Dubai, UAE, 25 February 2018: A need exists for more stringent enforcement measures in smaller projects, said Nada Musa Al Mansoury, Consultant, Drease Home. While speaking to Climate Control Middle East, she said that adequate enforcement measures were needed in villa developments to overcome the prevalent copy-and-paste approach from one project to another, which was adopted to avoid having to involve a mechanical engineer.

Al Mansoury said that, more often than not, MEP consultants are only called on later, in case there is a problem, and that for the most part, after securing the necessary approvals, consultants are not concerned with the application of the designs, passing off the responsibility to the next party. “For example, if I design a ducted system, whether split or Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRV), they will say I need a false ceiling, because there will be a duct running overhead,” she said. “They say, ‘No problem, just do it, we will not provide a false ceiling, and some other person will take care of it’.” As a result, Al Mansoury said, the other party has to change the design and will have to either remove the false ceiling, remove the duct or change the overall MEP design, which is costly and time-consuming for the clients.