2012 December

Phase-change materials (PCMs) are ideal products for thermal management solutions. This is because they store and release thermal energy during the process of melting and freezing. PCM allows for the over-night cool energy to be stored in Tube-Ice cells (charge period). This storage process allows the PCM to absorb the internal and solar heat gains throughout the day, hence producing a free passive-cooling system. It is in lieu of this that PCM offers a truly zero-carbon energy-free cooling solution that provides numerous benefits — including a highly retro-fittable design that can be applied to any new or existing building. Furthermore, it requires minimal to zero maintenance.

Victaulic’s full range of pipe-jointing systems is available for next-day delivery from BSS Industrial’s overnight distribution services. Available to order through BSS trade counters nationwide, Victaulic’s grooved and plain-end mechanical pipe-jointing systems include a range of couplings, fittings, valves and hole cutters.

Cool-Therm is promoting the adoption of a new generation of Turbomiser chillers based on low-GWP HFO refrigerants. These chillers run on HFO1234ze, which the company believes offers the best solution for the industry’s twin requirement for improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact.

Guests of Grundfos combined a day of high-speed racing with finding out more about the Grundfos S Tube wastewater pumps, which combine the attributes of free passage for reliable operation with high efficiency to achieve low operational cost.

Philips, which specialises in user-friendly and energy-efficient lighting-control solutions has joined the KNX UK Association. The new Lightmaster KNX range brings recognised lighting knowhow to the world of KNX, providing energy savings, comfort and flexibility.

ADT Fire & Security is upgrading the fire-alarm system at the Royal Aircraft Museum in London from an analogue system to its digital Generation 6 Technology. The digital system will provide high levels of protection and significantly reduce maintenance, which, given the sheer size and nature of the site, is extremely difficult to complete.

The integral plate heat exchanger in MHG’s ProCon boilers made it easier and quicker to replace an aging cast-iron boiler in a church in Devon. The old boiler had been unreliable for some years, and there were concerns that it could fail during the winter. As well as being reliable, the new 150 kW condensing boiler is also much more energy efficient.

Marco is supplying cable-management products for three separate product orders to contractors working on the £12 million Kearsley Academy in Leigh. Dado trunking, bench trunking and steel-wire cable tray will by using by SR Waite Electrical Contractors, based in Leigh, for a full rebuild of the school on the existing site.

Selcoms, which distributes wireless communication products, has found a cost-effective way of protecting itself from regular power failures by installing a UPS and contracting with Shenton Group’s Powercall service. This approach avoids the capital expenditure of a standby power generator and maintaining and refuelling it. The Powercall service has a target time of an hour for bringing emergency power to site and connecting it, with a guarantee of three hours.

With an indoor swimming pool in the extension to a Victorian house in London proving a constant demand for heat, a Dachs mini-CHP unit form Baxi-SenerTec is expected to achieve fuel-cost savings of over £2000 a year. The gas-fired units have an electrical output of 5.5 kW and a minimum heat output of up to 12.5 kW or up to 15.5 kW using a condenser — as in this project. The installation also serves the central heating system and is supported by two condensing boilers.

Shenton Group has won a contract to install its recently launched Tedom Centro T100 CHP system into the Kingsland Wharves housing development in London against competition from five other companies. The order also includes a Tedom Micro T30 CHP system. The two systems will supply heat and electricity to 207 dwellings in nine blocks. The T100 unit, installed in a purpose-built underground plant room, will also serve a surgery in one block, an artist’s studio and several commercial units across the project.

Lochinvar has supplied a solar-thermal system to meet the high demand for hot water in the new city-centre Redmond Building of Liverpool John Moores University. Consisting of a range of social and learning spaces, the 11 500 m2 building has toilet and changing facilities on each of its six floors, with a hot-water requirement throughout the day.

Environmentally focused design for its new 2000 m2 office at Farnborough is helping Autodesk save over £300 000 in overall costs every year. The office has also achieved a 21% reduction in lighting power and a 21% reduction in water use compared to the previous space. The office is also on track for the LEED Gold Commercial Interiors and SKA Silver certification.

Boilers that can burn gas and bio-diesel have been supplied for the new Corby Enterprise Centre by Atlantic Boilers. This £8.3 million centre comprises 15 workshops, 38 offices and a cafe area. The space-heating requirement is met by two 90 kW R-Series boilers that can burn natural gas and B100 bio-diesel. The boilers were specified by BSD of Corby and installed by Mitchell & Hewitt of Derby.

Passivent has delivered energy-efficient ventilation for a new-build 4-storey dementia care home with 80 bedrooms using a range of its technologies. They include intelligent mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, intelligent mechanical extract ventilation and its Fresh Intellivent continuous assisted-ventilation systems. Cruden Construction is building the home on a former industrial estate in Dartmouth as part of its client’s programme to create a national portfolio of care homes.

