2013 April

Potterton Commercial has added biomass boilers to its range of low- and zero-carbon options available to heating engineers. There are 12 boilers in the range, covering outputs from 199 to 2000 kW. Wood chips and wood pellets can be used for boilers up to 1500 kW, and wood chip only for lager boilers. These boilers are part of Baxi Commercial’s ‘One-stop shop’.

Helping a data centre in Iceland to become the first in the world to achieve zero carbon emissions is a free-cooling solution developed by Eaton-Williams. Working with Colt, which provided modular data-centre facilities, Eaton-Williams designed and commissioned a bespoke fresh-air free-cooling system for year-round operation without mechanical cooling or chillers.

Renewable Solutions has incorporated a range of renewable-energy systems into its new purpose-developed 900 m2 headquarters building in the Wirral. It is rated BREEAM ‘Excellent’ for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation. Technologies incorporated include a solar PV array, solar thermal water heating, biomass heating, heat-recovery units and the company’s own GridBattery battery storage technology.

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.

Three 50 kW solar PV systems are being supplied and installed by npower at Keele University in Staffordshire in a contract worth over £300 000. They are expected to reduce the university’s carbon emissions by nearly 70 t a year.The systems are being installed on the Holly Cross and Lindsay Halls of Residence and the Darwin Building, home to the Keele Management School.

A Dimplex ground-source heat-pump system is providing low-carbon heating and passive cooling for a new building at SciTech Daresbury in Cheshire. Vanguard House, a 3600 m2 3-storey office and laboratory facility, was designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and does not use any fossil fuels.

A liquid biofuel boiler was selected as the greenest heating option for a mixed-use development in Hoxton, east London. A Hamworthy Ensbury steel boiler using B100 biodiesel and a high-low 3-phase Dunphy burner specifically matched to the fuel was specified by M&E consultant Fox Curtis Murray to provide space heating for this city-centre development of 16 flats and a commercial unit.

Daikin Europe has developed a low-temperature (LT) Hydrobox for the latest generation of VRV heat pumps, which offers all the benefits of air-to-air VRV technology with the ability to integrate an air-to water system to provide highly efficient space heating and cooling. This Hydrobox indoor unit is specifically designed to work with VRV IV, a key feature of which is to automatically adjust output in response to changes in external temperature.

Sentinel has developed a cleaner for the circuits in solar-thermal systems that helps to make soluble and remove degraded glycol from existing systems. Once cleaned, an effective way of ensuring optimum efficiency and resistance to degradation is to use an inhibited fluid.

Enphase Energy, a major supplier of micro-inverters for solar PV systems in the USA now offers micro-inverters to the UK market. M215 micro-inverters considerably improve the performance and reliability of solar PV systems, while also simplifying the design and installation procedures for the entire solar system.

The Government’s forthcoming announcement on new levels of RHI for ground-source heat-pump systems for heating and cooling will boost the market, explains Chris Davidson of GI Energy.

Renewable heat is installed to make a green statement, isn’t it? Or is a key motivator those RHI payments. John Field of TEAM explains how to ensure you get those payments and what is on offer.

The future’s bright for commercial operations looking to invest in solar PV, especially given the financial incentives and help that are available. says Paul Hutchens of Eco2Solar.

Helping to reduce energy and carbon emissions at Thomas Rotherham College in South Yorkshire is a solar-thermal system supplied by Stokvis Energy Systems to provide hot water for staff and public toilet. The system for this college for 16- to 19-year olds is expected to achieve energy savings of 2.6 to 3 MWh a year.

Dimplex’s renewables design service helps specifiers and installers quote quickly and accurately on all kinds of renewables projects and offers expert help in meeting the requirements of the updated MIS 3005 standard for heat-pump installers. The service helps achieve compliance first time for heat pumps, taking the pain away from preparing the detailed heat-loss calculations required.

With the wide choice of renewable technologies available, what is best for a particular building? Kingspan Environmental’s Stephen Kelly offers helpful advice.

An 80 kW solar PV system at The Rose Garden Extracare village in Hereford is expected to produce over 67 MWh of electricity a year, saving each resident around £80 a year on energy bills and 33.5 t of CO2 savings. This major investment by Festival Housing, owner of the Rose Garden, was installed by Eco2Solar following competitive tendering. It is Festival Housing’s largest installation of solar panels to date.

Lochinvar’s HSV thermal store, which generates commercial hot water from renewable energy and eliminates the risk of Legionnaires’ Disease, has been installed in accommodation for rig builders for Total Gas’s first onshore plant. Although the accommodation at Sella Ness on the Shetland Islands is temporary, it is built to high standards, and part of the complex will become part of a hotel after the workers have left.

