2007 May

Reducing, or even eliminating, carbon emissions from new buildings cannot by itself meet Government targets for reducing emissions. The refurbishment of existing buildings has an even greater role to play.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 The reason is that four Clyde sectional boilers have replaced outdated boilers to deliver heating with a seasonal efficiency of over 84%.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.