2017 March

A new energy centre for the heating, cooling and electricity networks of the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Veterinary Campus will incorporate trigeneration. This £9 million project by Vital Energi will include a 1.5 MW(e) CHP engine and a 600 kW absorption chiller. There are also two 4 MW boilers and a 1.5 MW vapour-compression chiller. The heating and cooling systems will both have a 100 m3 thermal store.

Stokvis Energy Systems has responded to the popularity of communal- and district-heating systems by offering its H-Series Econoplate heat interface units (HIUs). There is a choice of single- and twin-plate units to provide heating and hot-water services in dwellings.

Heat interface units (HIUs) have a key role to play in the efficiency and effectiveness of heat networks and users on the network. Mike Shaw of Evinox Energy shares his experiences.

Frese’s Aquaheat range of HIUs are electronically controlled and feature a programmable Modbus and OpenTherm controller for remote monitoring and control, self learning and fast-acting PICVs, and an advanced anti-legionella capability for safe and energy-efficient protection.

Bosch Commercial & Industrial has added more features to its heat interface units. They include an ErP-compliant modulating space-heating pump and internal system filters on district, central-heating and hot water circuits. These units can be supplied with or without a heat meter.

Switch2 Energy, which specialises in smart metering for community heating has won the Association for Decentralised Energy’s customer-engagement award for its smart-metering partnership with Sheffield City Council. The company’s smart-metering technology is helping to dramatically cut customer bills across over 6000 homes connected to the districting heat network.

Debris in the primary circuits of communal- and district-heating systems can lead to users not receiving enough heat and hot water. Helen Gibbons of Giacomini goes behind the scenes to explain why.

With large heat exchangers being essential components of heat networks, Christer Frennfelt of SWEP International examines the benefits of brazed plate heat exchangers.

With many heat networks benefiting from low return temperatures, the control and commissioning of radiator circuits served by the network is crucial. Chris Parsloe of Parsloe Consulting examines the issues.

Flexenergy is the sole distributor in the UK and Ireland of Flexalen pre-insulated pipe technology manufactured by Thermaflex. This low-carbon pipe delivers significant heat-loss benefits and energy-efficiency gains to district-heating schemes and sustainable-energy projects such as biomass, CHP, geothermal and heat-recovery networks.

Guru Systems’ Pinpoint web-based monitoring platform for heat networks has been validated by the DECC (Department of Energy & Climate Change) to achieve major improvements in performance and reductions in energy consumption — winning for it a CIBSE Building Performance Award for energy-saving product or innovation of the year last month (February 2017).

Dr Andy Pearson, group managing director of Star Refrigeration has received an award for project excellence at ASHRAE’s recent winter meeting in Las Vegas. The award acknowledges the high-temperature district-heating and cooling system at Drammen (pictured) in Norway, which has a population of 65 000.

SAV Systems has welcomed the announcement of a new regime for testing heat interface units (HIUs), noting its potential to significantly improve the performance of heat networks.

To support its code of practice for heat networks in the UK, CIBSE has devised a series of checklists to help improve the delivery of heat networks — as Matt Snowden explains.

New pumps installed in a large bank in Denmark following an energy audit undertaken by Grundfos have achieved energy savings of 60% in operation. This performance has doubled the return on the required investment and reduced CO2 emissions, making it a sound investment opportunity.

The latest heating system at Ashford International Railway Station in Kent has Baltur gas burners powering three Remeha sectional boilers to give a total output capability of 3 MW. The burners were supplied by EOGB Energy Products.

Access is critical to the safety of building-services engineers installing and maintaining plant on roofs. But what does this mean in practice? John Grenville of ECEX explains.

The replacement of existing CHP plant at Bedford Hospital includes boilers supplied by Mikrofill. The three Ethos boilers each have an output of 130 kW and will primarily serve the hospital’s HWS demand. They are configured to provide heat into the main system when hot-water requirements are at a minimum.

Fires in buildings can be big news, especially if people die. Smoke control systems can save lives — but only if they are functioning correctly, as Olly Lucas of SCS Group explains.

