2012 May

Tesco, which is committed to reducing the operational carbon footprint of all its stores by 50% by the year 2020, has installed Monodraught’s Windcatcher natural ventilation system in its new 17 000 ft² superstore in Marlborough, Wiltshire.

Westfield Stratford City currently holds the title of the largest urban shopping centre in Europe and was built at a cost of £1.45 billion. The centre boasts 300 shops, 70 restaurants, a 17-screen cinema, three hotels and is also the home to the UK’s largest casino.

Customers at J D Wetherspoon's Kettleby Cross pub in Melton Mowbray are benefiting from energy efficient heating and cooling provided by a ground source heat pump from Danfoss Heat Pumps UK. The DHP-R heat pump was installed by renewable energy specialist Eartheat as part of a major refurbishment following a fire at the popular pub.

When the Fenwick store in Tunbridge Wells urgently needed to replace its chillers, Weatherite Building Services’ ability to act as main contractor paid dividends for the client. WBS not only provided a more energy efficient and quieter solution, but project managed the entire process including liaison with the local authority on a road closure to ensure delivery of the programme.

An energy saving lighting scheme supplied by Riegens has been used at Enterprise Rent-a-car offices as a pilot scheme in the north-west of England. The scheme has been so successful that the company have chosen the system for retro-fit in existing branches as well as using in any new-build developments within the NW region.

A further three Tesco stores have been fitted with units supplied by fan manufacturer Elta Fans. These latest stores are at Dudley, Crewe and Bedworth (pictured).

Retailers want to keep shop fronts open to invite potential customers into their stores. But this means heat can escape, costing money and increasing carbon emissions. Phil Chilton of Dimplex has a solution.

Any organisation seeking to reduce its carbon emissions should take a close look at its Building Energy Management System (BEMS). Yet, there is more to BEMS than just energy, says Clive Ball of Trend Control Systems.

Approximately one third of the UK’s total energy consumption is used for heating or producing hot water. Retailers are making moves to improve efficiency – MBS Focus looks at the latest initiatives.

With retailers looking to save energy, reduce fuel bills and lower carbon emissions, the latest generation of LED lighting solutions offer a quick win. Ian Major of Havells-Sylvania outlines the benefits.

Convenience outlets are bringing new life to the High Street as planners reject large out of town developments. Steve Robinson of Hitachi Air Conditioning Europe looks at what’s in store.

Asda has announced that it is on track to deliver customer savings adding up to £800 million by 2020, thanks to its commitment to sustainability initiatives. The retailer saved over £70 million in 2010 alone through reducing waste and energy usage in its operations, and delivered four years ahead of schedule on its promise to reduce absolute carbon emissions throughout its operations by 10 per cent.

The Isle of Wight MP, Andrew Turner, unveiled Waitrose’s first energy centre on Friday 30 March 2012. This sees Waitrose East Cowes become the first UK supermarket to receive most of its heating, cooling and power from sustainably-sourced local woodchip.

Morrisons aims to reduce its total operational carbon footprint by 30% by 2020 (from a 2005 baseline). It aims to achieve this despite the new stores, manufacturing and distribution centres that it continues to build.

Sainsbury’s is accelerating its CO2 refrigeration programme as it recently opened its 100th store to be equipped with the green technology. The opening of the store, in Ely, Cambridgeshire, meant that CO2 refrigeration has cut Sainsbury’s carbon footprint by 250,000 tonnes since conversion began two years ago.

The MBS Focus panel looks at the issues facing retailers as they seek to reduce their carbon footprint amid soaring fuel bills and corporate responsibility agendas.

The retail sector is having a torrid time of it at the moment. Game is the latest big name to go to the wall since the recession took hold, joining the ranks of Woolworths, Zavvi and Habitat to name just a few. The UK’s dire economic woes have also seen those retailers that have survived make savage cuts to the number of stores they operate.

How does a 50%, at least, improvement in the efficiency of using gas sound? That is the capability of gas-fired absorption heat pumps, as Mike Wheeler explains.

Renewables specialist Dulas is set to mark its 30th anniversary by doubling the size of its operations in Scotland this year. Since opening its Stirling office in October 2010, Dulas, which has over a hundred staff in Wales and eight in Scotland, has established itself as a leading provider of renewable-energy solutions — including wind, hydro, biomass and solar consultancy and installation.

