2009 June

The recession will be good for building design and is likely to spawn some of the greatest and best-value architectural creations of modern times. That was the message of Michael Thirkettle, chief executive of design and construction consultancy speaking after the recent address by Prince Charles at the Royal Institute of British Architects recently.

Titan Products has launched a range of CO sensors that can be mounted on the wall or in a duct. They are housed in an IP51 enclosure and designed for applications that require measurement and monitoring of variable concentrations of CO to control ventilation rates in, for example, car parks, loading bays, incinerator and boiler rooms.

Estimation has launched an automatic system for backing up data to a remote and secure storage area. Called DATAbank, this service is included in the company’s ProCover support package.

Danlers designs and manufactures a range of indoor and outdoor electronic time-lag switches for lighting or heating loads. They are ideal for simply saving energy in stairwells, store rooms, student accommodation, smoking shelters etc. Pressing the button switches the load on, and it then switches off automatically after the time lag has elapsed, thus saving energy by ensuring lighting, or other loads, are not left on unnecessarily.

HygroMatik, which provides commercial air humidification systems, has received certification as a CIBSE CPD course provider.

Utilising a single high-performance LED, Waldman Lighting’s Minela task light provides uniform illumination over a wide surface area with no shadowy areas. The lamp uses only 6 W, produces no heat and has a life of around 50 000 h.

The command centre of West Sussex Fire Authority and fire stations across the county are now safeguarded by open-protocol fire-alarm systems that interface with Kentec Syncro AS analogue addressable control panels.

SAS International has developed a new course on radiant heating that has received recognition as a CPD presentation by CIBSE. Ceiling-mounted radiant heating panels are produced by HCP, the specialist heating division of SAS.

Big Foot Systems has introduced five standard designs of prefabricated aluminium roof penetrations with rounded inlets to prevent damage to insulated pipes and cables. These heavy-gauge fittings have welded seams and deep flanges to ensure that they stay waterproof — unlike galvanised sheet-metal fittings with pop rivets and joints sealed with mastic, which have a very limited life and could lead to expensive insurance claims. Big Foot roof penetrations have a 15-year guarantee and are supported with a 48 hour CAD design service.

The Speedfit Blue stop end for cold-water services can be used permanently on an MDPE installation and also as a temporary cap off — avoiding the need for a squeeze-off tool. The fitting and pipe can then be reused without the need for replacement parts.

Consulting engineers Henderson Green chose Raychem’s HWAT trace-heating system to maintain the temperature of domestic hot water in its new offices at Carlton Crescent in Southampton (pictured).

Alfa Laval’s T-Series of plate heat exchangers have been developed for high-theta duties (duties with long thermal length) in the HVAC sector. Three sizes have flows of 20 (TLB6B), 13 (T5B) and 4 kg/s (TL3B) and a maximum design temperature of 150°C.

Airedale and Prism have set up a partnership to introduce the OnRak range of expandable, high-efficiency, rear-door heat exchangers. These 32 kW units can be integrated with a Prism cabinet or aisle-containment solution or adapted to fit any rack. OnRak has an EER of over a hundred and optional N+1 redundancy. These units are part of Airedale’s LogiCool range.

Vulcathene chemical drainage pipework has been selected for a major new development at the UK headquarters of Apatech in Elstree, a world leader in synthetic bone graft technologies.

Commenting on Sainsbury’s new green store at Dartmouth in Devon, commercial director Neil Sachdev says: ‘We have adopted a number of energy-saving measures including the Monodraught SunPipes, which provide amazing natural light.’ Sainsbury is the first UK supermarket to fit Monodraught 750 mm Diamond dome SunPipes in its main shop floor, bringing the benefits of natural daylight to thousands of its customers. Producing approximately 1000 lux at floor level, 750 mm SunPipes produce approximately twice as much light as a 530 mm system.

Space heating for the hangars in the new RAF Northolt site is provided by Nor-Ray-Vac continuous radiant-tube heating.

A Dachs CHP unit is contributing to a 30% reduction in the fuel bill for sheltered housing near Newcastle. It was supply by Baxi-SenerTec UK and installed alongside Potterton MB modular boilers to replacing the aging district-heating system serving the 32 flats in Lincoln Court in Hebburn.

Breezair evaporative cooling has been installed as an integral part of the energy-saving features of The Range Home Garden & Leisure store in Swindon. It is expected to use up to 80% less energy than conventional air-conditioning. This 65 000 m2 store offers 65 000 products through 16 departments.

London 2010 Olympics success for Dunphy

Ventilation for the 43 classrooms in the new Barnsley Academy is controlled by a building-management system installed by BG Controls.

As part of major refurbishment, the Jury’s 4-star hotel in Great Russell Street in the west end of London has installed satin stainless-steel wiring accessories from Hamilton Litestat’s Hartland range — some of which are visible behind the desk in the photograph. This hotel is being rebranded under the Doyle Collection and will soon be relaunched as the Bloomsbury Hotel.

Oventrop Cocon 4-port control valves have been used by Eyre mechanical-services engineers for the new Moorlands Court Extra Care housing scheme at Melbourn in Cambridgeshire to control underfloor heating in communal areas and heating in 35 flats.

The 30-year-old solar-thermal system serving the swimming pool of Abbots Bromley School for Girls has been replaced with 32 Buderus panels.

