2015 March

Mike Lawrence, chairman of the FETA Board, explains why the Ecodesign Directive is an important piece of legislation across the EU member states. 

Computacenter, one of Europe’s leading independent providers of IT infrastructure services, has reduced its lighting energy consumption by more than half. The replacement of 700 luminaires with LED lighting in a project managed by Future Energy Solutions (FES) is expected to reduce energy use for lighting by over 400 MWh a year. Maintenance costs for the next five years will be negligible, compared with £4000 a year before the project. Lighting levels have been increased by 25%.

Newey & Eyre offers a range of white-moulded and grid dimers that are suitable for dimming LED lamps and fittings. Features include overload protection, 2-way switching and adjustable minimum light level.

Lighting energy consumption at Hyndburn Leisure Centre in Accrington has been massively reduced following the installation of LED lighting from MHA Lighting. In the sports hall, the saving is 64%, representing a lifetime saving of £76 700; lighting levels have also been increased to 500 lx on the floor. In the swimming pool the energy saving is 64%, making an annual saving of £5200.

Is LED lighting the best option for a lighting system? Certainly, some schemes have been disappointing. Steven Henry of Chalmor provides practical advice about new lighting schemes — including what to consider to determine if LED technology really is the best for a particular project.

Eaton’s Chevin Plus range of fluorescent luminaires now includes T5 versions. They provide a cost-effective solution for buildings such as schools and offices that require a surface-mounted or suspended solution with excellent optical control and efficacy.

Sagab by Elma’s latest version of its Volt Stick non-contact instant voltage tester is more accurate, provides a clearer indication and is more versatile than the original. It can test for the presence of AC voltage in cables, wall sockets, fuses, circuit breakers and junction boxes. Called VoltStick Bright. It is available from UK distribution partner CIE-Group.

Tamlite Lighting’s range of LED lighting systems provides the light quality required by schools and offices while delivering savings on energy and maintenance costs. Part of the 2020 portfolio of products for the projects and specification market, there are three ranges (Solo, Horizon and Prima). All provide comfortable, glare-free light.

Timeguard has developed a fused spur for electrical installations that incorporate time control. These single-gang units provide programmable on/off times with push-button manual over-ride, There are two versions, one for 24-hour programming and one for seven days. They have a 5-year guarantee.

A new update to the UK Wiring Regulations is now in place (the third amendment), meaning that the nation’s 100 000 electrical contractors have until 1 July to get up to speed with the latest changes. Russell Coleman explains the importance of compliance.

How much maintenance is really needed to achieve a building that operates satisfactorily? That is the focus of recently published guides, Andy Green discusses the success being achieved by a planned and structured maintenance scheme on the cost of maintenance and the life-cycle costs of buildings.

AET Flexible Space, which makes and supplies underfloor air-conditioning systems, increased its annual service and maintenance contracts by 60% in the last six months of 2014. Some of the newly managed sites include Centrica in Aberdeen, the NHS Education Centre near St Thomas’s Hospital in London, 20 Cannon Street in London, 175 Oxford Street in London and 76 to 88 Wardour Street in London. Other contracts include Kestrel Court serviced offices in Portishead and Gloucester.

Following the failure of a heat exchanger just a few months after a new boiler was installed in a secondary school in the north west of England, Sentinel Commercial was called in. Analysis of water samples revealed that the new heating system had not been pre-cleaned before adding inhibitors — resulting in debris being suspended in the system water.

Hoval RoofVent units that had been operating since the 1990s for the swimming pool at Moulsham High School in Chelmsford have been replaced — with RoofVent units. The new units provide heating and ventilation with heat recovery and were specified by Archer Building Consultancy. The high-efficiency heat exchanger provides up to 84% heat recovery.

A £700 000 contract to replace the air-handling units at Southend University NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded to Adcock Refrigeration & Air Conditioning. The new equipment will serve the specialist eye clinic, pathology department, minor operations, mortuary and neurology department.

Seaview International Holiday Park at St Austell in Cornwall boasts exceptionally high-quality shower blocks and is enjoying significant savings in fuel consumption since the installation of Rinnai continuous-flow water heaters to replace the stored-hot-water system. One benefit for visitors is that the showers will never run out of hot water.

