2017 June

Luke Bigg of Waterloo Air Products explains the benefits of putting variable air volume (VAV) at the heart of a building’s air movement system.

The universal truly reversible fan-coil unit developed by Advanced Air can have its handing easily changed in the factory or on site and now incorporates further refinements to speed up the process. Prewired looms for right-hand and left-hand mounting of the control box are included as standard. Push-fit connections ensure that electrical connections are easily and quickly made in production or when changing the handing in the factory or on site.

LG multi-split air conditioning provides the primary heating source as well as cooling in the warmer months of the year for the imaginative refurbishment of a Victorian detached home in the south of England close to the M25. Other features of the refurbishment include triple-glazed windows, condensing-boiler back-up heating system, underfloor heating downstairs and high levels of insulation. There are also solar panels on the south-facing roof.

The launch of Toshiba’s latest 3-pipe heat-recovery VRF air-conditioning system, SHRM-e, builds on the success of the SMMS-e VRF system, which had an ESEER (European Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating) of over seven for all capacities. Developments in key technologies in the latest system include the compressor and intelligent control system — supported by incremental improvements in almost all system components. R410A is the refrigerant.

Hitachi Air Conditioning’s CS Net control system prevents the temperature of air from System Free indoor units used as part of a Set Free VRF system creating cold draughts in by not letting the air flow become too cool. This off-coil protection feature works with System Free indoor units which have an air-on thermistor, air-on thermistor, liquid thermistor, gas thermistor and electronic expansion valve.

Cardiff University has upgraded chilled-water air conditioning in one of its buildings with the installation of a Mitsubishi E-Series chiller by Cooltherm. The Cooltherm team in Wales designed a bespoke turnkey chiller plant to provide the most efficient and low-carbon system as possible.

Johnson Controls has responded to concerns about a rise in counterfeit oils for compressors being placed on the market by offering a range of branded authentic York lubricants. Lubricants are a key component of chillers and mechanical cooling systems, protecting wear surfaces, ensuring long life, maintaining leak tightness and, not least, ensuring proper performance and efficient operation. They also play a vital role in reducing corrosion, which can quickly result in serious internal damage and/or mechanical breakdown.

Mitsubishi Electric is preparing to launch R32 versions of its Mr Slim range that will be available at the same price as the equivalent R410A units. R32 has a GWP (global warming potential) of 675, compared with 2088 for R410A, and the new Mr Slim units are also more efficient. The new range will be available from July 2017.

Air-conditioning installer Coolair Equipment used Reflok’s aluminium piping and compression-jointing system to install a Mitsubishi Electric VRF system to provide heating and cooling for all 360 bedrooms of the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane hotel. This approach avoided the brazing operations association with copper tube.

The build-up of frost on the outdoor coils of air-conditioning systems in heating mode can interrupt the provision of heating and use a significant amount of energy to melt it. Neil Wooldridge of Toshiba Air Conditioning explores the issue.

Among a series of fan-coil designs from Advanced Air is a remote display module (RDM). It is mounted on the cover of the control box for easy access without having to remove screws or bolts. Commissioning is made much easier, and the fan coil can be commissioned without the BMS being completed. It also provides a cross check between what the BMS is displaying and what is actually happening within the fan-coil unit.

Not only is the global-warming potential of R32 much lower than the refrigerants it is designed to replace, but a smaller charge is needed — two wins for the price of one refrigerant. Carl Dickinson of Mitsubishi Electric discusses why R32 is the logical fit for the HVAC industry.

Chillers are the backbone of commercial and industrial cooling systems across the country. However, they are not a ‘fit-and-forget’ solution, Brent Hall of ICS Cool Energy highlights some easy ways to look after a chiller to ensure it lasts 10 years and more and performs as efficiently as possible.

Toshiba has developed an online commissioning and warranty system for air-conditioning installations which will deliver significant cost and time benefits to end users, installers and service companies. It is administered by Toshiba, and customers and installers can log onto the system from a smart phone, tablet or PC to access comprehensive data on installed equipment at individual plant or building level right up to a national estate.

Cooling and heating for the refurbishment of the Heal’s building on London’s Tottenham Court Road to provide offices over five storeys is provided by the Panasonic ECOi VRF system. Occupants include companies such as Netflix and Deliveroo. Consultants Cundall worked with Easy Air Conditioning to design and install the system.

