Reducing, or even eliminating, carbon emissions from new buildings cannot by itself meet Government targets for reducing emissions. The refurbishment of existing buildings has an even greater role to play.

When people have lived in a tower block for a long time, they do not want to move out — so refurbishment issues have to be faced head on. ALISON NICHOLLS shares experiences with a project in London.

Vapac humidifiers have replaced existing equipment at Compton Verney Art Gallery new Warwick to provide precise environmental control to preserve exhibits.

As part of the refurbishment of the Tate Gallery in St Ives, two Broag Quinta 115 wall-hung condensing boilers have replaced older boilers in a roof-top plant room. They each have an output of 114 kW and will heat the entire gallery. They were installed by County Heating of Bodmin, whose Brian Matthews particularly remarks on the improved flueing arrangements and higher efficiency compared to the older boilers. These boilers can achieve a gross efficiency of 99% with a flow of 40°C and a return of 30°C and have very low NOx emissions.

As part of the refurbishment of an historic Grade 2 listed building in the City of London, LG Art Cool indoor air-conditioning units have been installed in most of the public areas. The building’s exterior was left untouched while the interior was modernised. Air-conditioning equipment for this project was supplied by specialist distributor Osprey Air. The client for this project selected LG’s FDX inverter-drive multi systems using standard wall-mounted fan-coil units in the small offices. Their use facilitated the installation of the wall-to-wall customised storage units that this business office needs. Each office has its own wireless control.

Elson’s heating and hot-water-services package has been used in the refurbishment of Wallis House in west London to enable apartments to have individual services, with energy provide by hot water from central boiler plant. The approach overcame the constraints posed by the site not being able to use multiple flues for boilers in each apartment and it not being technically possible to install unvented cylinders in them.

As part of the redevelopment of Norfolk House in Croydon into a 6-storey office complex and an 11-storey Travelodge Hotel, the office portion is air conditioned using Daikin VRV systems throughout.

The line ‘’Tis lack of kindly warmth’ from Shakespeare’s ‘The life of Timon of Athens’ is no longer appropriate at King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare is believed to have been a pupil. The reason is that four Clyde sectional boilers have replaced outdated boilers to deliver heating with a seasonal efficiency of over 84%.

The lighting system is an important and integral part of any building. MIKE HARRINGTON discusses the opportunities for refurbishing a lighting installation and the benefits that can be realised.

As part of a 15-year Private Finance Initiative, Dalkia will invest £2.9 million to refurbish the existing boiler plant at Kingston Hospital and equip it with CHP plant. Carbon-dioxide emissions will be reduced by around 4000 t a year. The agreement includes the subsequent operation and maintenance of the new plant and will provide secure and stable future energy supplies for this 632-bed hospital.

The refurbishment of the Grade 2 listed Baskerville House in Birmingham, dating from 1939, includes such services as chilled ceilings and beams, displacement ventilation via a pressurised floor and lighting controls to maximise the use of daylight.

Meeting the requirements of the Building Regulations when a commercial building is refurbished does not necessarily require condensing boiler plant — and it may not even be the best option. GRAHAM WILLIAMSON explains.

An important element of the building-management system installed by Integrated Control Systems as part of the £5 million refurbishment of 13 Hanover Square in London for Standard Life is the ability to access graphics and data on the performance of the building via the Internet and the transmission of security alarms by e-mail to computers, mobile telephones or a central alarm point.

The £90 million phased refurbishment of the headquarters of Norwich Union in Norwich saw the installation of a wide range of chilled beams from Trox UK. The total value to Trox over all four phases of the project was £3.5 million.

Upgrading existing buildings rather than demolishing them avoids the loss of embodied energy — making a valuable contribution to avoiding carbon emissions. One problem to solve is how to squeeze services into restricted slab-to-slab heights — as GLAN BLAKE THOMAS explains.

Substantial reductions in the cost of providing heating and domestic hot water will be achieved following the installation of Atlantic gas-fired condensing boilers at Mitton Court in Buxton, which provides 60 flats for elderly people. The two R Series boilers each have a output of 153 kW and provide both weather-compensated heating and fast-recovery hot water.

The refurbishment of over 200 Morrisons supermarkets included the installation of water-heating equipment supplied by Lochinvar.

As part of a £750 000 upgrade to its existing brewery equipment, Triple FFF Brewery Company in Hampshire has installed a new steam boiler from Fulton Boiler works. This 60J gas-fired vertical steam boiler replaces an electric boiler and supplies heat for brewing real ale, as well as steam for cleaning and sterilising kegs and process equipment.

When the time came to upgrade its original standby-power system, WRN, which specialises in global radio networks and specialist broadcast services, turned to the original supplier — Scorpion Power Systems.

Delivering value for building services is not the same as reducing costs. Indeed, a small reduction in cost could reduce value by much more. JIM HARRISON presents a consultant’s perspective.

Offsite fabrication is the ultimate in value engineering for building services. We just have to be better at selling it, says PAUL COOPER.

No-where in the new energy centre of the Natural History Museum is there a balancing or commissioning valve. Vital Energi, which manages the centre believes that using variable-speed drives with all fans and pumps is inherently a far better approach.

MIKE WILLIAMS believes that more powerful and less expensive technologies have overtaken dedicated building-management systems — presenting potential purchasers and users with the ability to have all the useful functionality required, but at a lower price.

Not only does the fully addressable DALI lighting-control system in the CatB fit-out of Allen & Overy’s new London headquarters provide a variety of options for the lighting itself, but it also holds on fan coils in response to presence detection and turns them off when lights go out.

Using plant rooms made off site by Armstrong Integrated Systems has reduced programme timescales for the expansion of two HBOS data centres.

Being involved at an early stage in the Ideapark indoor commercial city near Tampere in Finland enabled TAC to achieve considerable cost savings by fully integrating the building-management and security systems.

The need to install light switches in open-plan areas of a 3-storey office building at Burgess Hill has been eliminated by an Ex-Or lighting-control system which switches lights on and off in response to signals from presence detectors that respond to the smallest movements made by occupants; lights are also dimmed as required. The latest Building Regulations stipulate that light switches should be no further than 6 m away from the workstations of occupants.

Fireco believes that its Dorgard device provides the simplest and most cost-effective way of legally holding fire doors open and releasing them if the fire alarm sounds.

MBS 07-05 comment target is 20 to 22 cm