2016 July

The end of an era?

Decentralised ventilation can be answer for larger spaces, explains Robert Griffin of Hoval

Ged Smith of Waldeck Consulting, discusses why BIM is central to effective facilities management.

Martindale Electric has supplied Worcester, Bosch Group with kits to enable its service engineers to prove that installation they are working on in the field are electrically isolated and avoid potentially hazard live voltages. The company has over 300 service engineers across the UK. The VIPD138 safe-isolation kits include a voltage indicate and proving unit.

Lochinvar has supplied three EcoShield high-efficiency water heaters as part of the refurbishment of one of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings to create the Aloft Hotel. The Grade 2 listed Royal Insurance Building had been disused for over 20 years; The original neo-baroque building dates back to 1896.

As part of major renovation of the heating-distribution and complex ventilation system of the Happyland leisure centre in Klosterneuburg, Austria, 45 Belimo EPIVs (electronic pressure-independent control valves, the orange units in the picture) were installed on eight distribution circuits during operation to avoid loss of revenue.

The refurbishment of the Holiday Inn Express hotel at Edinburgh Airport has its hot-water requirements met by Oventrop Regumaq Cascade units. There are four wall-hung units that heat cold water as required by drawing heat from thermal stores — in this case two electrically heated buffer tanks — through a plate heat exchanger.

Andrews Chiller Hire will maintain cooling capability for a telecommunications provider by supplying 1.4 MW of cooling while the in-house chillers are taken off line during a major refurbishment programme. The two chillers will run in series for direct connection to the existing flow and return connections.

Three Keston boilers with a combined output of 165 kW have been installed at Lancing College in West Sussex as part of a refurbishment project to separate an accommodation block from the central boiler room over 50 m away. This independent boarding and day school provides education for boys and girls aged 13 to 18.

The approved code of practice relating to Legionnaires’ Disease is quite specific about the need for training. Andrew Steel of Airmec looks at how much and what kind of training is appropriate.

The increasing abundance of retrofit solutions for lighting, heating and other key building systems offers the potential to improve energy efficiency — but without incurring the sometimes intimidating costs associated with entirely new installations, says Kevin Cox of Energys Group.

Belimo’s replacement actuator for globe valves have customisable parameters and are equipped with a universal valve neck and stem adapter. They can be installed quickly and easily on virtually all valves from manufacturers worldwide.

The latest generation of Drummond test lamps from Martindale Electric use high-intensity LEDs for live-voltage indication. Using high-intensity LEDs is said to transform the test lamp by enabling the display of discrete voltages over a 360° viewing angle, even in bright light. Four distinctive bands of LED illumination indicate voltages above 50, 100, 200 and 400 V — rather than trying to judge voltage by lamp brightness.

With BSRIA recently having updated its guidance to business-focused maintenance, Jo Harris gives an insight into where the concept is now, 12 years on from the original guidance, and how it can be used to prioritise maintenance requirements.

The BB101 guide for ventilation in schools is being updated. Roy Jones of Gilberts (Blackpool) looks at its implications.

Discreet but effective ventilation is a key part of the design for the St John Bosco Arts College in Liverpool, which won last year’s RIBA North West Award. The original idea was to use floor-standing displacement ventilation terminals for this massive ‘hangar’-style open-plan facility, but the architect, BDP, felt they would be too intrusive. A second proposal involved multiple jet nozzles to ventilate the space, but BDP was concerned about their unsightly appearance. The team then turned to Ruskin Air Management’s Jason Laugharne, who proposed slot diffusers.

In response to the challenges of ventilation for commercial buildings, Robert Dennis of Airflow Developments looks at the key issues to consider and the innovative solutions that can save valuable time, energy and costs — whilst creating a healthy interior environment.

Ventilation manufacturer Envirovent has launched a range of semi-rigid ducting which is quick to install and airtight. The Fast Track range is available in circular and flat-oval form and in various sizes. There are three sizes of duct for domestic and small non-domestic systems. All ductwork can be connected to a universal distribution box using adapters.

Gilberts (Blackpool) offers a solution to maximise the benefits of natural ventilation in rooms such as IT suites and science laboratories in schools. Particular issues in such areas include heat from IT equipment and CO2 from Bunsen burners. Gilberts’ solution is its Mistrale Fusion (MFS) natural-ventilation system with the inclusion of enhanced and boost options.

