2017 January

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.

The Econoflame R6000 range of condensing ultra-low NOx premix commercial boilers from Stokvis Energy Systems comprises seven models with outputs from 142 to 539 kW. These boilers use the patented water-cooled down-firing premix burner system with a stainless-steel heat exchanger and have NOx emissions of 15 to 35 mg/kWh with 0% O2. They can achieve seasonal efficiencies of up to 110.4%.

Flues are an essential part of any commercial boiler installation. Dennis Milligan of the British Flue & Chimney Manufacturers’ Association offers advice on how to select and install the correct chimney or flue as part of such an installation.

The complete refurbishment of the plant room of Horringer Court School in Bury St Edmunds includes five Thision L Evo boilers from Elco. They each have an output of 140 kW and have been arranged back to back in a free-standing cascade frame to maximise output in a restricted area.

Boiler plant with a large turndown ratio can respond to various challenges presented by commercial heating systems — especially heat networks. Paul Mickleburgh of Hamworthy Heating takes up the story.

Two floor-standing condensing boilers from Ideal Commercial Boilers have replaced two old cast-iron sectional boilers at Normanby House, the dermatology and ophthalmology departments of King’s College Hospital in London. the Imax Xtra 240 boilers were specified by Matt Gent, project manager with JD Services HVAC Ltd and were chosen primarily for the compact size, quality and small carbon footprint.

As owners and operators of commercial buildings continue to explore how best to achieve maximum energy efficiency from their heating systems, hybrid solutions are growing in popularity. Pete Mills of Bosch Commercial & Industrial explains why combined heat and power (CHP) systems are the perfect partner for gas boilers.

In a potentially turbulent year for the construction industry, Gavin Watson of Elco Heating Solutions outlines the importance of precision when designing CHP and boiler heating in order to maximise efficiency and reduce running costs.

With a growing requirement to carry out heating refurbishments in live environments, James Porter of Remeha looks at how compact, flexible, high-performance condensing boilers provide a winning solution to keeping the heating on.

Making alterations to a building and its services without making corresponding changes to the controls will quickly lead to poor performance and increased energy consumption. controls are not fit-and-forget technology — as Matt Peasnall of Trend Control Systems, explains.

Self-regulating valves have the potential to achieve cost-effective and optimised control in distribution networks. Paul Wightman of Albion Valves considers how to get the best from them.

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.

Getting the right balance on domestic heating system is a simple task with the help of the Grundfos Alpha3 system. The company says that 86% of domestic heating systems are not balanced and that balancing a system can reduce heating costs by 5 to 17%.

The annual awards of the Commissioning Specialists’ Association is open for entries. This is the third year of the awards, which acknowledge the achievements and efforts of companies and engineers. Products, systems and services that are essential for the smooth and efficient operation of any built environment will also be recognised.

Everyone appreciates the important role of commissioning the services in a building, but the work of the Commissioning Specialists’ Association (CSA) is less well understood. Andrew Watkin, CSA chairman, explains the role of the association.

The £25 million biomass energy centre and district-heating network of the University of St Andrews has won the sustainable-development category of the Scottish Green Energy Awards. Vital Energi worked with the university to develop a campus-wide low-carbon energy system by transforming an old paper-mill building into a biomass-based energy centre.

Vital Energi is completing work on a £1.5 million energy centre for the new Greenbank halls of residence (pictured) at the University of Liverpool. The company has a longstanding relationship with the university and has previously installed the district-heating system and converted the Grade II-listed former mortuary building into a CHP-powered energy centre.

The BACnet communications protocol for controls and building-management systems is increasing its dominance in the progress towards open communications protocols, according to BSRIA’s manager for intelligent buildings and homes Zoltan Karpathy (pictured), driven by the demand for increased integration. The trend is revealed in the recently published BSRIA market-intelligence study ‘World building automation and control systems 2016’.

Waterloo Air Products has enlarged and reorganised its factory in response to a significant increase in sales volumes for its air terminal devices. 1000 m2 of space has been added, with extra manufacturing workstations, additional warehousing for storing materials and finished products, a revamped paint shop and a doubling in the packing area. The team grew by 25% in the second half of the year.