Acoustic louvres made by Naco will form part of the prefabricated mechanical-extract system for the 48-storey building at 122 Leadenhall Street in London. This 225 m-high building is nicknamed the Cheesegrater, due to its unusual shape, and will become the global headquarters of international insurance company Aon, which is moving from Chicago to London to occupy 10 floors of the building.

Highly efficient ventilation for the new performing-arts centre of Yarm School in North Yorkshire is provided by three eQ air-handling units from Flakt Woods. They were installed as part of a £20 million redevelopment programme to expand and update the school’s riverside campus. The centre was opened by Princess Alexandra and includes an 800-seat auditorium, separate galleries theatre, atrium, terrace, dance studio and music performance suite.

The University of Greenwich is set to save £10 000 a year on its air-handling costs across its three campuses following the installation of ABB variable-speed drives for a number of buildings. Additional savings from future projects could cut running costs by another £4000 a year. David Blackburn, building-services engineers in the university’s building-services department, said. ‘We were looking for payback times on the projects of about five years, yet most were much quicker than that.’

The refurbishment of the top four storeys of a Grade 2 listed building on Edinburgh’s Princes Street into a Travelodge includes energy-recovery equipment supplied by Fastlane Ventilation. The former stockroom area above the Topshop store has been converted into a 96-room hotel, with some rooms having floor-to-ceiling windows giving spectacular, unhindered views of Edinburgh.

When managers at an acute district general hospital in Bedfordshire wanted to understand the consumption of hot water to enable requirements to be identified for replacing equipment with the most energy-efficiency solution, ETA Energy Systems was called in. Peter Richardson, managing director of ETA, explains, ‘During our assessment of the hospital’s needs, we established full weekly hot-water consumption profiles, allowing equipment to be accurately selected and specified for the replacement project.

Toshiba Air Conditioning has launched a leasing scheme for replacing obsolete R22 air-conditioning equipment with new systems — in most cases for no additional cost. R22 is still one of the most common refrigerants in use in installed systems, but the use of R22 for topping up plant will be banned from the end of 2014.

Replacing pumps in a 238-bed hospital in Germany has reduced energy consumption by 40 MWh a year following a pump audit carried out by Grundfos Pumps. Salem Hospital in Heidelberg was built in the 1970s, and the audit discovered that the existing pumps were tremendously oversized, which is often the case in older buildings. They were also far less efficient than today’s high-efficiency speed-controlled pumps.

Weatherite Building Services has installed a new comfort-cooling system at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum for Coventry City Council. The building is over 50 years old and needed a new cooling system for recording and editing studios that are attached to it.

The conversion of three Grade 2-listed Georgian townhouses in Westminster into a 6-storey medical consultancy includes heating and hot water provided by a Thision L 120 kW wall-mounted gas-fired condensing boiler from MHS Boilers. They were installed by Ambivent, which was responsible for the M&E design and installation.

Delron Services is undertaking the design-and-installation contract for the building engineering services refurbishment work at a special-needs establishment in Kent. Valence School is at Westerham and run by Kent County Council. Delron has been commissioned to develop the base concept into a fully integrated system to cater for disabled and special-needs pupils.

When Marcus Donoghue became logistics and plant manager of Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, the premier venue in Wales for indoor concerts and having a capacity of 5000 seated and 7500 standing, he found that just two of the main arena's air-handling units were operational — leaving no margin at all for reduced throughput or failure.

JS Air Curtains has supplied four custom air curtains for the stylish refurbishment of the 11-storey 110 Cannon Street in the City of London. The architect specified air curtains, but with the provisos that no appliances be located above the rotating entrance door or visible through the glass facade of this 6500 m2 building.

After 32 years of operation, a Grundfos Selectric 4 Class F pump finally gave up working flawlessly and has finally been replaced with a much more efficient Grundfos Alpha2 pump. The Selectric pump was installed by Steve Russell, who lives in north-west London. He says, ‘I remember fitting the pump very well. We had just moved into our house, and my son, who is now 34 years old, was then two. I Installed by central-heating system with the help of my father-in-law. The pump then continued to work flawlessly until a few weeks ago.

The phased refurbishment of the iconic Adelphi Building on the north bank of the River Thames in central London includes the replacement of 20-year-old fan-coil units on the seventh floor by 148 modern ceiling-recessed Trojan units from Ability Projects. These 4-pipe units were supplied with Trend BMS controls fitted by Ability. This first order has recently been augmented for a further one for 112 Trojan units for the 11th floor.

Nationwide Filter Company is enjoying growing business from users of air filters switching over to its Bacticell air filter cartridges — with benefits beyond those of conventional bag filters. Benefits include longer life, up to 30% less fan energy, less waste and a Class A energy rating under the new test regime and guidance on the energy classification of air filers.

Poor water quality can cause many problems in HVAC systems. Ian Barnes of Sentinel Commercial outlines best practice for system water treatment and suggests how the right choice of solution can streamline costs and ensure peak performance.