A Methodist Church in Kidderminster is expected to export 8 MWh of electricity a year following the installation of a solar PV system by Eco2Solar. The project for Dale Street Methodist Church was financed by interest-free loans from members of the congregation, which will be repaid from the £1425 tax-free annual income expected from the Feed-in Tariff.

A 50 kW solar PV installation for fashion house David Nieper Ltd is the first in the UK to use ABB’s PVS300 string inverters to reduce the time needed to achieve a fully operational system. The installation uses six 8 kW string inverters, each with three strings of solar panels with 15 panels per string. A major benefit of these inverters is their 900 V input, compared to 600 V for comparable inverters, enabling more PV modules to be connected in series to reduce cabling power losses, size and cost.

IBD has designed an energy-efficient heating and ventilating system based on two Daikin 16 kW heat pumps for a large self-build residential property comprising some 550 m2 of living accommodation new Crowcombe Heathfield in Somerset. IBD is a Daikin Renewables Partner and was appointed for its extensive experience in domestic and commercial heating and air-conditioning systems, air-source heat pumps and underfloor-heating technology.

New, enhanced flat-plate solar-thermal collectors from Potterton are designed for easier siting and installation on social housing and new-build schemes. All the company’s flat-plate solar kits for in-roof and on-roof applications have new configurations, improved mounting kits and better hydraulic connections.There is a choice of portrait and landscape collectors with areas of 2 and 2.5 m2.

Solar specialist Schueco UK now offers a full 10-year guarantee on its solar thermal and solar PV ranges. The guarantee applies to all the company’s solar-thermal collectors and mono-crystalline, poly-crystalline and thin-film PV modules — as well as mounting systems.

A 700 m2 SolarWall (transpired solar collector) from CA Group at the Royal Mail’s new mail centre at Strood, Kent, is expected to generate up to 176 MWh a year, reducing CO2 emissions by over 32 t. SolarWall uses solar irradiation to deliver naturally warmed fresh air into the building and is said to have the highest efficiency of any active solar technology, generating up to 500 W/m2 of thermal energy.

Buderus has added two solar-thermal evacuated-tube collectors to its solar range. The cylindrical pipes present a much greater area to sunlight than flat-plate collectors — improving their effectiveness during Winter months.

The Renewables Roadshow, which won the ’Best launch show’ category in the recent ‘Exhibition News Awards’, takes to the road again this Autumn with visits to six venues from 13 September to 3 October. The show was up against established multi-national businesses, and its owner, Dan Caesar, expressed his surprise: ‘The businesses we were up against have hundreds of staff and multi-million turnovers, so we were billing it as David versus Goliath. As you can imagine, we were absolutely delighted to win.’

Total benefits of over £17 500 a year are expected by Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service from a 47 kW solar PV installation on the flat roofs of its headquarters building in Winsford. The benefits will be made up of an annual reduction of £3500 a year in electricity bills and an annual FiT payment of over £14 000, index linked. Total savings over the next 25 years will be around £655 000.

Jeff House considers what action businesses can take now to reduce carbon emissions and realise better benefits from renewable energy at a later stage.

With 44% of the UK’s energy demand being due to space heating, renewable heat technologies such as biomass boilers will have a significant role to play in reducing the UK’s carbon emissions. Damian Baker discusses the feasibility considerations for biomass projects and the wide-ranging benefits of biomass systems.

Garry Broadbent argues the case for high-temperature heat pumps in opening up the market by producing DHW at higher temperatures and serving buildings where medium-temperature heat pumps are not appropriate.

Daylight falling on a solar PV panel will inevitably produce electricity, which is just one reason why those involved with solar panels must be aware of installation and safety standards, which are also crucial for system performance‚ Jim Wallace guides you through the subject.

There is a huge amount of activity around renewables and a multitude of initiatives, but are buildings actually ready to maximise the benefits of renewable energy? Blane Judd considers the question.

An online portal from Trane enables specifying engineers and consultants to easily research and design HVAC systems that best meet the needs of their clients. Research carried out as part of its preparation shows that engineers have clearly defined processes and that they need information and tools that support their decision making during each stage.

Eaton Electric has created a video showing how its new Memshield 3 MCCB panelboards are up to nine times faster to install, thanks to their easy-to-fit plug-and-play metering facilities. It can be viewed on Eaton’s YouTube channel (URL below).

