When people have lived in a tower block for a long time, they do not want to move out — so refurbishment issues have to be faced head on. ALISON NICHOLLS shares experiences with a project in London.

Vapac humidifiers have replaced existing equipment at Compton Verney Art Gallery new Warwick to provide precise environmental control to preserve exhibits.

As part of the refurbishment of the Tate Gallery in St Ives, two Broag Quinta 115 wall-hung condensing boilers have replaced older boilers in a roof-top plant room. They each have an output of 114 kW and will heat the entire gallery. They were installed by County Heating of Bodmin, whose Brian Matthews particularly remarks on the improved flueing arrangements and higher efficiency compared to the older boilers. These boilers can achieve a gross efficiency of 99% with a flow of 40°C and a return of 30°C and have very low NOx emissions.

As part of the refurbishment of an historic Grade 2 listed building in the City of London, LG Art Cool indoor air-conditioning units have been installed in most of the public areas. The building’s exterior was left untouched while the interior was modernised. Air-conditioning equipment for this project was supplied by specialist distributor Osprey Air. The client for this project selected LG’s FDX inverter-drive multi systems using standard wall-mounted fan-coil units in the small offices. Their use facilitated the installation of the wall-to-wall customised storage units that this business office needs. Each office has its own wireless control.

Elson’s heating and hot-water-services package has been used in the refurbishment of Wallis House in west London to enable apartments to have individual services, with energy provide by hot water from central boiler plant. The approach overcame the constraints posed by the site not being able to use multiple flues for boilers in each apartment and it not being technically possible to install unvented cylinders in them.

As part of the redevelopment of Norfolk House in Croydon into a 6-storey office complex and an 11-storey Travelodge Hotel, the office portion is air conditioned using Daikin VRV systems throughout.

The line ‘’Tis lack of kindly warmth’ from Shakespeare’s ‘The life of Timon of Athens’ is no longer appropriate at King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare is believed to have been a pupil. The reason is that four Clyde sectional boilers have replaced outdated boilers to deliver heating with a seasonal efficiency of over 84%.

The lighting system is an important and integral part of any building. MIKE HARRINGTON discusses the opportunities for refurbishing a lighting installation and the benefits that can be realised.

As part of a 15-year Private Finance Initiative, Dalkia will invest £2.9 million to refurbish the existing boiler plant at Kingston Hospital and equip it with CHP plant. Carbon-dioxide emissions will be reduced by around 4000 t a year. The agreement includes the subsequent operation and maintenance of the new plant and will provide secure and stable future energy supplies for this 632-bed hospital.

The refurbishment of the Grade 2 listed Baskerville House in Birmingham, dating from 1939, includes such services as chilled ceilings and beams, displacement ventilation via a pressurised floor and lighting controls to maximise the use of daylight.

Meeting the requirements of the Building Regulations when a commercial building is refurbished does not necessarily require condensing boiler plant — and it may not even be the best option. GRAHAM WILLIAMSON explains.

An important element of the building-management system installed by Integrated Control Systems as part of the £5 million refurbishment of 13 Hanover Square in London for Standard Life is the ability to access graphics and data on the performance of the building via the Internet and the transmission of security alarms by e-mail to computers, mobile telephones or a central alarm point.

The £90 million phased refurbishment of the headquarters of Norwich Union in Norwich saw the installation of a wide range of chilled beams from Trox UK. The total value to Trox over all four phases of the project was £3.5 million.

Upgrading existing buildings rather than demolishing them avoids the loss of embodied energy — making a valuable contribution to avoiding carbon emissions. One problem to solve is how to squeeze services into restricted slab-to-slab heights — as GLAN BLAKE THOMAS explains.

Substantial reductions in the cost of providing heating and domestic hot water will be achieved following the installation of Atlantic gas-fired condensing boilers at Mitton Court in Buxton, which provides 60 flats for elderly people. The two R Series boilers each have a output of 153 kW and provide both weather-compensated heating and fast-recovery hot water.

The refurbishment of over 200 Morrisons supermarkets included the installation of water-heating equipment supplied by Lochinvar.

As part of a £750 000 upgrade to its existing brewery equipment, Triple FFF Brewery Company in Hampshire has installed a new steam boiler from Fulton Boiler works. This 60J gas-fired vertical steam boiler replaces an electric boiler and supplies heat for brewing real ale, as well as steam for cleaning and sterilising kegs and process equipment.

