Codes of Practice

Good practice as undertaken by competent and conscientious practitioners

CIBSE Codes of Practice are written to cover all stages of the development cycle of a project (in a given technology or process) from initial brief to end of life and disposal. They are structured as follows:

Stages – key phases of the project, normally intended to cover from ‘cradle to grave’ (e.g. Design, Commissioning)
Strategic aims – which define the overall reasons for using a process or technology (e.g. ‘to reduce CO₂ emissions’)
Goals – high level targets which use of the Code is designed to accomplish (e.g. ‘achieving low heat losses’ or ‘avoid oversizing of plant’)
Objectives – a specific objective to be achieved within a stage (e.g. ‘to accurately determine heating demands’)
Minimum requirements – the things which must be done in order to be accomplish the objective. These should be as prescriptive as possible (e.g. ‘a maximum delta T of 10C’ or ‘a plate heat exchanger shall be used’) and ideally measurable
Best practice – optional additional actions which could be taken beyond the minimum requirements to achieve improved outcomes
Responsibilities – who should be completing the objectives

Each Code of Practice has an introductory section outlining how it should be used and outlining scope, key legislation and typical applications. A ‘Plan of Work’ diagram summarises the stages, goals, objectives and responsibilities as defined above. To aid usability each stage is colour-coded and numbered. Objectives and Minimum requirements are numbered below this, e.g. Stage 1, Objective 1.1, Minimum requirement 1.1.1. The Appendices should include (but are not limited to) Further Reading and a Glossary.

The codes are intended to raise performance across a sector by providing clarity of responsibilities across the supply chain and measurable minimum standards. It is intended that they could be used during procurement and so are targeted at clients and developers as well engineering specialists.