I'll give you a really good 84 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:30,400 factoid. This was the current president of CYPSE was over for an event actually that 85 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:36,400 Max and the team within CYPSE Young Engineers Network had arranged for a sort of a walkthrough 86 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:42,400 from Young Engineers right through to fellowship of CYPSE and everything in between. And it 87 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:51,720 was the minutes of a meeting from CYPSE originally was two separate entities. I must actually 88 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:56,960 make sure I can remember these every single time. One was effectively heating and ventilation 89 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:04,080 Institute. And then the other was the illumination, I think it was the illumination Institute 90 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:11,080 and they came together. So the minutes of the heating engineers and board meeting AGM 91 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:16,840 in 1906 was expressly calling out that there was a significant need for more engineers 92 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:21,520 and more personnel to come into this industry because they were severely lacking and still 93 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:25,960 now looking in 2024, we're probably in a very similar position that we still need more people 94 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:31,840 to be invested into this topic, into this hype of engineering because as you rightly 95 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:38,040 said it affects so many things within the spaces that we use. If we look at a perfect 96 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:43,920 example of a building, you touched on it in terms of the terminology is unhealthy building 97 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:48,120 syndrome. So you get this feeling if you don't have enough natural daylight, if you don't 98 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:51,880 have good ventilation, if you don't have good quality of air in a space, you can start to 99 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:56,800 feel very unwell and you can actually get a sickness from that. And really one of the 100 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,920 things that I used to think building services was hard to describe to people because it 101 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:07,580 was kind of like why work in buildings and I do heating systems, ventilation systems 102 00:10:07,580 --> 00:10:14,320 and plumbing and waste systems, but it's actually sort of speaking to people I've kind of found 103 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:19,120 it's even easier to describe and it's simply saying when you go into a space and you feel 104 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:24,120 uncomfortable, how have you achieved that? Through good engineering design and that's 105 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:25,120 what I do. 106 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,120 That doesn't happen by itself. 107 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:32,880 No, it doesn't and it does. It takes an entire team of people and obviously I'll talk from 108 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:39,320 a more building services and mechanical bias, but there's obviously a huge focus within 109 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:46,480 the CIPSE community into the likes of mechanical design, electrical design, sustainability, 110 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:52,320 low carbon and zero carbon as well in terms of how that entire industry comes together 111 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:56,360 to deliver good building services to occupants. 112 00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaking of carbon, because buildings make up 40% of the UK's carbon emissions, this 113 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:06,680 is why we need as many people as possible because then we need to get these buildings 114 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:11,000 as sustainable as possible so people will live a sustainable life hopefully. 115 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:12,000 Yeah, exactly. 116 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:19,280 Yeah, no, okay. So thank you for listening to that. So your mechanical building services, 117 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:24,880 no mechanical building services, principal engineer or principal mechanical building 118 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:30,760 services engineer. Apologies, I'm not too sure what order they should put in. 119 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:32,960 But what do you love most about your job? 120 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:41,300 So I would say from my job, what I love the most is actually going in to probably meetings 121 00:11:41,300 --> 00:11:47,120 with clients and it'll be a full multidisciplinary meeting. So you're talking like civil structures, 122 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:52,800 mechanical, electrical, you've probably got architects in there as well. Generally, we'll 123 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,840 be working through the whole discussion of what they want to achieve in terms of what 124 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:01,560 their outcomes are and actually going, okay, how are we going to achieve a comfortable 125 00:12:01,560 --> 00:12:05,120 building? How are we going to achieve a building that you're going to walk into and say, yes, 126 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:11,680 this is operating in an efficient manner and it's a building that I'm actually satisfied 127 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:16,000 with. So I always find that a really rewarding piece where you're sitting as a part of a 128 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:20,760 multidis team and you're going, okay, how can we get towards that actual end goal? There 129 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:25,320 is also a huge portion of really getting into the nitty gritty with the client and saying, 130 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:28,560 what do you want to achieve? Because I think that's actually quite important. Sometimes 131 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:33,440 they're not fully sure, they know they want a building, but they maybe don't understand 132 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:38,440 what exactly they want to achieve out of that or how they could improve what they're going 133 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:43,320 to receive to be an improved outcome for whatever they're using that building for. 134 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:49,080 I've come across that problem before and I find in our line of work, it's often to do 135 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:57,840 with terminology. So it could be someone maybe wanting, it's like, oh yeah, show me the improvement 136 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:03,640 this wall makes. And I'm like, what do you mean? What do I need to do? And then it's 137 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:08,480 like, oh, very okay. You just mean like if you ever hit or touched on the London plan 138 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,320 at all or the... 139 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:14,320 Very briefly, but I've, because I haven't done a huge portion in London, I've kind 140 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:19,080 of steered clear, but there was at one stage at the hotel I was looking at that I started 141 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,760 reading the London plan. I went, oh, that is a document. 