2011 July

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services, BBES, off-site manufacture, prefabrication

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services has boosted its capabilities in off-site manufacture with the opening of a new facility at Wednesbury.

Grundfos, pumps

To cope with the 70 000 visitors to Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin village near Edinburgh, largely prompted by the starring role it played in ‘The da Vinci code’, major refurbishment and upgrading of the infrastructure is near to completion. The chapel dates back to 1446 and has been a popular tourist attraction for many years.

Timoleon, underfloor heating

The upgrading of a listed building in the Dartmoor national park to provide a new headquarters for a market research company is one of the first installations of Timoleon’s Aether Dry ‘screedless’ underfloor heating system. Compared with systems installed in wet screeds, it can operate with flow temperatures up to 10 K lower, making it well suited to the air-to-water heat pump that is the main energy source.

MHS Radiators

The conversion of a former grammar-school building in Leicester City Centre into a conference, banqueting, office and resource centre includes Matrix Horizontal steel-panel radiators from MHS to provide space heating. Opened by the Bishop of Leicester, St Martins House, which has been nominated for a Leicester Civic Award, includes 70 of these flat-fronted heat emitters.

Kamco, fan coil unit, air conditioning,flushing

To enable fan-coil units to be flushed through quickly to restore them to full efficiency, Kamco has introduced a lightweight mobile descaling and flushing pump. It enables fast and efficient chemical cleaning of pipework and cooling circuits to be carried out when fouling and scaling problems are experienced.

Envirotec, AHU refurbishment

With more building owners opting for refurbishment rather than replacement, Envirotec reports a sharp increase in demand for its refurbishment services for air-handling units. The company’s Ron Flewett explains, ‘Even 20-to-30-year-old AHUs can be successfully refurbished with a major improvement in performance — and the financial and environmental savings are very significant.’

Grundfos, pump replacement

The most important question to ask when a pump needs to be replaced is is there an opportunity to replace with a variable-speed option that will work only as hard as its needs to — according to Grundfos — and giving the potential to save up to 80% of the energy that would be required by a fixed-speed counterpart.

Xpelair, Part F, MVHR, ventilation

Providing appropriate ventilation for refurbishment projects is just as important as new build, and just as every building is different so too is the ventilation solution. Steve Mongan discusses the importance of developing bespoke solutions for commercial and industrial applications.

Megaman, LED lighting

Energy savings of over 35 MWh a year are expected following the replacement of 35 and 50 W halogen lamps with LED lamps from Megaman. These 7 W GU10 lamps have been installed throughout the main public areas of the National Maritime Aquarium in Plymouth and are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by over 15 t a year.

Space Airconditioning, R22 replacement

Detailed metering of the Daikin VRVQ air-conditioning system installed at the headquarters of Space Airconditioning in Guildford have shown an average 28.6% reduction in monthly energy consumption compared with the VRV system it replaced. VRVQ has been designed to enable older VRV systems to be replaced using the existing pipework and, in some cases, existing fan-coil units.

MHS Boilers, maintenance

Planned comfort

06 July, 2011

The worst time to find someone to repair a boiler is when something goes wrong — unless you have a maintenance plan, in which case breakdowns are far less likely. Peter Gammon takes a look at why maintenance and service contracts can be a saving grace.

Recolight’s WEEE compliance scheme for lamps now has more collection options for businesses to help increase access to lamp-recycling facilities for all. Previously, businesses that did not recycle over a thousand lamps every three months relied on an open Recolight collection point or a range of commercially available services. Now, for a nominal charge, they have two other options.

Trane offers retrofit services for chillers to optimise the performance and energy efficiency of plant, particularly equipment over 10 years old. These retrofit services can reduce annual operating costs by up to 20% — and more in some cases.

Shenton Group, standby generator, standby power

Following the upgrading of the electricity supply to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, an open-air amphitheatre cut into the granite cliff above Porthcurno near Lands End, Shenton Group has converted the existing standby generator to provide a 3-phase output. The power upgrade meant that the Scorpion single-phase generator supplied by Shenton Group in 2003 could no longer be used, and the theatre did not want to have to buy another generator.

DuPont, R22, HCFC, Isceon

The ban on the use and sale of virgin HCFCs in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems has been in force in the UK for 18 months, yet many operators continue to rely on the availability of reclaimed or recycled HCFCs for their servicing and maintenance purposes. Mark Hughes explains the risks associated with this approach and provides an evaluation of options for facility managers to ensure business continuity.

Babcock Wanson, steam generator, DHW

With the NHS aiming to reduce its 2007 carbon footprint by 10% by 2015, Chris Horsley describes how one NHS Trust has considerably reduced its carbon emissions by refurbishing its boiler house and moving from oil to gas for generating steam.

MHS Boilers, heating interface

The conversion of the former headquarters of Imperial Tobacco at Bristol, dating from 1974, into apartments includes a central geothermal heating and hot-water system with interfaces to each apartment provided by 270 Nexus Bitherm wall-mounted units from MHS Boilers. Lakeshore, as it is now called, is a major renovation of the Grade 2 listed building and consists of studios and apartments with one and two bedrooms.