When the time came to upgrade its original standby-power system, WRN, which specialises in global radio networks and specialist broadcast services, turned to the original supplier — Scorpion Power Systems.

Delivering value for building services is not the same as reducing costs. Indeed, a small reduction in cost could reduce value by much more. JIM HARRISON presents a consultant’s perspective.

Offsite fabrication is the ultimate in value engineering for building services. We just have to be better at selling it, says PAUL COOPER.

No-where in the new energy centre of the Natural History Museum is there a balancing or commissioning valve. Vital Energi, which manages the centre believes that using variable-speed drives with all fans and pumps is inherently a far better approach.

MIKE WILLIAMS believes that more powerful and less expensive technologies have overtaken dedicated building-management systems — presenting potential purchasers and users with the ability to have all the useful functionality required, but at a lower price.

Not only does the fully addressable DALI lighting-control system in the CatB fit-out of Allen & Overy’s new London headquarters provide a variety of options for the lighting itself, but it also holds on fan coils in response to presence detection and turns them off when lights go out.

Using plant rooms made off site by Armstrong Integrated Systems has reduced programme timescales for the expansion of two HBOS data centres.

Being involved at an early stage in the Ideapark indoor commercial city near Tampere in Finland enabled TAC to achieve considerable cost savings by fully integrating the building-management and security systems.

The need to install light switches in open-plan areas of a 3-storey office building at Burgess Hill has been eliminated by an Ex-Or lighting-control system which switches lights on and off in response to signals from presence detectors that respond to the smallest movements made by occupants; lights are also dimmed as required. The latest Building Regulations stipulate that light switches should be no further than 6 m away from the workstations of occupants.

Fireco believes that its Dorgard device provides the simplest and most cost-effective way of legally holding fire doors open and releasing them if the fire alarm sounds.

Cities and towns of the future will be markedly different from those of today, according to pictures painted at CIBSE’s national conference last month — driven by efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

It is, perhaps, easier to appreciate good design than to understand it. The annual Lighting Design Awards provide that critical insight.

MBS 07-05 comment target is 20 to 22 cm

CIBSE has completed the development of the simulation component of its Low Carbon Consultants Register. Building on the success of the operation and design aspects of the register, the simulation category is aimed at those who carry out energy performance calculations. The scheme applies to Criteria 1 of Part L 2006 for buildings other than dwellings.

London South Bank University, which has trained and educated several generations of building-services engineers, is organising an event to mark the 60th anniversary of the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration & Fan Engineering.

The engineering expertise of members of FETA (Federation of Environmental Trade Associations) is already playing a significant part in contributing to the goal of sustainable development. That was the message given by Ben Brown, president of FETA to representatives of Government and end users, consultants, manufacturers, contractors and engineers of all types last month.

OCS Engineer’s contract for the care of full HVAC services for Senator House in Queen Victoria Street in London has been renewed. This high-tech building of 20 000 m2 accommodates several blue-chip clients, including international law firm Eversheds and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Autoflame Engineering has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for innovation in providing combustion-management solutions for boilers and burners in the commercial and industrial markets. The company was established in 1972 and says it was the first in the world to apply micro-processor technology to control combustion — a development that led to massive savings in fuel and significant reductions in the emissions of harmful gases, long before reducing the world’s carbon footprint became the political focus it is today.

Pupils from Eastlea Community School in Newham in East London gained an insight into the construction industry when their school took part in the coaching scheme organised by the ConstructionSkills team at the Construction Industry Council. This scheme aims to provide pupils with the opportunity to learn about the wide range of professional careers available in the construction industry from a respected local built-environment professional. Monthly coaching sessions are complemented by external visits and practical activities.

Aqua Mechanical Services has been awarded a £4.5 million contract by Amec Construction for the redevelopment of Epping Forest College at Loughton. It involves the design and installation of mechanical, electrical and public-health services associated with the construction of a 15 000 m2 academic facility. Work is due to start on site in August, with completion by June 2008.

To support the future of the industry, Mikrofill and CIBSE have teamed up to provide four bursaries for students on courses in building-services engineering. Roger Cherrington, managing director of Mikrofill, explains, ‘One of the biggest problems we face as a company is recruiting qualified heating engineers. We work in a very specialised field, which requires a unique application of engineering. This area of engineering is growing in demand, and we need to make sure that this demand can be met.

