The University of Warwick has appointed Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers to provide detailed design of mechanical, electrical and public-health engineering services for the Warwick Digital Laboratory. The practice will also supply specialist advice on building design, including virtual engineering and acoustic consultancy.

Energy-service companies Dalkia and Honeywell Building Solutions have been appointed to help deliver a 25% reduction in the energy used by 42 buildings of the Greater London Authority.

BSS Industrial has reached its £50 000 target with Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, helping families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness. Following this success, BSS has pledged to raise the same amount over the next 12 months.

SummitSkills, the sector skills council for building-services engineering, has welcomed Government plans to expand and strengthen apprenticeships.

Operon’s design division has been appointed M&E consultant for the complete redevelopment of the first three phases of Stockport College’s town-centre campus.

Event organiser 3049 is planning a new industry event this Autumn. The Heat + Vent Northern Show will run from 26 to 27 November at the Lancashire County Cricket Ground at Old Trafford in Manchester.

LG is preparing to expand its Art Cool range of air-conditioning products into the residential and higher-end interiors market with a network of strategically placed dealers. The company is in detailed discussion with several companies, some new to the air-conditioning industry, but well versed in dealing with the more lucrative parts of the domestic market.

Underfloor-heating specialist Giacomini (UK) has moved to larger premises close to its previous location on Westerleigh Business Park in Bristol.

The CIBSE/ASHRAE 2008 conference in Newcastle next month will tackle the major issues and burning topics that managers, clients, architects and planners all face in the challenge to produce green buildings.

The health-and-safety division of Cyril Sweett has been appointed to the design and construction team of Tate Modern as co-ordinator for construction design and management.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded a £3 million contract to design, supply and install services for a new court building at Caernarfon Criminal Justice Court.

Elmhurst Energy Systems, creator of the Design SAP software for energy performance measurement, has purchased the rights to the SuperHeat software product from Survey Design Associates. This move brings together two popular and widely used SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of Dwellings) products.

Trox UK, which specialises in air-distribution systems, has invested over £100 000 in extensions to its test facilities and buying specialist equipment.

Looking to raise £2000 for the Anthony Nolan Trust by running in the London Marathon on 13 April is Simon Russell, southern divisional manager with Heatrae Sadia.

The construction industry ended 2007 on a positive note, with modest growth set to continue during 2008 — according to the latest trade survey report from the Construction Products Association and the Construction Confederation. Although both product manufacturers and contractors reported that the growth in activity slowed during the final quarter of last year, output and sales volume remained solidly up compared to the same period a year earlier.

Building-services contractor Skerritt has won contracts worth £18.2 million to supply services for prisons at Nottingham and Swaleside in Kent.

Following the securing of over £12 million-worth of new business, Inviron, a provider of building services and facilities management, has created 57 new jobs. They have come about in the 18 months since the company moved into its new offices in Washington and can be credited to a succession of major contract wins and a growing regional economy.

The achievements of low-carbon projects, professionals and pioneers were brought into prominence at the first annual Low Carbon Performance Awards launched by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers in association with E.ON, one of the UK’s leading electricity and gas companies. The awards aim to reward actual low-carbon performance — not promise — and were presented by world-famous yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur (the only person not brandishing an award in our picture).

Designed to use a third less energy than the target for a conventional new-build hospital is the new specialist Cancer Care Centre for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust

Continuous commissioning by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust won the innovation of the year award.

FaberMaunsell’s innovative approach to sustainable design won the new-build project of the year award.

A host of measures for reducing energy consumption have been implemented by Medway Maritime Hospital

In an organisation with over 3000 properties, one man cannot make much of an impact, so Bob Jauncey built up an effective team at Marstons.

Involving staff at over a hundred site was the key challenge to be addressed by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency.

Schools in Sheffield have been encouraged by the city council to adopted cost-effective energy-saving refurbishment measures, winning for the Sheffield schools project the award for low-carbon refurbishment of the year.

The advice provided for the 100 Days campaign helped Bolton Wanders reduce the energy consumption for lighting.

Every one of the 850 staff of the Natural History Museum was involved in its ‘100 Days’ campaign.

