2010 May

Paul Sands describes an approach to producing domestic hot water using solar energy that sidesteps the problems of storage.

The building services sector has eagerly embraced sustainability as a powerful weapon in the battle to conquer climate change. But, asks Mike Jenkins, how many people understand what sustainable development really means and appreciate its full commercial potential?

Justin Maeers outlines some of the issues surrounding the misrepresentation of the efficacy of luminaires using light-emitting diodes.

While politicians have been setting deadlines for new buildings in the UK to be zero carbon, it is engineers that have the task of delivering. They have been looking deeply into the issues, as was very evident at a CIBSE event.

ALC Lighting Controls has created a bespoke lighting management system for Aquinas College in Stockport to achieve high energy efficiency and the flexibility to accommodate different activities in the space through the day. This Catholic sixth-form college accommodates some 1800 students. A key element of the lighting-control specification by consulting engineers Gifford Manchester was the ability to adapt to variable occupancy, such as facilities being used by the local community in the evenings, while optimising efficiency.

Hager has joined the KNX UK Association as a manufacturer member with its Tebis bus-based building-services control system, which is interoperable with over 2000 approved KNX products from more than 150 manufactures.

SC Controls, the commercial division for SeaChange controls products in the Ener-G group, has developed an e-learning educational package for schools and the education sector. The software can collect live data from an onsite SeaChange control system via the school’s IT network. Students will be able to experiment with live values and develop a better understanding of their environment.

The Health & Safety Executive has warned those with a responsibility to maintain and service gas appliances in schools and other public buildings that they must have a robust gas safety management system in place. What does this mean in practice? Chris Dearden, managing director of Medem (UK), explains

WindowMaster has appointed Ivory Egg as a reseller of selected products. Ivory Egg is an independent wholesaler of products for building automation systems that conform to the KNX standard and will initially be stocking WindowMaster’s NV Comfort range and associated actuators and KNX power supplies. This indoor climate solution is designed for small and medium-sized buildings.

ATC Semitec’s SP series of high-precision NTC thermistors are said to have a significantly lower price than other ‘interchangeable’ NTC thermistors — enabling a wider range of users to achieve more accurate temperature control and, thus, more comfortable and energy-efficient environments.

Legrand’s lighting-management solution can pay for itself within 18 months. The system is easy to install and incorporates three different sensors and a choice of two remote configurators, making it applicable for all kinds of commercial establishments. Such control can reduce energy consumption by at least 30% by turning off lights in unoccupied spaces.

Making information about a building’s energy consumption available to those who work in it will help to bring down energy use. Anders Norén, shares his views on how a fairer model of energy management can act as a springboard for behavioural change programmes.

BG Controls has installed the intelligent building-management system for the newly built Gainsborough Educational Village. It brings together four old schools in the town into a single facility that is shared by two schools. They are Trent Valley Academy to provide secondary education for 1200 mainstream pupils and the Aegir Community School, with 112 pupils.

EnTech continues to win work at the MediaCityUK development in Salford Quays. The company is a member of the KNX UK Association and was originally awarded the contract by NG Bailey to design and commission a KNX intelligent building solution for the three BBC buildings in the development. It gives the BBC full control over the lighting in these buildings. Now, EnTech has also been awarded the contract for the maintenance of Building C, which was completed and handed over in September last year.

Services that can interact with one another offer the potential for buildings that are more comfortable and use less energy. Jeremy Aston examines the advantages of integrated building-services solutions.

BCIA figures reflect market downturn, but members are weathering the recession well, and are prepared to come out of the recession in good shape.

Keeping energy consumption under control should be a continuous process. Mike Reilly shares his experiences of 20 years’ involvement with the London School of Economics.

Osram has developed a way to replace T8 36 W fluorescent lamps and control gear with LED technology. T8 Substitute externally resembles a fluorescent tube and can be installed without any changes to the luminaire — except replacing the starter — and achieve energy savings up to 50%.

Electricity costs for lighting the Isambard Brunel car park in Portsmouth has been nearly halved following the installation of new energy-efficient lamps in existing fittings using the Save It Easy Device from Energys. The reduction in electricity costs is £17 573 a year, representing 87 t of carbon.

Enjoying the energy-saving benefits of adding variable-speed pumps to existing systems requires modifications to the system. Wayne Rose shares some ideas.

The installation of solar photo-voltaic panels on affordable homes in Huddersfield has proved even more energy efficient than Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing and supplier Photon Energy expected.

