The redevelopment of Glencanisp Lodge in the north-west Highlands as part of a green-energy development initiative includes the installation of an oil-fired condensing boiler from Atlantic boilers. The 90 kW R Series boiler has been selected as a part-load boiler with a seasonal efficiency of over 94% GCV.

Many of the consequential improvement requirements of Part L of the 2006 Building Regulations are reinforced in the 2010 version. So building services engineers need to ensure they don’t forget what these requirements are, suggests Ant Wilson.

Simply adding renewable energy to existing buildings may not get the best returns. Andrew Percival stresses that they are just part of the energy-reducing package

Refurbishment projects provide a magnificent opportunity to make significant improvements in energy efficiency, but only if a series of pitfalls are avoided. Wayne Rose explains.

SE Controls, one of the largest providers of smoke-control systems, natural-ventilation systems and maintenance services, can provide a complete preventive maintenance services for smoke-ventilation systems. The scope of the service extends from early involvement in new and refurbished building projects to long-term ongoing maintenance. The company has over 28 years’ experience in the sector.

Reducing the maintenance budget for a building risks incurring more cost than is saved — especially when considerable returns can be achieve for small investments. Paul Cottam looks at the opportunities.

System Hygienics has added to its list of projects for cleaning ventilation systems in prisons with a large-scale contract at HM Prison Doncaster. The contract involved cleaning ductwork in six areas of the prison — initially including the three house blocks, entry building, staff offices, visiting area, kitchens and internal services. This work was followed by the company being invited back to complete further cleaning of the 65-bed healthcare centre, gymnasium and segregation unit.

Johnson Controls has marked the first 10 years of a 30-year contract for facilities management of the 10 000 m2 British Embassy in Germany. The contract was awarded in June 2000. Services provided by Johnson Controls include contract and project management, management and maintenance (including energy management), cost planning and control, purchasing and procurement, waste disposal, janitorial and gardening services, copy and printing services plus a postal service, catering, events management, and snow and ice clearance.

Large boilers at King’s College Hospital in south-east London have been converted to condensing operation using Thermal Energy International’s Flu-Ace heat-recovery system to recover up to 90% of the heat that is normally lost. The order was worth £303 000. The syste4m is expected to reduce energy consumption by over 8 GWh a year and reduce CO2 emissions by over 1500 t a year.

Lumicom’s recycling service for luminaires uses recyclers that are authorised by the Environment Agency and capable of 70% recovery by weight and 50% re-use and recycling of components, material and other substances. Lumicom finances the recycling and requires its recyclers to used the best available treatment practices and advises them on the recyclability of new materials used in producing luminaires.

To replace inefficient R22 chillers at the National Gallery in London, Airedale has designed an efficient bespoke solution based on the Turbocor R134a oil-free compressor with magnetic bearings. Four TurboChill chillers have already been installed, and two more will become operational in 2011. A bespoke sequencing scheme designed by Airedale Controls specialists will integrate the six chillers into a single, highly efficient operating system.

ABB has launched a swappage scheme for drives and motors to enable companies to trade in their old products from any manufacturer for energy-saving ABB drives and motors. The scheme offers at least 17.5% off published list prices for new drives from 120 W to 400 W and new motors from 750 W to 710 kW when old equivalent products from any manufacturer are traded in.

With many users reliant on R22 and other blends chasing recycled refrigerants, A-Gas has launched the next generation of its fractional distillation technology to boost supplies of recycled refrigerants. The latest system was built by the company’s own engineers and will enable it to reprocess much larger quantities of material.

Riegens Blocks suspended luminaires have been installed in the refurbishment of King Solomon Academy in north-west London. Specified by Arup, the brief was to provide high-quality, robust luminaires that would deliver a good even light distribution.

A 2-year contract to maintain all standby generation at three Oxford hospitals has been awarded to Power Electrics Generators. It involves the major and minor servicing of all generators at the hospitals, ranging from 7 to 2000 kVA and includes providing temporary generators to support the critical site load whilst undertaking major services — taking hospital power protection a step further than most maintenance regimes. The contract includes a 24/7 2-hour emergency on-site response by an engineer.

