The Government has tightened the time for the construction industry to comply with new climate-change regulations. Transitional arrangements have been slashed from the usual maximum of three years to just 12 months to speed up the take up of new regulations and maximise their impact on climate change. The announcement was made by Housing & Planning Minister Yvette Cooper.

White Young Green’s Manchester office is acting as mechanical-and-electrical representative for the client on a new £24 million medical project in Liverpool. The project involves new laboratory facilities for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Building-services contractor Worthington Nicholls Group is looking to raise up to £15 million to fund the organic and acquisitive growth of the business in the UK and Europe by seeking permission to seek admission to trade on the Alternative Investment Market. The company claims to be the UK’s largest independent installer of air-conditioning, heating, ventilation and chilled-water systems.

Chalmor has been awarded a £40 000 grant by Shell Springboard towards the development of an innovative programmable electronic thermostatic radiator valve (eTRV). This device will be low-cost and easy to install and offer the potential to achieve a 25% reduction in heating bills for many homes and small businesses.

Two organisations representing H&V contractors and facilities managers have signed a formal agreement to stimulate excellence in facilities management. They are the services and facilities group of the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association and the British Institute of Facilities Management.

BAA has announced the team for the Heathrow East proposal. Foster & Partners is the architect, with Hoare Lea & Partners as building-services engineer and Arup as structural engineer. Mace and Laing O’Rourke have been appointed to provide early-stage construction advice, and Doug & Smith has been selected to provide early-stage commercial advice.

The role of containment and handling to control the emissions of F-gases (CFCs) from air-conditioning equipment has been supported by the Conciliation Committee of the European Union. The committee has rejected the European Parliament’s attempt to give Member States a carte blanche to introduce or maintain stricter national legislation. The compromise achieved prohibits the introduction of new measures from 2005, and existing national measures will cease to apply after 2012.

Toshiba Air Conditioning has opened its first-hands-on customer-training centre for VRF air conditioning outside of Japan. It is on the Belliver Industrial Estate in Plymouth, where the warehousing distribution and parts stock management for Toshiba Carrier UK are now co-located.

Despite growing business in the private commercial, industrial and housing sectors, the total volume of construction output in 2005 fell by 1% compared to the previous year. Total output in the fourth quarter of 2005 was unchanged compared with the third quarter, both in volume terms and in current prices, according to figures from the National Statistics Office.

Works for M&E contractor SES take a step closer to completion with the delivery of plant equipment, including a 5 t chiller and three air-handling units, for the 8-storey St James Gate development in the heart of Newcastle. The company’s £2.3 million contract includes the installation and commissioning of all M&E services to the development and utilises large-scale modularisation methods to the risers, floors and core services.

ACE, the Association for consultancy & Engineering, has launched a new professional-indemnity insurance scheme. It was developed after listening to members’ concerns about the increasing use of PI insurance and conducting a major review of the current market and providers.

A SKILLcard for humidification engineers has been developed by the HEVAC humidity group and the HVCA in response to increasing demand from clients and main contractors for evidence of competence in this highly specialised field.

Among over £30 million-worth of new contracts marking a successful start to 2006 for Robertson Construction in Scotland is a new £6.5 million preparatory school for Glasgow Academy (pictured). The company has also begun work on the £19 million mental-health facility at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow. West Lothian Council has appointed Robertson to build the new £6.5 million Simpson Primary School, the first school in Scotland to be built under Section 75 of the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act.

Fujitsu has strengthened the distribution of its air-conditioning products with the appointment of Wave Air Conditioning. Martin Richards, managing director of Fujitsu UK, says, ‘The appointment of Wave reflects a long association with managing director Andy Stanford, whose past knowledge and experience of selling Fujitsu products will add another positive element to our channel strategy.’

CIBSE and ASHRAE (the American Society of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) have jointly called for continued reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions, guidelines relating to reduced energy consumption and responsible refrigerant use. The statement was signed at the ASHRAE 2006 Winter Meeting in Chicago recently.

Seamless data exchange along the design supply chain of building projects is bringing a range of benefits. CHRISTOPHER GRPOOME reports on what is happening worldwide.

Copper’s traditional benefits combined with modern innovations keep it competitive in today’s market, explains PETER MARSH

A planned ventilation hygiene strategy carried out by specialists will not only improve indoor air quality and comfort conditions; it should also keep you safe, according to the HVCA’s Richard Norman .

HELEN ELIAS explains how to get more from the customer-satisfaction surveys that are required as part of a quality-management system.