Faced with a broken power cable causing a major outage during the height of the lucrative summer season, the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley turned to Aggreko. Power was quickly restored to the site with installation of a 100 kVA generator and a 30 kVA generator to enable the museum to resume normal operation by the end of the day of call.

When the existing PA/VA system proved to be inadequate in broadcasting evacuation messages in the cavernous and acoustically challenging interior of Norwich Cathedral, Vimpex Fire-Cryer voice sounders were installed as a replacement.

Designed to give quick and simple access to all components for maintenance and repair, Ciat Ozonair’s Air Access air-handling units have been installed in the new Defence Food Services School at Worthy Down in Hampshire.

Cost savings of over £12 000 a year are being achieved by Ritrama, a manufacturer of adhesive materials in Eccles, without any capital outlay using Chalmor’s LifeSaver scheme to upgrade lighting and controls. After three years, when the capital cost has been repaid, annual cost savings will increase to £90 000. The scheme finances refurbishment projects for which repayments are less than the savings achieved.

Optimum conditions for the artificially created real snow in a new Snow Centre at Hemel Hempstead will be maintained by an underfloor cooling system.

Heating and natural ventilation is being provided by Dunham-Bush’s Freshvector system in two new buildings at The King’s School in Peterborough.

Isowarm underfloor heating from Flowcrete has been installed in over 700 apartments in Highbury Square, the redevelopment of Arsenal Football Club’s former stadium. The apartments total 44 000 m2.

The £120 000 worth of lighting-management systems supplied by Ex-Or for the Acergy office campus at Westhill Business Park near Aberdeen manages the lighting and controls scene setting and dimming.

Grundfos Pumps have been installed to provide a wide range of services for a new £21.5 million hospital serving Girvan and South Ayrshire in Scotland. Its facilities include in-patient services, rehabilitation unit, casualty department, out-patient services and two existing general practices.

The performance of the Rehau Awadukt system at a 1000 m2 Tesco store in Poland has demonstrated a performance about 25% higher than predicted by Rehau GAHE software.

Replacing boilers in the luxury 60-bed Cooden Beach Hotel in Bexhill is expected to achieve energy savings of 15 to 20%.

Homes built by Orkney Housing Association in Stromness in 2006 with exhaust-air heat pumps to serve underfloor heating and domestic hot water were recently the focus of a programme on BBC Radio Orkney.

A wireless fire system is providing a flexible and temporary manual fire alert and safety system during the construction of Dublin Airport’s £350 million Terminal 2.

As part of the conversion of a 19th century building in Sheffield to provide student accommodation, Advanced Electronics’ intelligent fire-alarm control panels have been installed.

Integrated Control Systems has completed the upgrading of the control system at Bridgewater House in London with the most modern equipment available.

Every internal classroom, teaching space and meeting room on the first floor of Corby Business Academy, designed by Foster + Partners, is naturally ventilated by Monodraught Windcatchers. The 33 units serve nearly half of the educational space. Rooms on the ground floor are mechanically ventilated.

Over 11 km of underfloor heating pipe has been installed in Sharrow School in Sheffield. It is supplied by heat pumps drawing energy from the ground via 21 boreholes. The pipe was supplied by LK Systems and installed by Quoin UK.

A US$500 million upgrade programme of the Empire State Building in New York is expected to reduce energy consumption by up to 38% and provide a replica model for similar projects around the world. The first phase is scheduled to be completed within 18 months and will achieve over half of the projected energy savings. The re­maining work will take a further 36 months.

An unusual application of a humidifier from JS Humidifiers was to supply a gin-and-tonic mix to revellers at a London bar. The wall-mounted Mistifier Plus humidifier sprayed one part Hendrick’s gin to three parts tonic water into a room decorated like the inside of a cocktail with giant limes, massive straws and a soundtrack by sound artist Douglas Murphy.

Today’s fan-coil units are very different from those of just three years ago — with major advances in their potential for energy-efficient air-conditioning and controllability, as our industry survey shows. Make sure you don’t miss the huge impact that variable-speed motors can have on reduce carbon emissions!

Pegler Yorkshire now offers a range of solar technologies to the UK market.

Underfloor heating specialist Timoleon has launched an inspection, maintenance and commissioning service, to be known as Streamline.

Rotex’s Variocistern range of rainwater storage tanks can collect 750 or 1000 l of water from the roof of a building, which is prefiltered for use in toilets and clean enough for washing clothes.

The Komfort Gem wet underfloor heating system from Underfloor Heating Supplies is described as one of the lightest and most versatile forms of underfloor heating on the market.

Danfoss ultrasonic energy meters from Taconova UK are designed to provide accurate metering of energy use from a wide variety of equipment in heating and cooling systems.

Fire Fighting Enterprises’ multi-head FireRay 5000 allows up to four beam detectors to be installed as one system — with just one control unit for all four heads. There are considerable savings to be made in time and cost of installation, wiring and power supply.

Johnson & Starley has developed a range of central-extract ventilation systems in support of the latest version of Part F of the Building Regulations and the Good Practice Guide 268 for domestic ventilation.

Rotex’s air-to-water heat pump for domestic applications can be combined with its solar products to realise a solar heating system that converts up to 80% of solar energy into heat.