With the building-services industry continually faced with a chronic shortage of graduate engineers, CIBSE launched its student bursary scheme four years ago. It provides a means for companies and organisations in the industry to do their bit for the industry — including Modern Building Services, which supported a bursary last year, and we are continuing to do so this year.

What could be the largest such CHP installation in the UK, with an electrical output of 3.2 MW, is up and running in Milton Keynes.

With London South Bank University being a key centre for building-services engineering in the UK, it is appropriate that a major new development should seek to be a benchmark for sustainable future developments. Its designed emissions of carbon dioxide are little more than half of what are required by Building Regulations.

The refurbishment of a building provides the opportunity to improve its energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Kevin Pennycook explains how new guidance can help.

Tesco is investing in none-invasive technology to check the performance and efficiency of refrigeration systems in its stores as part of its environmental programme to ensure that stores operate as efficiently as possible and the company’s carbon footprint is minimised.

The Boots Group is systematically replacing steam traps in its energy centre at Beeston near Nottingham with Gardner Energy Managements’ GEM traps. This programme of work follows the successful installation of these traps on hot-water calorifiers. Since then, some 30 GEM traps have been installed on boilers, super-heaters and in the steam-distribution system.

Retrofitting a modern approach to controlling airflow in VAV systems has enormous energy-saving potential, according to Michael Wild.

Keraflo Aylesbury K type float valves are being installed to control water levels in tanks throughout the PFI Allenby/Connaught project. Over the course of this 10-year build and refurbishment programme, some 600 valves are to be supplied.

The refurbished Devonshire Spa training facility on the Buxton campus of the University of Derby includes the installation of a Lochinvar LBF balanced-flue water heater to provide hot water for hand washing and showers.

Decentralising the heating in a 6000 m2 factory in Burnley has transformed comfort compared with what was previously provided by central boiler plant supplying steam to radiators around the building.

The maintenance of building services can be realistically prioritised, accurately budgeted for, and reliably delivered, as Peter Excell explains.

The refurbishment of three floors of the office building at 225 Bath Street in Glasgow includes the installation of Daikin VRV heat-recovery air conditioning on three floors. The systems were specified by consultants K. J. Tait and installed by Brevel Environmental of Glasgow.

Two vertical stainless-air curtains from JS Air Curtains have been installed as part of the refurbishment of the entrances of Aldwych House in London. JS worked with property specialist King Sturge to incorporate motion detectors and lighting into these units, whilst at the same time complimenting the stainless-steel architecture of this development.

The key to minimising life-cycle costs is to think about maintenance at the design stage. Wayne Rose shares some ideas.

Planned maintenance increases energy efficiency and provides a cleaner environment, says John Wright.

The last 10 years have seen the efficiency of heat pumps for air conditioning improve so much that refurbishment becomes extremely cost effective. Philip Ord describes how.

Inviron has successfully completed the extensive and comprehensive M&E installation for an historic building in Manchester’s up-and-coming Piccadilly Basin. Carvers Warehouse is being redevelopment by Town Centre Securities into a stunning, contemporary construction.

BSRIA has published a new guide on CHP for existing buildings. It runs to 79 pages and provides guidance on the retrofitting of small-scale CHP systems, but many of the technical and operational issues are similar for a first time installation.

As part of the process of upgrading over 2000 homes to high-efficiency boilers, Ceredigion County Council and its training section, Ceredigion Training, are partnering boiler manufacturer Glow-Worm in a new training centre. Glow-worm is supplying high-efficiency boilers and cylinders for the authority’s domestic heating engineers and the county’s NVQ apprentices to receive practical hands-on tuition and assessments.

A cleaning agent for coils in air-conditioning units and air handling units comes in granular form for ease of handling. Pro-Universal granular coil cleaner is being brought to the UK market by Diversitech and being made available through over 200 specialist distributor outlets.

Giuliano Digilio, provides background to the recently published 17th Edition of the Wiring Regulations and highlights some of the key changes that specifiers should be aware of when engaging electrical contractors.

Wylex has produced a guide explaining how to choose the right consumer unit to deal with the changes affecting RCD protection in domestic and residential installations.

Legrand reports that its new 170 m2 customer centre in its Birmingham headquarters is proving to be a huge success.