BSRIA has updated one of its best-selling guides, the ‘Illustrated guide to mechanical building services’ (BG31/2012). It provides basic reference information on mechanical building-services systems for construction clients and professionals in other areas of the construction industry.

B&ES Publications is the new name for HVCA Publications to reflect its full coverage of building and engineering services. Despite the name change and rebrand, B&ES Publications documents bearing the original HVCA logo and HVCA Publications name remain valid and factually correct. There is no need for customers to obtain new documents bearing the new name and logo if there have not been any technical or legislative updates.

Elta Fans has published a comprehensive and easy-to-understand 48-page document entitled ‘How fans are affected by the ErP Directive’ (Energy-related Products). The aim of the document is to offer straightforward, no-nonsense guidance for potential purchasers to understand the implications of the legislation — now and in the future.

Pegler Yorkshire has brought its Belmont range of commercial radiator valves under its Pegler commercial-valve range, which now offers a much wide portfolio. In addition, and in response to customer demand, the company has launched a comprehensive brochure that features best practice and compliance sections offering technical help to specifiers, contractors and service engineers.

Saint-Gobain PAM UK has developed an online training module for its Classical range of cast-iron rainwater and gutter systems. It covers the different markets for these systems, the complete Classical, Classical Plus and Classical Express product ranges, and their installation and maintenance.

Fire Design Solutions’ 10th-anniversary celebrations include a commemorative logo, a series of events and an online competition. The events will acknowledge the growth of the company from a 2-man operation in 2002 to become a leading fire-safety design and installation company in the UK.

KSB has been presented with the prestigious ‘Manufacturer of the year award’ by the Pump Manufacturers’ Association. It was presented to managing director Andy Ratcliffe at the association’s annual dinner. The winner of this award is voted for by pump-industry peers and pump users in the UK.

British Gas now offers the Grundfos Alpha2 circulator as standard for central-heating systems it installs. This decision means that British Gas customers will benefit from pump energy savings of 75 to 80% immediately rather than waiting for the EuP Directive affecting such pumps to come into effect in 2013.

Alfa Laval has been certified by independent auditor ISOQAR as complying with three separate quality-management standards. The most recent is the environmental-management standard ISO 14001, adding to the existing ISO 9001 for quality management and OHSAS 18001 for occupational health.

Polypipe Terrain, which specialises in plastic piping systems, is expanding its range of training open days by popular demand. These free hands-on training days focus on sharing best practice and important installation techniques. They are both product and project specific.

The York YVWA water-cooled screw chiller from Johnson Controls uses energy-saving variable-speed technology to help cut energy costs and carbon emissions by as much as 25%. The variable-speed drive saves energy during the 97% of operating hours at off-peak conditions, when building loads and/or water-tower temperatures are lower. As a result, these chillers deliver an integrated part-load valve as much as 30% better than traditional screw chillers.

Airtherm Engineering has been formed to design, supply and install energy-efficient heating, cooling, ventilation and renewable systems. The company’s product range consists of chimney and flue systems, natural-ventilation systems, natural-lighting systems, kitchen ventilation, air conditioning/ comfort cooling and heat pumps.

It’s quite strange what you can find when idling away a few moments on the world-wide web. This extraordinary-looking creature is a Thermosaurus radiator, which is described as ‘highly efficient and energy-savvy, thanks to its complex structure that includes a skull, spine, ribs, legs, and tail bones’. Look carefully and you will spot the flow and return connections, but there are no obvious signs of a TRV.

Carlo Gavazzi has updated its range of easy-to-install DIN 3-phase energy meters to meet the requirements of the EU Measuring Instruments Directive (MID). The EM23-DIN energy meter and EM24-DIN energy analyser were the first to become available, and will be closely followed by the EM21 meter with detachable display and EM26 meter with pulse output and Modbus. These meters are suited to active and reactive energy metering and cost allocation and ideal for use in smart-building and building-automation applications.

A new TRV from Danfoss overcomes problems associated with being installed the wrong way round by being able to change the direction of flow around the flow-control cone. This capability can be used to overcome problems such as system noise or water hammer cause by chattering valves.

Lochinvar has revamped three of its most popular product ranges to improve performance and safety in operation, while also reducing costs and installation time for contractors. The Knight, Charger and LBF direct gas-fired storage water heaters include a number of new features. They are now also made in Europe, considerably shortening lead times. Full stock levels of these new products are being maintained in the UK.