142 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:28,320 It is, but as a happy document it is, but for energy, it has an energy hierarchy you 143 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:33,560 divide stuff up into. So the B green is the final building. So you're like, this is what 144 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:36,720 the building is going to be. It's going to be amazing. And there's the B clean and B 145 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,640 lean. So I was able to show, I was like, yeah, okay, this is at the B lean stage and then 146 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:47,120 this is at the B green stage. Like, look at the difference, like, you know, the improvement. 147 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:51,880 Yeah. Like, you know, so like, yeah, it's great when you're like talking to the client 148 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,400 or the developer, you're just like, oh, this is what you mean. Like, you know, yeah. 149 00:13:56,400 --> 00:14:00,120 It is important as well to, you know, you know, demonstrate the value that you're going 150 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:05,080 to deliver to that client. Then also when you're sitting in another scenario, maybe 151 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,600 on the same project, but you're dealing with maybe a contractor or somebody who's actually 152 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:14,880 in the midst of the construction is to reiterate the process and the design and the rationale 153 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:20,640 that has been put into that final systems design, you know, and what we're actually 154 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:24,640 trying to achieve there in terms of maybe, you know, set goals from a client perspective 155 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:29,120 or, you know, maybe there's a specific regulation that we're actually trying to achieve. The 156 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:33,840 rationale as to why we've gone down that route is because of X, Y and Z. 157 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:39,240 That's great. So another question just about your job title. So how did it feel when you 158 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:44,560 got principal mechanical building services engineer? Like was responsibility like automatically 159 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:48,720 thrust upon you? You're like, this is what you have to do now. 160 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:56,520 Um, I think potentially, I guess, I guess I, uh, I've always been of the opinion that 161 00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:01,680 you kind of start to try to do the role that you want to have before you actually achieve 162 00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:07,360 this. So, um, I kind of would have tried to just deliver what I would have perceived to 163 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:14,040 be a principal engineers and level of, you know, delivery commitment management and sort 164 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:21,400 of commercial success. And probably from when I, as soon as I became senior engineer, but 165 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:26,560 yeah, I think it's, it's a good method, I think for younger people in their careers 166 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:31,840 to take a look at and say, okay, where do I want to go with my career? What are the 167 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:35,600 steps to get there? If I happen to be a graduate engineer at the moment and I want to move 168 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:40,840 to engineer status, what do I see as being, you know, not just the minimum, but what I 169 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:46,320 see as being a good level of delivery from an engineer. Okay. Let's, let's get to that 170 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:51,000 point now. And then when it comes time to have a discussion with, you know, your senior 171 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,200 management or where you're talking about, um, your actual progression of the company, 172 00:15:55,200 --> 00:16:01,400 it's very easy to say, this is what is perceived to be a good, you know, scope of delivery 173 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:06,800 for an engineer. I'm already achieving that. I'm actively trying to go better than that, 174 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:10,240 even though I haven't been given that. So realistically that's probably not even a, 175 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,360 a discussion anymore. It's like a, yeah, I'm already there. I'm thinking about the next 176 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:19,160 one though. I think that is good. And I think it is important for certain individuals who, 177 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:23,960 who maybe have that interest in progressing through a company and to, you know, to be 178 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:27,960 realistic and, and do look back at yourself in terms of what you're achieving and what 179 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:30,760 your actual like going deliverables are. 180 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:35,720 It's a good, like, you know, um, it's a good target for people coming in. Like, um, I've 181 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:40,400 seen it here where like maybe graduates or come in and they're like, Oh, you're, you're 182 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:45,520 a senior engineer. Okay. It's like someday someday they'll be me. 183 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:51,200 Yeah. And also to be quite honest, like, you know, very lucky that I've achieved a 184 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:56,040 chartership in, in my career so far. And, um, hopefully at some stage I'd like to achieve 185 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:02,520 fellow within SIPC as well. Um, but whenever you're commercially responsible for certain 186 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:08,440 products, you are aware that even the designation of chartered engineer, um, holds more value 187 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:13,600 technically from a client perspective in terms of, you know, what they will, you know, pay 188 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:17,640 for that individual. And you are commercially responsible and maybe you haven't achieved 189 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,920 it at that point. You do look at it and go, okay, I'm putting in just as much effort as 190 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:27,320 maybe somebody that is perceived by a client to be potentially have more value. It's not 191 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:32,040 really a nice way to put it, but you kind of maybe internally go, I'm going to get there 192 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:37,680 because I rate myself and I'm going to, I'm going to get my engineering practice report 193 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,480 put together and I'm going to move, I'm going to move on with this. 194 