2008 June

‘Our proposed definition recognises off-site renewables could play a part and also gives a big boost to community-scale technologies. This would have the added benefit of enabling much needed carbon reductions in the existing stock by enabling the distribution of low- or zero-carbon heat through district networks.
The full report is available on the UK-GBC web site.
www.ukgbc.org

‘The solutions we are pointing to are designed to ensure energy-demand reduction always comes first and on- or near-site renewables should be the focus for meeting energy needs.

If you have come across this section of our web site, it exists for testing purposes. We are testing a new method of putting material onto the web site. Needless to say, this section will not be here for long.

Cross head
If you have come across this section of our web site, it exists for testing purposes. We are testing a new method of putting material onto the web site. Needless to say, this section will not be here for long.

First-year undergraduates from Southampton university recently attended a Constructionarium to give them a taste of what a career in engineering and project management has to offer The group of 80 students was hosted by Faber Maunsell and Laing O’Rourke for this hands-on week-long residential construction experience, which is designed to be part of a 21st-century engineering education linking the world of academic theory with contractors and consultants from the industry. They were split into four teams to design and build scaled-down models of real-life construction projects.

CIBSE’s new president believes it is time for the institution to position itself as the leading authority on the built environment.

Rapidly, and seemingly inexorably, rising fuel costs gave added meaning to the recent CIBSE Conference on ‘Sustainability — niche to norm’ in Gateshead because, quite simply, reducing fuel bill reduces carbon emissions.

People and plants are both more productive in a controlled environment — and Priva’s expertise with both cross-fertilises.

The amount of solar irradiation that falls on Britain is very similar to Germany, Europe’s largest market for solar collectors, which is why Buderus is targeting the UK for the next stage in expanding its solar-thermal business.

Hager has launched a range of consumer units to meet the requirements of the 17th Edition of the Wiring Regulations.

A new consumer unit for domestic and light commercial applications from ABB features a flexible split-load option providing protection and isolation capabilities.

Merlin Gerin has launched a range of reclosable residual-current circuit breakers that brings higher levels of security and more convenience for resetting circuit protection.

With the introduction of the 17th Edition of the Wiring Regulations, new consumer units from Square D have been specifically design to accept new RCDs, MCBs and RCBOs (residual current circuit breaker with overcurrent protection) to help ensure compliance. The Domae and Qwikline II units offer significantly different designs suitable for dwellings and commercial and public buildings.

Biomass in the form of wood chips for heating provides a very effective approach for reducing carbon emissions when it can be used to replace existing plant such as oil-fired boilers, as a school project in Suffolk demonstrates.

The £5 million energy programme that has now been switched on at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital is expected to save £688 000 a year and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 1627 t a year — as well as reducing emissions of other harmful gases such as sulphur dioxide.

Simmtronic has supplied Specs3 fully addressable digital lighting controls for two more prestigious office buildings for the Spinningfields development in Manchester. Contractor NG Bailey awarded the contracts for 3 and 4 Hardman Square. The initial Cat. A shell-and-core contracts have been followed up with feature-rich Cat. B schemes building on the backbone system and tailored to the requirements of incoming tenants.

The erection of two large wind turbines in April is believed to have made the new advanced manufacturing research centre at the University of Sheffield the first carbon-neutral manufacturing facility in the UK.

Following 10 years’ experience using Oventrop valves, contractor Lorne Stewart selected them for the heating and DHW systems of the new £28 million Gateway Academy near Tilbury in Essex for Thurrock Council.

The 35 500 m2 of the Sheffield warehouse of IDS Logistics at Sheffield is protected against draughts when doors are open by 12 Airbloc ambient-air curtains.

The kitchen of a new bistro restaurant in the leisure complex of Sandy Balls holiday centre in the New Forest is ventilated using a Heydal ventilated ceiling system from Britannia Kitchen Ventilation. It provides a clean line of sight across the kitchen, in contrast to conventional extract canopies, which can be unsightly — especially if the kitchen is on view to diners.

SAS International metal ceiling systems and lighting rafts have solved the challenge of designing the ceiling systems for The Undercroft at St Pancras International posed by height restrictions.

Baudet has supplied 144 bathroom pods for student halls of resident at the University of Greenwich as a cost-effective and time-saving solution for providing bathrooms.

The electrical consumption of kitchen extractor fans has been halved at 50 McDonald’s restaurants across the country with the help of ABB inverter drives.

A series of power cuts at its headquarters in Feltham revealed that the limited UPS of Alliance Pharmacy was insufficient to maintain essential IT services for the group. The power cuts had been caused by workmen accidentally cutting through power cables, and to tackle the problem Alliance Pharmacy turned to Scorpion Power Systems.

SAS International acoustic lighting rafts are playing a key role in reducing the carbon footprint of the new headquarters of the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) in Dublin by enabling the thermal mass of the building to be exploited.

The King’s Lynn branch of HSBC is looking to achieve energy savings of up to 20% following the installation of a Mitsubishi Electric M2M controller to provide remote access to the Mitsubishi Electric G50 controller for its City Multi VRF system and other services via the GPRS mobile telephone network.

Luminaires from Riegens Lighting have improved the visual environment in the control room of Tube Lines at Westferry Circus following feedback from employees that the overall visual environment was poor for VDU work and that more control would be beneficial.

Even-Heat underfloor heating is contributing to a safe environment for vulnerable tenants in a new apartment block in Banbury. Cheshire Court is a development by Hills Partnership on behalf of the Bromford Housing Group, a major housing association in the Midlands. The 12 single-bedroom apartments have easy access for wheelchairs and no threat from hot, sharp surfaces.

Just two and a half hours were needed for the installation and wiring time of a 24-way distribution board for a major school-building project in Birmingham, compared with a normal 90 h. This large time saving was made possible by using Schneider Electric’s new modular wiring system.

Riegens Lighting has completed the provision of a safe, visually stunning and economically viable lit environment for the refurbished Bridgelink at the National Exhibition Centre, which links the NEC with the railway station and Birmingham International Airport.

To investigate the role that daylighting can play in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions at its retail sites in the UK, BP has installed 17 Solatube daylighting systems at its site on Childs Way in Milton Keynes. They are installed in the retail and back-office areas. During the day, there is no need to use electricity for lighting these areas.