2007 June

Reducing UK carbon emissions by the equivalent of every vehicle on Britain’s roads today is the object of a wide range of measures proposed in the Energy White Paper published late last month. That objective would reduce carbon emissions by 23 to 33 Mt by 2020.

Panasonic’s 2007 range of air-conditioning units includes a sophisticated air-purifying system and inverter technology that reduces energy consumption by 50% during cooling and 64% during heating. These units are said to be ideal for small shops, offices and homes.

The Neo Plasma system for filtering and purifying air used in LG’s Art Cool air-conditioning units comprises seven specialised filters in five separate stages to enhance cleaning power to reduce fine dust, mould, unpleasant odours, cigarette smoke and microscopic contaminants such as mites and pollen. It is also said to help prevent the contaminants which may irritate asthma sufferers.

CIBSE’s new president, John Armstrong, believes that reducing the energy consumption of buildings is increasingly a key role of building-services engineers — with convergence driving the engineering and technology of the future.

Daikin’s commitment to the UK was emphasised by Peter Verkempynck, deputy managing director in the UK, to over 600 guests at Daikin UK’s industry conference at the new Wembley Stadium last month. They included customer’s from the company’s D1 network, consultants, specifiers and end users.

An approach to using the fabric of a building to exploit renewable energy has been devised by AmbiRad Group and CA Group. It has the potential to reduce heating costs by half — and more.

An approach to using the fabric of a building to exploit renewable energy has been devised by AmbiRad Group and CA Group. It has the potential to reduce heating costs by half — and more.Imagine a sustainable heating system that enables building owners to make a genuine environmental contribution without turbines, photo-voltaic cells, or complex heat pumps. Imagine a system that provides fresh heated air for space or process heating and which can achieve payback on capital costs in as little as three years in new buildings. Imagine a system that can be completely recycled at the end of its life — making minimal ecological impact. Look no further.

Biomass and biofuel boilers were heavily promoted at H&V07 and ISH in Germany. So which is going to determine the future of green heating? Ian Bradley thinks it’s a two horse race — with biofuels nudging ahead.

Designing integrated buildings requires integrated design packages. David Payne explains how CADline has been working on a fully-integrated design and analysis solution for smarter compliance with Part L.

Moducel is providing a closely controlled environment for mission-critical computing facilities at Salisbury District Hospital. The facilities are a key part of the hospital’s infrastructure and operate round the clock.

Airedale’s LogiCool range of packaged chillers for computer suites and server rooms can be matched with direct rack-cooling solutions from leading rack producers and also linked to airside cooling systems from Airedale and other manufacturers.

Recent enhancements to Dunham Bush’s extensive range of fan-coil units include the launch of the Concierge unit for hotel rooms and the introduction of EC motor options for the Panther, Leopard, Puma and Jaguar series.

Andrew Keogh explores how chiller technology is taking on the energy efficiency challenge.

Using EDC International’s Inverter Phase Check modules makes it possible to determine whether problems with inverter-controlled chillers are due to the compressor or the inverter.

Having spawned the 2006 Building Regulations, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive continues to impact on the industry with the development of schemes for inspecting air-conditioning systems over 12 kW of cooling. Hywel Davies explains how new guidance from CIBSE will help the industry.

Terry Farthing reviews how the steady influence of air-distribution systems from Europe have shaped the UK air-conditioning market.

As part of a major refurbishment of John Lewis stores in England and Scotland, Weatherite Building Services has upgraded air-conditioning in the Milton Keynes store.

The energy used by air conditioning is often seen as contributing to the carbon-dioxide emissions that cause global warming. However, comfort cooling and reduced emissions can go together, as John Durbin explains.

Waterloo Air Products is continuing to re-establish itself in the UK air-conditioning market with the recent opening of a northern office, extending its technical capabilities by investing in staff and facilities and developing new products.

New companies, new products and ever-changing market shifts are all revealed by BSRIA’s latest survey of the UK air-conditioning market. David Garwood has the details.

The installation of five Breezair evaporative cooling in two areas of Jones Stroud Insulations in Preston has reduced peak summer temperatures from over 35°C to 25°C. The coolers serve the reinforced-tower and carbon areas and were installed by CoSaf Environments. Their success has prompted Jones Stroud Insulations to expand the cooling system to other areas of the factory.

LG’s Art Cool range of indoor air-conditioning units now includes Mirror units. They have all the advanced features of the Art Cool range as standard and also allow for digital airflow control to ensure maximum comfort.

Air conditioning for the new Battle Abbey visitor centre is provided by a Daikin mini VRVIII heat-pump inverter system.

Trox UK has supplied and installed a wide range of active chilled beams for a speculative office development in Scotland. This contract for the largest single office scheme in Scotland was worth £450 000 and involved special 300 mm-wide flush-mounted chilled beams through the centre of the landmark Waverleygate office development next to the main railway station in Edinburgh.

Without ductwork, air conditioning is just comfort cooling. But ductwork is not something that can be shoehorned into any space available, as Paul Roxburgh stresses.

SAS’s range of integrated service modules bring together equipment such as chilled beams, luminaires and other services, are said to provide an energy-efficient alternative to traditional air conditioning. When suspended from the ceiling plane or in coffers, ISMs leave the concrete soffit exposed, enabling thermal-mass cooling to take place.