The Briggs & Forrester Group has reported an increase in turnover of over 10% over 2015 to reach £183 million. Group chairman Mike Stanton (pictured) said, ‘Secured orders are at a healthy level and are supported by a good pipeline of potential opportunities going forward. During the year, we secured our largest-ever project, Principal Place with Multiplex, with a value in excess of £40 million.’

The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) has launched an initiative to recognise some of the most talented younger professionals in building-services engineering. Called Power Players, its is aimed at people aged up to 39 on 31 December 2016 and will open for entries in the spring. It is aimed at people who have made a positive impact in their organisation.

Ruskin Air Management has been rebranded Swegon Air Management following its acquisition by the Swedish company Swegon AB from Johnson Controls International. Swegon AB specialises in air handling, cooling and ventilation. The former Ruskin brands of Actionair, Air Diffusion, Naco and Airolution now operate alongside Swegon’s existing UK businesses to create a total combined operating turnover of more than £30 million with a workforce of 330.

Edmond Shipway is acting as M&E consultant for the Rigby Group’s £50 million Imperial Park development at Coventry. The scheme will transform land previously occupied by Coventry Airport’s passenger terminal into a manufacturing and distribution hub designed to meet increasing demand for high-quality warehouses with excellent accessibility to the UK’s regions and major cities.

SPIE UK has been awarded a 3-year M&E maintenance contract worth £447 000 with the Design Museum in London. As part of the tender process, the company’s facilities services division presented an approach demonstrating its experience and the care and consideration it could give the museum’s collection.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and BRE have set up an agreement between them to seek alignments between the WELL Building Standard and BREEAM that will make it easier for projects pursuing both standards. The organisations will mutually identify specific credits whereby submitted documentation will be recognised by both organisations, saving project teams time and the costs associated with submitting documentation twice.

Building-services provider JS Wright has won a contract worth over £3.5 million for a striking new riverside development in east London. The design-and-build project is for 144 energy-efficient affordable homes in the second and third phases of New Union Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. It includes a CHP energy centre for the scheme of six blocks, which replaces an aging 1970s housing estate, for developer Hill.

The Government must prioritise skills and innovation if it is to improve productivity and deliver the housing and infrastructure projects highlight in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, according to the Building Services Engineering Services Association (BESA). The association welcomes the announcement of a new ‘pipeline’ of projects through the Government’s planning framework. It also applauds the focus on improving productivity, which is at the heart of Chancellor Philip Hammond’s economic ambitions.

Musicians from the Birmingham Conservatoire music academy perform on the roof of their new building as the final rooftop bricks are laid. The £57 million building is being built by Galliford Try and is set to open its doors in September 2017. It will have five performance spaces, including a 500-seat concert hall. There will also be more than 70 music practice rooms. It will be home to Birmingham’s only dedicated jazz venue.

Airedale has reported that its unit sales for the week beginning 21 November were the highest since it returned to the Rawdon site (pictured) in January 2016 following a major fire in September 2013. In the interim, the company relocated to temporary facilities while the old building was demolished and redeveloped.

The Government’s confirmation of the available budget for the RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) up to 2020/21 in its response to the consultation on the RHI has been widely welcomed by the industry. In her foreword in the response, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Minister of State for Energy & Intellectual Property, says, ‘We will be reforming the scheme to ensure it focuses on long-term decarbonisation, promotes technologies with a credible role to play in that transition and offers better value for money.’

Having invested time and cost to comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, Andy Lewry of BRE argues that businesses should take advantage of the recommendations made in the audit.

Just how far is it possible to further the performance of VRF air conditioning? Ken Sharpe has been finding out about LG’s latest range — Multi V 5.

Part L of the Building Regulations stifles innovation and embeds poor long-term performance into buildings, says Tim Rook of the Building Engineering Services Association.

HygroMatik, which supplies commercial air-humidifier systems, shares its knowledge on controlled air humidification in a CIBSE-approved CPD entitled ‘Why humidify?’. It presents humidification systems, including adiabatic and isothermal. It provides insights on indoor air quality and the relative-humidity levels required in environments such as commercial offices, hospitals, clean rooms, museums and spas.

Increasing interest in Its ErP-labelled A-rated continuous-flow water heaters has led to Rinnai scheduling a new tranche of tailor-made flexible training courses to give engineers the opportunity to explore the practical and energy-saving benefits of continuous-flow gas-fired water heaters and familiarise themselves with the technology. They are hands-on events.

