2008 January

Increases in the cost of raw materials have led to Carrier Corporation announcing a 5% increase in the price of all Carrier brand products in the UK.

Exor Management Services has teamed up with the Electrical Contractors’ Association to provide members with an easier route to wider public-sector accreditation and broader recognition of the quality standards that members have already achieved.

10 years ago, the market for chilled ceilings and beams was very much smaller than it is today — and the market will continue to grow, according to Saziye Dickson.

Multi-service chilled beams form a key part of the low-energy solution for a new building at Southampton University. Supplied by Trox for the Treble E (engineering, entrance and education) building, the beams are supplied with chilled water from an absorption chiller with a flow temperature of 14°C and a return of 17°C. The chiller is linked to the recently completed site-wide district-heating and CHP plant.

Growing numbers of services engineers are building chilled beams and ceilings into their designs in the search for more innovative and flexible low energy solutions, says Alan Green.

From reducing the energy requirement for comfort cooling to overcoming the constraints of refurbishing buildings, chilled beams can provide imaginative solutions. John Staunton explains.

Terry Farthing share his views on why the popularity of multi-service chilled beams is growing so rapidly.

To help achieve the highest possible BREEAM rating for a new Government building in Bournemouth, cooling and fresh air are provided by SAS active chilled beams.

Not only were these houses in Salford erected in just seven days, but the project in Vincent Street of the Higher Broughton area won for Taylor Woodrow the prize for housing innovation at the Quality in Construction Awards.

Glow-worm’s new Ultracom range of high-efficiency combi boilers is available with outputs of 24, 30 and 38 kW. They all have a back-lit and stylishly designed programmer to give complete control and flexibility over heating and hot-water requirements.

Saunier Duval’s Semia Condens combi boiler is available with outputs of 24 and 30 kW and a SEDBUK B rating. They have a stainless-steel recuperator, pipe-connection tails that are clip distance from the wall and a telescopic flue option.

Adding Zenex GasSavers to three condensing boilers in the multi-purpose Plymouth Pavilions has solved under-performance issues that resulted to inadequate supplies of hot water. and reduced overall gas consumption by at least 25%.

10 years ago, wall-hung boilers above 100 kW would have been almost unthinkable, but now they are commonplace in commercial heating installations. Richard Walker explains how the market is changing to embrace smaller boilers in light-commercial applications.

Stokvis Energy Systems has devised a standard specification for its Heatpak packaged boiler rooms. They are available with various heat outputs for rapid delivery to site.

Extensive, indepedent testing of Hoval UltraGas boilers has confirmed that their average NOx emissions are less than 40 mg/kWh. This means that these boilers, across the full range of outputs from 15 to 1440 kW, achieve the full maximum BREEAM rating of three points for NOx emissions.

As part of the renovation of the fire station at Hove by East Sussex Fire & Rescue Services, a Tuffa Firestop 10 000 litre tank was installed to serve the heating system. It replaces an old steel tank that was inside the building.

Peter Roege considers how UN and British climate-change policies impact on the design and operation of boiler houses. affect your boiler house.

As part of the refurbishment of the 4-storey house in Hackney of Tommy Walsh of Groundforce fame, a Keston C55 wall-hung condensing boiler serves the heating system. There are four very large bedrooms and underfloor heating throughout the ground floor. These boilers are room sealed, so they can be installed almost anywhere.

Baxi’s commercial-heating training academy at Erdington in the West Midlands is fully equipped with boilers from Potterton Commercial and water-heating products from Andrews Water Heaters. All the appliances are live, enabling training to be delivered on products, installations, commissioning, servicing and fault finding.

Dr Robin Cotton explains how biomass is providing heating solutions for large-scale applications such as district-heating systems and outlines its future development prospects in the UK.

Vaillant high-efficiency ecoMAX commercial boilers have been installed at Cranford Hose School in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, to replace an old leaking boiler.

Heating boilers in student halls of residence throughout the central campus of the University of Warwick are progressively being replacing with Atag E Series condensing boilers to reduce fuel costs and carbon footprint.

Richard Evans explains why high-efficiency and condensing boilers are still one of the most popular ways to meet the energy requirements for modern heating systems.

Most boiler suppliers and manufacturers offer a biomass option — but what is driving the demand for biomass, and how can you ensure a successful installation? Ian Bradley has some pointers.

The recently opened £30 million Redland Green School in Bristol has its space-heating requirements met by three Broag-Remeha 310/7 boilers installed by Lorne Stewart. These floor-standing boilers were recommended for this particular location for the efficiency and performance and ultra-low NOx emissions.

Security of power for the communications room of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is now provided by a standby generator system from Scorpion Power Systems. Specified by consultants Meinhardt UK and purchased through BW Interiors, the generator will automatically support the company’s system if there is a protracted power outage.