St Luke’s Church in Sway in the New Forest is much more comfortable following the installation of Jaga Tempo LST radiators to replace radiant electric heaters suspended from the ceiling. The new heating was installed as part of a major renewable project for the church, built in 1838.

Ductwork plays the important role of moving air through a building, — but it can also spread fire if fire dampers do not operate if they are needed. Dermott Quinn provides the answers to some frequently asked questions.

Smith’s Fan Convectors has provided six Caspian units to update the heating system of Christ the Servant church in Digsmoor, Skelmersdale. The previous heating dated from 1972; its maintenance programme had lapsed, and the heating was noisy and ineffective.

The heating installation visible at high level in the Museum of Flight in Edinburgh has a Y formation to mirror the shape of the Concorde that is on display. The three Reznor Airmix ducts have been recently installed and are served by an existing Nordair IDF unit providing an airflow of 8.7 m3/s. The unit were modified with an inverter drive to ensure a soft start and gradual inflation of the ducts.

New boiler plant for Bottisham Village College in Cambridgeshire, which was opened in 1937, has been suppled by Mikrofill. The college’s initial vision was to provide good-quality education for local children by day and for adults by night. In the early days, the college also served as the local picture house, concert hall and theatre.

Combat HVAC (formerly Roberts-Gordon) radiant heating has been installed as part of the £2.2 million rejuvenation of Great Homer Street indoor market in Liverpool. The installation is based on the CoRayVac system and was installed by Briggs & Forrester.

Boarding gates at Birmingham Coach Station, all eight of them, and two external entrances have Airbloc air curtains to keep cold air out while passengers are entering the building and boarding and leaving coaches. Formerly Digbeth Coach Station, this major coach interchange for destinations throughout the UK, as well as Belfast and Dublin, has recently undergone a £15 million refurbishment. It is now the headquarters of National Express.

Heating for new and refurbished buildings at Langley Park School for Boys in Beckenham is provided by boilers from Mikrofill. The work included a state-of-the-art performance space, a new Sport England sports hall adjacent to the Phythian Building, which was refurbished to match the new construction.

Tenants of housing group A2Dominion are looking forward to savings of £150 a year in gas and water charges following the installation of Guardian Solutions Flowsave units in the DHW pipework from combi boilers. These devices reduce the flow of water from the boiler until the correct temperature has been reached. Full flow is then permitted.

After nearly 30 years’ service at the Holiday Inn Guildford, one of the original Stokvis Econoflame R18 gas-fired boilers has been replaced with the modern equivalent — an Econoflame R6539 modulating gas-fired boiler. The boiler plant is maintained by Economy Heating Services, which recommended the replacement boiler.

Energy savings of over 27% are being achieved following the replacement of aging cast-iron boilers at the Duke of Cornwall Hotel in Plymouth with ProCon 115 condensing boilers from MHG Heating. The old boilers were proving unreliable and inefficient, so the hotel contacted Elliott Environmental Services of Yeovil for a solution.

Rip it up and start again — or refurbish? There is no right or wrong answer. Simon Blazey of Tridonic shares some of the issues to consider in arriving at the best answer for lighting installations.

The industry can no longer ignore the financial and social implications of poorly performing buildings, says Mike McCloskey.

Nearly 350 kW of electricity can be produced by this major solarPV installation on the roofs of three buildings at Wynford Industrial Park in Romsey, Hampshire. There are 16 individual systems comprising 1247 panels. These Sun Edison panels were installed by regional partner H2 Eco.

Waterloo Air Products claims to be the first UK manufacturer of air-distribution products to joint the Institute of Customer Service. The company engages with a wide variety of customers from the public and private sectors, and high levels of customer service are an essential part of the customer interface.

£15.5 billion-worth of stalled construction projects came back on stream in 2014, a 50% rise on 2013, according to Glenigan’s market research. This was the second consecutive year that the value of projects coming back into development exceeded those put on hold, which totalled £11.9 billion.

Building-services specialist JS Wright has opened a new office in Bristol, adding to existing offices in Birmingham and London. It is headed by regional director Tim Parnell (right in photo), pictured with estimating director Andrew Smith.

Office construction projects are booming, according to Barbour ABI, which reported a 26% increase in the value of such projects awarded in the UK in January compared to the same time last year. Offices accounted for 74% of the total value of all contracts awarded in the commercial and industrial sector in January.

