2007 April

Simmtronic, which makes fully addressable digital lighting controls for corporate developments, has developed a new hard-wired hub for its proprietary SPECS3 systems driving DALI technology.

With natural air leakage no longer being sufficient to provide adequate ventilation for buildings, achieving good indoor air quality becomes a task for engineers. DAVID STOLTON discusses the issues.

Controlled ventilation with low energy consumption is provided in an apartment development in Lincolnshire with a ventilation scheme devised by Passivent and developer Redrow Homes.

Vortice has introduced a whole-house heat-recovery ventilation system that is said to exceed the requirements of Part L of the Building Regulations. The HRU ECO 3 RF unit is installed in the loft space and has DC motors and a heat exchanger that results in an efficiency of 95%. They are controlled by 3-speed wireless controllers.

How can you minimise the energy associated with achieving good indoor air quality? HARRI ITKONEN shares his ideas.

Modern air-conditioning units can do much more than cool the air, they can also remove all manner of impurities. DAVID MacRAE reviews the technologies used.

To overcome safety issues of automated windows that are increasingly being installed as part of natural-ventilation strategies for buildings, WindowMaster has developed a control system to avoid fingers and hands becoming accidentally trapped as they close automatically.

Online calculators for duct and room humidification are available on the web site of HygroMatik. These tools are intended to simplify the process of designing and selecting humidification systems for buildings.

Textile ventilation socks from Euro Air UK deliver conditioned air to digital print company Digital International without draughts and with low cost of ownership. They were selected by consulting engineers J. E. Evans Associates.

To help manufacturers and installers of windows comply with Part F (ventilation) of the Building Regulations, Titon has introduced a new range of slot vents, Trimvent Select Xtra.

With one of the biggest users of electrical energy in an HVAC system being fans for supplying air, Vince Eade of Jasun Filtration sees an opportunity for reducing their consumption by using more efficient air filters. He tells us that according to research in Germany, fans can account for 18% of the electrical consumption of a building.

Seeley International has introduced a controller for its Breezair range of evaporative cooler that can handle up to 10 smart hubs and control up to 41 coolers.

With the latest Building Regulations specifying low-air-leakage rates for buildings comes the need for controlled mechanical — and, at the same time, the opportunity for energy recovery from the exhaust air to improve the energy performance of buildings even more. CRAIG McFADYEN explores the economic benefits.

Halving the energy used by lighting in industrial and commercial buildings is easy. If lighting is responsible for 40% of a building’s energy use, as it often is, the opportunity for a 20% reduction could be staring you in the face. MIKE HARRINGTON explores the possibilities.

Venture Lighting’s metal-halide lamps have been used to great effect in the improvement of the visual environment for over 1200 people employed at the O2 Call Centre in Bury, Lancs.

A written guarantee for at 80 000 h of maintenance-free life is provided with a range of fluorescent luminaires from Aura. Greenstock Lamp company is supplying Aura Ultimate long-life fluorescent tubes to sister company Aura Corporation to fit in Superlife versions of its Actulite polarised daylight fittings.

Modern approaches to lighting control can be installed at the same time as the lighting, and by the same electrician. COLIN LEGG reviews the options available and their benefits.

Focusing too much on reducing solar gain into office buildings will lead to buildings that are unpleasant to work in. People benefit from daylight. HARRY BARNITT discusses how to balance the requirements of Part L and people’s need for good lighting.

With seven channels providing a combination of timed, switching, occupancy and response to changing light levels, Chalmor’s Autolux controller is described as providing the functionality of a high-end lighting-management system for a fraction of the cost. It is also said to be intuitive for end users to operate.

New floor-standing luminaires from Luxo combine screen-printed or prismatic glass with a mirror 5 reflector system and cast-aluminium head glass. The option of prismatic glass for Free luminaires increases light output by 20%.

Mercury Recycling is making significant expansion to its recycling services in preparation for the implementation of the WEEE Directive later this year (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment). The expansion increase the company’s capabilities in terms of volume, scope of service and geographical coverage.

Wireless controllers from Danlers enable lighting to be switched or dimmed and are described as offering a practical solution to complying with Part L of the Building Regulations, especially in buildings where cables are not practical. These controllers can also be used with other electrical loads and are available as hand-held and wall-mounted versions.

Lighting at Birmingham’s reinvented Fort Dunlop incorporates ceiling-mounted PIR presence detectors from CP Electronics with a special finish.

The use of an LED as the light-source in the flush-mounted JSB Micropoint recessed emergency luminaire from Cooper Lighting makes possible a diameter of just 3 cm. This light source has a life of 60 000 h, and the fitting delivers uniform illumination, making it ideal for coverage of open areas.

Refurbishment of Surrey County Council’s Quadrant Court offices in Woking has included the replacement of Cat 2 luminaires with a range of fittings from Whitecroft Lighting. They include specially modified versions of Cascade luminaires to meet the needs of the project.

To provide a wider forum for people in the industry with an interest in building controls, BCIA (the Building Controls Industry Association) has introduced an associate membership category. It is aimed at consultants, contractors, architects and building owners and occupiers.