SFG20, maintenance

The development of sector- and function-specific standards has enabled the SFG20 standard maintenance specification for building services to become more widely used by enabling standards to be devised for specific projects. Peter Excell explains.

Stokvis, DHW

An 8-year programme of improvement work by the University of Liverpool on a wide range of buildings on three separate campuses has involved Stokvis Energy Systems supplying plate heat exchangers to ensure the quality and safety of the provision of domestic hot water. Dozens of Econoplate units have been installed in halls of residence, lecture buildings and administrative buildings in the city centre, Sefton Park and Leahurst Campus.

Aquatech, Blueflux, cold water booster set

Grundfos pumps with energy-efficient Blueflux motors are used in the new design of Aquatec Pressmain’s Aquamatic AMV 2020 range of cold-water booster sets. The latest technology and manufacturing methods are used in the production of these units, enabling their cost to be reduced and the saving passed on to clients.

Dimplex, DHW, solar thermal

Dimplex’s EC-Eau range of hot-water cylinders includes models for use with renewable-energy systems, as well as an extensive range of standard direct and indirect unvented cylinders with a number of energy-saving design features. The range exceeds CHeSS best practice for standing heat losses and offers the same performance levels as the existing SCxn range.

Cistermiser, DHW, Sensazone

Taps that are inadvertently or deliberately left running, taps that drip, urinals that flush when they are not needed and leaking flushing mechanisms have the potential to waste large amounts of water in commercial washrooms. Lee Thompson offers a solution.

DHW, TMV, TMVA

The temperatures that render hot water safe from bacteria are nevertheless dangerous to people — but there is no need for this risk, as Terry Rowbury explains.

Durapipe, plastic pipe

H2O meets SuperFlo

06 July, 2011

Contractor H2O Plumbing & Heating Services now uses Durapipe’s SuperFlo pipework system as the standard specification for cold-water following its successful application in a new apartment development. Also, compared with copper, this plastic system overcomes the risk of thefts from site.

Watts Industries, pre-insulated pipe, DHW

Domestic hot water for seven recently completed luxury holiday cottages in the grounds of a 12th-century Cistercian priory in North Yorkshire is provided by a recirculation system using lightweight Microflex PE-Xa multi-core pipes in HD-PE outer jackets. Supplied by Watts Industries, the pipes were chosen for their energy efficiency and ease of laying into an underground ring circuit connecting the cottages to the central plant room of Syningthwaite Priory.

Glow-worm, combi boiler, DHW

Glow-worm’s Ultracom2 35 Store is a high-efficiency combi boiler that combines the benefits of a system store and combi boiler in one package. It can serve properties of four to five bedrooms with a high demand for hot water. The flow rate is 19.7 l/min at a 35 K temperature rise. Available as a 35 kW model, this boiler includes two 21 litre insulated cylinders with a reheat time of less than five minutes.

Savings in water costs and protection against damage caused by burst pipes is provided by a system from Waterguard Services. Wayne Strachan, a director of the company, says, ‘A fractured 15 mm pipe can deliver a huge volume of water in just a few minutes, but bursts often go un-noticed for hours or even days.

Pegler Yorkshire, Panacea, mixer tap, DHW

Pegler Yorkshire’s Panacea range of mixer taps for baths take a different approach to design by using one hole in a bath for the water outlet and the other for its control. Called Panacea, these taps are part of the Francis Pegler range.

Baxi Commercial, DHW, RHI, solar thermal, heat pump

With the recent announcement of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), it is anticipated that demand for low- to zero-carbon technology (LZC) within the building-services sector will increase. Jeff House looks at the opportunities for technologies such as solar thermal and heat pumps.

Danlers, PIR thermostat control

Danlers designs and manufactures passive infra-red thermostat products designed to automatically control loads such as standalone air-cooling units. The product combines an adjustable room thermostat with a passive infra-red person detection. If somebody is present in the room, the cooling unit is switched on to achieve the selected thermostat temperature. When nobody is present, the temperature is allowed to rise to an upper ‘ceiling’ temperature.

Power Electric Generators, standby power

Power Electric Generators has added a new load bank to its fleet for testing standby generators. The 2.2 NVA Froment MC1C is a combined resistive/inductive unit that enables testing of loads with a power factor of less than one. Load testing for a generator or UPS is essential to prove that the supply will work when needed, and a load bank enables this testing to be carried out without the disruption that might occur by interrupting the mains electricity supply.

Titon, MVHR, Part F, ventilation

Titon, which manufactures whole-house ventilation systems, has introduced a new training course certified by BPEC and offered at its purpose-designed ventilation centre at Haverhill in Suffolk. The company strongly advocates that anyone installing and maintaining whole-house ventilation systems should attend this course to reduce the need for remedial work, which is said to be a common problem for contractors new to the technology.

Hitachi, chiller, air conditioning

Hitachi Europe has expanded its UK direct sales operation for air-conditioning products to include the Samurai range of chillers. Martin Richards, UK and Ireland manager, says, ‘Direct chiller sales has been part of our growth plan for this financial year, and we are excited that this has come to fruition as early as Q1 and, more importantly, to coincide with the launch of our new, powerful AG2 model.’

