Andrews Water Heaters’ largest SOLARflo water-heating installation to date comprises 33 solar panels, three single-coil preheat tanks and two ECOflo water heaters. They serve the 74 rooms of the new Travelodge in Fulham, each of which has an ensuite bath or shower room. Renewable energy was a requirement of planning consent, and the solar system is expected to contribute 37 MWh a year.

Helping to meet the requirements for delivering clean water to and removing dirty water from the world’s tallest building is a multitude of Grundfos pumps. The $1.5 billion Burj Khalifa in Dubai is 828 m high and includes a 160-room hotel, a range of businesses and retail outlets, and over a thousand luxury apartments.

Monodraught is now supplying its Sunpipes to supermarket chains in Portugal to help them reduce energy costs and carbon footprint. Even in the depth of Winter, Portugal enjoys over an hour and a half more daylight than London, making possible more use of natural daylight. The chains installing Sunpipes are Decathlon, Hipermercados E Leclerc and Intermarche.

Carbon emissions from a new school in Scotland will be reduced by 25%, around 77 t a year, using SAV’s LoadTracker concept for supplying heat and power compared with a traditional system. The LoadTracker for Townhill Primary School in Hamilton was specified by Consultant Davie & McCulloch. Two CHP units/air-to-water heat pumps that can generate up to 30 kW of electricity and 60 kW of heat.

Energy-efficient cooling for a prefabricated data centre for London City Airport designed and built by Red Vista is provided by equipment from Eaton-Williams. The centre weighs over 8 t and is on a site close to the Docklands Light Railway. With the co-operation of the DLR, it was craned into position over the tracks and into position as a complete package.

Titan Products and Hafele Dialock are pleased to announce that their products are installed in the recently voted ‘Best airport hotel in the world’. The 5-star Sofitel London Heathrow is linked to Terminal 5 and is the world’s largest luxury airport hotel. It has 605 bedrooms and 45 meeting rooms. The award was given as part of the USA Business Traveller magazine awards.

Contributing to the achievement of a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating for the Paragon office building in Bristol is air conditioning based on Matrix fan-coil units from Ability Projects. These units incorporate energy-efficient EC/DC motors to provide infinitely variable speed control of the entire unit, as well as each fan. Each air duct can thus be balanced for air volume through duct speed alone, eliminating the need for noisy volume-control dampers and their time-consuming installation.

Hydronic balancing for the huge cooling and heating loads of the two towers in the Jordan Gate Towers project in Amman is provided by valves supplied by Tour & Andersson. When both buildings are up and running, their combined cooling load will be in excess of 18 MW and the heating load about 10 MW. The project consists of two towers with a mall between them. They are due for completion in June 2010.

With no gas being available for two new office developments in the Ribble Valley designed by architect Sunderland Peacock of Clitheroe, mechanical-engineering company Eco Intellect recommended Fujitsu air-source heat pumps to provide both heating and cooling. One of the buildings, Manor House in Ribchester, has been sympathetically converted into 13 self-contained office suites. The other project is the conversion of old farm buildings on the Duchy of Lancaster’s Root Hill Estate Yard at Dunsop Bridge into six self-contained office units.’

To help reduce the time needed to install the cooling system for the data centre of a financial institution in Essex, Victaulic’s Advanced Grooved System (AGS) is used for distributing chilled water. It replaced the originally specified welded and threaded system and involved pipes up to 350 mm in diameter in runs of up to 60 m. The Victaulic approach also eliminated the need for hot working.

The hundredth prefabricated plant room for the Ministry of Defence’s largest-ever PFI project to create modern living and working accommodation for the British Army has been installed by Ormandy. Specified by Aspire Capital Works, the plant rooms contain LTHW and DHW equipment and, in some cases, services such as rainwater harvesting, CHP and solar technology.

Titon heat-recovery ventilation units have been installed in a stylish new apartment development in Bristol to help achieve level 2 of the Code for sustainable homes. HRV1 Q Plus units were specified for the Linden Homes Zenith development of 67 apartments at Crews Hole Road in the St George district of the city. The units are installed in the hallways of the apartments.

DPS Software, a leading provider of case-management and accounting software for solicitors, has chosen Powercall UK’s 24/7 service to ensure that its data centre in Enfield has a standby generator delivered and connected within a target time of an hour and a guaranteed maximum of three hours.

The reliability and efficiency of providing heating and hot water for the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, London, have both been improved following the installation of five Buderus 1200 kW cast-iron sectional boilers. The building has a long history. When built in 1899, it was the last of London’s great railway hotels. It was the headquarters of British Rail from 1962 to 1991, after which it became a hotel again.

Following a spate of thefts of copper tube from the site of a development of retirement apartments in Eaglescliffe, County Durham, Acorn Plumbing & Heating switched to Durapipe’s SuperFLO plastic pipework for the project. It was used in sizes up to 75 mm to distribute cold mains water to each of the 48 apartments in the block.

Boilers burning rapeseed oil have been installed in a college in east London to provide space heating. Supplied by Atlantic Boilers, they can both deliver 22.4 kW and operate all year in condensing mode to achieve seasonal efficiencies greater than 94% gross.

A WindowMaster automated window-control system will provide natural ventilation for the new £57 million South Cheshire College, due for completion in September 2010. The 26 500 m2 building is based on a village street, with departments functioning almost as shop fronts, which are covered with a glass and copper ‘skin’ to create light and space.

Airedale is working with UK Grid to reduce the PUE (power usage effectiveness) of its Synergy House data centre in Manchester. Rob Garbutt, managing director of UK Grid, explains that initially the data centre had cooling units with fixed-air-volume fans giving a PUE* of 1.7. The first stage of reducing the PUE was the introduction of cold aisles and fan inverter drives to achieve 1.4. The next stage is to introduce Airedale free-cooling equipment to reduce the PUE to 1.2.