Airbox from Weatherite Air Conditioning is an air-containment solution that provides an energy-efficient addition to airflow management for data centres. It provides an effective way of helping to control airflow in data centres, server rooms and communications rooms.

Are some approaches to demand-controlled ventilation so complex that they are not effective in reducing overall cost and carbon footprint. Andrew Bott of Nuaire shares his views.

Grundfos has created purpose-built BIM elements from scratch to ensure they are lightweight and do not contain unnecessary data, unlike BIM assets based on 3D drawings from the initial product development and which contain a lot of information that is of little value to designers, engineers, contractors or operations managers.

With demand for its fire systems in its domestic and international markets growing rapidly, Advanced has increased its workforce by over 10% to boost manufacturing capacity and add key talent to its international marketing and UK and US engineering department.

DXR controllers from Siemens offer robust control for fan coils, VAV, and fan-assisted VAV units. They have been designed with both new-build and refurbishment projects in mind. They use the truly open BACnet protocol and are easy to install, saving money at the outset.

Ulster University is helping to stimulate the interest in the construction industry among children with the development of an interactive computer game based on the globally successful Minecraft platform, which enables player to create and explore a virtual city. Called BeIMCraft, the game highlights the emerging role of technology in this traditional sector and ensures young gamers consider planning issues, health-and-safety risks, structural aspects, sustainability and cost when creating their 3D world.

Pump company KSB has recently acquired Smedegaard and is making plans to bring together and enhance the operations of Smedegaard at Bridgwater and KSB at Loughborough. The Bridgwater site will be maintained as the centre of excellence for building-services applications. Pumps and valves can be ordered from the wide range of KSB products.

BSRIA now carries out part-load testing of heat pumps as part of its scope of UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Services) accreditation. BSRIA already provides heat-pump testing in accordance with BS EN 14511 and BS EN 12102 and is now accredited to test to meet with BS EN 14825 for part-load testing and seasonal efficiency.

Hargreaves has been selected to supply over 6000 m of high-integrity ductwork to one of the largest engineering projects in the world — at the Chernobyl nuclear site in the Ukraine. The company says it is the only UK subcontractor working on the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement (NSC) project, having secured a multi-million contract with Novarka, a joint venture between Vinci Construction Grands Projects and Bouygues Travaux Publics.

A 12-month energy-reduction scheme for Land Securities, delivered by NG Bailey, has achieved a 9% fall in energy use at a number of the property company’s key London sites — including 5-6 New Street Square (pictured). The jointly funded cost-neutral pilot scheme exceeded the energy-saving target set by Land Securities.

SES Engineering Services has won a £2.8 million contract win for the refurbishment and extension of an existing building for Dixons McMillan Academy on the former Bradford College site. SES will provide the design and installation on a full range of mechanical, electrical and plumbing services, as well as HVAC system for the 6500 m2 project.

Developers delaying their commitment to new projects until after the EU referendum is suggested by Glenigan as the reason for the value of work starting on site in the three months to May being 5% down on the same period a year earlier. The decline was largely due to a sharp drop in project starts during May against a year earlier.

Adcock Refrigeration & Air Conditioning has won the Family Business of the Year Award 2016 for East and East Anglia. The company was founded in 1964, and the judges were impressed with the long-term view that Adcock has taken since its inception, its response to changing market conditions, strong family values and dedication to the people in the business — many with long service and other benefitting from the in-house training academy too.

Natural ventilation and CHP are features of the M&E services designed by building-services consultancy Greenways for the new £5 million Edgewick Community Primary School in Coventry. There is also an LED lighting system with a DALI-based fully addressable control system — including daylight dimming, absence detection and independent switching for each room in the building.

The Building Engineering Services Association, the Electrical Contractors’ Association and CIBSE Patrons have joined forces to work with the Samaritans on a campaign to address the growing problem of mental health and workplace stress in the building-engineering-services industry.

MediaCityUK is set to double in size over the next decade under plans submitted to Salford City Council. Up to 10 new buildings are envisaged, with a development value of over £1 billion.