Big Foot Solar Systems

Big Foot Solar Systems offer the complete non-penetrative mounting system for photovoltaic panels on a flat roof.

EcoMESH

Improving the performance of Air Cooled Chillers, Dry Coolers and Condensers and Refrigeration Plants.

Weatherite, chiller

A new chilled-water system for the surgical theatre areas at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridge has been installed by Weatherite Building Services to replace an obsolescent system that was far less energy efficient than current chillers.

Phase Change Materials, PCM Products, thermal storage, phase change

Phase Change Materials (PCM) store and release thermal energy during the process of melting & freezing and the latest range of PCM solutions between -100°C and +885°C offer new application opportunities.

KNX Consultants, controls, training

KNX Consultants, a member of the KNX UK Association, now provides a range of independent consultancy and training services. The company’s owner, Ben Lewis, is himself a KNX partner and certified KNX tutor, so he can offer support to systems integrators undertaking initial KNX installations and needing an experienced eye and depth of KNX knowledge to assist with projects.

PCM Products, phase change, thermal storage

Phase Change Materials (PCM) store and release thermal energy during the process of melting & freezing and the latest range of PCM solutions between --100ºC and +885 ºC offer new application opportunities.

CPD, fan convector heating, Smith's Environment Products

A CPD presentation on fan convector heating by Smith’s Environment Products explains the principles of forced convection heaters and their benefits as an alternative to radiators and boiler systems. It is approved by the Construction CPD Services and available for presentation in person or online.

Advanced Air, fire damper

Advanced Air now offers an on-site design services for fire-damper control systems that saves money, increases quality of installation and gives programme certainty. This approach was developed for a project in London and proved so successful that the company now offers it as a standard module to its manufacturing and design service.

Dimplex, solar, solar thermal

Dimplex’s SOLC201 flat-plate solar collector provides a cost effective way of producing hot water from solar energy. The panels wil be eligible for financial incentives from the Renewable Heat Incentive for both commercial and domestic installation. Up to four panels can be connected in series in horizontal or vertical orientation to suit the available roof space.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MHI, multi split air conditioning

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has increased the capability of its multi-split air-conditioning offering with the addition of two outdoor units than can serve indoor units in five rooms. The previous limit was four rooms. The new SCM outdoor units have cooling capacities of 10.0 and 12.5 kW.

Bitzer, reciprocating compressor, variable speed drive

Bitzer’s Octagon Varispeed range of reciprocating compressors has a flange-mounted frequency inverter that is cooled by suction gases — making them maintenance free and safe to operate at high ambient temperatures. The control range is from 25 to 87 Hz, and these compressors can be used in compound systems and standalone applications to save considerable amounts of energy over a year.

Hamworthy, boiler

Hamworthy Heating’s Fleet range of floorstanding condensing boilers is said to have a higher output and smaller footprint than any other boiler on the market. These vertical boilers occupy less than a square metre of floor space to deliver an output of 1050 kW using three modules. There are 26 models with compact modules that can be arranged two or three high to deliver 80 to 1050 kW.

Ideal Industries, cable connector

Ideal Industries has launched a twist-on connector in the UK for electrical wires and cables. It can be used with multiple combinations and works well with stranded and solid wire. Twister Pro connectors are also reusable. Their spring mechanism provides a fast, secure and easy connection that will not relax over time.

Macerator, Grundfos

Grundfos describes its Sololift2 range of macerators as the most powerful, reliable and service-friendly lifting stations on the market. They are also said to be easy to install.

Marco, cable tray

Marco has launched a power-coated version of its steel-wire cable tray in response to customer demand. This powder-coated tray is recommended for interior and exterior use in a range of atmospheric conditions, including data centres, and can withstand a variety of corrosive conditions.

Vortice, centrifugal cabinet fan

Vortice has launched a self-supporting centrifugal cabinet fan for commercial applications where large volumes of air need to be moved, The product is aimed at small supermarkets, convenience stores, schools and office. There is a choice of 16 models delivering up to 8000 m3/h.

Passivent, cross ventilation

Cross ventilation between internal spaces in a building and good acoustic performance is provided by WhispAir devices installed at high level in the partition between the two spaces. Developed by Passivent and Arup, WhispAir provides the low-resistance to airflow that is essential in naturally ventilated buildings. Accredited laboratory testing has demonstrated that an acoustic performance of up to Dnew 44 can be realised.

Purmo, radiator

Purmo now offers a type 33 version (three panels, each with convector fins) of its Compact radiator for the UK market for those wanting to make use of renewable energy sources and technologies by providing considerably more heat output then a double-panel radiator of comparable height and length.




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Manufacturer helps equip skills centre

Ideal Heating has helped to equip a new £500,000 green energy centre in Merseyside which is seeking to attract fresh talent into the heating industry.

Acoustic solutions suite with easy access to services at University of Birmingham

A suite of ceiling and wall acoustic solutions have been specified for The University of Birmingham’s new landmark Molecular Sciences building, which will provide a hub for research and academic work.