Good indoor air quality and the efficient use of energy cannot be separated with the arrival of new Building Regulations.COLIN JUDD and DAVID BLEICHER have the details.

RIK PROWEN examines the effects of indoor dry air, its causes and how to eradicate the problem.

Overheads cannot be controlled at the expense of indoor air quality, and good indoor air quality is more than just ventilation. JIM KILCOYNE weighs up the various issues.

Against the background of today’s environmental concerns, good indoor air quality and energy efficiency must go hand in hand. STEVE BATCHELOR explores the issues.

Clean air is good for people, furnishings, fittings and expensive equipment. MARTYN STANTON discusses the role of air cleaners in delivering good indoor air quality.

To meet guidelines and requirements for ventilation, Matravers School in Westbury has installed five Passivent Airscoop terminals.

To meet guidelines and requirements for ventilation, Matravers School in Westbury has installed five Passivent Airscoop terminals.

The Marta air purifier and room-ventilation unit from JS Air conditioners draws in fresh air from outside, purifies it and heats it before releasing it to the room.

Air filters supplied to maintenance contractors by Emcel can now be labelled with the company name and contact information as an aid to securing repeat business. This free service applies to disposable panel filters, which are offered in standard sizes from G2 to F8 in a variety of media. Emcel can produce virtually any non-standard panel size as required.

A study of the effects of the Daikin air purifier on 69 patients of Paris-based allergist D Haddad has indicated a number of benefits. The research was carried out over six months on patients who were allergic to pollen and indoor allergens or who suffered from asthma or rhinitis.

Vokes-Air top-of-the-range filters for fine dust and gases have a new name. The former Luwa FP filters are now called Compatex FP.

Air-filtration specialist Jasun Filtration has enjoyed its most successful year in its 33-year history. Last year’s turnover grew by 13%. The growth in carbon filters was 66%, individual panel filters grew by 14%, and sales of filter media were up to 29%.

As part of the refurbishment of Hyde Park Barracks in London, the stables, nearly 300 of them, are ventilated by 13 air-handling units from the Max range of VES Andover. Each unit provides around 6.5 m3/s of tempered air. Some units incorporate heat recovery.

Scolmore’s new ventilation catalogue includes its latest 100 mm fans in a choice of control options and decorative finishes, slimline 100 mm and 150 mm models and automatic louvre fans. The Showerkit is also included, along with flexible ducting, vents, grilles and accessories.

Air-handling units designed to reduce relative humidity to around 20% are playing a key role in the preservation of the ironwork of SS Great Britain, the only surviving steamship designed and built by Brunel.

LG’s NanoPlasma air-purifying system for its air-conditioning products helps remove microscopic contaminants, dust, house mites and pollen. It also helps remove bad odours such as cigarette smoke by catching the odour particles.

Seeley International claims to have become the only manufacturer of evaporative air-cooling systems in the world to achieve compliance with VDI Standard 6022. The company’s products are available in the UK as Breezair.

MIKE LAMB explains why the installation of larger-scale underfloor heating systems is a job for trained professionals.

The characteristics of underfloor heating systems lend themselves to achieving compliance with the requirements of the forthcoming Building Regulations to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.

BILL McCONNEL explains.

Over 500 m2 of open-pan shopping space in a new extension to Ashton Hall Garden Centre on the outskirts of Lancaster is heated by a Robbens underfloor heating system served by an oil-fired boiler. Tony Abbit, who has owned this garden centre for the last 12 years, says, ‘These days, garden-centre customers are looking for more than just plants and compost. Our new extension has been specially designed to meet their demands for hundreds of garden related items, from furniture and barbeques to specialist books and clothing.

Electric underfloor heating mats made by Tyco Thermal Controls have been installed in the bathrooms of 216 luxury apartments in the Granton Harbour waterside development at Leith near Edinburgh.

Emmeti has added new functions to its Topway manifold system, which can be used with underfloor heating systems. A new component combines the functions of double-regulating valve, lockshield and flow meter.

Mita’s aluminium dado perimeter trunking is used throughout a new primary school in Northern Ireland to provide the cable-management systems.

The installation-time savings of Cablofil steel-wire cable tray compared with traditional sheet-steel tray are being exploited in a 20 km installation in the new £200 million Drake Circus shopping centre in Plymouth.

Mita’s aluminium dado perimeter trunking is used throughout a new primary school in Northern Ireland to provide the cable-management systems.