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:46,880 Just, just right. Yeah. Um, that's great. Thanks for explaining. And divide what you 195 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:54,160 love most about yourself. Sorry. So see to get here. What sort of training did you do? 196 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:59,760 I'm talking right from the start. So maybe the likes of, okay, if you're at school and 197 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:05,880 you're at A levels, like. Right. So, um, training at A levels or like 198 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:10,680 my end going through the third, even search, which, you know, they're pretty much the same. 199 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:16,880 Okay. I'll have nobody say that they're totally different. Um, but I suppose there maybe wasn't 200 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:25,600 anything too major involved that level. Um, regards like specific training. I did have 201 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:32,320 a, uh, I suppose I took enjoyment out of like STEM sort of science, technology, engineering, 202 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:38,880 and sort of style subjects, and mathematics as well. Ironically though, I will say this, 203 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:44,040 I didn't do very well in my maths in the even search. And then I went to university and 204 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:49,760 I got straight A's. So the maths ended up not being easier, but because it was more applied 205 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:55,160 to what I was actually doing, I found that like the likes of doing matrices made sense 206 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:58,960 because I was looking at how heat moved through a wall. So that made sense to me as opposed 207 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:06,560 to, you know, doing the minus, uh, the minus B formula, which in some instances I was going, 208 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:14,320 I really don't get why I'm doing this. That's, um, my stop was GCSE. And like, I had no idea 209 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:19,040 I was going to be in like kind of this sector. And then as you're saying, the first year 210 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:24,360 it's for like engineering degrees and the other day it's all pure maths. Like, not like 211 00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:29,560 what is this? I'm like, Oh, okay. Got this. I got this. 212 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:34,720 Yeah. So I suppose from, from A level sort of, um, training, there wasn't anything too 213 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:40,200 major. I was very lucky then that, um, I'd say mostly due to my personal statement, because 214 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:43,440 I said I wasn't very good at mathematics, but I was all right at engineering, which 215 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:49,120 was a subject within, um, uh, the school that I had, the secondary school I'd gone to. And 216 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:53,960 I then was lucky enough to get into, um, Austria university on their B-Eng of the energy and 217 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:59,680 building services, energy and building services engineering. And, and I kind of just said, 218 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:03,720 look, I'm obviously very keen to do well in this, so I'm going to like really put in the 219 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:08,480 effort and try my hardest. And then in second year I was lucky enough, there was sort of 220 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,880 like a carrot that was sort of dangling in front of everybody. If you get over 60% the 221 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:17,200 whole way through, but then you can move on to the M-Eng. So in second year, I sort of 222 00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,160 was doing good enough, but they were like, do you want to do the M-Eng? And I kind of 223 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:25,680 looked at it and I was like, yeah, I think I want to do the M-Eng and, and really twigged 224 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,080 this, you know, it was, I didn't know if it was going to be anything, you know, that was 225 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:33,280 going to be definitive in terms of my career or anything like that. Um, but then after 226 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:39,280 third year, which was like a placement year, um, having been in the industry and worked 227 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:42,880 in it and went, yeah, actually, you know, this is something that I do enjoy doing. Um, 228 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:48,320 I spoke to a number of engineers who had maybe gone down the route of doing the, uh, the 229 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:52,200 M-Eng or the bachelors of engineering. And then they were sort of in the process of doing 230 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:56,960 a technical report because there's kind of two methodologies towards achieving a membership 231 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:02,920 of CIPSE and then M-Eng alongside others in terms of associate, bicep, and a number of 232 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:08,280 other designations. They said that actually if they had had a masters, they felt that 233 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:13,080 it would have been maybe a more straightforward process. So I kind of went, okay, perfect. 234 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:17,480 I'm well, I'm on with the option to do the master. So I think I'll definitely continue 235 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:22,200 on and do it. And it was for one additional year and stuff, doing a part-time for maybe. 236 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:29,240 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Very good. And then the rest, like as you're saying, you've been in 237 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:33,520 the industry and that practical experience probably like really helped as well. Yeah, 238 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:38,600 definitely. You know, instances of, you know, getting straight into projects where maybe, 239 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,720 um, I was ultimately responsible for what was being, um, delivered obviously through 240 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:47,800 the addition of there's quality assurance, quality check, checking and approving process 241 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:53,040 in my company as well as referred to. That's obviously like standard. And it's just a given 242 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:57,920 that that should really exist within any industry. To be quite honest, I would like to hope that 243 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:05,040 it's not just in building services. Um, but being responsible for, um, what was coming 244 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:09,480 out from the company and also taking the stance that that's my name on the drawings. I had 245 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:13,480 a real big thing about having my name on the drawings. That was like, I really wanted it 246 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:17,440 to be there. So like we've, uh, we used to have a thing