Gurninder Ghuman of Legrand says, ‘Our intention was to create a centre that would be of value to the industry as a whole, As a result, the centre isn’t just a Legrand product showcase, but, rather, a purpose-built facility geared exclusively to wards the electrical industry — making it the ideal venue for a variety of industry events.’

The centre features a full cross section of Legrand products and those from its group companies Bticino, Zucchini and Ortonics.

There are also state-of-the-art facilities for training and events for up to 40 people. They are available for free customer hire.

Chris Scott describes how Marshall-Tufflex succeeded in developing a 32 A plug-in cabling system — and explores its benefits.

Stephen Willmore explores the implications of Part M of the Building Regulations on electrical installations and how to meet their requirements.

To avoid the cost of purchasing a standby generator for all of its nine care homes in Worcestershire, Heart of England Housing & Care has arranged with Powercall for a standby generator to be delivered to a site when required and be connected within an hour.

Pyrotenax mineral-insulated cables have been installed for fire-rated applications in the 19 000 m2 office development at 1fifty Cheapside near St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Specified by Hilson Moran and installed by Haden Young as the backbone system for landlord services in the shell and core. These cables are used in circuits for life-safety and fire-fighting rated applications as defined in BS 7346-6 specification for cable systems.

Electricians may be unwittingly breaking the Wiring Regulations, and thus not complying with Part P, by using inappropriate junction boxes for certain applications.

Following the publication of the 17th Edition of the Wiring Regulations, EAL, a leading UK body for National Vocational Qualifications and their Scottish equivalents, has launched a series of Vocationally Related Qualifications that specifically support BS 7671:2008, as the new Wiring Regulations are officially named.

Over 50 MVA of uninterruptible power supply systems have been supplied to various legal and financial institutions at Canary Wharf in London by Chloride. This concentration of Chloride UPS systems is the largest anywhere in the world, and it continues to grow as more companies move in and entrust their critical-power protection to Chloride, which was recently named Frost & Sullivan European UPS company of the year for 2007.

Over 2000 m of Electrak busbar has been installed in the ceiling voids of a 192 000 m2 extension to the distribution centre of Innovate logistics at Barden In Leicestershire. This high-bay warehouse is used as a UK distribution hub for Nestlé, and the additional space has increased capacity by about a third.

Hager claims to have won the UK's largest contract for consumer units with a 2-year deal to supply Taylor Wimpey. This housebuilder estimates that it will build more than 17 500 units in 2008.

Emerson Network Power has added the Liebert NXf to its NX range of uninterruptible power supplies. This solution ensures continuity of business-critical IT infrastructures such as are found in small data centres, banks and shopping precincts. Emergency-lighting systems can also be protected.

With the application of EC motors, fan-coil units are given the potential to become a much more efficient, and controllable, method of air conditioning. Peter Lowther explains.

HCP has launched a new brochure covering its ceiling-mounted range of radiant-heating panels, which have outputs in the region to 480 to 500 W/m2. This method of heating is said to be one of the most comfortable and energy-efficiency available.

New ventilation products have been added to the Carl F. Petersen catalogue of hardware products. The latest lines from Greenwood Airvac provide a range of stylish solutions, including products that meet specific acoustic requirements, custom-made requirements for the refurbishment/new-build markets and a slimline aluminium vent.

Johnson Controls HVAC & Refrigeration Parts Centre has introduced a range of service tools for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, along with a supporting catalogue.

Glow-worm has produced a 14-page brochure covering its ‘Clearly solar’ range of solar thermal products.

Britannia Rainwater Recycling Systems has produced a 20-page brochure to provide advice and recommendations on which rainwater harvesting systems and products to use. The company offers a full design, installation and maintenance service to ensure the correct system is installed.

A new guide to the Flex 7 prefabricated interconnection system for lighting systems is available from Flex Connectors to help electrical contractors, consultants and wholesalers take advantage of the many benefits that prefabricated lighting solutions can offer.

The latest catalogue from Pegler Yorkshire brings together for the first time the product ranges of both Pegler and Yorkshire Fittings.