To simplify the specification of air-handling systems, Carrier has developed a packaged, complete air-handling system for air flows from 1.8 to over 11 m3/s and cooling capacities up to 190 kW with integrated controls and software.

To recieve further information please.....

Test article

Panasonic’s 2007 range of air-conditioning units includes a sophisticated air-purifying system and inverter technology that reduces energy consumption by 50% during cooling and 64% during heating. These units are said to be ideal for small shops, offices and homes.

Moducel is providing a closely controlled environment for mission-critical computing facilities at Salisbury District Hospital. The facilities are a key part of the hospital’s infrastructure and operate round the clock.

Waterloo Air Products is continuing to re-establish itself in the UK air-conditioning market with the recent opening of a northern office, extending its technical capabilities by investing in staff and facilities and developing new products.

The Neo Plasma system for filtering and purifying air used in LG’s Art Cool air-conditioning units comprises seven specialised filters in five separate stages to enhance cleaning power to reduce fine dust, mould, unpleasant odours, cigarette smoke and microscopic contaminants such as mites and pollen. It is also said to help prevent the contaminants which may irritate asthma sufferers.

An agreement to develop and promote commissioning within the construction industry has been signed by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the Commissioning Specialists Association. The signing of this memorandum of understanding builds on previous work and provides shared access to member benefits and services.

Crane now offers a manifold commissioning device that enables up to six fan-coil units, or other terminal units, to be commissioned and maintained from one point.

Belimo’s pressure-independent characterised control valves greatly simplify the design and installation of hydronic systems by delivering a constant preset flow over a wide range of differential pressure such as are encountered in systems with variable-speed pumps.

Oventrop valves played a key role in commissioning the water-based services in the new £25 million Sandwell Academy in West Bromwich. The 2-storey academy will specialise in sport and business enterprise.

Oventrop Hydromat Q automatic flow-regulating valves have been installed to serve mission-critical blade-server racks as part of the refurbishment of mechanical and electrical infrastructure systems of data halls of a leading bank.

Duncan Selby warns against placing too much reliance on differential-pressure control valves in variable-flow systems.

Tour & Andersson has introduced a product that is said to have the capability of reducing installation time by at least 20% and commissioning time by over 50%. Called TA-HUB (to imply hydronic user-friendly balancing) the concept also significantly reduces the time required for the maintenance of hydronic system by bringing together control valves for a number of terminal devices to a single location.

Doug Robins offers advice on how to realise a control system that will result in a well run and energy efficient building.

With the driving need for building-services and facilities managers to ensure internal environments are maintained in a sustainable way comes several considerations for dealing with waterborne heating and cooling systems. Pressure losses across balancing valves can ruin the control of a variable-flow water system, resulting in loss of internal climate control and accompanying complications such as irritating excess pipe noise. Peter Rees advocates the tried and tested method of differential pressure control and offers some advice on measuring the pressure across the system.

SAV FloCon modules have been used to provide centralised commissioning of services for new luxury apartments in Dublin and to monitor the supply of energy to each flat.

The performance and operating costs of pumps throughout their lift is dramatically affected by how well systems are commissioned. Roy Henderson shares his views on how to achieve effective commissioning.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded the £5.5 million electrical fit-out contract for the 15-storey Dashwood House in London’s Liverpool Street. Two existing plant level roof floors will be removed and four office floors added to take the building to 17 storeys. The ultimate client is Land Securities, and Balfour Kilpatrick is carrying out the works for Skanska Construction. Work is due for completion in September 2008.

Building-services provider SES has won the £7 million M&E design and installation contract for the restoration of 22-26 The Headrow in Leeds city centre. SES begins work on the project in October, joining key building contractor Wates Construction, which started demolition works in February.

GSH Group has won a contract to provide facilities and energy-management solutions for the London Eye for the next three years. Neil Murray, managing director of GSH in the UK, says, ‘You can’t help but get excited about winning the contract to look after one of the capital city’s most iconic buildings.

The scale of the recruitment and retention challenge facing the consultancy and engineering sector and the behaviour of recruitment consultancies are to be investigated by a taskforce set up by the Association for Consultancy & Engineering (ACE).

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has won this year’s HVCA Gold Award for outstanding services to the construction industry and the built environment. Announcing the award, Robert Higgs, OBE, chief executive of the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association said that during a political career dating back to 1971, Ken Livingstone had seldom been a stranger to controversy. Robert Higgs, said, ‘At a time when climate change, global warming, carbon-dioxide emissions and sustainability throughout the built environment are all high on the political — as well as the industry’s — agenda, he can truly be described as being on the side of the angels.’ In response to the suggestion that climate-change issues are by their very nature global, and that what London can do is therefore a mere drop in the ocean, Ken Livingstone counters, ‘The majority of people on the planet live in cities — and cities can lead the way.’

Bailey, part of NG Bailey, one of the UK's largest building-services providers, has won an RoSPA award for its commitment to health-and-safety management. The award recognises Bailey's outstanding H&S practice, taking into account H&S systems, policies and excellent commitment to performance in this area.

Horizon, the SummitSkills project to develop a Sector Skills Agreement for building-services engineering, has reached the second stage of its development — the assessment of current provision (ACP). This stage will help the sector to directly influence training provision to ensure it is fit for purpose.