that was like designed by drawn 247 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,960 by check, check by, or is that a draw and check engineer and check coordination and 248 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:25,120 the prover. So I knew it wasn't going to get a prover. I knew that I knew I probably wasn't 249 00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:28,200 going to do the engineer and check, but I really wanted to make sure that the drawn 250 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:32,800 by like had actually my name against it. Cause I was like, I have this, this is, this is 251 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:37,440 my work. And then it was, I was very like proud of what I was producing. I think that 252 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,360 that's always kind of really driven on, you know, in terms of what was coming out for 253 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:47,720 me as an engineer. And then beyond that, Mott's were, Mott McDonald were very good in terms 254 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:52,280 of they have an entire graduate program, which runs from, as soon as you graduate, obviously 255 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:57,640 from a university or you come into the business at a graduate level, you do things like commercial 256 00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:04,040 management. There was commercial management, you know, general project management. And 257 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,760 there's an entire thing on how to like network. There was a really good one, which was all 258 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:12,320 about presentation skills, which was actually fantastic. It ended up being a really good 259 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:17,960 two days and they sort of bring you to different offices and stuff to do that. So you get like, 260 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:23,320 I went to Bristol office and did the presentation skills. I went to Glasgow and did the commercial 261 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,320 management. So it's quite nice. 262 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:27,640 Yeah. Got to travel about the UK. 263 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:31,800 Yeah. So it was really good to build up my network with people within the company and 264 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,840 obviously get to know people and say, Hey, look, I remember we were on the same introduction 265 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:40,360 course. I didn't realize you were based in Bristol. How are you getting on? How are things? 266 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:45,360 And then like if they maybe have a particular department, you're like, I'll call Kyle in 267 00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:46,360 that department. 268 00:23:46,360 --> 00:23:49,360 Yeah, exactly. You know Kyle too. 269 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:57,080 He's a laugh. So brilliant. Okay. Well, thanks for explaining. I've had to put your training 270 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:02,240 and prep you did to enter the rules and obviously paid off as your principal mechanical, open 271 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:11,120 services engineer. Okay. So I like to come to the kind of section where I like to ask 272 00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:17,800 a couple of questions. I kind of tailor it towards each of my guests. And then because 273 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:24,440 you're like a chair within CIPC, well, it's like, yeah, okay, so be something about CIPC. 274 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:30,440 Kind of like focus the questions around that. So this title, I kind of realized I sent this 275 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,520 to you this morning. And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to work on the title. Like I've got 276 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:41,560 till Friday and then just didn't realize it was today. Today's Thursday. So it has not 277 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:48,040 changed. So it is still the title. It's the principal of it. Because principal, principal 278 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,040 engineer. Yeah. 279 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:53,560 I like it. That's good. I was, I was thinking about as well as like, could be pull up a 280 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:55,720 chair, but I love a weed plan. 281 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,720 Oh my God. That's amazing. 282 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,720 Feel free to use it if you want. 283 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:07,280 I'm going to edit it out and then use it. Yeah. Came up with it myself. Like, it's grand. 284 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:12,280 Okay. So again, these are fun questions. So best guess whenever. 285 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,160 We're getting on roll. 286 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:23,120 So there are four related bodies to CIPC. Okay. And they're called the society. No, 287 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:31,240 four of them start the society of them. Can you name me them? 288 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:43,880 Society of lighting. Society of lighting engineers. Yeah. One SOPHA, society of public health 289 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:48,720 engineers. Yes. That's what we got. 290 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:54,240 I think there's one he actually mentioned and I think you're chair of it. Like the society 291 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,480 of, you said something about chair of digital. 292 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:03,600 Oh, so there's also digital engineering, but I'm not chair of that. I'm within my company. 293 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:09,040 I'm the chair for digital for building services, but yeah, not, not actually on that. They 294 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:15,500 actually do a whole host of really good training material on digital engineering. So especially 295 00:26:15,500 --> 00:26:22,200 for people who may be working building services, but are mainly down like a more sort of technician 296 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:27,000 route. There's a whole host of really good material there. So like common data environments 297 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:33,520 and management drawings and how sort of I need to learn these off, but I remember looking 298 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:38,120 at them and they're a really nice, like neat package of maybe seven different key digital 299 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:45,080 engineering and training resources, which are quite nice. Now the last one, I'll stop. 300 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,160 Is it society of facade? 301 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:51,320 You're right. It's 484. Well done. 302 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,560 Yeah. I have been in CBC since I joined. 303 00:26:55,560 --> 00:27:03,880 So then you should know. So yeah. So the society of facade. Do you have any idea of one that 304 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:04,880 was set up? 305 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,880 Oh, society of facades. 