2012 April

Helping to provide energy-efficient and sustainable housing for a mixed-use development in Maidstone is an Evinox communal heating system operating on central biofuel and gas plant with ModuSat TP heat interface units in apartments. This affordable housing is part of the £27 million Kent History & Library Centre, which houses some 14 km of historic material relating to Kent and dating back to 699 AD. The development includes 57 extra-care apartments for Housing 21 and 60 affordable homes for West Kent Housing Association.

Oceanair’s GHP (gas-powered heat-pump system) has been installed in a fire station that has achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. It provides high-efficiency air conditioning for Carlton Fire Station near Nottingham. The station also has a green sedum roof to help keep it cool in Summer and warm in Winter and which also delays the release of rainwater to reduce the impact on drains during flooding.

Helping to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating for Diploma Examplar projects in East Sussex is a special natural-ventilation strategy created by Monodraught. It is based on Windcatcher X-Air natural-ventilation system, the new Ventsair wall vents with motorised low-leakage volume-control dampers and an iNVent control system to regulate temperature and CO2 levels in two zones.

Wayne Aston looks at how natural ventilation and daylighting can help achieve excellent high BREEAM standards — and deliver lifecycle benefits

Achieving the necessary credits for the top-end BREEAM ratings demands the use of a building energy management system, as Yasar Butt explains.

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.

WindowMaster has won its largest-every UK order for a natural-ventilation and smoke-control solution. The company has supplied window actuators, locking motors and automated controls for the natural ventilation of Network Rail’s new National Centre in Milton Keynes.

The emphasis on reducing carbon emissions is greater in the latest version of BREEAM than previous versions. Martin Murrish examines how the design of the heating can contribute to a high rating.

Helping to achieve a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating for one of the buildings in the new Category B facility at Belmarsh Prison in London are pumps supplied by Grundfos. This £415 million PFI contract with Serco Group, with Skanska winning the £100 million contract for its design and build, comprises 10 buildings to house 900 inmates.

Three Hoval 600 kW gas-fired boilers are helping the National Academy for Wales minimise the energy costs and environmental impact of the award-winning Welsh Assembly building — the Senedd. Designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, the Assembly building at Cardiff Bay includes a debating chamber for 60 members, office and meeting spaces, public spaces, private accommodation and catering.

Lots of BREEAM credits can be gained by paying close attention to boiler plant, as Liam Elmore explains.

What happened when industry experts got together to talk about BREEAM? What about credits for refrigerants and CHP, for example? BSRIA’s James Parker provides an insight.

While BREEAM has an approach for awarding points for air conditioning using chiller plant, it does not take into account the use of free cooling in data centres — as Fin Farrelly explains.

BREEAM, the environmental rating scheme that has previously focused just on new buildings is developing approaches for assessing refurbishment projects. Gavin Summerson of BRE Global has the details.

Unistrut is expanding its product development and increasing production capacity at its West Bromwich site. The development is part of a £1 million investment in new production plant and relocation of some European manufacture to West Bromwich and is part of an ongoing programme that will see new cable-management products launched in the coming months.

Following the success of sister company Powrmatic Canada in providing air-conditioning solutions, Powrmatic is entering the UK market working with the same partner/supplier, Midea Air Conditioning, and focusing on the commercial installer section. Midea is a global manufacturer with a group turnover in excess of US$20 billion.

The Panasonic PRO Club has been launched as a communication initiative for all professionals in the heating and cooling industry. It is a feature-packed new portal providing Panasonic’s distributors, installers, engineers and specifiers with a wealth of technical data, software and support tools. The site (URL below) is accessible to registered users throughout Europe. It has been designed as a e-learning site where heating and cooling professionals can participate in product training courses and find full information on specification, installation and maintenance.

Wagner UK is taking its innovative fire-protection solutions on a roadshow tour of the UK and Ireland during May and June. Visitors will be able to see demonstrations of the OxyReduct system, which maintains an environment in which a fire cannot start. They will be able to try out the Titanus ASD range of air-sampling smoke-detection systems.

The OpenAir range from Siemens offers energy-efficient damper actuators with torque ratings from 2 to 35 Nm. They offer high positioning forces with low-consumption motors leading to energy-saving operation. They can be either AC or DC powered and are available in 2-position, 3-position or 0 to 10 V DC control versions. Self-centering shaft adapters simplify installation and reduce installation costs. These also reduce stress on the actuator, which increases their service life and brings added reliability.

VES has made it easier to buy its equipment with the setting up of a online system — VES Direct — offering all standard products at a 10% discount for free UK mainland delivery. The site also includes an online VES Direct catalogue to help select products. There is also up-to-date information on the latest discounts and product special offers, as well as spares, maintenance and warranties.