Significant growth for the KNX controls sector in the UK is predicated in an extensive survey carried out for KNX UK, the association representing the KNX standard in the UK. More than 80% of respondents are anticipating growth in 2017, with 41% expecting more than a 10% increase in KNX business. The value of the KNX market is around £10 million.

ISG is to deliver Asda’s first Level 2 BIM (Building Information Modelling) project after securing a £10 million new-build project in Clacton-on-Sea. The contractor was appointed to Asda’s global BIM steering group in 2014. Following trial BIM projects at the company’s new Barry store in south Wales and the Beeston store in Leeds, Asda has awarded its first full Level 2 project to ISG.

Air-handling specialist AirSource has won the SME of the year category at the Salford Business Awards, and was also runner-up for the innovation award. The company was formed in 2010 and landed its first project, worth £250 000, within a fortnight.

Carbon emissions from the residential LPG sector could be cut by 83% by 2025 if it switched to biopropane, according to a report from the trade association the Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA). Isaac Occhipinti, head of external affairs, explains, ‘There are currently 171 000 homes in the UK using LPG for heating. If this were replaced by biopropane, carbon emissions would be slashed.’

Industry organisations were swift to react to the result of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU and the majority vote to leave — dubbed Brexit. Julia Evans, chief executive of BSRIA summarised the key questions for the Government. ‘How do we maintain economic investor confidence? What does this mean for energy efficiency? And how will this impact the skills issue, and how should we address this? Specifically regarding labour, how will the industry access much-needed tradesmen?’

Saniflo’s brochure on Kinedo self-contained shower cubicles brings together the whole range — including the Kinemagic bath-replacement range, the new Eden, the Kineprime Glass and the latest Kineduo shower baths and the existing portfolio of leak-free cubicles.

AREA, the European organisation of air-conditioning, refrigeration and heat-pumps contractors, has published a guide on equipment for low-GWP flammable refrigerants. It gives service technicians a tool to understand the equipment that should be used to service refrigerant plant containing flammable low-GWP refrigerants in category A2L (lower flammability) or A3 (higher flammability).

Mitie, the facilities-management company, has produced a white paper exploring how intelligent workplaces can boost productivity. The study is entitled ‘Why the intelligent workplace is the missing piece of the productivity puzzle’ and looks at the productivity problems facing the UK. The paper also explores how creating intelligent workplaces can be a solution to boosting productivity and help to drive sustainable growth in the UK economy.

A helpline for questions about the electro-technical trailblazer apprenticeship has been opened by SummitSkills, the standard-setting organisation for building-services engineering. This apprenticeship standard was launched in 2015 following consultation with industry employers.

Control Network Solutions, which crates smart web-based control solutions, has prepared a white paper on ‘The true cost of building control solutions’ to highlight the key legislation to be aware of and the questions to ask when considering building controls. This white paper is designed to provide facilities and corporate-real-estate managers with information about how to choose a vendor-independent and open-standard interoperable control solution.

BSRIA has published new guidance to life-cycle costing that supersedes guidance published in 2008. BG67/2016 presents a simple process for the practical calculation of life-cycle costs. There are examples to show how the different stages of the process relate to one another, to show how the results are obtained and what they really mean.

Testo, which specialises in measurement technology, especially in the HVAC sector, is entering a new market sector with the launch of a range of electrical measuring instruments. By looking very carefully at how electrical contractors work and their specific needs, the company has developed a range of electrical measuring instruments that it says offers genuine innovation.

Toshiba Air Conditioning has expanded its programme of CPD courses for consultants, designers, installers and end users wishing to update their knowledge on key technical and legislative issues. The focus is on improving understanding of system design and application of the latest technology.

LG’s new offering of residential air-conditioning equipment comprises three ranges — Econo, Libero-S and Libero-R. All ranges have had an upgrade and now come with WiFi options and a 10-year warranty for the smart inverter compressor.

Martindale Electric’s range of insulated Drummond G clamps is designed to provide safe and easy connection to busbars for voltage measurement. These moulded G clamps eliminate the need to drill the busbar by providing a safe and reliable connection via a 4 mm socket in the clamp.

Advanced Air has extended its range of high-capacity slot diffusers with an architecturally pleasing design known as Flowline. The pleasing aesthetics are achieved with a drywall or plastered ceiling, creating a shadow gap much acclaimed by architects and interior designers.