Renewable energy has a key role to play in enabling businesses to take control of their energy future. Mike Landy of the Renewable Energy Association takes up the story — and it’s a wide-ranging one.

Selecting and specifying cable-management systems requires up-to-date knowledge of the capacities of systems and the requirements of a project. Manufacturers have a key role to play stresses Steve Davis of Marco Cable Management.

Electrak’s Intersoc-R range of desk modules for electrical services offers significant new benefits for the installer and end user. The range also offers the same configuration flexibility as the previous Intersoc range, enabling a multitude of connection and interconnection options to be created using any combination of sockets and switching/protection modules.

Seaward’s latest multi-purpose appliance tester is equipped to test portable appliances and the point-to-point testing of testing of fixed appliances as recommend by the fourth edition of the IET Code of Practice. Specifically designed for risk-based portable-appliance testing, the Apollo 600 is also equipped to carry out the earth-continuity and insulation test required for fixed appliances.

Ex-Or now offers a full range of programmable PIR presence-detection systems for controlling with ceiling heights from 8 to 16 m, typically found in warehouses and industrial units. Like the long-established Hi-Bay LightSpot (which is optimised for heights from 12 to 16 m), the new Mid-Bay LightSpot also offers 360° detection of movement, but optimised for heights from 8 to 12 m. Energy cost savings of up to 70%, or more, can be made with LightSpot by turning lights off in areas that have been vacated or where there is enough natural light.

Steinel’s ceiling-mounted IR Quattro Slim PIR presence detector protrudes just 4 mm from the ceiling, giving a virtually flat profile. It has a square presence-detection range of 3 x 3 m and tangential direction of up to 5 x 5 m. When mounted on a ceiling, its visible dimensions are just 76 mm square.

Wieland Electric has supplied its Metalynx armoured structured-wiring system to enable fast connection of lighting, small power and fan-coil units at Riverbank House in the City of London. This 10-storey building is the new headquarters of global investment manager Man Group and provides 29 000 m2 of office space.

Helvar’s 905 single DALI subnet router provides a solution for areas that require standalone control of lighting or where an additional subnet needs to be added to an existing Helvar DALI system. Combined with Helvar’s Designer software, the 905 provides advanced control and functional programming.

Concord has added to its range of LED office lighting with the addition of the Officelyte LED Low Profile. It has a slim recess depth of just 95 mm and is a fully enclosed design. Typical lighting output is 90 lm/W (circuit watt) with up to 90% light output ratio. These luminaires meet the energy-performance requirements of Part L2A of the Building Regulations and the workspace lighting-quality requirements in the recently published EN 12464-2011.

Havells-Sylvania is now manufacturing its LED T8 tubes in Europe. ToLEDo tubes have an efficacy of up to 114 lm/W and come with three lighting outputs — 1200 lm (11 W), 2600 lm (26 W) and 2600 lm (32 W). They are designed for the quick and easy retrofit of existing switch-start linear fluorescent fixtures and have a life of at least 40 000 h.

Marco supplied a series of specialist cable-management products for the London 2012 Olympic games, The company’s steel-wire cable tray was used by the M&E team at the White Water Centre in Lee Valley, on the edge of the 1000 acre River Lee Country Park — part of the Lee Valley Regional Park.

When it became necessary to replace the electrical distribution equipment in the Grade 2 listed George’s Dock Ventilation & Central Station of the Mersey Road Tunnel Building, Merseytravel chose Memshield 3 smart boards and MCCB panelboards from Eaton as key elements of the new installation.

As an approach to helping building-services engineers reduce the cost of projects, Mark Redfern of Wieland Electric suggests the broader use of structured-wiring systems — and touches on safety issues.

Energy savings of over 80% are being achieved for floodlighting at a basketball club following the replacement of SON floodlights with Marl LED floodlights. The original installation of 12 SON fixtures of 350 W each at Hoops Basketball Centre in Barrow-in-Furness was replaced with eight 30 W and two 90 W floodlights.

The Gesis Micro connector system from Wieland is an ideal solution for connecting discreet LED lighting in showcases or shelves where space is at a premium, so that nothing detracts from the items on display. This connection system requires only a small drilled hole to run the lines through and features plug-and-play functionality.