AmbiRad Group, which manufactures energy-efficient heating, cooling and ventilation equipment, has teamed up with haulage and distribution specialist Andyfreight to provide customers with a new and improved delivery service combining outstanding levels of reliability and efficiency. As part of the partnership, two of Andyfreight’s extensive fleet of vehicles have been liveried with the corporate identity of the AmbiRad Group — including the distinctive logos of AmbiRad, Airbloc, Nordair, Niche, Benson Heating and Reznor.

Elta Fans Building Services has developed a web site bringing together its wide range of fans and associated ventilation products and including a recently launched range of 17 products. The site has 13 colour-co-ordinated product categories to make selection easier and quicker.

The 12 core principles that define a Soft Landings project have been published by BSRIA in an 8-page booklet, which is also available as a free download. The core principles have been written for construction clients and their professional teams to provide information about the processes for Soft Landings projects.

Sudlows, which specialises in data centres and IT infrastructure, has released a white paper exploring the use of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) for designing data centres. CFD is having a major impact on technical design by examining the effect of airflow and energy server technology on the environment and how such applications can help reduce carbon footprints.

Benson Heating has developed an online technical support system, Benson Bill, to help and advise on technical queries related to its vast range of heating and ventilation products. Questions it can answer include the mounting height for a Recoupak destratification fan, the oil usage of a Benson floor-standing cabinet or the wiring diagram of a SmartCom3 energy-management control.

Hitachi Air Conditioning & Refrigeration has developed an app for smart phones to provide service engineers with access to alarm codes and their meanings. This information is also available on the web. This app also provides detailed trouble-shooting flow charts directly on smart phones or web pages.

Sontay, which specialises in field controls and peripherals, has launched its catalogue for 2012. It continues with the company’s emphasis on saving the installer money, with many of the products having been designed, sourced and developed to save time and money in installation. For example, a SonNet wireless temperature sensor system can save up to 30% on total installed cost compared to a traditional wired system.

Heating-controls manufacturer Danfoss has introduced a technical-support service on a mobile web site for domestic-heating installers on site. It is specifically designed for viewing on the screen of a smartphone and offers access to installation guides and much more information for the company’s thermostatic radiator valves, time controls and electric thermostats. Called Danfoss Assist, the site will also provide links to the latest offers for Danfoss customers.

Honeywell’s app giving guidance for the wiring of heating controls is available for downloading for iPhone and Android. Following the first three weeks of its availability, it was listed in the top 25 free business apps on iTunes. The app features wiring diagrams and detailed technical drawings to show how to wire Honeywell heating controls into a heating system. There is also a product catalogue to explain the technical features and benefits of each product and a compatibility guide for installers to work out which Honeywell products to specify in a retrofit installation.

HydroMatik has launched a new and improved web site detailing its 40 years of international experience in humidification. The site offers a comprehensive insight into each product within the precise speciality area for the HVAC and spa sectors. Each section provides detailed explanations for the product ranges and precise application areas.

Halton has expanded its CSW family of chilled beams based on swirl jet air supply to include automatic adjustment of supply air flow to ensure energy-efficient air conditioning and draught-free conditions. The product is also suitable for exhaust applications, enabling a uniform appearance for all terminals in a room.

Elta Fans has developed a destratification fan to overcome thermal stratification in high spaces. ZOO (Zone of Occupancy) units generate columns of air which direct warm air at high level down to the occupied zone. They can also be used in closer proximity as spot coolers, taking advantage of the evaporative-cooling sensation.

Xpelair Ventilation Solutions has launched a range of high-efficiency energy-recovery ventilation units for the non-residential sector. They are designed to meet and surpass the energy-efficiency requirements of the Building Regulations. The Xcell EC range can reduce heating and cooling requirements by up to 94% by recovering energy from extract air and transferring it to incoming air using an aluminium counterflow heat exchanger. They are Eurovent certified.

AET has launched a range of absorption chillers that can produce cooling using heat from a solar-thermal installation or waste heat from an industrial process or a CHP system. The SAB-HW range of chillers have a single-effect absorption cooling cycle using a solution of lithium bromide in water. They have cooling capacities from 52 to 3516 kW and can modulate down to 10% of full capacity.

MHI’s Q-Ton air-to-water heat pump uses CO2 as the refrigerant and can heat sanitary hot water at up to 90°C. These 30 kW units can achieve a COP of 4.3 with water on/off at 12/65°C and ambient air at 16°C, falling to 4.2 with water on/off of 5/65°C and ambient of 7°C. With an ambient of -25°C, the COP is still close to 2.