To provide energy-efficient supply and extract ventilation for the refurbishment of Oxford City Council’s Northway Community Centre, Vent-Axia has supplied its Sentinel Totus D-ERV demand energy-recovery system. The upgrade to the centre involved moving and changing the use of existing committee rooms and creating a new IT hub. As a result, two new internal rooms were created, one for child-focused activities and a large meeting room — and both required upgraded ventilation.

Replacing aging boilers with modern, high-efficiency models can make a huge dent on carbon emissions — with much shorter payback periods than renewable technologies. Richard Evans explains why boilers have a much longer shelf life than some are suggesting.

Every building that exists today needs to reduce its energy consumption by 30% by 2020 to meet the Government target of reducing energy consumption by 20%. David Lewis suggests how.

As the country steps up efforts to tackle the sustainability of existing buildings, offsite pre-fabrication of building-services modules is set to play an increasingly important role, says Paul Cooper.

Carbon-dioxide emissions from a village hall in Devon are expected to be reduced by 9 t a year following the installation of 100 solar photo-voltaic modules that will produce about 16.5 MWh of electricity a year. Becosolar installed the 180 W monocrystalline solar modules on the existing slated roof of Rattery Village Hall following a site assessment by Devon Association of Renewable Energy.

All Four Seasons, which specialises in air conditioning and heat pumps, has devised an approach to producing domestic hot water by utilising heat that would otherwise be rejected by air-conditioning systems. Called Eco Hot Box, the system can be retrofitted to many existing systems — including splits and VRF systems. The system is claimed to pay for itself in the first year of operation and provide cost-free hot water thereafter.

The installed lighting load in the manufacturing and workshop areas of Task Displays in Leicester has been reduced by 44% with the support of a Carbon Trust loan. Task Displays operates from 3700 m2 premises in Leicester and supplies most of the UK’s major shopping centres with bespoke displays for individual retail outlets or across a wide chain of stores.

Opposition to the push for zero-carbon buildings is growing because of the potential cost. The money would be better spent on low-carbon refurbishment, says Sue Sharp.

Douglas Delabie water-saving products for shower rooms are being installed as part of a 3-phase project for new student accommodation at Oxford Brookes University. Plumbing contractor Off Site Solutions installed Advance Elite shower valves and kit units and Tempostop self-closing taps with integral flow regulators into shower-room pods that could be dropped in on site.

Lochinvar has won a £43 000 contract to supply water-heating products from its recently expanded EcoKnight range to Luton Sixth Form College. The contract includes four EcoKnight gas-fired condensing water heaters and four storage tanks for blocks five and eight at the college on Bradgers Hill Road in Luton.

The installation of Mitsubishi Electric’s City Multi R2 air conditioning into a purpose-built auction house in Dronmore, Co. Tyrone, is helping to provide a comfortable environment for international bidders from around the world. It was installed by Air Cool Engineering of Limavady, a business solutions provider for Mitsubishi Electric, enabling the company to offer a 5-year warranty on the air-conditioning installation.

Britannia Kitchen Ventilation has installed a Refresh circulation unit in the central-London office of Cadbury Green & Black to provide kitchen ventilation without extensive ductwork running to atmosphere or the costly structural alterations normally associated with traditional installations. The free-standing unit incorporates a services tower housing an integral fan unit and four stages of filtration to remove grease and odours from the airstream. The cleaner air is reintroduced to the kitchen through the integral supply-air diffusers on the front face of the canopy.

Rather than repair its 5-year-old R22 air-conditioning system serving its kitchen, the Mugen Japanese restaurant in the City of London replaced it with a new R410A inverter split system from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Europe. This system enables existing pipework and wiring to be reused, minimising cost and disruption.

The task of commissioning the domestic-hot-water system in a new retirement village in Birmingham has been simplified using Oventrop multi-function DHW secondary-circulation regulating valves. Oventrop regulating valves have also been used in the heating systems for this development of 120 apartments of one and two bedrooms, which includes health-and-leisure facilities such as a gymnasium, restaurant, craft centre, shops, hair salon, bar and laundrette. There is also an IT suite and garden with a greenhouse.

Power Electrics Generators has supplied standby power for a ... power station. The 1850 kVA containerised system will provide standby power for essential services at Didcot B combined-cycle gas-turbine power station operated by RWE npower. The project includes the installation of a 20 000 l bunded fuel tank and total project-management responsibility.

To provide flexibility of use for two stadia that will stage matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Daikin water-cooled VRV sir-conditioning systems are being installed instead of large-capacity central chiller plant. They are the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. The installations will comprise 170 outdoor and 351 indoor units.

