2017 July

Siemens Building Technologies, ball valve, Acvatix

Acvatix ball valves from Siemens Building Technologies covers all applications in central HVAC plants with a selection of internally and externally threaded valves from 15 to 50 mm. This means that Siemens now offers a complete range of ball valves for applications in cold- and hot-water systems.

Vent-Axia, MVHR, IAQ, Indoor air quality

The energy-efficiency features of Vent-Axia’s Sentinel Kinetic Advance MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) have led it to winning a major award — the energy-efficient product or innovation of the year category of the CIBSE Building Performance Awards for 2017.

Condair, dehumidifier, IAQ, Indoor air quality

Condair has introduced a range of advanced commercial and industrial dehumidifiers. They cover desiccant and condensing technologies with extensive standard capacities from 0.5 to 182 kg/h (at 20°C/60% RH). Custom units are also available.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the quickest and cheapest way to protect people from worsening air pollution, according to one of the country’s foremost clean-air campaigners. Speaking at a special IAQ event to mark the UK’s first ‘National clean air day’ last month, Simon Birkett, founder of Clean Air in London, said that IAQ must become part of the building planning process.

Bio-Oxygen Europe, odours, IAQ, Indoor air quality

Bio-Oxygen Europe has been set up to bring the Australian-produced Bio-Oxygen system for eliminating odours, sterilising and purifying air to the European market. The system is said to guarantee odour-free results, along with 99% elimination of viruses and bacteria. It is compact as has low maintenance requirements.

Condair, humidity, RH, relative humidity, IAQ, Indoor air quality

Tim Scott of Condair asks why 40 to 60%RH is the ‘ideal’ indoor relative-humidity level.

SAV, ventilation, IAQ, Indoor air quality

SAV AirMaster MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) units have enable Furze Down School in Winslow, Bucks, to control indoor air quality efficiently while maintaining the low noise levels required for special educational needs. This co-educational community school takes children from the ages of five through to 19, many of the with complex special educational needs (SEN).

Xpelair, MVHR, IAQ, Indoor air quality

Xpelair’s Natural Air 180 MVHR (natural ventilation with heat recovery) units come with a vast choice of add-ons designed to make them suitable for virtually all domestic ventilation requirements. One feature is the option of NOx filtration via an external box.

Airflow Developments, ventilation, MVHR, IAQ, Indoor air quality

In a recent report from the Building Engineering Services Association, almost 70% of office workers believed poor air quality was having a negative effect on their wellbeing and productivity. Robert Dennis of Airflow Developments highlights the importance of effective ventilation in commercial buildings to create and maintain a healthy and energy efficient environment.

Gilberts, IAQ, indoor air quality, Natural ventilation

Airing the issues

05 July, 2017

There is much debate on trends in natural ventilation, but is it all hot air? Roy Jones of Gilberts of Blackpool shares some thoughts.

Camfil, air filtration, air filter, PM10, PM1, PM2.5, IAQ, Indoor air quality

With less than a year of the transition period for international standards for air filtration to go, Peter Dyment of Camfil explains their implications.

Mikrofill, DHW, boilers, space heating, maintenance, refurbishment

A dilapidation survey at Leasowes High School by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council led to the upgrading of the inefficient LPHW and HWS equipment. The existing atmospheric heating boilers were replaced with six Mikrofill Ethos 130 kW wall-mounted condensing boilers with an overall 60:1 modulation ratio right down to 13 kW.

Waterloo, Waterloo Air Products, air conditioning, air distribution, grilles, diffusers, maintenance, refurbishment

A high-end office refurbishment in the City of London is using air terminal devices from Waterloo Air Products to deliver exceptional air flow and enhance the building’s overall style. The Cat A fit-out of 108 Cannon street delivers 3250 m2 of office space over nine floors, complete with a communal roof terrace with panoramic views over London.

Ideal Commercial Boilers, space heating, maintenance, refurbishment

With less than 12 months to go before the Government’s new energy bill comes into effect, Ideal Commercial Boilers is urging property investors and landlords to act now to get their properties up to standard and avoid lost revenues.

