2012 February

Siemens has extended its proven Acvatix range by the introduction of a new range of pressure-independent control combi valves, types VPP46 and VPI46 to complement the existing VPI45 range. These have a control valve for temperature control, a differential-pressure controller for balancing pressure fluctuations in the hydraulic system, a facility for pre-adjusting the required flow rate, and pressure test points for measuring the differential pressure — all integrated in one valve body. They reduce planning, installation and commissioning costs, and increase the control accuracy under all operating conditions, leading to increased energy efficient operation.

Metstrut, the cable-management division of Metsec, has been selected as a preferred supplier by Balfour Beatty Engineering Services. The Balfour Beatty group-wide initiative has created a framework to achieve environmental and operational benefits in three key areas: health and safety (zero harm); increased use of standardised components and off-site assembly; the building of competencies through the early influence and control of the procurement process.

Air-management specialist Sirius Products has developed a modular filtration system designed to eliminate around 98% of perceptible grease, smoke and odour from kitchen extract emissions. This system consists of high-performance electrostatic precipitators and UV filtration units; it can be configured to accommodate any airflow and any cooking process, and is ideal for use in locations where issues of environmental health and sustainability are of particular concern. By improving capture efficiency and eliminating the need for non-recyclable filters, Sirius’s ESP and UV filtration sends almost zero waste to landfill and significantly reduces overall energy consumption.

Legrand’s power-distribution division has been granted accreditation for two new CPD courses focused on the busbar versus cable debate and a guide for specifying medium-voltage transformers. The courses can be delivered at Legrand’s customer training centre in Birmingham or taken directly to a client.

An advanced system for smoke and heat exhaust ventilation developed by SE Controls has received full Registered Detail Certification from Local Authority Building Control following a detailed and extensive performance evaluation process. The SHEVTEC Extended Travel Distance System provides an off-the-shelf solution for developers to deliver extended travel distances with a single escape staircase while avoiding the expense of CFD modelling. The system enables the size of smoke shafts to be less than half the 1.5 m2 required by natural-ventilation system complying with Approved Document B.

During 2012 Grundfos is offering a range of training opportunities focused at various professionals working with industry, commercial applications and water and wastewater areas. Courses are available at various locations around the country, depending on content and the need for demonstration products. Training days are free of charge.

Big Foot Systems offers the complete non-penetrative mounting system for photovoltaic panels on a flat roof.

Amtech, which develops end-to-end software solutions for the building-services industry, is launching a free contractor directory. It will be a valuable tool offering HVAC, electrical and plumbing contractors greater exposure and helping them to win more work.

Sentinel has added commercial water-treatment products to its range with the launch of a commercial division. The company’s commercial team is made up of professional chemists and engineers who work with customers, often on site, to ensure the correct selection of the various treatment technologies.

Rinnai’s Heavy Duty HD50i Internal water heater is a wall-hung, gas-fired continuous-flow water heater that can deliver hot water at 13 l/min through a 50 K temperature rise. It has a 125 mm concentric flue that can be extended up to 15 m, less 1 m for each 45° bend. These water heaters can operate with pressures from 1 to 10 bar, so they are suitable for mains cold water and systems with boost pumps. Incoming water temperatures of up to 60°C are accepted, making the HD50i suitable for secondary return systems.

Stokvis Energy System’s Econopress Electronic pressurisation units are designed for heating and chilled-water systems up to 2.8 bar cold-fill pressure. There are five units in the range, including floor-standing and wall-hung options. All are mounted in fully enclosed mild-steel powder-coated cabinets.

Europe’s largest urban shopping centre, Westfield Stratford City next to the Olympic Games site in east London, has its diverse pumping requirements met by equipment from Grundfos Pumps. The centre cost £1.45 billion to build and has 300 shops, 70 restaurants, 17-screen cinema, three hotels and the UK’s largest casino.

Demonstrating the benefits, including improvements in the potential performance and energy savings, from the retrofit installation of sustainable water treatment to existing buildings is a major factor in the take-up and case for investment. Being able to demonstrate what is flowing where, not flowing or, even, flowing backwards can go a long way to establishing confidence with potential customers that your company knows what it is doing.

The pump interests of ITT Corporation (USA) have been brought together into a new water-technology company. Xylem incorporates a number of companies — including Lowara and ITT Water & Wastewater and its brands of Flygt, Godwin, Leopold, Sanitaire and Wedeco. Peter Lewington, managing director of Xylem UK explains, ‘Changing the structure of ITT Corporation will allow us to move forward as a standalone company that is focused exclusively on water.’

To help meet increasingly stringent rules for the use of energy and water consumption, Rada has brought out an improved range of timed-flow controls. Every product in the range has undergone a rigorous 250 000 on/off test cycle. Ease of maintenance is guaranteed with an all-in-one cartridge.