Mitsubishi Electric is supporting the renewable-energy agenda in Wigan by becoming the official main partner for Wigan Warriors Community Foundation and a key partner of the foundation’s ‘I’m a green warrior’ projects. The Warriors Foundation wants to be the spearhead in engaging hundreds of schools, colleges and businesses, along with thousands of individuals, to get involved in renewable-energy projects.

KNX UK has introduced a new entry level of membership for KNX building control integrators called KNX UK Professionals. They will have the opportunity to share experiences and exchange information about KNX technology with one another and with full members of KNX UK to help grow their knowledge and boost their success in applying KNX in UK commercial and residential premises.

LJJ has completed the £14 million M&E installation at CLS Holdings’ Spring Mews mixed-used scheme in the Vauxhall Gardens conservation area south of the River Thames. The project was part of Shepherd Construction’s £40 million design-and-build programme.

Anne King, MBE, who retired as BSRIA’s marketing director last month (February 2015), has been awarded honorary membership of BSRIA. This is only the 10th such award in the 60-year history of the association and recognises her extraordinary contribution to the association and the promotion of best practice within the building-services industry.

M&G Real Estate was named ‘Carbon champion’ at this year’s CIBSE Building Performance Awards. The award was in recognition of the company’s long-term commitment to improving building performance driven by investment strategy. M&G also won the ‘Energy management award’ for its industry-leading long-term performance programme of improvements to the energy performance of its shopping-centre portfolio.

Huttie, a well established plumbing and electrical contractor in Cambridge, has set up a renewable-energy division headed by Jim Harvey, who has a wealth of experience in this sector. His experience included head of renewable energy at Mark Group, a major UK installer of renewable energy, and head of market intelligence at the Department of Energy & Climate Change.

Building-services contractor JS Wright has reported its biggest-ever deal — a £10 million-plus commission to equip over 400 new homes in one of the biggest regeneration schemes in east London. It is one of a series of contracts with a total value of over £18 million that Galliard Homes has awarded the company for Indescon Court at Millharbour.

Daikin UK has opened a new 200 m2 office for the Midland region in Birmingham Business Park, which is also home to a new 200 m2 training centre. The company has relocated from Spitfire Road to make its facilities more accessible to customers, trainees and employees.

Inspired by the story of a brave 9-year-old boy who has spent his life in and out of hospital, staff of Trox UK in Thetford raised over £700 by saving one- and 2-pence coins. The money has made it possible to buy several pieces of equipment for neo-natal car at Norfolk’s Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital.

Nearly half the members of the Building & Engineering Services Association who responded to the association’s latest state-of trade survey experienced increases in workload and turnover during the second half of last year. However, there were indications of a modest slowdown approaching, with the rate of growth falling since similar research six months earlier.

CentraLine will be exhibiting at the Niagara Forum 2015 in London from 19 to 21 April. The Niagara framework software is used for the control, integration and communication in the CentraLine Hawk AX portfolio. CentraLine has over 140 Partners and is a market leader in bringing the Niagara AX to the UK building-control industry.

London is one of the most desirable places in the world to live, with a high demand for residences that reflect the lifestyle and expectations of people who live near the city centre.

While it is true that there is some way to go to get to the point where BIM is delivering all of its intended benefits, giant strides are being made, and there are reasons to be cheerful. Ian Chapman of NBS looks at the progress that is being made.

With new guidance on risk assessment for Legionnaires’ Disease about to be published by BSRIA, Reg Brown takes a pragmatic view of the issues.

How can you bring the benefits of sophisticated lighting to existing lighting installations and provide a simple approach to controlling new installations. Dr Andy Davies of Harvard Engineering puts forward a solution.

The Building Controls Industry Association Awards 2015 has seen a very high standard of entries for this year. The awards were judged in February by an independent judging panel, which consisted of representatives from the construction sector, research organisations and academia — including BSRIA, B&ES; CIBSE’s FM Group, University College London and the editor of Modern Building Services magazine.

Training specialist JTL has opened a £160 000 extension to the training workshops at its Centre of Excellence in Birmingham, itself opened only last year. The extension was opened by the MP for Birmingham Ladywood Shabana Mahmood (left in photo.), pictured with Richard Dady, commercial business manager with JTL.