Biomass heating and renewable energy are among a series of National Vocational Qualifications in ‘green’ skills being offered by Business Link throughout the south east of England to help companies train the staff to make the most of the opportunities being created by increasing interest in environmental issues.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded a £5 million contract by Sir Robert McAlpine for the design and installation the mechanical, electrical and plumbing services for an office block in Birmingham city centre.

Inviron has just started working on the installation of M&E services for two 11-storey 14 000 m2 bespoke office buildings at the Baltic Place development in Gateshead Quays in Gateshead. A key requirement of the buildings will be achieving a BREEAM excellent rating. The completion date is June 2008.

MITIE has teamed up with contractor Cowlin Construction for a £31 million redevelopment project at the University of Plymouth. The James Square development is a partnering project between the university and the University Project Partnership. It will be completed in three phases. The first stage will be the major refurbishment of the Mary Newman building, followed by a new residential building and, finally, a new academic building. MITIE is responsible for M&E services contracts and will also supply air-conditioning, heating, ventilation and ICT services to the James Square development.

The Renewable Energy Association now has 500 members with the signing up of the Co-operative Group. This organisation represents the renewable-energy industry, and its chief executive, Philip Wolfe, says. ‘Reaching 500 members in just over five years is an important milestone. We have welcomed several of the major banks and retailers like Marks & Spencer into the REA in recent months. These progressive household brands have realised that to meet their own sustainability objectives, they need direct involvement in renewable energy.’

Andrews Water Heaters has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for the development of the MAXxflo stainless-steel condensing commercial storage water heater.

Consulting engineers and other organisations in the construction industry joined in the recent Flora London Marathon in support of RedR-IHE, a charity founded and funded by engineers and involved in disaster relief and rehabilitation. It has been recognised by the United Nations as a leading agency in the area of water and sanitation.

With demand for its chilled beams expected to set a record for production this year, Trox is expanding its production facilities with a £300 000 investment in a 3700 m2 dedicated facility and warehouse for chilled beams close to its existing factory in Thetford.

The £9.5 million contract for M&E services for two new schools in Oldham has been awarded to Bailey. The work is part of a large PFI scheme worth a total of £97 million. Bailey Teswaine, which specialises in information and communication technology, will carry out data installation work.

Underfloor heating specialist Continental Underfloor Heating has created two new divisions specialising in heat-pump and solar technologies in response to customer demand for a one-stop company to advise on, design and supply integrated energy-efficient heating systems. All three companies operate under the newly created Continental Energy Systems brand.

Staff at air-conditioning manufacturer TEV, formerly Marstair, have beaten the BBC’s Egg heads in the game show hosted by Dermot Murnaghan to win a cash prize of £29 000.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded a £2.3 million M&E services contract for a shopping centre in Dunfermline. This retail project is an extension to the existing Kingsgate shopping centre. It includes a new flagship Debenhams store and a new 3-storey car park.

Davis Langdon as been appointed cost manager on two major regeneration schemes in the north of England for Amec Developments. They are worth a total of almost £400 million.

JEFF HOWLETT argues that to be effective in managing building services and optimising energy consumption and costs, building-management systems should be powerful and easy to operate.

Steam systems with leaking steam traps could easily waste a third of their energy input — and more. TIM GARDNER explains the vital role of steam traps in curbing this huge waste of energy.

Using the same boiler for different tasks, such as delivering space heating and generating domestic hot water, need not be an unsatisfactory compromise.

SAS International’s System 600 acoustic lighting rafts are at the heart of the building-services strategy for the £13.3 million Kaleidoscope centre of children and young people in Lewisham. They were specified by Max Fordham Consulting Engineers and are used with HCP radiant heating panels.

Luminaires from Ridi Lighting’s AIDA and ALE ranges have been installed in three separate zones of the new learning resource centre of Sir George Monoux College at Walthamstow. The centre comprises a library, central IT area and seminar and learning spaces. The high-performance lighting system was designed by Michael Jones & Associates and Ridi to deliver the correct light levels and quality of illumination for all zones.

The installation of two Broag boilers is helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the new Optometry Building at the University of Wales in Cardiff. The Gas 210 Eco MkII condensing boilers are high-efficiency floor-standing boilers with very low NOx emissions and carbon emissions. Other Broag boilers are installed in the university’s Psychology Building and the Centre for Astrobiology.

The installation benefits of Kingspan’s KoolDuct were used to good effect for a new £12 million teaching block at Reid Kerr College in Paisley. The 3-storey building is linked to the existing Renfrew Building and includes lecture theatres, nursery, special-needs education and staff facilities. At the heart of the building, in a full-height atrium, are study and rest areas for students.