Specialist distributor Ashworth now offers a comprehensive range of pipe-hanging solutions to complement its wide-ranging portfolio of tubes, valves and fittings. The range includes pipe supports, general fasteners, channel brackets and fittings, insulating blocks, plastic fittings, malleable-iron fittings, and copper and brass fittings.

As buildings have become better insulated, with lower space-heating demands, variable-volume hydronic heating systems have become much more common. As a consequence, commissioning engineers often find themselves dealing with ultra-low flows (<0.015 l/s) which are too low to measure accurately and consistently with standard flow-measurement devices.

Altecnic’s Dirtmag magnetic dirt separator for piped systems continuously filters both magnetic and non-magnetic particles. These devices are available for vertical and horizontal configuration, with or without a tailored insulation jacket. Both fit a full range of pipe sizes, and the horizontal system can have a Minical air vent added to it.

Prefabricated pipework using Victaulic couplings played a major role in the success of the new 5000-seat sports arena and 2000-seat Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow. SPIE Matthew Hall provided M&E services for these buildings, switching from the original specification for flanging to the Victaulic grooved-end pipe-joining system.

John Bissett looks at how water-softening systems can increase the energy efficiency and longevity of heating and hot-water services in commercial buildings.

With the market for standalone circulators in Europe due to change from 1 January 2013, Grundfos is already prepared with appropriate pumps. From that date the EU Directive on Energy Using Products will set new requirements for energy efficiency in domestic and light-commercial circulator pumps.

A caravan site near Burnham-On-Sea has replaced its 12-year-old hot-water storage systems with 10 Rinnai Infinity continuous-flow water heaters. Four were installed in each of the ladies and men’s shower blocks and two in the laundry room. Warren Farm offers accommodation for 300 static caravans and 500 pitches for touring vans. It won the ‘Loo of the year’ accolade in 2006 and 5-star awards in 2008 and 2009 for its commitment to providing customers with washroom facilities that are functional, well maintained and clean.

Unlike computers, pumps are not out of date before you get them out of the box, but they are out of date when the time comes to replace them. Glynn Williams puts the case for a rethink when that time arrives.

Internal drainage is receiving more attention from regulatory authorities, driving the need for higher standards — as Chris Ricketts explains.

The 20 000 m2 head office of Energie AG in Austria makes extensive use of balancing valves from TA Hydronics to control the building’s energy use in line with its passive energy concept. TA supplied 540 STAP and STAD balancing valves to meet the 800 kW heating requirement, 400 kW for cooled ceilings and a further 400 kW for cooling supply air. There are two differential-pressure controllers in every room, one for heating and one for cooling.

Wilo’s Stratos Giga high-efficiency glanded pump exceeds IE4 efficiency standards, so it meets EU requirements coming into force in 2017. Applications include heating, cold water and cooling. These pumps are targeted at projects where energy-saving pumps will pay significant dividends over a typical 15-year lifecycle. Payback is typically within two years.

To avoid the problem of increasing copper thefts, a plumber chose the Buteline plastic plumbing system for a pair of detached new-build homes in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. This press-fit system was installed by TPR mechanical services, avoiding the problems that can be caused by O-rings, grab rings and inserts.

The unmistakeable sound of water hammer is sure to make an experienced engineer shudder. Gary Wheatley discusses its causes and how to prevent it.

Pegler Yorkshire has developed a range of taps for the healthcare sector aimed at avoiding cross-infection. They are made using antimicrobial copper and carry the Antimicrobial Copper Cu+ Mark, which signifies that they are capable of continuously killing pathogenic microbes — even in between cleans.

The rapid transformation in just nine days of the Norris Green Youth Centre in Liverpool for the BBC television programme ‘DIY SOS’ in aid of Children in Need included pumps donated by Grundfos. The 60-year-old building is in one of the poorest areas of Liverpool and was in a very poor state of repair when presenter Nick Knowles and the team arrived to transform the premises into a centre that the local community could take pride in.

More effective heating and lower fuel consumption have been achieved for the Park Campus of the University of Northampton with the installation of three Remeha Gas 610 Eco boilers. With space being an issue in the main plantroom, Andrew Pipework Services specified these compact and lightweight boilers to heat the main building and act as the main heat supply for many other buildings on the campus.

If you ever have a need to suspend a 1.4 t car in mid air, then a Tectite Pro Push-fit plumbing fitting from Pegler Yorkshire could be just what you need. The fitting used here is 140 mm long and usually used to connect lengths of 54 mm pipe. This experiment was a unique part of the company’s rigorous testing measures and also helped to raise £400 for Yorkshire Cancer Research.

A 12% reduction in energy consumption and 30% reduction in water usage have been achieved by a hospital laundry following the installation of Thermal Energy International’s GEM venturi-orifice steam traps. MTW Linen Services is a subsidiary of Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS. It has been operating as a laundry for over 40 years and moved to its present purpose-built premises in Maidstone in 2003. Steam is used extensively throughout the laundry.