Major refurbishments can be completed three times more quickly than new build and achieve emissions similar to new build. Phil King discusses how refurbishment can play a key role in meeting Government targets for reducing carbon emissions.

Huge reductions in gas consumption have been achieved by English Partnerships, now part of the Homes & Communities Agency, following the replacement of the heating system with a high-efficiency multi-boiler cascade system from Buderus. The new installation is a cascade system of four Buderus GB162 100 kW boilers.

Replacing its old oil-fired boiler house with four packaged plant rooms made offsite by Armstrong will cut nearly £250 000 off the energy bill for the Hutton Hall site of Lancashire Constabulary, giving a payback of less than a year. CO2 emissions will be reduced by 744 t a year. Offsite manufacture enables the new system to be installed within an extremely tight timescale, so that staff were not without heating and hot water in the winter months.

It is now clear that meeting carbon targets for the UK’s building stock will rely heavily on increasing the efficiency of existing buildings. Robin Putman explores the importance of effective maintenance and targeted refurbishment

Oventrop valves were selected by building-services consultants Bianco Sale to facilitate a fast-track refurbishment project in Tunbridge Wells to convert the offices of an insurance company into a health centre for Assura. When complete, the medical centre will accommodate several general practices, diabetic suite, renal unit and a pharmacy.

An upgrade of the lighting at Everards Brewery in Leicester has reduced costs by about £15 000 a year. The project, designed by Chalmor, involved replacing existing lighting and introducing lighting controls to minimise energy wastage. The control system takes account of activities in the building to provide the most cost-effective solution.

The unsatisfactory heating provided by radiators for Mickleton Village Hall in County Durham has been solved by replacing them with Caspian fan convectors from Smith’s Environmental Products. The hall hosts a variety of private and business functions, as well as theatre shows, musical and parish council meetings. The bar area doubles as the village Post Office during the week.

The first project to receive 100% grant funding to install a Dimplex ground-source heat pump is Rendcomb Village Hall near Cirencester. Dimplex was supported in the project by its installer partner Ecovision Systems, which helped with securing grant funding, speci­fying, installing and commissioning the SI 14 ME system.

David Lettis sees the growing restrictions and ultimate ban on the use of R22 as stimulating positive opportunities for building owners/occupiers and the air-conditioning industry.

In selecting a replacement boiler for an existing heating/hot water system, the application of modern high efficiency boilers to old systems needs careful consideration to maximise the system efficiency, reliability and performance, to achieve expected savings, says Bob Walsh.

Lighting energy consumption is expected to be halved at the head office of Ipswich Building Society following the installation of new lighting using intelligent lumin­aires from Cooper Lighting. The head office of this building society previously used switch start category 2 modular fittings with four 36 W lamps. They have been replaced with Cooper’s Intellect Digital Combiform Plus semi-recessed luminaires, which deliver a combination of direct and indirect illumination.

Refurbishment offers much scope for upgrading the performance of building-services systems and avoiding the cost of replacement — As Marcus Sawkins explains.

The ground-source heat-pump installation for the new building inside the burnt-out shell of Ramsgate’s historic library building extracts its heat from the ground using collector pipes that were hydraulically pushed rather than drilled boreholes. This approach is said to be quieter, quicker, create less mess and cheaper than rotary drilling.

A £3.1 million rehabilitation facility in the centre of Harlow created from an uninhabited Grade 2 listed building has its heating and hot water provided by boilers donated by Potterton Commercial. Parent company Baxi Commercial Division was approach by CRASH, the construction and property industries charity for homeless people about donating the boilers.

JS Air Curtains has supplied a bespoke Rund air curtain for the newly refurbished reception area of the offices of Cadbury in Birmingham. The area was becoming cold from air ingress through its main door, and the air curtain was designed to tie in with the architecture of the entrance. The slate-grey air curtain is 2 m long and has a round design. It is supported above the entrance door by matching slate-grey supporting posts.