Trane’s thermography service can identify hidden problems in a chilled-water system to improve overall HVAC system performance. This predictive service uses infra-red thermal imaging to detect and diagnose the thermal emissions of components in the chilled-water system. An increase in temperature could suggest electrical and mechanical issues that could lead to component failure, unplanned outages and safety issues.

System Hygienics’ Jetvent system has been used to good effect to clean 800 m of ductwork serving the subterranean car park at Hinxton Hall in Cambridgeshire. Norland Managed Services, contractor for Hinxton Hall Ltd, which is part of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Cambridgeshire, contacted System Hygienics to subcontract the ventilation cleaning work in the car park.

MHS Boilers has a dedicated service team providing nationwide maintenance and technical support. Services packages include annual servicing, technical support, onsite repair and the provision of genuine spare parts. Replacing a boiler or heating system is often a distress purchase, made out of necessity rather than choice. Regular servicing and maintenance will reduce the likelihood of a breakdown and enable systems to operate safely and efficiently throughout their lifespan.

The disposal of many types of waste lamps is covered by EU regulations. Nigel Harvey of Recolight, outlines the importance of recycling waste lamps and the free of charge options available to businesses.

The £1.2 million refurbishment of the 4-storey UK headquarters of Grundfos Pumps at Leighton Buzzard is expected to halve energy consumption — on top of savings that will be made from reducing demand. The refurbishment also provides an improved environment and facilities for staff. Its completion was marked by a themed street party attended by the Danish ambassador, MP Andrew Selous, senior members of Grundfos management from Denmark and the UK, and customers.

With the expected phase out of HCFC refrigerants, designers, contractors and building managers installing air-conditioning systems must be aware of the issues surrounding the likely replacements, says Graham Wright of Daikin UK.

Mitsubishi Electric has upgraded its Audit Tool for examining the benefits in terms of carbon reduction and energy efficiency of upgrading air-conditioning or heating equipment. The Audit Tool was first released in 2008. Sustainable-solutions manager Martin Fahey says that this updated version is especially relevant with the growing need to replace R22 systems.

An up-to-date asset register is an invaluable tool in planning for the maintenance requirements of building-services systems. BSRIA’s Ralph Bell shares his experience.

CIBSE’s Hywel Davies believes that energy-efficient refurbishment is an effective way of addressing concerns about the future of our energy supply.

Purmo is presenting its range of radiators as offering a potential energy saving of 15% in low-temperature heating systems compared with other types of heat emitter, particularly in applications using renewable-heat sources. Chris Edwards, sales and marketing director, explains, ‘The secret is largely in their ability to react rapidly to changes in temperature as and when they are required.

With the formal launch of the Green Deal to improve the environmental performance of 14 million homes, a group of 20 consumer advice bodies, charities, trade associations and building-industry organisations has urged the Government to tackle the risk of rogue traders cashing in on the Green Deal.

The news that the Government is offering up to £1000 cashback to kickstart the Green Deal has been welcomed by Brian Smithers, director of Rexel UK. He says, ‘A headline-grabbing cash incentive is exactly what the Green Deal needs to raise awareness amongst consumers. If this initiative is a success, and we see a rush in enquiries, this is where the recently announced Green Deal advisors will be crucial.’

Energy savings of 50% and a better visual environment at Birmingham Women’s Hospital have been achieved with the help of Plateia LED luminaires from Megaman UK replacing traditional grid-based recessed fluorescent luminaires. Plateia luminaires were selected following an assessment by a local electrical wholesaler.

NIBE’s exhaust-air heat-pump system installed in a house that was previous reliant on an immersion heater and storage heaters has reduced the total electricity bill by nearly 40% to £950 a year. The house is occupied by a couple and two children and is one of four upgraded by Keepmoat for Wakefield & District Housing.

The launch of the Green Deal offers a wealth of energy- and cost-saving opportunities for businesses — as Siobonne Brewster of Carillion Energy Services, explains.

Cathryn Hickey of the National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies discusses the opportunities for the businesses in the commercial sector brought to the table by the Green Deal.

Inteb Sustainability, which specialises in low-energy and sustainable solutions reports a significant number of enquiries from commercial real-estate portfolio holders wishing to take advantage of it being one of the first two accredited Green Deal providers, pioneering the initiative in the commercial sector.

The Sigma Home that forms part of BRE’s Innovation park in Watford is design to meet Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and includes a Voltis domestic voltage optimiser from Marshall-Tufflex. Rexel Energy Solutions, which was responsible for equipping the home with sustainable technologies, specified Voltis Home because of its close working relationship with Marshall-Tufflex and the cost and functionality of the system.

NAPIT (National Association of Professional Inspectors & Testers) has welcomed the Government’s cashback scheme to stimulate the early uptake of the Green Deal. The £125 million scheme will provide funding packages of up to £1000 per household and becomes available on 28 January 2013.

The NEOflo range of storage water heaters from Andrews Water Heaters are said to be especially suitable for retrofit and refurbishment projects in buildings using tank-fed (vented) systems and in areas with low water pressure. These units do not have internal circulators, so they can operate with pressures are low as 0.2 bar.