306 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,880 That's actually a hard one. Like, so 307 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:16,480 I'm going to say that it's probably 2006. 308 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:17,480 You're so close. It was 2030. 309 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:22,200 Oh, was it? All right. Yeah. Okay. I'll take that. 310 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,400 They probably got public in 2006. So 311 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,200 people only started listening to music in 2006. 312 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,520 Can you guess how many members the side of light and lighting has? 313 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:44,960 I'll give you a clue. It's in the thousands. Yeah. I was going to say maybe like 6,500. 314 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:45,960 You're so close again. 315 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:46,960 Six thousand? 316 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:47,960 Oh, sorry. Three thousand. 317 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,960 Three thousand. I'm getting old. 318 00:27:50,960 --> 00:28:00,120 So many really good lighting engineers. I know. I just assumed that they were all members. 319 00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:08,000 Yeah. So that's enough to have for that section. So did you know there's always also one institute 320 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:14,400 related to CBC. Do you have any idea of what that institute is called? 321 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:19,960 Like aside from CBC isn't the Chartered Institute of Building Services and Engineers? 322 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:25,640 Listen, this is what Wikipedia tells me. This institute is related to CBC. And if I can 323 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:28,640 get access to something within CBC. 324 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:37,680 I wasn't sure if maybe it was something to do with Atre. But they're obviously the American. 325 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:43,760 You're on the right lines. That's all you because it is a bit tricky. So it's the Institute 326 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:53,120 of Local Exhaust Ventilation Engineers. And that title was exhausting to say. That's the 327 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:54,560 second joke of the podcast. 328 00:28:54,560 --> 00:29:01,560 These are stats. I'm definitely going to an MEP wedding this weekend. These are going 329 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:02,560 to be mega. 330 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:08,360 But yeah. OK. Well, yeah, like that's the end of the like it's Prince Louis slash pull 331 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:12,720 up a chair. OK, so I hope you enjoyed it. 332 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,560 I actually I have a building services joke myself. Do you want to hear it? 333 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:17,560 Yes, please. 334 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:23,080 Right. So this guy used to love tractors. Love them. Absolutely love them. Then his 335 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:28,520 partner at the time just said, look, honey, I can't keep being your partner if you don't 336 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:32,880 stop talking about tractors. I just can't do this anymore. He said, right. I'm going 337 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:37,240 to give up tractors, left them behind, moved on with his life. Ten years later, he was 338 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:41,760 in a pub. They hadn't introduced the smoking ban. He looked into the pub. It was full of 339 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:45,600 smoke. His partner said, I don't want to go in there and clothes are going to stink of 340 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:50,760 smoke. I just I can't. He looked into the pub. He opened up the door and he just took 341 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:56,520 one big breath and blew it all out the door, sucked all the smoke from the room straight 342 00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:02,000 out the door. And one of the patrons in the pub said, oh, my God, how did he do that? 343 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,840 His partner turned around said extractor fan. 344 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:15,760 That is amazing. I am telling them that to be full lights. OK, well, well, hold on. 345 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:24,440 That's a lot more than that. OK, that gets that wins an award. OK, well, OK, well, yeah, 346 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:30,240 that's the official press round and officially closed. So we're going to get back to you 347 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:37,800 guys. So can you give an overview of the list of buildings you have worked on? List of buildings. 348 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:49,440 So earlier in my career, I did a number of projects with a like a local housing body. 349 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:57,080 So I was actually going in and doing adaptations for people with the special needs or who required 350 00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:02,680 sort of additional care within within the home. So although it wasn't, you know, a building 351 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:07,040 that I look at and say it was that building, sometimes when I'm driving in and around 352 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:12,080 Northern Ireland, I'll randomly say to my wife, I did I did an adaptation. 353 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:17,600 Small stuff, but it was actually really good to kind of get involved within the deal with 354 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:22,600 contractors dealing with and OTs within the health care trusts, dealing with clients, 355 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:28,360 actually going out there and doing surveys. So weirdly, like a lot of small little villages 356 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:33,120 and stuff all across Northern Ireland have little buildings. I go in a madhouse, which 357 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:39,120 is an odd one to say to people. And one of a really interesting project that I did as 358 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:45,040 well was in the Shetland Islands. So there's a resource center there called the Eric Gray 359 00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:51,920 Resource Center. It's again for adults with learning disabilities. And so it has it has 360 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:57,320 a trampoline room, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. And yeah, it was really 361 00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:03,000 interesting to do design of MEP services. So like full spec in terms of domestic services 362 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:09,360 about ground waste and heating and ventilation systems. And within that facility, it was 363 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:13,960 all a single floor with some really quite interesting architecture. So we worked with 364 00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:19,640 a Shetland Island based architect on that one. And then we delivered that whole thing 365 00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:29,920 to the Shetland Island Council. And we linked into the the funniest district heating system 366 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:35,800 or heat network I've ever heard in my life. It's called SHEEP. What is the SHEEP? So 367 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:40,880 Shetland Heat Energy and Power Network. Oh, and I just thought that was really funny. 