Advanced Air can now deliver fan-coil units that are pre-commissioned in the factory with the setpoints for water and airflow established so there is no need for any on-site commissioning. The company has entered into an agreement with Belimo and Advanced Air’s control specialist to design and develop a simple EPIV/Delta control package (EPIV is an electronic pressure-independent valve).

Focusing on project-completion trends in 2016 provides evidence for what drove sales of large commercial air-conditioning products such as VRF and chillers and explains why there was only marginal growth, as David Garwood of BSRIA explains. He then gives an outlook for the years ahead.

ICS Cool Energy has been added to the Carbon Trust’s Green Business Directory as an accredited supplier, providing independent recognition of this temperature-control specialist’s skills and services.

Rinnai reports an upsurge in demand for its training on gas-fired continuous-flow water heaters for commercial, domestic and renewable integration. The courses are CPD certified.

Rehau’s free district-heating workshops head to Birmingham on 27 June to offer consultants, contractors, local authorities, developers and housing associations the chance to find out more about the benefits, and practicalities of district heating.

Danfoss ASV automatic balancing valves have been installed in five social-housing tower blocks in south-east London to overcome problems of unevenly distributed heating from central boiler plant. They were installed with minimum inconvenience to tenants.

Marflow Hydronics has further developed its web site to enable customers to download relevant technical information, including BIM models, via a new product-downloads section. In addition, all product pages can be captured in PDF format and used as a data sheet.

Dave Ward of Hamworthy Heating, explains what a commissioning job entails and why it’s worth considering — not just in terms of efficiency, but also customer safety.

The key to the successful commissioning of a project is a commissioning plan. Tony Anderson, a member of the Commissioning Specialists’ Association’s training committee and assessment panel shares his experience of how this simple tool provides clarity to commissioning projects.

Building-services provider JS Wright has secured a £7 million-plus contract to regenerate a former industrial district of north London into a residential community. The company will fit out 252 new homes, including 82 affordable homes, at the London Square Caledonian Road mixed-used development in Islington.

Flue manufacturer A1 Flue Systems has boosted productivity by 30% in a year following a £250 000 investment. It included new machinery, key infrastructure upgrades and reconfiguring the flow of its manufacturing assembly line. Eight new jobs have been created

Heathrow Airport is to use a £16 billion expansion to push the growth of off-site construction in the UK. In a first for a major infra-structure project, Heathrow invites communities across Britain to showcase why their areas should host one of four new offsite logistics hubs. They are key to Heathrow’s plans to build as much offsite as possible, making the project more affordable and environmentally sustainable, while driving growth across Britain.

Daikin UK has opened a new office in central London. It is close to Tower Hill underground station in modern offices that feature an open ceiling showcasing the latest Daikin VRV technology.

Peter Wong, president of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, used his inaugural address to change perceptions about building-services engineers and argue that they should see themselves as artists and practitioners. He is from Hong Kong and was the chair of CIBSE HK Branch and the founding chair of the building-services division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, of which he was elected President in 2008.

Tridonic, which specialises in LED drivers for lighting, has opened a demonstration suite in the Business Design Centre, Islington. The facility will enable Tridonic to meet the many consultants and end users located in central London who would otherwise need to travel to the company’s UK headquarters in Basingstoke.

Briggs & Forrester Special Projects is working on the £2.3 million M&E installation for phase 2 of the redevelopment of Walker’s Court in London. The site is in Soho, and work includes the infrastructure for the new commercial office headquarters for property company Soho Estate, the revival of the Boulevard Theatre, new apartments, shops and restaurants and two existing nightclubs, including theatre of varieties The Box.

Almost 80% of engineering-services firms reported increased or steady turnover during the first quarter of this year in a sector-wide ‘Building engineering business survey’ sponsored by Scolmore. Looking ahead to the second quarter of the year, 88% of businesses expect their turnover to increase or remain steady.

The BREEAM operational rating of 95% achieved by the Kings Place mixed-use building on London’s Regent Canal is the highest ever achieved in the UK, and has been acknowledged by the building winning the in-use category of the 2017 BREEAM awards.

Vital Energi has won the £6.7 million design-and-build contract with Mace to provide the low-carbon energy solution for what is set to be the tallest residential building in London’s tech city — the Atlas Building at 145 City Road. which will be 152 m high and have 40 storeys.