Using commissioning modules in hydronic systems delivers benefits above and beyond the commissioning process itself. Stefan Jensen of SAV Systems explains.

Mitsubishi Electric has prepared a free, independent, CPD-accredited guide looking at renewable heating systems to inform consultants, contractors and heating engineers about the key issues facing all involved in designing, building and maintaining commercial buildings. It is also available as a download from Mitsubishi Electric’s web site..

Marshall-Tufflex has produced literature outlining how electrical contractors can offer commercial and domestic customers solutions to reduce electricity bills and carbon emissions. The ‘Energy saving products’ brochure lists three systems designed to reduce electricity bills.

A free ‘Quick guide to the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme’ has been prepared by Ener-G and Cornwall Energy Associates to help organisations reduce the impact of this energy tax that will apply in 2012.

The energy-efficiency benefits of EC technology over AC for fan motors can be calculated using a free iPhone app from ebm-papst. Go EC asks for information such as number of fans, operational uptime and cost of electricity and then produces a cost comparison.

Polypipe Terrain has prepared a corporate brochure with built-in practical guide to help consultants and contractors working on commercial projects. This brochure sets out the company’s full product range, increasingly popular technical-support services and the versatility of these offerings across a range of applications.

Shorts Environmental offers a comprehensive planned maintenance service that is tailored to actual customer requirements to ensure the optimum performance of all HVAC systems. The company’s customer-support manager Gareth Chappells says, ‘Incorporating planned maintenance into the lifetime cost of an HVAC installation is essential if maximum energy efficiencies and subsequent lower running costs are to be achieved.’

Multi V III is LG’s latest range of VRF air-conditioning products and is designed for commercial buildings, office complexes and large retail outlets. They can provide heating and cooling. Energy efficiency is boosted by LG’s BLDC V-Scroll inverter compressor with high-pressure oil-return technology, which supersedes the AC motor in the previous model. This new compressor achieves a 25% improvement in cooling EER to 4.27 and 11% in heating COP to 4.58.

The Grundfos RC pump is said to be the first in the world to have been designed and optimised for use with CO2 as a refrigerant. It uses about a third of the energy of a standard centrifugal pump for the same purpose. This performance is achieved by utilising variable-speed capacity control and intelligent pump protection. Grundfos sees potential for this pump in applications such as large retailers that base their stores on refrigeration systems using CO2.

Memco’s elevator position system can be added to existing elevators to provide information about the floor number and direction of travel to passengers on a display screen inside the car. A magnet on each floor activates a sensor as the elevator car passes to update the display. The system will work with elevators travelling at up to 3.6 m/s and can cover up to 32 floors.

Hager has developed a simple solution for locking its consumer unit so that no-one can access devices while an electrician is working on a circuit. It was originally developed for Taylor Wimpey and Barratts for electricians to use while working on a circuit while keeping the rest of the installation live.

Airedale’s OptiChill FreeCool large-capacity chillers maximise the use of free cooling to save more that half of the energy used by a conventional chiller. For up to 30% of the year these chillers can operate purely in free-cooling mode with an EER of up to 75 (15°C return water, 20% ethylene glycol, 3°C ambient and based on total input power to the fans). Some free cooling is available for 95% of annual operating hours (in London).

Shorts Environmental offers a wide range of absorption heat pumps and chillers fired by natural gas. They can generate hot water at efficiencies of over 140%. The range comprises air-source, ground-source and water-source models and is based on 37 kW heating modules that can be combined to deliver up to 208 kW.

Ex-Or’s Connect quick-connection range for lighting circuits has been extended with the introduction of the Ultra-Lite Connect Digital Box. Connect comprises purpose-designed connection centres with plug-in simplicity, and the UltraLite is at the value end of the range.

BSS Industrial is promoting its prefabrication service that utilises specialist knowledge by working closely with customers and modularisation manufacturers. The approach is based on working with customers and five modularisation manufacturers to develop solutions. BSS is also the distributor of choice for major modular builders — including CHT, SES, Balfour and MEP.

Vent-Axia has launched a range of electric radiant heaters for applications such as spaces with high ceilings such as warehouses and churches. There are heaters with outputs of 1.8, 2, 4 and 6 kW — the largest being capable of covering an area of up to 20 m2. Heat-up time is just one second, so heat is instantly available. The elements have a life of 5000 h.

The R22 Renew system from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries enables existing pipework to be retained when replacing an older R22 VRF air-conditioning systems with an R410A system. A new FDCR outdoor unit will be required, but it is often possible to reuse existing indoor units.

Kingspan Renewables has strengthened its range of renewable-energy solutions for the commercial and industrial sectors with the introduction of solar-loading stations and fresh-water modules. The solar-loading stations (pictured) are designed to enable the quick and easy connection of medium- to large-scale solar-thermal arrays to thermal stores. The range of fresh-water stations provides for the efficient production of large volumes of domestic hot water.