Trilux, lighting, LEDs, maintenance factor, maintenance, refurbishment

Not only is LED lighting much more efficient than other types of lighting, but its maintenance factor is also very different, which affects how LED lighting specifications should be calculated, as Jamie Yates of Trilux explains.

Remeha, boiler, space heating, NOx, maintenance, refurbishment

With tighter regulations relating to space heating coming into force in 2018, implementing a proactive boiler replacement programme is more important now than ever, says Adrian Morris of Remeha.

Remeha, boiler, space heating, maintenance, refurbishment

Energy savings of 20 to 25% are expected following the installation of five Remeha boilers as part of a major refurbishment of the heating plant serving the Civic Centre complex of Oldham Council. The key requirements for the council when replacing the 43-year-old failing boilers were to improve the reliability of the heating service and reduce operating costs.

Stokvis, domestic hot water, space heating, boiler, maintenance, refurbishment

The plant room of a school in Suffolk has been upgraded with the installation of a pair of Stokvis R605 boilers, an Econoplate plate heat exchanger and a 500 l buffer vessel to provide the school with all its heating and domestic hot water for washrooms, showers and catering. Westley Middle School in Bury St Edmunds has 468 pupils aged nine to 13 and hosts some 60 clubs each week, both at lunchtime and after school. Activities include basketball, soccer and badminton.

ICOM Energy Association, commercial water treatment, maintenance, refurbishment

Historically, commercial heating systems have not received the same level of water treatment as domestic installations. Ross Anderson of the ICOM Energy Association explains why a new best-practice guide should help remedy this situation

Rinnai, DHW, domestic hot water, maintenance, refurbishment

Heating for St Mary’s Church in Saltcoats is more efficient and effective since the previous system was replaced with Rinnai 1004T gas-fired wall space heaters. Six heaters were installed, and Ross McWhirter, installation manager for O’Neil Gas Services, which installed them, says, ‘The biggest part of the job was lifting the floors and running gas and electricity supplies to the units.’

Albion Valves, space heating, PICV, maintenance, refurbishment

Paul Wightman of Albion Valves shares his enthusiasm for the benefits of a phased approach to upgrading building-services systems such as space heating.

Dimplex, space heating, electric, maintenance, refurbishment

Dimplex’s Quantum off-peak electric heating system has replaced outdated electric storage heaters in an industrial unit on a business park in Ashford, Kent, to improve efficiency and reduce running costs. The new heating system in the headquarters of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce has raised the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) from F to E, making it compliant with the upcoming 2018 regulations on minimum energy performance standards for commercial buildings.

Watkins, boiler, hire, space heating, maintenance, refurbishment

In readiness for any failure of its primary boiler system, a major UK hospital has implemented an emergency contingency plan to ensure continuity of heating and hot water to wards, operating theatres and offices. The FM company responsible for the building services on this large site has contracted Watkins Hire to provide a standby system to replace the main boiler in the event of a failure, under the company’s TCEPS (temperature control emergency planning services) scheme.

ThermOzone, ReChill, chilled water, chiller, maintenance, refurbishment

ThermOzone’s ReChill service has restored an 85 kW chiller (pictured) serving an office building in the west end of London to full working order for less than 40% of the cost of a new chiller and in a third of the time, just four weeks. Funding from the Carbon Trust contributed £7000 to the cost of the project at Woolverstone House in Berners Street.

Riello, burners, space heating, DHW, maintenance, refurbishment

These boilers at a high-profile Government site in Swansea have been given a new lease of life and brought up to the standard of any new boiler on the market with the replacement of their burners with dual-fuel burners from Riello. The site is managed on behalf of Telereal Trillium by Arthur Portelli of Oakbury Building Services Consultants..