368 00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:51,720 But had some engagement with a Danish company from Denmark, so Danish, and did a bit of 369 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:56,880 work with them as well in terms of how we integrate the actual heat network into the 370 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:03,120 building. And there was like some sort of penalties effectively if you deliver heat 371 00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,680 back at a higher temperature, because then the entire system wouldn't be as efficient 372 00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:11,920 because your delta T is too small. And then that means the pipe sizes are under pressure. 373 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:16,280 That means you've got an excessive pressure through the system. So then your pumps need 374 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:22,640 to operate more heavily. And so yeah, we did a really interesting, I did a really interesting 375 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:27,120 schematic and it was probably the first and only time that I landed the site and it was 376 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:32,440 exactly how I had it drawn. And I went, yeah, this is one of those ones that if it's gone 377 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:37,280 wrong, it's totally going to be Connors fault. But yeah, it worked really well. And they 378 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:41,640 were really quite happy and they managed to deliver back, I think, at like 30 degrees 379 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:46,160 Celsius return temperatures. They really brought it all the way down. It was using like a CT 380 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,560 circuit linked back into the CT circuit, linked back into an underfloor heating circuit. So 381 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:55,280 it had like three stages of heat reduction and heat rejection effectively. So it was 382 00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:01,960 interesting. And also worked as the mechanical lead for the TransLink North West Transport 383 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:08,720 Hub, which I would lovingly refer to as Derry slash London Derry train station. And so yeah, 384 00:34:08,720 --> 00:34:14,000 that's actually a really nice space. I don't know if you've been in it. But there's an 385 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:21,680 entire internal landscape architect has come in and done fully planted trees within the 386 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:28,180 station and completely separately. I was chatting to one of my little cousins who was in University 387 00:34:28,180 --> 00:34:32,360 in Coleraine. I was asking, how do you get up there? And she goes, I normally go as far 388 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:39,760 as up to Derry, London Derry. And then I just get in the train. And I was like, oh, cool. 389 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:44,200 And she said, yeah, I sit in the train because it's like, it's a way nicer building. And 390 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:49,040 I was like, do you know who designed that nice building? It's heating and ventilation 391 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:54,560 systems and plumbing. And she was like, no, I don't really know what I want to. It was 392 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:58,520 me. So it's quite a nice. 393 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:05,040 You need like, you know, discount real classes. It's okay. I've got some strengths. 394 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:13,960 I wish I got discount. But yeah, that was a really interesting one as well. And then 395 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:18,680 aside from that, I've been on a number of projects that have kind of ran for a long 396 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:24,280 time. So it's a project that I'm on, like still technically on. I've been working on 397 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:31,240 it since 2016. So it's quite a long, long project to be on. But hopefully it gets built 398 00:35:31,240 --> 00:35:36,680 and then I can talk about it lovingly. Well, we'll have you back on when it's built. 399 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:40,600 And then you're just like, yeah, you know that building. 400 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:44,520 Then sort of a whole host of other things. I've done a number of school projects and 401 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:54,280 did the Carlo and Kels PPPP schools projects, which were all done in 2015, 2016. That was 402 00:35:54,280 --> 00:36:00,960 full 3D first introduction into using Revit. Right. And then at that time, kind of decided 403 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,240 I would figure out how Revit can size Pipework for me. So figured that out, which was a good 404 00:36:05,240 --> 00:36:12,000 button and it saved me a lot of hassle on the job. And I think some of the team recently 405 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:19,080 have been doing some work on a project. That's quite confidential. But when they were asking 406 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:23,080 questions because something wasn't happening, I was like, oh yeah, I did that in 2015. I 407 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:27,600 made a video in 2017 here. And they sat down and watched it. They only went, oh yeah, there's 408 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:32,160 a problem. So that's how we fix it. So it's funny to see that sort of stuff come back 409 00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:37,560 the way through. Wow. That's funny. And you've had an extensive experience. 410 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:42,560 A lot better. A long time. Yeah. 411 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:51,800 It's funny. Someone today was telling me this story, but we have a couple of senior engineers 412 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:59,800 up in the office and have been with the company for about 20 years. And they got plans in 413 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:10,000 for a Revit in a house. And it was from an architect and they were looking at, or maybe 414 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,760 it was the architect and then the MEP drones that they were using. And they're kind of 415 00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:20,760 looking at the drones. And I was like, I drew this. I drew this. And I was like, when I 416 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:28,080 was a student, 30 years ago. And they just layered it over. It's like, yeah, this is 417 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:35,240 how we're going to do it. I was like, oh my God. But yeah, I've had a couple of projects 418 00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:42,600 where I've seen it from maybe stage two. And then you go all the way to stage five or six 419 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:49,440 and you're like, yeah, it's done. That is one thing that I think is very rewarding 420 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:56,800 within this industry that maybe sometimes like, maybe if you're only working in say, 421 00:37:56,800 --> 00:38:02,560 and not only that's, I don't want to belittle it, but if you're working solely in construction, 422 00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:06,240 you actually don't get that sometimes that opportunity to be involved in the design phase 423 00:38:06,240 --> 00:38:11,560 where you're starting to work out how things could be better, how they could be improved. 