Off-site construction of building services facilities speeded up the build programme, reduced site traffic, and minimised on-site health and safety risk for a prestigious London office development.

The new web site of Schiedel Rite-Vent has sections specifically created for specifiers, heating engineers and merchants.

‘The solar heating and design guide’ from the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association offers comprehensive information on the specification, design and installation of solar heating systems. It runs to 162 pages and has been compiled to assist professional heating engineers with hot-water systems that principally use heat energy from the Sun.

PHS Waterlogic has launched a new web site covering its mains-fed water dispensers. It provides information about these products and an ordering system.

Elta Fans Building Services has launched the fourth edition of its Select catalogue, bringing together a wide range of fans and associated ventilation products. The catalogue includes Elta’s stocked range of axial, mixed-flow, centrifugal and roof-mounted products for next-day delivery.

Information of all Elkay Electrical products, in-cluding its new Energyrange, is now available on the company’s new-look web site.

There are 10 new air curtains in the 2008 catalogue from JS Air Curtains. The company says its range is now the widest in the UK and includes air curtains for all applications, from economic electric units up to powerful industrial units for doorways up to 5 m high.

The British Refrigeration Association has produced a practical guide to the F-gas Regulation to inform the refrigeration user supply chain of its obligations. It covers the following aspects of the regulation.

Legrand has prepared a brochure on compliance with Part M of the Building Regulations (access to and use of buildings). Steve Willmore, Legrand’s regulations and standards manager, explains, ‘Part M has been around for a considerable length of time, but as it’s only applicable to applications for Building Regulations submitted after 1 May 2004, it means that only recently has it begun to have a major impact on the market.

To address new challenges in electric heating, Heatrae Sadia has restructured its sales and marketing teams.

As part of its partnership with Darlington Education Village, the north-east office of building-services provider SES attended a careers fair for year-10 pupils. The aim of the partnership is to minimise the inherent skills shortage in the region in the engineering and construction industry and to contribute to the professional development and improvement of employment opportunities of young people in the area. SES also aims to highlight the wide-ranging and exciting career opportunities available.

An intrepid team of 28 from project and cost consultancy Davis Langdon has raised around £25 000 for charity by taking part in the Grim Challenge at Aldershot training barracks. The challenge consists of an 8 mile race around the very muddy assault course, involving running, crawling and wading through waist-deep water. The water was particularly deep for this challenge at the beginning of December as it was the wettest year the event has taken place.

Nu-Way’s burner training courses for 2008 include the maintenance and service of blown gas burners and the operation of pressure-jet oil burners and controls.

Faced with having to cancel a wedding reception when the temperature pressure relief valve in its H&V system cut out, a large Devon hotel eventually managed to source a valve from the Bristol branch of WF Electrical, having failed to find another supplier that could deliver that day. The part was delivered by motorcycle courier so that services could be restored, including catering facilities.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded a £3.1 million contract to provide M&E services for the new headquarters of South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service in Sheffield city centre.

LG is planning to boost its research-and-development division by 70% during the coming year and its sales staff by 40% — and is promising a series of launches of environmentally considerate equipment.

UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) has awarded personnel certification to CIBSE Accreditation for its Low Carbon Consultants Scheme.

Wavin Plastics has launched a series of literature covering its Genius Osma underfloor heating products for commercial and industrial applications. There are five Osma underfloor heating systems.

In designing a new management centre at the Grade I English Heritage listed Bicton Arena, for Clinton Devon Estates, consulting engineers FaberMaunsell had to take account of strict planning restrictions, as well as the client’s requirements for a sustainable building. The result is a building that exceeds the requirements of Part L 2006.

An inaccessible basement plant room called for a lateral approach for installing a new heating system for one of the City Of London’s landmark buildings — 10 Queen Street Place, EC4, now occupied by European law firm S. J. Berwin.

Discreet underfloor heating in a mining museum in Northumberland provides modern comfort for visitors without distracting from the machinery and other trappings of a working colliery.

Air conditioning for Derby City General Hospital, which is being redeveloped by Skanska under a £333 million PFI project, will be provided by McQuay air-handling units and chillers.

Marston’s Inns & Taverns is installing building-management systems from Trend Control Systems in 550 pubs in England and Wales to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and enhance comfort.

Passive infra-red occupancy switches designed and made by Danlers have been installed in the Merchants Academy School in Bristol. Scheduled to open soon, this school comprises seven buildings to provide facilities for over 1150 pupils. They switch on a connected load automatically when an area is occupied and switch it off again when the area has been vacated for a chosen period.

The payback on energy savings alone for a new lighting system in the automated distribution centre of Wincanton in Corby is estimated at less than two years. In addition, the longer relamping cycles of Chalmor Brilliance light fittings will reduce maintenance costs, shortening the payback to 1.6 years.