2006 July

DAVID LEATHERBARROW believes that true innovation is not something that can be cultivated but needs freedom to grow.

JOHN ARMSTRONG reports on the launch of the CIBSE campaign 100 days of carbon clean up, which stresses the importance of measurement and provides the way to rate operational performance of buildings.

One of the major players in off-site construction in the building-services industry is NG Bailey — and the opening of a new factory significantly boosts its capabilities.

ANDREW EASTWELL firmly believes that applying new technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings needs the support of research to eliminate associated risks early on.

As part of the £35 million refurbishment of Wembley Arena, Integrated Control Systems has completed a £190 000 controls contract. ICS designed and installed a building-management system to control the vast auditorium, hospitality areas, dressing rooms, promoter’s offices, entrance foyer, bars, restaurants and food outlets.

Quiet air conditioning that is simple to control is provided for a residential village in Buckinghamshire for people over 55 using equipment for Toshiba and Carrier.

Underfloor heating has proved to be the ideal solution for the new Brunswick Beech Care centre on the outskirts of Newcastle.

Simmtronic SPECS3 controls were chosen for the award-winning lighting scheme at BP's new financial operations centre at Canary Wharf in London. For the Cat B fit-out of this 22 000 m2 office at Canada Square, Simmtronic supplied electrical contractor T. Clarke Plc with a fully addressable lighting-control system with automatic light-level compensation and DALI control gear for the special 5-lamp fittings.

Energy-efficient air conditioning for the new Blue Cross animal hospital in Grimsby is provided by a Daikin VRVII R410A heat recovery air-conditioning system providing up to 44.5 kW of cooling and 50 kW of heating.

hree oil-fired Ferroli cast-iron boilers have been installed as part of a £5 million refurbishment at an historic manor house in Brighton. Once complete, the renovation of the eighteenth-century Stanmer House will provide a venue for weddings, conferences and corporate events.

McQuay UK has drastically reduced on-site labour costs for a huge air-handling unit for a fast-track contract in Scotland by the off-site packaging of electrics, control panels and pipework.

High-performance fan-coil units and air curtains have been supplied by Biddle Air Systems for the new Institute of Molecular Medicine, Epidemiology & Cancer Research at St James’ Hospital in Leeds.

The installation and commissioning of air-conditioning using fan-coil units in a luxurious residential development in London was considerably simplified using SAV commissioning modules.

As part of a programme of refitting its car showrooms, Toyota has installed underfloor heating in its showroom at St Leonards. It is believed to be the fist showroom in this programme to have underfloor heating.

To increase heating efficiency and deliver improved tenant services in the Three Rivers District Council area in Hertfordshire, the council and boiler manufacturer Glow-worm have entered into a partnering agreement.

Frost protection for a 10 200 m2 distribution centre in Leeds is provided by an air-rotation system designed by Nordair-Niche.

To help provide the best working environment for its staff, building-services-engineering consultant Desco has installed Mitsubishi heat-recovery air conditioning in its new premises in Sunderland. The 700 m2 2-storey building accommodates 40 staff.

George Wimpey has become the first national house builder to offer complete RCD protection for all electrical circuits in its houses — substantially reducing the likelihood of electric shocks.

Pumps with extremely low maintenance requirements will bring valuable benefits for the new heart-and-lung unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. The 4300 Series in-line pumps from Armstrong Holden Brooke Pullen make it possible for routine maintenance on critical HVAC systems to be carried out in minutes instead of hours.

Reznor delivers comfort for antique dealers and pigs

The refurbishment and remodelling of the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia makes extensive use of equipment from Carrier. Six chillers ranging in size from 33 kW Aquasnaps to 250 kW units are coupled with 45 modular air-handling units.

Women MPs tap into manual skills

The Energy 2006 exhibition has had to change its opening dates. The new dates are 7 and 8 September, replacing 6 and 7 September. The venue remains the same, the National Motorcycle Museum.

Ambi-Rad has expanded its capabilities in radiant heating with the acquisition of Sonning Heating for an undisclosed sum. Sonning radiant heaters use hot air to deliver highly effective heat in large-space buildings. Ambi-Rad’s expertise is direct combustion.

Bookings can now be made for Mitsubishi Electric’s seminar tour next year. Ian Parry, business-development manager of this air-conditioning company, says, ‘As these courses are CPD [continuing professional development] verified, they offer the industry an independent view of some of the major issues affecting us all today.’

CIBSE, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, has called on the Government to introduce operational ratings for buildings more widely. The institution has declared its support for the Government’s intention to introduce limited use of operational ratings as part of the implementation of the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive.

Diffusion, a UK manufacturer of commercial heating and cooling products, has announced a 38% increase in sales this year compared with the same period last year.

Water-supply issues are addressed in the design of a new building at Merton College by collecting rainwater for sanitation and water plants. Formerly opened by Bill Rammell, MP, the minister whose responsibilities include further education and lifelong learning, the building provides students with a library and learning centre with over a hundred computers and 20 000 books and journals, flexible IT-networked teaching spaces, sixth-form centre, IT café and bookshop, science laboratories and special areas for the visual and performing arts. It provides 6000 m2 of floor space.