424 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,200 And maybe you're looking at a set of drones and you're like, okay, we need to construct 425 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:17,920 this and you might look at it and go, this could be improved. I think we can put in for 426 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:23,760 change in that. Now actually, this could be a better design, but you may not always get 427 00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:28,720 the opportunity for that if that's what you happen to be doing or vice versa where you've 428 00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:32,560 done a lot of work on design and then ultimately something doesn't get built. Sometimes that's 429 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:37,840 a hard one to take where you go, that would have been a really, really good project. I 430 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:39,840 really wanted it to go ahead. 431 00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:48,360 I can't wait to hear more about your future projects next time you're on. That's me, I 432 00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:52,240 do this to everyone, it's like, well, next time you're on, you can talk more about this. 433 00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:54,240 I'm like, yes, sure guess. 434 00:38:54,240 --> 00:38:56,240 Yeah, definitely. 435 00:38:56,240 --> 00:39:02,680 Well, thank you very much for talking to me today and talking about yourself and your 436 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:10,200 career as a kind of engineer. You've been brilliant to have on and to have lots of useful information. 437 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:17,200 Brilliant, no, delighted. And yeah, from my perspective, I hope that anybody who's listened 438 00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:24,000 to this gets involved with engineering. You don't have to go into building services, I 439 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:28,960 should say that. Secretly, you should go into building services. It is actually a really 440 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:35,320 interesting job. I would say it's very rare that you get massive repeats of doing the 441 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:41,840 exact same thing day in, day out. It is always quite varied. And if you think that that's 442 00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:46,600 something you'd be interested in, then I could only hope to plug the idea of joining up with 443 00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:51,400 SIPSE and becoming a member because when you're in education, it's totally free. And you get 444 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,480 access to SIPSE journals. 445 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:54,480 All the guides. 446 00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:59,920 All the guides as well. And even just a resource to see what's actually happening in terms 447 00:39:59,920 --> 00:40:01,920 of the building industry. 448 00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:07,760 That was actually a really good piece of advice you've given. My next question was going to 449 00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:13,160 be, do you have any advice for future prospective engineers looking to get into this sector? 450 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,160 Oh yeah, definitely. 451 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:19,760 But yeah, that's good. That's good. Do you have anything to round it up with? Like, you 452 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,600 know, a snappy, like, you know, sign off, please, or? 453 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:24,600 A snappy sign off, please. 454 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,600 Oh, I should have given prep for that. Like, apologies. 455 00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:32,600 Building services is not just a career, it's a lifestyle. 456 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:34,600 Oh my god. 457 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:35,600 That's so corny. 458 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:38,600 That's actually the new title now. 459 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:40,600 Oh bless. 460 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:52,440 Well, no, brilliant. No, thanks, Connor. So my kind of sign off, or like just advice. 461 00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:56,920 So just sticking with the principal thing, because I was like thinking when I think principal, 462 00:40:56,920 --> 00:41:01,720 I think principal Skinner from The Simpsons. So I was trying to look for a quote that he 463 00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:06,680 says that's about engineering, and like, it kind of maybe fits into the context of the 464 00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:07,680 episode. 465 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:08,680 Yeah. 466 00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:12,800 Best thing I could find was, like, no, I'll say it in the right, like, you know, right, 467 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:18,120 you know, setup. So my advice is to quote principal Skinner. There's nothing more exciting 468 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,040 than science. Right. And that's a direct quote. 469 00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:26,920 I thought potentially with the recent solar flares that you were going to go down the 470 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:33,920 route of, you know, the Arrol Coriolis in your kitchen at 12 o'clock on a Tuesday. 471 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:34,920 At this journey. 472 00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:37,920 At this time of year. And then he's like, yes. 473 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:38,920 Yes. 474 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:39,920 Can I see it? No. 475 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:40,920 No. 476 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:42,920 I should have gone for that. 477 00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:44,920 Oh, I wouldn't worry about it. 478 00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:47,920 So no, thanks, Connor, and you'll definitely be back on. 479 00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:52,520 Yeah, no, hopefully, that would be fantastic. And I will say, like, obviously, having listened 480 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,880 to a number of the podcasts, this is actually really, really good. I'm really impressed 481 00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:01,040 with just everything you're doing here, because to be quite honest, I was like, where is the 482 00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:06,640 podcast talking about, like, building services and, like, the actual industry that exists 483 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:12,280 in terms of sustainability structures, civil infrastructure, and actually then into, like, 484 