HRS Hevac has supplied 27 Aquasave Bios units to generate domestic hot water for a variety of applications in Morpeth Hospital. These semi-instantaneous units combine the instant generation of DHW with a buffer capacity.

SAV’s commissioning modules are playing a key role in the installation of an air-conditioning system comprising over 400 fan-coil units in the City of London. Bridge House comprises seven floors of prime office space and is a development by Credit Suisse.

Replacing old and inefficient heating and hot-water systems in a privately owned block of flats with high-performance boilers and other equipment from Stokvis has significantly improved fuel efficiency and comfort for occupants.

Air distribution in this spectacular new medical building at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science (ICMS) at Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry is provided using Kingspan’s pre-insulated Koolduct system.

Energy consumption in the Avon Building at the University of Warwick has been reduced by 39% during the first six months of the current heating season following the installation of three Hamworthy ModuMax 120 high-efficiency condensing boilers. During the first year of operation, they are expected to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 27 t.

The ice system for the new Curl Aberdeen was designed by Star Refrigeration and based on ammonia refrigeration plant.

Cooling, heating and lighting are provided by 44 special multi-service chilled beams supplied by Trox for the London Centre for Nanotechnology, a department of University College, London. The contract was worth over £100 000, and Trox worked closely with architect Fielden Clegg Bradley, main contractor Bluestone, consultant Buro Happold and M&E contractor RTT.

Among London projects using Crane Z3000 Dominator compact flow-management systems to control hydronic systems is the new stadium of Arsenal Football Club. Heating and air conditioning in the office building and the players’ changing rooms will be controlled by fan-coil units fitted with these valve. Crane is also supplying all control valves for the various plant rooms around the new Emirates Stadium.

Independent health-club operator Bannatyne has installed Lochinvar water-heating equipment for its health club in Banbury. Peculiarly important for such an application is the fast recovery of these direct-fired, balanced-flue water heaters to cope with high demand for hot water from showers.

A passive heating and cooling ventilation system using earth ducts will reduce energy consumption by up to 75% at Butterfield Business Village in Luton. Developer Easter Group is striving to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standard for the buildings in this development and a ‘A’ rating under the new European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The earth ducts will regulate temperature and guarantee excellent air quality.

Boilers in the club house of Bath Rugby Club have been replaced with three Broag Quinta 85 wall-hung, high-efficiency condensing boilers to provide heating and hot water for players and members.

Over a hundred Aquamaster fan-convector heaters from Powrmatic have been installed in a large secondary school in Wolverhampton to replace a heating system that was over 25 years old and prone to frequent failure. Reasons for selecting Aquamaster heaters for St Edmunds Catholic School include ultra-safe design, low maintenance requirements and excellent heating performance.

Part of the specification for eco-friendly holiday homes near the historic market town of Richmond in North Yorkshire is the use of Ferroli condensing combi boilers with a SEDBUK A rating.

Sanyo gas-fire and electric VRF air-conditioning system shave been selected for the stores of ScS Upholstery nationwide. Gas-fired GHP systems have been used at many sites to overcome a shortage in available power.

The upgrading of data-networking systems in the Town Hall of Royal Tunbridge Wells has been achieved using Rehau’s Profila Data PVC trunking system. The work was carried out while staff were still occupying the building, so ease and speed of installation were important.

Up to 40 people can take showers at the same time at Marley Activities & Coaching Centre in Keighley, with instantaneous hot water provided by 36 wall-mounted water heaters from Andrews. Such is the capability of these continuous-flow water heaters, that a continuous throughput of 130 people can use the 72 showers within 10 minutes.

Cooling and heating for the latest conference and hospitality facilities at the new Liberty Stadium in Swansea are provided by Toshiba Super Digital Inverter split-system air conditioners. The quiet operation of the indoor units was a prerequisite because of the relatively low ceiling. Another benefit of the SDI system is its ability to operate with long pipe runs, enabling the outdoor units to be located in a discreet location inside a small service compound on the external wall a floor below the suite.

Lighting costs have been reduced by 65% at the bottling facility of The Irn-Bru Company following the installation of long-life, maintenance-free Endurance light fittings from Chalmor. They were installed following an electrical inspection that led to a rewiring.

Control of the heating and ventilating systems for the new state-of-the-art fire station in St Albans is provided by a Coster system based on its DTE 611 modular BMS concept. The services installation was designed by Mace, and the controls were installed by Palace Tech of Rochester, a premier partner in Coster’s national distribution network.

Following training from Cablofil in the installation of welded-steel-wire cable tray, Skanska completed a complex project for the new data centre of Cisco Systems in Reading on time, within budget and with no time lost through accidents.