G&H Building Services has been awarded the M&E services contract for the new £7.6 million extra-care scheme in Buxton. Community regeneration specialist Keepmoat is building the 73-bed project on behalf of Housing & Care 21 and Derbyshire County Council. It will comprise 53 extra-care apartments with two bedrooms and a specialist 20-place residential care centre. Communal facilities will include a restaurant, salon and health suite.

The largest volume of new office space completed in central London for a 6-month period in the last 13 years was achieved in the period to May — at 362 000 m2. Shaun Dawson, author of the London office crane survey at Deloitte Real Estate, said, ‘The sheer volume of completed space is no surprise given the surge in development activity 18 months ago. In total 408 000 m2 was completed in 2016, and this momentum has continued into 2017. We expect this year’s annual total delivery to be the highest since 2003.’

Building-services-engineering specialist Ameon has secured a raft of contracts worth over £15 million, as its turnover approaches £50 million. The turnover boost for 2017/18 includes high-profile new developments in Manchester and Salford. One is the £2.4 million contract to install all M&E services for a block of 135 apartments and the £2.5 million fit-out of new offices over four floors for global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has called for the new Government to do a ‘sector deal’ with the built-environment industry that reflects the important role buildings play in human health, wellbeing and productivity. The call was made when the election campaign was in full swing.

2017 marks the third year of the annual awards of the Commissioning Specialists’ Association (CSA). From the entries and nominations received, the judges have shortlisted 27 finalists across the six award categories to be part of the presentation ceremony being staged on 15 June at the Copthorne Effingham Park Hotel near Gatwick.

The winners of the 2017 Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) Awards were announced at the prestigious ceremony and gala dinner on 11 May 2017 at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham.

Nobody understands why there is a difference in performance, between design and the building in-use, but BRE is working on a project to find out — as Dr Andy Lewry and Lorna Hamilton explain

Floor-standing boilers have just got a whole lot smaller with a new launch by Remeha. Ken Sharpe was invited to Holland to find out more.

The air-conditioning and refrigeration industry is braced for a turbulent 2018 as supplies of crucial refrigerants fall off a cliff, says Graeme Fox of BESA.

Arena NX, taking Supervisor to the next level CentraLine’s latest Supervisor, Arena NX, heralds a new generation of connected building management systems. The easy operation of complex facilities, extensive data acquisition and evaluation capabilities in a building, plus interdisciplinary automation strategies, are all designed to increase occupancy comfort whilst simultaneously reducing energy and maintenance costs.

The 2017 Building Controls Industry (BCIA) awards were chosen from its highest ever number of entrants. CentraLine was delighted to once again sponsor one of the nine award categories — Independent Building Controls and BEMS Installer. There were six finalists in this category

The vast inspection pits at Network Rail’s Tyseley depot in Birmingham are now heated by a Modupak R40 series boiler arrangement from Stokvis Energy Systems installed in place of redundant boilers. The depot has facilities for overhauling and repairing locomotives.

Humidity Solutions has supplied a Vesuvius heating and humidification tower to the new Yoga Shed in Hitchin. It delivers 18 kW of heating and 10 kg/h of humidification to produce a stable 40°C and 50% RH. It also introduces and filters fresh air, using heat recover to minimise energy consumption.

Geberit and sister company Twyford have provided a total plumbing solution at Gwenfro Primary School in Wrexham as part of a £4.9 million makeover funded by the Welsh Government’s schools and education programme for the 21st century. Upgraded from an existing 1950s school the new school amalgamates juniors and infants with capacity for 315 pupils. The 2-storey building is rated BREEAM ‘Excellent’.

The excellent results achieved by a custom-built gym pack for a chain of high-street gyms has led to it being installed at multiple sites over the UK, with more to come over the next couple of years. The pack includes everything from design to delivery of a complete hot-water system in one easy-to-install fully specified and energy-efficient pack delivered direct to site.

The one-thousandth installation of AmbiRad’s Nor-Ray-Vac continuous radiant-tube heating system is for the new Jarrett Indoor Cricket Centre of Reeds School in Cobham, Surrey. The centre consists of five training cricket wickets in the sports hall, with six changing rooms, reception space and toilets on the ground floor.

A Spirotech vacuum degasser and a SpiroTrap dirt separator are key elements in the replacement of cast-iron boilers serving an open heating system with modern boilers and a sealed vent system at Exeter Civic Centre. The previous heating system had been in use for nearly 40 years.