Hager’s Klick.system dual-supply marshalling box has achieved savings in equipment and time for the installation of essential and non-essential lighting circuits in the new 2000 m2 outpatients’ clinic at Winchester Hospital. These marshalling boxes enable both essential and non-essential lighting circuits to be fed from the same marshalling box and also be controlled by a single digital sensor and wall switch, instead of doubling up on equipment.

Like any other lighting installation, those using LED lamps will use much less energy if they are well controlled, but there are important issues to consider — as Mike Simpson of Philips explains.

Grundfos Pumps in the UK now has just one telephone number and one e-mail address for all sales enquiries, no matter where you are in the country, as indicated below. The improvement to the telephone service has been made possible by investment in an updated telephone system. It is supported by a redeployment of internal sales staff into roles that better fit today’s demands.

Big Foot Systems offers competitive, no-risk rooftop support systems for building services and plant equipment.

Tyco Fire Protection Products has opened a new TechXchange Training Academy in Manchester. It provides training services to fire and mechanical engineers, contractors, specifiers and engineers who design and install fire-protection and mechanical solutions throughout the EMEA region.

Glen Dimplex Group recently welcomed Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills to its Dublin headquarters. He was introduced to Quantum, Dimplex’s revolutionary electric system for space and water heating. and given an overview of the company’s operations in the UK and Ireland.

With the revolutionary retrofit globe valve actuators of the new generation from Belimo, you will have everything on hand that you require for motorising different globe valves. You will no longer need to search for suitable adapters for installation.

The Desigo PXC50 freely programmable modular controller from Siemens combines flexibility with cost savings. The unit uses Native BACnet communication, and an IP-enabled version is available. Up to 52 physical I/Os can be connected via TX modules to the controller. In addition third party devices can be easily integrated using TX I/O open modules.

Xylem Lowara UK, which provides pumping solutions for commercial and residential markets, has developed two CIBSE-approved CPD courses for customers and consultants. These free training courses cover the fundamentals of variable-speed drives and the design of pressurisation sets.

TES is the temporary storage of thermal energy for later use, bridging the gap between energy availability and energy use. Overnight cool energy is stored in the form of 20-27°C phase-change-material (PCM) filled containers and later utilised to absorb the internal and solar heat gains during day-time for an energy free passive cooling system.

A reduction of up to a third in installation costs for hydronic pumping systems is claimed by Lowara using its triple-duty valve and suction diffuser. Designed to perform all the functions normally required on the discharge side of an hydronic pumping system, the triple-duty valve replaces three separate valves — non-return, isolation and commissioning.

Propelair has developed a toilet pan and flushing system that uses compressed air and just 1.5 l of water for flushing. It was launched at Ecobuild and has WRAS and British Standard Kitemark product approvals. Propelair can be installed anywhere, as it does not rely on gravity drains and sloping waste pipes. It is shown pictured with its inventor Garry Moore.

Hitachi Air Conditioning’s high-efficiency Set Free FSXNH VRF air-conditioning system is designed for medium to large-sized installations. It is claimed to be the highest-performing VRF system in Japan (annual performance) and recently received the Japanese Energy Efficiency & Conservation Award for 2013,

Ventilation specialist DR Ventilation has opened a showroom at Leighton Buzzard to give buyers and industry experts the opportunity to see fully operational domestic ventilation and heat-recovery systems in a realistic setting. There are working systems using equipment from Airflow, Greenwood, Nuaire, Vent-Axia and Zehnder. A range of Verplas PVC ducting is stocked.

The demonstration of a new plumbing system to the UK at Ecobuild by Uponor ensured that its stand was constantly surrounded. The Q&E is described as a complete plumbing system offering a direct alternative to copper and plastic push-fit systems for heating, hot-water and cold-water services. The system is new to the UK, but is a plumbing system of choice for many European installers, with over 75 million fittings sold worldwide. The system is WRAS approved.

The Thermapen fast-response air thermometer from Electronic Temperature Instruments is described as an invaluable tool for quickly measuring air temperature in HVAC applications. Improvements in probe technology enable the Thermapen to measure temperature in less than three seconds. It can measure temperatures from -49.9°C to 299.9°C with 0.1 K resolution and an accuracy of ±0.4 K.

A year on since the launch of its iVector fan convector for space heating, Myson reports that it has proved invaluable in the commercial sector. These units can also cool when linked with a reverse-cycle heat pump.

Carlo Gavazzi has added a new version to its popular family of EM21 3-phase energy meters. The EM21-72V compact energy meter is specifically designed for retrofit applications. Current can be measured using the external split-core current sensor which, when fitted, restricts the voltage to the meter to 0.333 V, making it a favourable solution for the installer.