Following the success of SeaChange controls in its civic offices, Restormel Borough Council in Cornwall decided to install the same modular system in its Newquay Sports Centre, Newquay Water World and Polkyth Leisure Centre.

As well as meeting nearly all the electricity requirements for lighting in public areas of a 10-storey block of flats in Bristol, a micro CHP system is providing hot water free for the 62 flats.

Oventrop Regusol transmission stations have been installed to control three solar thermal systems at a new private care home for the elderly at Stratford St Mary in Essex.

One of Gilberts’ largest-ever export contracts involves supplying over 1600 diffuser assemblies worth over £120 000 for a new office complex in northern India.

When the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore found that an average of 31% of its steam traps were failing each year, they were replaced with GEM venturi orifice steam traps from Gardener Energy Management. Each of the 147 GEM steam traps is reducing energy consumption by £360 a year — a total of £53 000 a year and representing just seven months in gas cost alone.

Ability Projects has supplied 290 of its Trojan 4-pipe fan-coil units for the latest phase of Arlington Business Park near Reading. These chassis-type horizontal units have cooling capacities of 1.5 to 5 kW and heating from 1.5 to 3 kW. They were installed by AMEC (Bristol) above the suspended ceilings.

To ensure that the air-conditioning system for the 42-storey Granite office development at La Défense in Paris would perform to requirements, Carrier’s laboratory for testing fan-coil units was used for full-scale mock-ups. 3000 Carrier fan-coil units are to be installed, served by six chillers. The building is expected to achieve certification to the Haute Qualité Environmentale, the French equivalent of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

To provide lighting that is as close to natural daylight as possible for the AirSpace exhibition at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, extensive use is made of Thorn Lighting’s Concavia high-bay luminaires using 400 W metal-halide elliptical lamps. There are 276 fittings in the main hangar.

When replacement boilers in County Hall of West Sussex County Council disturbed the system so much that filters had to be cleaned twice a day, the council sought the advice of a local M&E contractor.

As a major supplier of air-conditioning equipment for the recent Asian Games in Doha, the capital of Qatar, Carrier systems were installed in three of the five main stadia. Carrier also supplied chillers for the Al-Hodaifi Olympic Committee administration tower.

Inviron is now responsible for managing the mechanical and electrical services at 14 prestigious sites in London of Land Securities. They include Land Securities’ own offices in the Strand and commercial, retail and office premises. About 24 Inviron staff will be involved, and Inviron has added a new help desk to its London office to interface with the existing Trillium help desk of Land Securities.

Gas heating costs have been reduced by 18% and electricity bills by 15% at the Castlefield Hotel and Y Club leisure centre in Manchester following the installation of a Centraline by Honeywell networked HVAC automation system. The savings amount to about £20 000 a year for the complex, which comprises guest bedrooms, lounge bar, restaurant, sports hall, gym, dance studio, indoor running track and rugby fives courts.

Durapipe plastic pipework systems have been installed as part of a major refurbishment of the Darwin Building of University College London. Vulcathene, ABS and Friatherm pipework were used to modernise the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

As part of the National Trust’s commitment to the environment, a ground-source heat pump has been installed at the new Moorland Discovery Centre on the Longshaw Estate near Sheffield. The heat pump was installed by Andrew Engineering and serves zoned underfloor heating in this very well insulated building. It also meets the centre’s requirements for domestic hot water.

Heating costs for a 4-bedroom house in the grounds of an equestrian centre near Dartford in Kent have been halved compared to the previous combination of boiler and radiators. In addition, comfort cooling is provided in the summer, and heat removed from the house during cooling cycles is used to heat the outdoor swimming pool.

HRS Hevac’s SolarChoice solar-powered hot-water system is applicable to domestic, commercial and industrial installations.

Electric boilers from GAH Heating provide outputs of up to 9 kW for central heating and hot water.

Aermec’s NRA range of chillers uses from two to 12 scroll compressors to deliver 48 to 800 kW of cooling and 58 to 900 kW of heating. Individual compressors run at maximum output, and part-load conditions are responded to by switching off compressors.

National Ventilation, which supplies ventilation products to the UK market, has updated its web site to meet the needs not only of wholesalers and contractors but also specifiers and architects.

