The take up of BIM (building information modelling) is gaining pace, and more and more people are coming to appreciate its benefits first hand — as Dominic Thasarathar explains.

Did your organisation respond to the Government’s consultation over its plans for the Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs)? As the sector skills council for building services engineering, we at SummitSkills gathered views and submitted our own feedback on behalf of the sector. It’s certainly food for thought – and we hope the Government is listening.

Not only is it important to validate the results of energy-saving projects, it is also essential to ensure that the validation is meaningful, says Tony Willis of Sabien Technology.

Having successfully exploited off-site manufacture for a major hospital project, Hulley & Kirkwood and Balfour Beatty were well place to use it again for another hospital — which is also designed for low carbon emissions.

Contaminants in air are generally invisible, and the occupants of a building many not be aware of them — so how do you find out how well a ventilation system removes them? Colin Judd gives an insight into the tracer-gas method.

Having addressed the issue of ozone depletion in the atmosphere, the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry then found itself faced with the global-warming potential of refrigerants. Step forward Klima-Therm with a very low GWP refrigerant that has been trialled by Waitrose.

The global-warming potential of HFC refrigerant gases is, to some people, an emotive subject, which is leading to all sorts of rumours — including the banning of a very common refrigerant for air conditioning. Simon Keel takes a considered look at the facts and calls for common sense to prevail.

With the Green Deal firmly on the way to come into effect in Autumn 2012, we look at how it will work and the opportunities its provides for reducing the UK’s energy consumption and carbon emissions — as well as the opportunities for business.

The capabilities of a phase-change system to offset heat gains and deliver good ventilation have been put to the test in a London school. Tony Cull describes the outcome.