2019 September

Gordon Mitchell, CIO of Key Facilities Management explains what an 'adaptive workplace' is and the role AI plays within it. 

Matt Whiting, discusses why a holistic approach to specifying water controls in healthcare environments can help improve performance and compliance

The trend in the commercial market for more and taller high rise buildings is showing no sign of letting up. Here, Rob Jacques looks at the pivotal role that system pressurisation has to play in delivering effective heating and cooling.

As the new TR19 Grease specification is issued by BESA, Gary Nicholls explains why some building managers may still find that there are challenges to achieving full compliance.

With multi-occupancy residential buildings on the rise, Martin Fletcher considers the role of modular boilers and heat interface units in providing energy-efficient heating and hot water to individual tenants.

The NHS spends huge amounts of money on energy each year. Daniel Sturch examines an efficient and effective way to battle these costs and provide heating to these vital buildings.

Tom Murray explains how a whole life costing approach to boilers leads to better choices for designers and end-users.

Andrew Dabin explains hydraulic separation methods for heating system refurbishment and why they are so important to consider.

David Simoes considers the importance of temperature in learning environment and looks at some of the heating options available.

Karen Fletcher takes a look into the latest edition of a book that examines the impact of the built environment on occupant productivity and creativity.

Minister for Implementation Oliver Dowden has reminded public sector organisations that they must pay suppliers on time.

The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group is warning that the construction industry faces a ‘perfect’ storm of late or non-payment, reverse charge VAT and hikes in materials costs in post-Brexit Britain.

NG Bailey, the UK’s largest independent engineering and services group, has reported a 16% increase in turnover to £556m, with underlying operating profit also increasing from £13.7m to £19.4m for the 12 months ended 1 March 2019.

OFTEC, the trade association for the oil storage, appliance and supply equipment manufacturers, is critical of government proposals to introduce further renewables installer registration schemes for the domestic sector.

A number of key construction and taxation bodies have called on government to delay the proposed introduction to VAT Reverse Charging until April 2020.

The latest sector-wide Building Engineering Business Survey, sponsored by Scolmore, shows that sector growth remained steady in the second quarter of 2019 in the face of rising costs and persistent payment issues. The survey received 497 responses from companies across the sector.

This year’s BESA National Conference will take place at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London on November 21st. Taking its overall theme as ‘Competence, compliance and climate change – turning theory into practice’, the Conference will consider how the building engineering industry can meet many of the technical challenges it is now facing.

Standards body BSI has produced a new framework for the installation of energy efficiency measures in existing dwellings.

One of the capital’s biggest regeneration projects began last month with the demolition of thousands of existing older houses.

SKILLcard has announced that the CRO cards for Vent Hygiene Specialist, Ductwork Cleaning Specialist and Kitchen Grease Extract Operative will close on 1st November 2019. This is the 3rd wave of CRO closures as part of its plan to deliver the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) 2025 vision. All card schemes carrying the CSCS logo including SKILLcard, must only certify those occupations with nationally recognised construction related qualifications - . NVQs or approved equivalents

The Electrical Contractors Association has said that under-qualified workers could be putting lives at risk if a proposed new framework doesn’t tighten up on requirements – and reinforcement – of experience-based qualifications.

2019 could be one of the most significant year to raise awareness of energy efficiency in businesses, with continuing technological progress and some important policy changes.

As Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “Water is the driving force of all nature”. That’s why the Association of Tank and Cistern Manufacturers (ATCM) was established to help our members provide quality products and services to the built environment sector.

Following the enactment of the BS 7671:2018 18th Edition of the IET Wiring Regulations at the beginning of this year, Mark Williams, lead marketing manager for cable management at Legrand UK, focuses on one element of the changes and what it means for building managers.

Smart home and smart building applications are raising expectations for home owners and building administrators, and for good reason. The smart technology available on the market has the potential to make our lives more convenient and more efficient. This technology is also being implemented in the HVAC market and improving the effectiveness and value of our HVAC systems.

Three specialist companies have joined forces to tackle the issue of poor water quality in underfloor heating (UFH) systems. UFH expert Roth UK is working with water treatment manufacturers DosaFil and SolidTek to address poor water quality, which is responsible for the premature failure of around half of all commercial UFH systems.

With a fantastic range of WRAS approved booster sets available, Grundfos Pumps has successfully combined its years of expertise in developing precision booster sets, with its knowledge of market demands. What’s more, these sets are built at the Grundfos site of engineering excellence in Sunderland. This means the realisation of a Booster FastTrack programme that can offer 5-day despatch on twenty-one of the most frequently requested 2- and 3- pump booster set models.

As more and more of us continue to turn to the web for a wide range of information to assist us in all aspects of our lives, web sites are continuing to develop solutions to answer these needs. At Grundfos we have continued to invest heavily in this area and recent analytics show both increasing new visitor number as well as increasing returning visitor numbers to our site.

Riello has opened a new showroom in the training centre at its head office in London Colney. The venue, showcasing Vokèra’s new and existing products for both the commercial and domestic heating sectors, provides an ideal space for meetings and presentations.

Every year in the UK, a typical family of three living in a household with a conventional one-string plumbing system discharges up to 16,000 litres of clean water straight down the drain as they wait for hot water.

The first major structure to be built at Euston as part of HS2 has received the green light, with the London Borough of Camden approving the design for the high speed rail project’s eye-catching structure which will house technical equipment and a ventilation shaft for London Underground.

Carrier has supplied three high efficiency AquaForce heat pumps with a combined capacity of 5.0 MW for an innovative project harnessing energy from a local river.

As part of a major refurbishment, the 180-year-old Studley Castle in Warwickshire needed to refurbish its boiler plant to provide hotel guests with highly efficient and reliable heating and hot water generation.

The Oxfordshire Golf Club, Hotel & Spa is set to reduce its energy bills by one third as it switches to a far more economical and sustainable supplier - its own natural resources.

When lighting designers take on a scheme, they commonly consider in detail the type of lights needed, the number and the positioning of the lights. But as Paul Jones points out, all too often designers reduce the lighting controls to merely a dot on the page.

Viega has supplied its German engineered press connection technology to the development of a new state-of-the-art engineering centre at Coleg Menai’s Llangefni campus.

Castle Building Services Organisation (CBS), an independent building services design and installation contractor, has announced a significant £6 million education sector contract win for its North West Office.

As energy targets and legislative requirements tighten, low carbon equipment like CHP is increasingly integrated into multi-component solutions for compliance with Building Regulations. 

Funding approved by the Welsh Assembly has seen the most up-to-date and powerful MRI scanner in Wales being installed at Singleton Hospital, Swansea.

Valeria Ferrando explains the difference between digital twins and BIM – and how twinning helps designers and operators understand their buildings better.