Martindale Electric has moved to larger premises less that 100 m from its current location at Imperial Way in Watford. The move will enable the company to enhance its service to customers by brining together sales, marketing, manufacturing, product development and training.

Pegler Yorkshire has extended its stainless-steel XPress press-fit range of pipe fittings to included sizes of 140 and 168 mm — said to be a first for the UK for these sizes of fitting. This range can be fitted up to 25 bar, subject to application submittal and prior approval.

Stulz’s Explorer WSW range of water-cooled chillers has cooling capacities of 230 to 430 kW with one compressor or 460 to 1530 kW with two compressors. They can be easily adjusted to different cooling loads thanks to two refrigerant circuits with semi-hermetic screw compressors and infinitely variable output sliders. Applications include data centres, communication rooms, industrial and commercial buildings and telecommunications.

Belimo’s new generation of butterfly valves and actuators for high-flow applications for HVAC and commercial applications achieve zero leakage at 200 psi (13.7 bar). These valves have large Cv values to achieve an economical valve solution for larger-flow applications using ANSI flanged piping systems. Typical applications include isolating chillers and boilers, primary bypass flow control, isolating cooling towers, controlling coils in large air-handling units and process-control heat-exchanger applications.

Bristan has updated its Solo range of commercial taps to improve ease of installation and optimise safety. The Solo2 is a DO8 and HTM04-01 compliant thermostatic mixer tap designed to ease the complex specification of taps in healthcare and other public-sector environments.

Advanced Air has developed a truly reversible fan-coil unit, enabling contractors to order units without specifying the handing, which is generally not finalised until late in the design process. Manufacturers cannot begin production without this information, a problem that is overcome by these reversible units.

Delta Cooling has launched a range of cooling towers constructed of anti-microbial resin to help prevent the growth of legionella bacteria. The resin contains additives that operate on a cellular level to continuously disrupt and prevent uncontrolled growth of micro-organisms and biofilm in the cooling tower.

Swegon’s latest generation of its flagship Gold air-handling units has a new grey colour and a host of innovations below the surface. For example, the casing design has been modified to increase its air-tightness and eliminate cold bridges — minimising energy losses.

Victaulic has developed a mechanical jointing method for thin-wall stainless-steel pipes that does not require specialist welding skills. Called StrengThin 100, it has been developed in response to the growing trend in Europe towards the use of thin-wall stainless-steel piping for applications such as chilled water, cooling, potable water and oil-free air systems.

Gilberts Blackpool offers the option of combining a rooflight into its rooftop penthouse ventilation terminal. The option is available with standard or bespoke designs and encompasses glass or polycarbonate glazing to the top of the turret. It can be fitted to new-build or refurbishment schemes.

Vent-Axia has added an open-grille fan to its intelligent Lo-Carbon Revive range of filter-less unitary fans. These fans are designed to meet the specific needs of social housing — providing good indoor air quality and comfort for tenants while being quick and easy to install, low maintenance and reliable. They provide an additional choice to the existing tile grille.

Waterloo Air Products’ VAV (variable air volume) range offers the ability to control airflow for long-term efficiency benefits. Temperature and humidity are monitored so the airflow can be adjusted automatically to maintain an environment suited to the needs of the specific room.

Delivering lifetime protection from corrosion and limescale in commercial heating and cooling system can be achieved using Sentinel Commercial’s Triple Power water-treatment chemicals. These chemicals can dose systems three times larger than previous formulations.

Tridonic, a leader in the provision of LED lighting control and technology, has developed three new CPD modules. This brings the total number of modules to nine, all of which have been certified by CIBSE.

A briefing paper from BRE in collaboration with ESTA (Energy Services & Technical Association) addresses the opportunities that an ESOS audit (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme) offers and how organisations can benefit from them. It provides guidance on how ESOS compliance processes can be optimised to save costs and reduce risks. It is free to download from the link below.

A brochure from Aico explains how its Ei414 fire/carbon-monoxide alarm interface, which is very popular in the social-housing sector, works and provides an installation overview showing how simple it is to install the interface. It looks at the three most common safety systems to connect to — fire panels, telecare/warden call systems and sprinkler systems.