BSRIA, BG66, outsourced, maintenance, refurbishment

Guidance from BSRIA is aimed at helping clients, facilities managers and their organisations to understand better the key success factors in procuring maintenance contracts. It promotes ‘cutting-edge’ tender processes and procedures, and supports the development of contract documentation — as Clair Prosser explains

Grundfos Pumps

The Grundfos online Product Center for pumps provides a number of starting points. A user can choose to search by family, pump design or application area. Other possibilities are viewing replacement options for an older Grundfos or competitor model.

Tamlite, Lighting Industry Association, Lighting Industry Academy

Tamlite Lighting has become the latest ambassador of the Lighting Industry Association’s Lighting Industry Academy. The company is at the forefront of cutting-edge lighting technology, investing over £4 million in product R&D over the last three years.

Sontay, controls, sensors

Sontay, which specialises in control peripheral products, is expanding its global reach by opening a new office in the United Arab Emirates and appointing the experienced Ali Jabr (left in photo) as Middle East area sales manager.

Tridonic, lighting, LED

Tridonic is expanding its range of dimmable LED modules for spotlights and downlights with the SLE Sunset EXC. The colour of the light creates a particular intimate atmosphere and comes very close to an incandescent lamp. These modules are intended for the hospitality industry, the spa industry and the home environment.

Martindale Electric, lock out kits, electrical safety

Martindale Electric’s latest lock-out kits for electrical installations have been designed to suit the needs of installers and maintenance teams working in range of environments. The LokKitBase and LokKitPro enable circuits at industrial and commercial sites to be locked off once de-energised, ensuring safe maintenance schedule and compliance with the Electricity at Work Regulations.

EnOcean’s Easyfit range of wireless self-powered switches for Bluetooth lighting systems provide a maintenance-free ready-to-use solution for LED lighting. Combined with self-powered Bluetooth lighting systems from Casambi, Silvair and Xicato, Easyfit wall switches offer lighting installers the benefits of freely positionable switches that provide flexible control and intuitive usage.

Rehau, district heating, hot tapping

Rehau’s Nexus is said to be the world’s first system for hot-tapping PE-Xa district-heating networks. It makes it possible to retrospectively extend an existing heat network or add a ventilation or measuring point to a district-heating system using Rehau orange PE-Xa pipes.

GF Piping Systems, BIM, plastic pipes, pipework

3D BIM objects are now available for GF Piping Systems’ EcoFit range of PE piping systems. They have been created to operate within the Autodesk Revit platform. The company’s online library already covers the Cool-Fit 2.0, Instaflex, AquaSystem and malleable-iron ranges.

An auto-cleaning duct accessory for Daikin UK’s VRV and split air-conditioning units keeps internal duct filters dust-free and clean. This cleaning solution reduces maintenance and running costs, while providing a 20% energy saving. It is designed for hotels, offices and residential applications.

Hamworthy Heating, boiler, space heating

Hamworthy Heating’s Upton range of floor-standing modular boilers comprises 18 models with outputs from 100 to 1050 kW. They are rated at 6 bar and have a modulation ratio of 5:1 per module. An output of 1 MW can be provided from less than 1 m2 of floor space.

Zoo Fans, space heating, destratification

Destratification units

05 July, 2017

Zoo Fans, in partnership with Elta Fans, offers a destratification solution that can create even temperatures from floor to ceiling, making it easier and more efficient to heat and cool buildings. Destratification is recommended as one of the Carbon Trust’s effective energy-saving strategies. These fans can reduce the temperature difference to as low as 1 K overall.

Daikin UK, R32, air conditioning, split system

Daikin UK has expanded its Bluevolution air-conditioning portfolio with the launch of the R32-based Sky Air A-series range. Thee new units are considerably lighter than their predecessors and have longer pipe runs. Installation is further simplified by the inclusion of precharged pipe runs, which also reduces the need for installers to buy additional gas for runs shorter than 40 m.

Viessmann, boiler, floor standing, space heating

Viessmann’s Vitocrossal 100 range of gas-fired condensing floor-standing boilers have an exceptionally small footprint thanks to an innovative stainless-steel heat exchanger. There are seven models with outputs from 80 to 320 kW in casing that is 680 mm wide, 1459 mm high and lengths ranging from 660 to 1010 mm. Boilers with comparable outputs from other manufacturers are said to be typically 1000 to 1200 mm long. There is also the option of a twin cascade within a single casing to give an output of up to 640 kW.

