• Published: June 2016
• REF/ISBN: GVB/16
• Status: Current

Guide B provides guidance on the practical design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. It represents a consensus on what constitutes relevant good practice guidance. This has developed over more than 70 years, with the Steering Groups for each edition of the Guide expanding and pruning the content to reflect the evolution of technology and priorities.

Since the last edition of Guide B in 2005, the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive has been introduced. This requires national building energy regulations to be based on calculations that integrate the impact of the building envelope and the building services systems, formalising what was already recognised as good design practice. In addition, the use of voluntary energy efficiency and sustainability indicators has increased.

CIBSE Guide B was published in 2016 in five separate chapters:
Chapter B0: Applications and activities (free to download from CIBSE website)
Focuses on how different types of building and different activities within buildings influence the choice of system. For many activities and types of building, more detailed design information is available in specialist guidance.

Chapters B1 to B4 address issues relating to specific services. There are usually several possible design solutions to any situation, and the Guide does not attempt to be prescriptive but rather to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different options.

• B1: Heating, including hot water systems and an appendix on hydronic systems, which is also applicable to chilled water systems
• B2: Ventilation and ductwork
• B3: Air conditioning and refrigeration
• B4: Noise and vibration control for building services systems (applicable to all systems)

CIBSE Guide B: Combined Index to Chapters B1 to B4 2016 (free to download from CIBSE website)
Each chapter has an individual index, but to facilitate cross-referencing, this combined index allows for navigation of topics across the complete Guide. Page references are indicated by a prefix defining the chapter, and a suffix referring to the page number. For instance, 1-22 represents chapter 1, page 22.