Hamworthy Heating has introduced a system to generate domestic hot water using solar energy. Modusol is a modular system for commercial applications. It includes high-quality solar collectors, a Biral solar-energy control system, high-performance Powerstock calorifiers and storage tanks — all designed to achieve a fully integrated system.

Vaillant has extended its ecoTEC range of boilers with the ecoTEC plus 937, a condensing combination boiler suitable for larger properties. This new boiler incorporates a 15 litre actoSTOR, which can provide 200 litres of hot water every 10 minutes. It addresses the reluctance of installers to fit a combination boiler in large properties.

Mitsubishi Electric has devised software that enables its range of R410A close-control air-conditioning systems to be linked to its WY water-cooled condensers to improve system efficiency. PFD inverter-driven units match the requirements of computer rooms and other areas where strict control of humidity and temperature is vital. The temperature can be controlled to within ±1 K.

To help designers comply with Part L of the Building Regulations, Passivent has developed an environmental modelling service with the Institute of Energy & Sustainable Development at De Montfort University.

Exhausto has developed a more versatile electronic controller for its chimney automation systems and mechanical combustion-air supply systems. The EBC20 controller ensures that the draught in a flue system is constantly correct to achieve maximum fuel efficiency and safety, regardless of how many boilers are connected to the flue or external weather or environmental conditions.

Nu-way has introduced an air-to-water heat pump for domestic and commercial applications. EcoAir is part of a range of products using renewable energy developed by the company. There is a selection of ground- and air-source heat pumps and biomass boilers. Nu-way also offers control systems and storage systems to integrate these products into existing and new heating systems.

Danfoss and SAV Modules have teamed up to market the AquaCon series of heat-exchange modules to deliver heating and hot water to apartments and other applications using energy from central plant.

Aquatech has upgraded its successful Aquapress MS41 and MS51 system pressurisation units with the addition of micro-processor control with accurate transducer for measuring system pressure. This method of operation replaces pressure-switch control and is more user friendly and requires less maintenance.

Grundfos now offers a booster set for domestic and light-commercial applications. It is designed for premises where the existing water supply is insufficient to meet the demand and augments and provides a compact and cost-effective solution for boosting the pressure of the cold-water supply.

Trox claims that the energy consumption of its new range of airside fan coils is less than half that of other units on the market.

To meet the requirements of event-management companies and exhibition organisers for generators to be connected quickly on site, Merlin Power Management’s ‘plug -and-play’ rental system enables a generator to up and running in less than 30 minutes.

Vokera’s Linea HE boiler is targeted at property developers. It has a SEDBUK A rating and running costs up to 35% less than a conventional boiler. Controls include weather compensation and Autostop to revert the boiler to standby mode if it has not been serviced within a predefined time. This servicing feature is particularly for landlords of rented accommodation to ensure that access is given for the boiler to be serviced.

Any picture you like can be added to the front panel of LG’s Art Col series of wall-mounted air-conditioning units. Take your pick from family, friends, football teams, pets, children...

Headline News is a service developed by Parasense to enable smaller sites to implement utility analysis and reporting cost effectively.

A new infra-red camera from Flir Systems comes as standard with alarms for insulation, relative humidity and dewpoint.

Eco Heat Pumps now offers a heavy-duty range for commercial and public-sector applications. Robust units are designed to meet duties from 13 to 45 kW with water temperatures of up to 65°C for units from 13 to 26 kW and up to 55°C for units up to 45 kW. COPs are better than 5:1.

A range of booster sets from the BOSS range of BSS is now included in the Energy Technology List, so they qualify for Enhanced Capital Allowances.

Carrier Air Conditioning has developed a quick-selection tool for specifying or comparing its ranges of air-handling units. The release of this tool coincides with the introduction of a comprehensive technical product catalogue for Carrier’s Holland Heating brand of air-handling units. This documentation contains product descriptions and technical specifications.

Bitzer has published a guide to its Octagon range of compressors. This 12-page publication details the background to this versatile compressor which was launched in 1998 and had sold over 400 000 by the middle of 2006.

CIBSE has published a series of guidance on the role of building-services engineers in delivering sustainability.

The KNX (UK) association has published its first guide to KNX (the new designation of European Installation Bus) to promote this open Internet working communication standard for controlling building-services applications in all types of building.

HVCA Publications has published a guide to good practice for heat pumps. TR/30 is described as a comprehensive manual for the different applications of heat-pump technology. It offers advice for professional building-services engineers and defines vital regulations, including environmental issues.