Carlo Gavazzi, energy meter, electricity, Rogowski coil

Carlo Gavazzi’s Rogowski coil solution for its EM21MV 3-phase energy meter for retrofit application does not require an external power supply or external integrator, making installations faster and simpler. Features include automatic phase detection with wrong-phase-sequence warning and fast application-oriented programming procedure.

Integral, downlights, fire, LED

Integral LED has overhauled the fire-rated downright by re-engineering it to take advantage of the features of LEDs. Many of the features of conventional fire-rated downlights have been stripped away to exploit the advantages that LEDs provide. The result is a product that dispenses with the need of a ‘can’ to preserve fire safety.

Tridonic. lighting, LEDs

Tridonic’s fourth generation of the DLE Advanced LED module can achieve an efficacy of 185 lm/W, a 12% increase. Users can select the most suitable LED driver, depending on the application. Typical applications are general lighting, office lighting and lighting side rooms.

Lochinvar, water heaters, DHW

Lochinvar’s Impetus range of continuous-flow gas-fired condensing water heaters for small commercial and residential buildings comprises three wall-hung models with flow rates from 13.7 to 25 l/min at a 35 K temperature rise. They have a very rapid response, low water content and modulating pre-mix burner with an 8:1 turndown ratio.

Thermoscreens, air curtains

Thermoscreens’ Compact-2 air curtain offers energy efficiency, options for BMS integration, a stylish design and ease of installation and maintenance — all at an economical price. Features include weather-compensated control. A key improvement is that the inlet grille is concealed from view to provide a neater and more streamlined look and avoid them looking unsightly from dirt deposits before they are cleaned.

Ciat, AHU, air handling unit, air conditioning

Ciat’s Floway Access range of single-block air-handling units have brushless motors and high-efficiency plug fans to achieve high efficiencies and a wide airflow modulation range. The panels have thick insulation to ensure quiet operation. The Floway range includes five standalone dual-flow AHU modules to deliver efficient heating and cooling. The range covers airflows from 300 to 18 000 m3/h and includes five standalone dual-flow AHU modules.

Trane’s entire range of water-cooled XStream and air-cooled Sintesis chillers for the European market are now available with Honeywell’s Solstice refrigerant (R1234ze), which has a near-zero GWP (global-warming potential). Trane now offers chillers with screw compressors and centrifugal compressors with a near-zero GWP refrigerant option and high-efficiency operation.

G&H Building Services, contractor

G&H Building Services has completed the £1.2 million mechanical contract as part of an addition to the Grade I-listed Rudding Park spa development at Harrogate. Work included cooling, ventilation and power supplies to nine treatment rooms, three relaxation rooms and a plunge pool.

National Energy Foundation, Kerry Mashford

Dr Kerry Mashford, chief executive of the National Energy Foundation (NEF), was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours for services to the energy industry. The NEF has been at the forefront of improving the use of energy in buildings for over 25 years. Since her appointment as chief executive at the end of 2012, Kerry Mashford has helped pioneer its work in advising and delivering more-comfortable energy-efficient homes and workplaces, including winning a number of national awards.

Even before the Brexit negotiations formally got under way, FETA (Federation of Environmental Trade Associations) expressed its belief that in the post-EU landscape, trade associations can provide an even more vital line of communication with the rest of Europe and product design.

The Heat Pump Association has welcomed the appointment of Claire Perry as Minister of State within the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). She replaces Nick Hurd and will report to Greg Clarke, who remains as Secretary of State.

Sutcliffe Park

The unusual topping-out ceremony of a new indoor multi-sports centre at Sutcliffe Park for the Royal Borough of Greenwich saw wild-flower seeds being scattered on the green roof by the chair and secretary of the Friends of Sutcliffe Park, Cllr Denise Hyland and Cllr Denise Scott-McDonald.




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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.