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:16,120 you know, architecture. And I was like, well, this is a really, really, really good example 485 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:20,880 of talking about, like, a type of industry that needs probably more attention towards 486 00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:21,880 it. 487 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:22,880 Yes. 488 00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:27,120 And it is, there's so many opportunities for careers coming off the back of it that, like, 489 00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:30,680 you know, I think I remember coming into university and they effectively said to us, OK, there's 490 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:36,760 plenty of you in the room, there's probably 40 jobs. So, yeah, take off that what you 491 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:37,760 will. 492 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:41,720 And if anything, because I remember the anxiety at the time, we're like, when are we going 493 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:47,960 to get a job? Like, are we going to be penniless? Like, you know, what's going to happen? And 494 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:52,560 then just even the comfort of knowing that there is a job out there for you, like, it 495 00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:55,760 makes you, gives you that confidence. And you're like, yeah, I'm going to do well in 496 00:42:55,760 --> 00:43:02,600 this industry because this industry needs me. And then, yeah, and I'm very much a sentient 497 00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:08,640 beginning. Before we started recording, I'm very much in the opinion that, OK, when you're 498 00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:14,880 like 17, 18, 19, you're going to change throughout. And what you want to do, like it might not 499 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:19,520 be like what you want to do for the rest of your life is going to change. And it's OK. 500 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,720 Like, that's OK. Like, there shouldn't be any worry about that. And a lot of people 501 00:43:22,720 --> 00:43:27,760 do worry. I definitely worried about that. And I'm like, what am I doing with my life? 502 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:33,840 But just showing, like, you know, this industry, it accepts, like, everyone. Like, there's 503 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:37,680 so many different areas. Like, if you don't know, if you don't want to do engineering, 504 00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:42,400 if you don't want to do marketing, if you don't want to do any sorts of maths, there's 505 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:48,200 like promotion of carbon courses. Like, there's so many areas. And it's like, it's a pretty 506 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:53,920 cool career. And as you said, this industry, yeah, needs people. There's so much scope 507 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:59,180 for young people to be involved with it. Like, you could very easily, like if I was even 508 00:43:59,180 --> 00:44:03,780 being a principal engineer specializing in what I specialize in, I could decide that, 509 00:44:03,780 --> 00:44:07,360 you know what, actually, I want to be way more involved in actual building physics. 510 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:12,280 I want to move into being really detailed thermal modeling. That's something I think 511 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:17,440 I would really like to do more of. And most companies will go, well, yeah, we think that 512 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:21,320 you're very capable. We, you know, we've obviously backed you for a number of years. 513 00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:24,720 We haven't said that we don't want you to be involved anymore in the company. Yeah, 514 00:44:24,720 --> 00:44:28,120 that's something that you want to get heavily involved in. Let's go for it. Or maybe you 515 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:34,120 want to become part of a team that is focusing on winning bids or, you know, obtaining new 516 00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:39,000 clients and stuff. And most companies will fully back that. And I think one of the really 517 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:45,320 important things in building services in this whole industry is that a lot of really good 518 00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:50,200 companies give you that opportunity. I don't want to come across wrong, but an opportunity 519 00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:55,040 to potentially fail at something, as in to try it. Like, and when we're looking at designs 520 00:44:55,040 --> 00:45:00,360 for buildings, we will go through maybe a lot of concept designs and we might say, okay, 521 00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,640 we're going to use a ground source heat pump here. That's the type of technology we've 522 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:05,880 decided we're going to look at. We're going to look at boreholes. We're going to look 523 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:09,880 at extracting heat from the ground. That's what we're going to spend a bit of time investing 524 00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:16,400 into. And generally, you know, in some instances, there's a, there's a portion of, of maybe 525 00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:20,120 leeway to go, okay, investigate it. Let's see is it a viable option, you know, through 526 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:25,520 maybe the likes of a low zero carbon assessment on a building. And you can go into the detail 527 00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:30,440 and say, yeah, it would work. It's actually not going to be as efficient if maybe we go 528 00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:35,080 around the route of say another technology or combining two pieces of technology together. 529 00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:40,240 Maybe we run air source heat pumps and we do PV and then sort of work and sort of a 530 00:45:40,240 --> 00:45:44,280 synergy between them. And then you've got, you've had that opportunity to test it, to 531 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:50,040 learn about it, to develop your understanding. Maybe in more product's time, that ground 532 00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:55,520 source heat pump that you investigated is actually so perfect for this that it's a no 533 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,480 brainer. Yeah. And I think that's, that's nice as well. There's a lot of scope for that 534 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:04,760 type of thing within the, within the industry. Like there's so much potential, so much. 535 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:11,680 Yeah, that's exactly it. So much potential energy. Like I'll stop. Okay, I'll do the 536 00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:18,120 actual sign off. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks for listening to carbon climates. If you follow 537 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:22,920 us on Instagram at carbon underscore climates, you can keep up to date with all our latest 538 00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:29,160 news, posts and episode uploads. But yeah, thanks for listening. Bye. Do you want to 539 00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,960 say bye? Bye.