Work-related accidents in the construction-products industry fell by nearly 20% in the year 2005/06, according to the latest Key Performance Indicators. This fall follows a reduction of nearly 30% the previous year, representing a 42% improvement in two years.

Building-services contractor SES has completed the £6.5 million M&E contract at the new PFI Education Village in Darlington. This £37.3 million project has been hailed as the ‘natural exemplar’ for education in the country and brings three local schools together to create one learning campus. The site will accommodate 1400 pupils aged three to 19.

Air-conditioning distributor Oceanair has joined the LG distributor network. The company has branches in Nottingham and West Sussex and offers the full range of LG air-conditioning products — including Art Cool, the Multi V range and all other multi-split products.

Briggs & Forrester has been awarded a £6 million contract for installing M&E services in a new office block at 40 Holborn Viaduct in London on a site that was originally constructed in the 19th century.

New guidance on the total environmental warming impact (TEWI) refrigeration and air-conditioning systems has been published by the British Refrigeration Association. TEWI is a measure of the global-warming impact of equipment based on the total related emissions of greenhouses during equipment operation and disposal of operating liquids at the end of its life. It is measured in mass of carbon-dioxide equivalent.

EPS Page has secured a third consecutive phase of a contract for the mechanical fit-out of new premises for Morgan Stanley at Canary Wharf. This latest contract brings to £2.4 million the value of work in the 13-storey HQ1 at 20 Bank Street in Canary Wharf.

Building services was represented at this year’s Isle of Mann TT races by Uniflair as a sponsor of the Tom Hanks sidecar team. This was Uniflair’s debut at this event. He was overall winner in 1997 and has competed for a number of years as a passenger, but switched to driver and had immediate success.

The lifetime costs of electric heating for homes can be 46% less than gas, according to a study comparing a typical installation of six electric or wet radiators with their lifetime expectations. It used information from the National Landlords Association and British Gas Servicing to understand true costs. Fuel costs were based on BRE GPG345 and updated with the latest and least-expensive online prices for gas and electricity on 20 March 2006.

Uwe Schlenker of Honeywell Building Controls EMEA (centre) has won a major industry marketing award for launching and developing CentraLine, a Europe-wide brand for energy-efficient networked HVAC system automation in small and medium-sized buildings. The Frank Dennis, OBE, marketing award is sponsored by the Federation of Environmental Trade Associations. It was presented by FETA director Cedric Sloan (left) and Doug Robins, president of FETA member group Building Controls Industry Association.

Watts Industries has moved into renewable energy with the acquisition of Swedish manufacturer Kin Olofsson Safe Corporation (Kinsafe).

Vodafone UK has awarded a 5-year multi-million contract to Dalkia, a specialist provide of technical facilities services and energy management.

Ductwork specialist CCL Veloduct is responding to booming demand in the East Midlands and the north by trebling the size of its Nottingham branch. New premises have been found on the Queen’s Drive Industrial Estate. The 1100 m2 premises will hold greater stocks of air-movement and ventilation products and also house a production line for spiral ductwork — the first in the area.

25 000 fans with electronically commutated motors have been sold in the UK by Ebm-papst since their launch in September 2003.

Orders for private-commercial and private-industrial projects both showed a sharp decline in the three months to April 2006 compared with the previous quarter, according to figures from the Department of Trade & Industry.

Just about everywhere you go in the building-services industry these days, there is much talk about improving the energy efficiency of buildings — and, by implication, carbon emissions. Until fairly recently, the interest was directed at new buildings — prompted by the long-awaited new Building Regulations based on designing buildings to achieve a certain level of carbon emissions.

Ex-Or has won a contract to supply lighting controls throughout the University of Manchester for the next three years. The award follows the installation of Ex-Or’s lighting-management systems and controls in new buildings and refurbishment projects over the past two years.

An estimated £56 000 has been cut off the energy bill of Glasgow Science Centre following a review of the operational profile and reprogramming the Honeywell building-management system to take account of the changes.

As part of the extensive refurbishment of a Dutch government building, Priva Building Intelligence is providing an integrated solution for the control of HVAC services, lighting and sun blinds. The refurbishment of this 1984 building includes the installation of an Ethernet network, which will enable the building-management system to take full advantage of system integration.

JOHN FALLON explains why the future for building management systems is wireless — and looks at the potential of Zigbee.

CentraLine is simplifying energy-efficient networked automation of HVAC systems by bundling all its application knowledge into Coach. This software is described as easy to use and to deliver error-free configuration.

JOHN MARROW discusses the steady progress that is being made towards a nationally recognised qualification for controls engineers.

Trials of Airbloc air curtains with a new control panel have shown average energy savings of 40%. These tests in high-street stores were on an exposed site in the winter, and it is believed that greater savings could be achieved on less-exposed sites, during warmer months and with reduce air outlet temperatures.

FRASER HYMAS discusses the importance of electronic controls to enable air-conditioning to perform to its best potential — and even generate invoices for air-conditioning services.