The capabilities of the SFG20 standard for building maintenance have been extended with the capability of pulling through the SFG20 data and schedules directly into CAFM (computer-aided facilities management) or CMMS (computerised maintenance management system). Many contractors, building owners and FM managers use such third-party software to schedule and track work.

The supply of hot water for the Malvern Hills Caravan Club site is now plentiful and consistent following the installation of four Rinnai continuous-flow water heaters to replace two storage water heaters. The site has 210 pitches and is especially busy from Easter right through to October.

Within the building services industry, awareness of, and compliance with the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive is crucial. Many companies deal with their electrical waste effectively, however, there are still a significant number who are either unaware of their obligation, or fail to comply with the law. Shaun Donaghey of Electrical Waste explains the key issues for effective and compliant WEEE management.

Panasonic’s gas-fired ECO G heat pumps have been used to help provide a new lease of life for a building in Birmingham that was approaching the end of its practical life. It is expected to be demolished in the next four years, but in the meantime has been refurbished to trial IKEA’s ‘Click and Collect’ store concept that is being rolled out across the country.

With over half of the UK’s mains water supply classed as hard, effective treatment plays an important role in the maintenance regime of any water heating system. Chris Meir of Andrews Water Heaters, explains why investing in water treatment from installation makes financial sense in the long run, and discusses the solutions available.

When boilers are no longer meeting performance or efficiency requirements, building owners have the choice to refurbish or replace. Kevin Stones of Hoval highlights the key considerations

A variety of LED luminaires from Zumtobel form part of a major refurbishment opt the 19 000 m2 H1 office facility, formerly known as Seafield House, in Aberdeen. Lighting controls and emergency lighting from Zumtobel have also been installed.

The energy-efficient upgrade of a Grade I-listed 200-year-old hall of residence at the University of Cambridge sets a new standard for the energy efficient upgrade of the UK’s historic buildings, as Hywel Davies of CIBSE explains.

Now in their eleventh year, the BCIA awards continue to go from strength to strength, with a record number of entries for 2017 covering all aspects of the industry. The awards are now the leading event in the building controls calendar and will this year take place on Thursday 11 May at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham.

Ideal Commercial Boilers has marked the completion of its 30 000th Evomax commercial condensing boiler since this wall-hung range was introduced in 2011. It is the company’s best-selling commercial boiler and is available with seven outputs from 30 to 150 kW.

Platinum Facilities Management Services has been appointed sole M&E contractors for the London Bridge City property portfolio of eight buildings covering an area of about 150 000 m2 of mixed commercial office space. The contract covers all mechanical, electrical and fabric assets.

Proposals for a new Clean Air Act should include measures supporting the role of buildings as ‘safe havens’ from Pollution, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). While tackling emissions from transport is vital, BESA believes that much could also be achieved in a shorter time frame by focusing on how building occupants can be protected from rising external pollution.

NG Bailey provided all M&E communications, fire and public-health services for the recently opened new Tottenham Court Road Station in London, part of the Crossrail project, in a contract valued at over £36 million.

JS Wright, one of the UK’s longest-established building-services suppliers, has been bought out by its senior management team. The company is now owned by its team of five executive directors (pictured), who have run the business for the past 10 years. This M&E specialist was founded in 1890 and has its headquarters in Birmingham and offices in Bristol and London. Turnover is projected to reach £50 million this year.

Elta Group, which specialises in fans, air movement and distribution, has boosted its noise-control offering with the acquisition of the business and technology of UK-based acoustics specialist Acoustica. Acoustica is a specialist engineering company involved in the control of industrial and environmental noise and vibration. By positioning the brand alongside its existing noise-control and acoustics capabilities, Elta Group will benefit from an enhanced knowledge and experience of highly effective noise-control solutions.

RPS Group’s building-services consultancy has embarked on the next stage of its growth strategy with the appointment of three new professionals in its M&E and vertical-transportation teams. The company is currently engaged as building-services consulting engineer on several high-profile city-centre developments in Manchester. They include SK Developments’ Greengate Embankment office-led mixed-use scheme, Select Property Group’s City Suites residential development on Chapel Street and Balfour Beatty Investments’ PRS scheme at New Cross, Ancoats.