Weatherite Building Services has been appointed an accredited installer by Mitsubishi Electric for its air-conditioning systems. The award has been made under Mitsubishi’s partner programme, which provides accredited installers and end-user customers with a number of important advantages — including a 5-year warranty, compared to the usual three years, on all Mitsubishi air-conditioning equipment installed by Weatherite.

MITIE has teamed up with Surrey Education Business Partnership to visit schools across Surrey taking part in games designed to give pupils business, planning and negotiating experience.

Space Airconditioning has renewed its support for the Krystal Racing team for the 2007 Metseler Racetec National Superstock Championship, part of the British Superbike Support Package.

Diffusion has bounced back from two years of poor trading with a 26% increase in sales over the last 12 months, an upswing in profits and signs of a more buoyant market place. The company’s product range includes fan coils, over-door heaters and air conditioning systems to optimise the quality of the working and living environment. The company expects to see continued growth over the coming 12 months and to hire more production staff.

SummitSkills, the sector skills council for building-services engineering, has achieved Investors in People status.

Inviron’s contract with Equion to be its M&E maintenance partner at 16 police stations in Greater Manchester has been extended for another year.

Tower 42, the tallest building in the City of London, has become the first entrant from outside the USA to be recognised at the ‘Office building of the year’ awards. The title was presented at the International Annual Commercial Real Estate Congress in Dallas of the Building Owners & Managers Association for the category ‘2006 distinguished entry award office building of the year international winner’.

The building and facilities services division of AMEC has secured a major facilities-management contract with the NEC Group, Birmingham, AMEC will be responsible for delivering the mechanical, electrical and building-fabric maintenance services for all NEC Group venues. They include the exhibition halls and entertainment arenas near Birmingham together with the Symphony Hall, International Convention Centre and National Indoor Arena in the city centre.

NG Bailey, one of the UK’s largest building-services providers, has acquired Integrated Control Systems (ICS) — a specialist controls company. ICS has a turnover of £8 million and is based in the south east.

Metrico Industrial Fans has a new owner — Victoria Fans of Mossley, Lancashire. The shares, goodwill and export agencies of the company have been acquired by George Garside and Ian Grimsditch of Victoria Fans. Roy Pickersgill, former owner of Metrico, is now an export consultant to Victoria Fans.

As part of the continued development of its Quartz fan-coil business, TEV has added a replication room to its extensive suite of performance and sound-power test chambers. This room simulates site installation for fan coils, cassettes and wall-mounted units. Sound pressure can be measured to demonstrate the noise levels that can be expected with the actual installation.

LG Air Conditioning is expanding its technical services by recruiting up to eight more staff in response to rising demand for VRF products from major contractors, property owners, developers, premises managers, building-services contractors and consultants.

Thermal Transfer is acting as the principal contractor for the design and build of a new £2.5 million laboratory near Livingston in Scotland.

AC2000, which specialises in the installation of air conditioning and mechanical services, has become one of the first air-conditioning contractors to achieve registration with BESCA (Building Services Competence Accreditation).

The thousandth CHP unit to be made by Ener-G at its factory in Salford has been delivered to the London Borough of Enfield for installation in Edmonton Leisure Centre.

As part of SES’s £3.75 building-services contract for two new buildings at the University of Teesside a chiller weighting 3.5 t is craned into position by a specialist 100 t crane. Over two days, the crane hoisted into position four Carrier chillers, four air-handling units and prefabricated modules onto the roofs of the new buildings for the Institute of Digital Imagery and the Centre for Creative Technologies.

The British Refrigeration Association is to offer the responsible trading initiative that it has developed to ACRIB, the Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Industry Board, with the aim that DEFRA can use core parts of the scheme in its basket of solutions for compliance with the F-Gas Regulation. ACRIB is the central sector body consulting with DEFRA.

The Roman hypocaust heating system has been voted by the UK H&V industry as the top product of all time in the Hall of Fame initiative associated with the recent H&V07 exhibition and featured in our December issue.

When you have reduced the carbon footprint of a building as far as possible with good engineering practice, what can you do about the remaining carbon emissions? The answer is carbon offsetting, as MARK NORTHCOTT explains.

Despite the powerful green image of solar energy and wind power, heat pumps are by far a more effective way of exploiting renewable energy, as we found out from PHIL MOORE.

Air conditioning aNd the refrigerants it uses frequently get a bad Press. But Mitsubishi’s Donald Daw believes that air-conditioning technology holds the key to reducing the UK’s emission of carbon dioxide.

Energy costs have been cut and carbon-dioxide emissions reduced by 1800 tonnes a year at the Natural History Museum following the installation of a tri-generation system to deliver electricity, heating and cooling — and there are many other benefits. KEN SHARPE takes up the story.

Geminox’s vertical cascade flue system enables up to 11 boilers on 11 levels in, say, an apartment block to share a common 110 mm-diameter flue riser and addresses the requirements of CORGI’s Appendix 1, which states that flue joints should be available to inspect.

A new fire-protection system from Siemens Building Technologies has integral support for BACnet and Ethernet, so it can communicate with virtually any modern building-management system.

Aermec’s NSB range of air-cooled chillers uses R134a and offers cooling capacities from 240 to 1600 kW. They use twin-screw compressors for medium and high cooling capacity and are said to have an EER 15% higher than models using R407C.