A Vapac electrode boiler has replaced an aging steam generator in Harrogate’s famous Turkish Baths. It provides a continuous supply of steam for the steam rooms, where temperatures top 45°C.

Knürr has introduced a replacement for the rear door of server cabinets that incorporates a water-cooled system with a capacity of 8 kW. CoolAdd is easily retrofitted to existing cabinet installations and absorbs 8 kW of heat from the air leaving a cabinet, delivering it to the room at the same temperature as it entered the front of the cabinet.

Clivet’s Spin range of chillers offers capacities from 180 to 770 kW and is nearly twice as efficient at 50% load than when operating at full capacity.

Baxi Group has entered the market for commercial stainless-steel condensing boilers with the launch of two boilers.

Daikin Europe has updated its R410A range of FTXS/RXS heat-pump and FTKS/RKS cooling-only wall-mounted split air-conditioning units. The new 50, 60 and 71 class combinations of indoor/outdoor units have maximum COPs of 3.63 and EERs of 3.23.

Energy-efficiency ratios (EERs) of up to 8.0 can be achieved by the EWWD range of water-cooled chillers from Daikin. This performance is achieved at half load. EERs at full load range from 5.2 to 5.35.

The AB-QM control valve from Danfoss is a very compact dual-purpose valve that can be used as an automatic flow limiter or, when fitted with an actuator, a combined flow limiter and temperature-control valve.

Acson has launched a range of wall-mounted inverter air-conditioning systems using R410A. These DC inverter systems are said to offer energy savings of up to 30% compared to similar products with fixed-speed compressors.

Thermoscreens has introduced a new range of air curtains for retail and commercial applications with improved style and design.

Irisys claims to have dramatically reduced the cost of thermal imaging with the launch of the IRI 4010. This instrument includes a 9 cm colour backlit LCD display of 160 x 120 pixels. Temperatures from –10 to +240°C can be measured and recorded with an accuracy of ±2% of reading or ±2 K, whichever is greater.

MHS Boilers has launched two hot-water generators for large volumes.

The Armstrong live steam humidifier from JS Humidifiers runs at up to 4 bar pressure to produce hotter and drier steam than systems running at 2 bar. This high pressure also makes possible a greater output — up to 1823 kg/h from a single unit; this is said to be two to three times more than competitive units.

Durapipe has launched a plastics ball valve for demanding applications. VKD valves are available in ABS, PVC-u, PVC-c, polypropylene and PVDF.

MK’s Alloy range of wiring accessories is available in a range of finishes designed to complement the demands of modern interior design. They include brushed nickel, black nickel and polished chrome — with the option of black or white inserts.

Ridi Lighting’s F-Line range of direct/indirect luminaires has a profile of just 25 mm. They are available in a range of T5 lamp sizes and configurations. For ease of installation, variable wire suspension positions are provided on the luminaire.

Designed to maximise the capabilities of fan-coil units with DC electronically commutated motors is the Desigo RXC31 controller from Siemens Building Technologies. It enables fan speed to be matched to demand, compared with traditional controllers that run the fans at fixed speeds.

Cooper Lighting & Security has completely redesigned and expanded its Solstar family of downlights.

To reduce the risk of vandalism and waste of water associated with damaged external taps, Arrow Valves has developed a tamperproof box for hose-union taps.

Carrier Air Conditioning has set up a dedicated engineering team for commissioning and warranty work. A team of very experienced engineers has been given special training to form a specialist department under former commissioning co-ordinator Steve Avery, who becomes national customer-services manager.

A new device from TridonicAtco enables task-specific lighting moods to be programmed and activated automatically in all DALI lighting-control systems. The DALI sequencer enables lighting moods to be called up one after the other automatically. x-touchBOX is used with the x-touchPANEL.

A range of emergency luminaires for offices and commercial interiors combine performance and attractive appearance. The Voyager Elite range of self-contained emergency luminaires uses an 11 W TC-SEL lamp, rather than a typical 8 W lamp, to produce a better spacing performance. Their oval shape is described as achieving a consistently high-quality appearance and providing an alternative to the traditional rectangular ‘bricks’.

Estimation’s Service Manager Plus software can be run on virtually any hand-held device following the introduction of new mobile technology from the company. This feature enables contractors to introduce mobile working to their service and maintenance work without having to buy new hardware.

Watts now offers the Mueller Steam Speciality and Polyjet product ranges following a stock purchase transaction from SPX Corporation.