Criticisms of the Government’s plans to boost apprenticeships are missing the ‘big picture’, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).

Briggs & Forrester Group and its subcontracted workforce had no RIDDOR-reportable accidents in 2016. In excess of 7.4 million main hours were worked, continuing the trend of the last few years for growing project turnover, number of man hours worked and number of workers — all with a year-on-year reduction in accidents and lost-time injuries.

Pegler Yorkshire is supporting children and young adults find their ideal occupation by invoking enthusiasm from an early age for careers in its industry. Among the initiatives is participating with Doncaster Metropolitan Council in a programme of community engagement with 10 and 11-year olds and sponsoring a high-achieving student at a Doncaster secondary school.

Sweco, a leading European engineering, environmental and design consultancy, has partnered with BAM, which has been appointed to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) construction partner framework to provide design and construction services for the modernisation of research facilities in the Antarctic. The £100 million programme has been commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and will take place over the next 10 years. It will enable British Scientists to continue research into major issues facing the planet.

The University of Bradford has been named Building Performance Champion, for the second time, for its pioneering Ecoversity programme at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards for 2017, which have been running for 10 years. The university was carbon champion in 2012 and has continued transformational work on its aging infrastructure estate over the last decade to reduce its carbon footprint by 35%. It has also become the only university in the world to maintain three BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rated buildings in its portfolio.

SES Engineering Services has completed a £6.5 million contract to provide a full range of M&E services for the £30 million student residences at the University of Hull. The company was appointed by main contractor Sewell Construction for the project, which included the installation of building-management systems, heating, ventilation, CCTV and access systems, as well as small power and lighting and dry risers.

40% of building clients are ‘unfamiliar’ with the heavily used phrase the ‘Internet of Things’, according to survey findings from the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA), CIBSE and SELECT, the Scottish electrical-trade body. In addition, 55% of respondents, which include consultants, engineers, end clients, local authorities and facilities managers says that a ‘lack of clear advice/knowledge’ is a barrier to installing connected technology in their buildings. 61% of respondents say they don’t have any plans to ‘evaluate and install connected technology’.

Airflow Developments has created an Air Academy at its head office in High Wycombe to showcase the benefits of effective ventilation systems in commercial and domestic properties. It also introduces visitors to the pioneering technology behind the company’s product portfolio and will provide education and training on best-practice installation methods.

This bespoke radiant-heating system is available for a wide variety of zoning options. As a result of utilising multiple burners per pump, you can reduce building penetrations and installation costs.

Cavendish Engineers has signed an agreement with Honeywell to become an official CentraLine partner across the entire range of building-management services. Based near Old Spitalfields Market in east London, the company has been in the industry for over 20 years.

BIM models for Conex Banninger’s key ranges of pipe fittings are now available to download from the BIMstore. Specification is a key growth market for the company, so it is important to ensure BIM models are available to download.

Hamworthy Heating’s Stratton mk2 range of compact wall-hung boilers is now on the Government’s Energy Technology List, qualifying it for the Enhanced Capital Allowances scheme. All six models, from 40 to 120 kW, are eligible.

SPC now manufactures its own trench heating products to give customers more flexibility on delivery times, price and bespoke solutions. The Metropolitan range of trench heaters has high outputs and can be natural or powered.

Crabtree’s Instinct range of wiring accessories contains over 300 products — including sockets, fused connection units and data outlets. Named for its intuitive design and clever new features, the range includes full-contact cable clamps that improve cable retention and reduce deformation. LED indicators are integrated into the rocker switch, which retains plate strength and improves aesthetics.

Airflow Developments’ Duplexvent Multi eco range of commercial MVHR units comply with the 2016 ErP regulations and the most stringent incoming 2018 legislation. There are nine models covering airflows from 500 to 7800 m3/h and recovering up to 93% of otherwise wasted heat.

Schneider Electric describes its Masterpact MTZ, which is now available in the UK, as a ‘next-generation low-voltage breaker with industry-first Class 1 metering’ to save project time and energy usage. It also provides the ability to monitor and control safely via a smart phone, even in power outage.