Combined heat and power and a wood-pellet boiler and are supported by a standby gas-fired boiler to generate electricity and heat for a new £15 million retirement home complex in Swansea. The energy centre for Hazel Court, a 120-apartment village for over-55s includes four Dachs CHP units from Baxi-SenerTec UK, each of which can generate 12.5 kW of heat and 5.5 kW of electricity with an overall fuel efficiency of 79 to 92%.

A new prison in Scotland has been fitted with 130 Honeywell Kombi-4 throttle valves to ensure immediate domestic hot water from all outlets. Two Honeywell SV300 fast-acting safety valves are also installed to prevent over-pressure in the booster cold-water system.

The first school in the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme to receive an ‘Excellent’ rating from the Committee for Architecture and the Built Environment includes a natural-ventilation system supplied and installed by WindowMaster. The first phase of the new Stockwell Park High School is designed by architects Sheppard Robson and is being built by Wilmott Dixon. The £19 million project is due for completion in November 2010.

As part of the conversion of a 19th-century property in the ground of Brocksford Hall in Derbyshire, two 3.7 m radiators have been replaced with a single fan convector form Smith’s Environmental Products. Anton and Marjorie Brooks were converting an upstairs studio into a bedroom with en-suite facilities and came across Smith’s at an exhibition, which recommended a Staccato low-level wall-mounted fan convector with thermostatic control and coloured front fascia — red for this project.

When more air conditioning was needed at Lord’s Cricket Ground, CER, which has carried out air-conditioning and refrigeration work at the ground for the past eight years, was called in. The £225 000 contract was for the offices of the England & Wales Cricket and a pair of restaurants in the Mound Stand. The equipment was supplied by FG Eurofred and Fujitsu distributor FM Air Conditioning. All the work had to be completed in a very tight time frame to fit into the schedule for Test Matches and Middlesex games.

When the refurbishment of Colchester Town Hall, dating from 1898, included improved disability access, the installation of a disabled lift came at the expense of the plant room and air-handling plant providing heating, ventilation and comfort cooling to the Jury Room, Mayor’s Parlour, members and committee rooms. However, Imofa UK rose to the challenge of removing existing plant and instal­ling a new unit on time.

A sports club that set future England cricketers Geoffrey Boycott and Darren Gough, as well as legendary umpire Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, on their way to sporting fame has now called in another big hitter — Smith’s Environ­mental Products to supply high-level fan convectors for a new changing room at the Shaw Lane Ground.

Among the main environmental strategies for a new school in Leatherhead is natural ventilation provided by Monodraught Windcatchers throughout. Leatherhead Trinity is a 2765 m2 primary school that replaces one junior and two local infant schools. It accommodates 390 pupils and also houses a 150 m2 area for special educational needs, a language unit and offices for Surrey Arts.

The state-of-the-art pumping solution for a new luxury spa hotel in Glasgow is provided by a range of Grundfos equipment. Blythswood House has been refurbished at a cost of £17 million into an 88-bed 5-star boutique hotel and leisure venue. Grundfos worked with consultant T. Dunwoody & Partners and contractor James Frew Ltd.

If you are ever visiting HMS Belfast in London give a thought to the air conditioning that provides both heating and cooling in this challenging environment. Because the ship is metal, it suffers extremes of temperature in summer and winter. The preferred installer of air-conditioning systems for the last 17 years has been Sirocco Air, whose brand of choice for the last 15 years has been Fujitsu.

Metering of the electrical consumption of a new energy-efficient college building in north London is provided by Eaton split-metered distribution boards. 26 Smartboards have been installed in the new Wood Street campus of Barnet College to provide metering capability to the requirements of Part L2 that 90% of consumption can be assigned to specific end-use categories. These boards have dual metering facilities so lighting and small power loads can be metered separately.

Major projects that are enjoying the benefits of Micronics clamp-on ultrasonic metering include Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and the ExCel exhibition centre in London. Despite these successes, the company’s David Leigh reports that the general uptake in building services has been slower than expected.

Active chilled beams and luminaires with micro-prism optics have been supplied by SAS International for a refurbishment and extension project at 10 Hills Place near Oxford Street in London. Architectural and design practice Amanda Levete Architects specified over 200 m of these ISMs for the 1300 m2 office refurbish­ment and extension.

Two new buildings in Aberystwyth both use Oventrop valves to control heating and cooling. One is for the Welsh Assembly Government. The other is the neighbouring offices of Ceredigion County Council. Hoare Lea was consulting engineer for both buildings, with different M&E contractors.

Cost-effective and energy-efficient lighting from Riegens Lighting has contributed to a ‘Very good’ BREEAM rating for the new office development of Subsea 7 in Westhill near Aberdeen. Over 2500 luminaires have been installed in the 17 300 m2 building, with daylight linking in cellular and open-plan offices.

Following good experience with Andrews ECOflo storage water heaters at a number of its sites, the Caravan Club has installed two 380 litre units at its new site in Littlehampton, West Sussex. The site has 115 pitches and was previously an independent caravan park. A £1.2 million development programme has brought the site up to the Caravan Club’s standards.

Highly reliable fire detection for the National Portrait Gallery in London has been provided by upgrading to a system based on Kentec Syncro fire control panels. The NPL holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world, from Holbein to Hockney. The collection includes work across all media, from painting and sculpture to photography and video.

To provide protection for critical power requirements in the refurbished Queen’s Building at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, a Scorpion 358 kVA generator has been installed. It provides protection for CCTV, computers and also the communications installed by Computer Power Protection.