Airedale’s BluCube high-efficiency condensing unit for air-conditioning systems offers 44% more cooling per square metre than the company’s previous-generation condensing unit and up to 30% greater efficiency when optimised with the remote electronic expansion valve (REEV). They use R410A, and there is a heat-pump variant.

Rinnai’s heavy-duty condensing continuous-flow water heaters have two heat exchangers to achieve optimum water heating by capturing residual heat from flue gases and transferring it to the water being heated. Available for indoor and outdoor installation, the HDC1200i achieves a net efficiency of 107% and the HDC1500i turns in 105% net efficiency.

The medium-temperature LA PMS range of air-source heat pumps from Dimplex offers variable water-flow temperatures up to 65°C and is available with outputs of 8 or 14 kW. The flow temperature is weather compensated. These heat pumps can be used as the sole heating source in bivalent mode to supplement an existing heating system. The refrigerant is R290 (propane), which has a GWP of 3.

Sontay now offers a Tridium NiagaraAX driver for its SonNet range of wireless sensors for temperature and relative humidity. This development makes possible quick and seamless integration with Tridium’s range of JACE controllers as part of a NiagaraAX framework for building-control systems and opens up the system to BMS protocols such as BACnet, LonTalk and Modbus.

A. O. Smith now offers a BMS interface for its BFC, SGE and SGS ranges of high-efficiency gas-fired condensing water heaters. The SGE and SGS ranges can also operate with solar-thermal panels. The output from the BMS interface is in the Modbus protocol, one of the most commonly used protocols. The interface can be added to existing installations.

Electricity metering units from Havells are designed for easy installation on existing supplies or upgrades to help meet the metering requirements of Part L2 of the Building Regulations. MMU meter management units comprise a multi-function meter in an IP65 enclosure with pre-wired split-core current transformers. The range comprises 125 and 250 A units with standard multi-function meters or MID meters.

Cistermiser’s range of infra-red taps now include an elegant panel-mounted basin spout. Vectaspout has a polished stainless-steel finish and helps reduce water consumption considerably. The flow of water is activated by the user putting their hands near the infra-red sensor, and the water is shut off 2 s after they are removed.

VES’s Ecovent range of heat-recovery ventilation units has cross-flow plate heat exchangers and high-efficiency fans. The range is designed to suit all applications, with a wide choice of models for ceiling voids, plantroom and external locations.

A new generation of pump products from Grundfos codenamed Red Wolf offers features such as record low energy consumption and a user-friendly wireless interface. The range includes state-of-the art circulator pumps.

AET has launched a range of patented solar-thermal facade collectors for commercial and industrial applications. Copper Facade and aluminium Facade flat-plate solar collectors enable the facade to become an energy-saving element of a building’s architectural design. They provide an aesthetically attractive way for a building to harvest solar energy to produce hot water and space heating.

In readiness for EU requirements being introduced in January 2013, two new ranges of light-commercial air-conditioning products from Daikin are labelled with the seasonal energy-efficiency rating (SEER). This is a requirement for air-conditioning units with a cooling capacity of up to 12 kW under the EcoDesign standards of the Energy Related Product Directive. The ranges are the Sky Air Seasonal Smart and the Seasonal Classic.

D-Line has developed a range of surface-mounting trunking for fire and security installations to satisfy the requirements of British Standards and meet aesthetic requirements. The system is quick to install and has a patented hinged lid that click locks, new clip-over bends and T accessories. This trunking has a semi-circular profile and measures 30 x 15 mm.

The VapaWall wetted media from Vapac has been designed to provide humidification and evaporative cooling within an air-conditioning system. It can be used in data centres to deliver low-cost and reliable low-energy evaporative cooling or in an air-conditioning environment to provide humidification and supplement mechanical chillers for new installations, as well as retro-fit or refurbishments.

Rinnai’s common-flue system for its commercial water-heating solutions will streamline the installation of its condensing continuous-flow gas-fired water heaters and make the process significantly more cost effective. The system eliminates the need for individual flue terminations on modular banks of water heaters and commercial buffer systems.

Advanced Air’s energy-efficient Epic range of fan-coil units has specific fan powers as low as 0.15 W/ls on VAV models and 0.2 W/ls for constant-speed units. The fan-deck arrange is said to be unique in having large EC fans mounted horizontally rather than vertically, as has been traditional practice for 50 years.

Following 18 months’ successful experience in the USA with VRF air-conditioning systems, FSW is making a refrigerant-pipework system using aluminium available in the UK. It uses the Reflok system to make connections without the use of heat. These connections can withstand pressures up to 100 bar, about double that of copper, and the system has gained UL207 standard approval in the USA. Aluminium pipework systems can also handle CO2