Aberdeen’s new £275 million Union Square shopping centre uses 20 air curtains from JS Air Curtains to keep out the severe winter weather in the north-east of Scotland. Three types of air curtain were installed by M&E contractor NG Bailey. JS Air Curtains worked with Bailey for six months to design and supply the systems. Work included producing technical diagrams showing each installation, CAD drawings and individual mounting brackets for four horizontally mounted units.

Complementing the high-tech research work that will be carried out in the purpose-built £25 million Advanced Forming Research centre at the University of Strathclyde are the M&E pumping solutions based on Grundfos Pumps. This world-class research facility will focus on supporting fundamental and applied research into forming and forging.

As part of the £150 million upgrade programme of the Marston Road student accommodation development for Oxford Brookes University, the Thermo-link system for making individual connections to radiators has been installed — making possible individual zone temperature control. This system uses double-walled plastic tube installed in the floor screed to connect each radiator to a Thermo-Link manifold (as illustrated). The twin-wall construction prevents floors becoming too warm.

Standby power in the event of a power cut will be available within an hour at 17 residential homes operated by Colten Care Group following a contract with power-support company Powercall UK. Colten runs care homes throughout Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire, and many elderly residents rely on powered equipment to improve their quality of life.

Problems associated with chlorine smells in the large indoor swimming cool at Alton Towers Resort have been resolved following the installation of two Hanovia UV disinfection system to replace the ozone water-treatment system. Combined chlorines have been reduced from 0.9 ppm to just 0.3 ppm. Combined chlorines (or chloramines) are responsible for the distinctive chlorine smell associated with indoor chlorinated pools. They cause sore eyes and are a major cause of rust in indoor pool complexes.

With the 700-year-old gatehouse of Tonbridge Castle now being used as a reception and retail area, energy-efficient heating is provided by a range of Creda equipment selected to match heaters already used in other parts of the building. Tonbridge Castle is owned by Tonbridge & Malling Council, but little remains except the gatehouse, which is put to multiple uses.

Renewable energy for two new children’s’ centres in Yorkshire is provided by solar-thermal systems to generate domestic hot water. They were installed by Kimpton Renewable Energy Systems on centres in the grounds of Trinity & All Saints School in Bingley and Sandals School in Baildon.

The Terrain Acoustic dB12 piping system is part of a package of products from Polypipe Terrain installed on a new residential development in Manchester’s Salford Quays. The mixed-use Abito development built by Ask Life uses exposed water and soil pipes as a design feature in the car park and basement levels. This required a piped system with a suitably high-quality appearance and a high level of acoustic insulation, leading to the selection of Terrain Acoustic dB12.

Zip Heaters, which specialises in instant boiling water equipment, has its products used in all four UK Parliaments — the Houses of Parliament in London, the Scottish Parliament building, the Stormont Estate in Northern Ireland and the Welsh Assembly.

Over 2 MW of heat can be recovered from exhaust air by four large air-handling units installed as part of ongoing refurbishment work at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Each of the four roof-mounted units supplied by thermal Technology can handle 27 m3/s and recover 501 kW of heat using an exhaust-air run-around coil.

Elta Fans has supplied four long-case run-and-standby fans for the pressurised ventilation at the new Dalston Junction Railway Station being built in the London Borough of Hackney. These 1250 mm fans were supplied and fitted by Advanced Smoke Technology, which designs and installs smoke-control, extract and pressurisation systems.

Natural ventilation for the new visitor centre at the Wat Tyler Country Park at Pitsea in Essex is provided by two Monodraught Windcatcher systems with bespoke capping systems designed in close co-operation with Laurie Wood Architects. A third system is integrated with the boiler flue, and a fourth is used as a plenum for the kitchen-extraction system.

An ongoing programme of energy upgrades and planned replacement for properties belonging to the University of Bristol has demonstrated the versatility and economic viability of Stokvis Energy’s Econoflame boilers. Two years ago, a pair of Econoflame 6000 boilers (pictured) were installed by Mitie Engineering in the plant room supplying administration and teaching facilities, linked to the Social Sciences department, in the city’s Clifton district.

Energy-efficient lighting for a new production facility of Frontline International in the USA is provided by Dialight high-bay LED lighting fixtures. Just 59 DuroSite Series fittings have been installed at mounting heights of 7 and 7.6 m to illuminate the 1040 m2 facility. Even though the new facility is three times the size of another using fluorescent and incandescent lighting, considerably fewer fittings were needed. In addition, energy consumption and CO2 emissions have been reduced.