The engineer’s role

In this programme, the group leader manages the “social” side of the group - organising sessions, introducing topics that the group needs to talk about, and liaising with the property management.

The engineers take charge of the technical input, some work between sessions that makes use of technical information, and asking any questions of our expert advisers or of the network of volunteers, some of whom are very experienced building services engineers. It’s useful if they also take on a little of the “social” work, for instance, keeping an eye on the time during the parts of the session they are not leading, writing down anything the group needs to all be able to see, and so on.

In thinking about this role, it’s useful to keep in mind that the programme is not designed to deliver definitive plans for exactly what changes to make to a building - the building managers have to take professional advice for that. We’re trying to equip groups with the knowledge, language, and confidence to have the right conversations with the professionals so that they will get the right advice. Often groups go to professionals with a brief that isn’t right for the circumstances. Many go straight to installers to ask them what to do, and then get solutions that are designed for more common buildings and situations. Installers can make changes to the aspect of the building they specialise in, but they don’t have the skills required to choose the right changes to make and think about how they interact with everything else.

Some of the engineers will be operating well away from their core engineering discipline - and we applaud that. We provide (and are continuing to write!) reading materials explaining and reinforcing the core concepts. We give these to everyone involved, but it’s particularly useful for you to be comfortable with them. You can ask us about them at any time. The reading materials include ideas for further reading in case you are interested. Our intention is to include two kinds of links throughout: practical links for groups who need to find out more information about something, and technical links for those engineers who are interested that convey how professionals use the concepts in practice. If you are a building services engineer, you can probably improve on what we say and what we suggest. We’re very happy for you to tell us what we ought to have said.

During the sessions, it may be that you discover issues in the building where it would be helpful to run further investigations - for instance, issues with heat distribution that require thinking about pumpwork or the pipework sizing and configuration in a more complicated boiler room, or checking whether a wall is insulated. It’s useful to identify and document concerns, but this is where your responsibility stops. If you wish to explore further, we are happy to try to facilitate that, but please be mindful of your time so that you don’t feel overburdened.

Because you are not operating in a professional capacity, there is no contractual relationship constraining what you do and say. Of course you will want to use your skills to help the community, but you are offering your talents just as all other community volunteers do - as one human to others. It’s perfectly OK to say you don’t know the answer to a question!

Professional Indemnity

Even if you are a building services engineer, you are not providing a professional service as part of the programme. Neither is HeatHack. We will stress throughout the programme that this is an exercise that should point them in the right direction, but they need to take professional advice before acting on the results.

One of our core goals in this programme is to demonstrate how useful it is for the groups to include engineers in their community work. Communities have talented people all around them, but because people have to move around the country to chase work opportunities, it is harder for groups to connect with them than it once was. Engineers bring a perspective to managing community buildings that is often missing. Thank you for being involved.