With the amalgamation of AquaTech, Pressmain and Warmac and the launch of the new company name Aquatech Pressmain last Autumn, the company has built up a new web site covering its new and extensive product range, which includes booster sets, pressurisation units and water storage.

Baudet has published two new colour brochures covering two distinct ranges of self-contained bathroom pods for the UK market.

As part of the £8 million redevelopment of East Midlands Airport at Nottingham, Monodraught natural-ventilation and natural-lighting systems are being exploited as part of the airport’s commitment to being carbon neutral by 2012. It is believed that this is the first major airport in the UK to employ energy-free natural ventilation as a building-services strategy to eliminate the need for air conditioning in most areas.

The redevelopment of the old Highbury Stadium of Arsenal FC to create over 700 apartments with a two acre central landscaped garden will use Oventrop valves in all the plant rooms and distribution pipework that comprise the district-heating scheme. Bailey, mechanical-engineering contractor for the entire project, selected Oventrop valves on previous experience of quality and competitive costs.

Over a hundred McQuay Easdale model 50 air-handling units have been ordered to date for the first new hospital to be built in Birmingham for over 70 years. McQuay is also supplying eight air-cooled chillers.

Durapipe’s SuperFLO pipework system has reduced installation time for chilled-water circuits in a new air-conditioning system at Audi’s car showroom in Manchester.

Trox has supplied a complete package of fan-coil units and diffusers for two British Land projects in London. The buildings are the 165 m-tall Broadgate Tower and the neighbouring 63 m-high 201 Bishopsgate. They will be connected by a glass canopy.

Gilberts of Blackpool has completed a contract to supply grilles and diffusers for the tallest building under construction in the Cty of London.

The central plant serving this development of 238 apartments in Stevenage has been halved in size compared with using plate heat exchangers by using Geminox Modusat units in each apartment to store energy.

A new infirmary at the historic Royal Chelsea Hospital is heated by a Flowcrete Isowarm underfloor system. It serves an area of 6000 m2.

Seven new health centres in North Nottingham all use Grundfos Magna commercial circulators in their services systems. Installed by F. G. Skerrit of Nottingham, these were the first A-rated pumps on the market can use up to 80% less energy than fixed-speed counterparts.

Using solar energy to generate domestic hot water has contributed to the new head office of Charter Community Housing achieving a ‘very good’ BREEAM rating. Andrews Water Heaters designed a SOLARflo package for the project as a ready-to-install solution that included roof-mounted solar collectors and a twin-coil cylinder.

Energy from the ground serves underfloor heating in the new Queens Park Pavilion at Caterham in Surrey. Built to replace a former structure destroyed by an arson attack, this £700 000 project offers local residents an energy-efficient sports and community centre with modern facilities.

Vaillant has supplied condensing combination and system boilers for the Shehnai Banqueting Suites in Reading, which are a prestigious venue for Asian weddings and events. Davinder Bhangra of AGAS installed the two commercial 46 kW ecoMAX condensing combination boilers and an ecoTEC plus 637 condensing system boiler.

To cope with sudden high demands for hot water at the Judgemeadow Football Development Centre in Leicester, two Lochinvar 320LBF balanced-flue water heaters have been installed.

Low-carbon heating and cooling of ventilation air for a development of serviced business units near Belfast is provided by passing air through a network of pipes in the ground. Using this system, the temperature of ventilation air can be raised by up to 9 K in winter and reduced by up to 14 K in summer.

Air conditioning for the common areas of a high-specification residential development in London is provide by Panasonic Urban Multi VRF systems.

Temperatures of 40°C could be reached in the summer in the workshops of London Taxis International with heat generated from welding equipment in the metal-framed building with a corrugated-iron roof. The very uncomfortable conditions for the 28 employees have been massively improved using two Breezair evaporative coolers installed by Clean Air Systems.

A biomass boiler provides heating and hot water for the first major district-heating scheme in Ireland. It serves a housing development in Dundalk, with heat-exchanger units from Alfa Laval linking individual dwellings to the system. The objective is to reduce emissions by 90% compared with other approaches, increase energy efficiency by 30% and reduce energy costs by 30%.

Effective heating for the new 5000 m2 warehouse of Media Control at Kings Norton is provided by just four Reznor UDSA43 heaters to maintain a temperature of 19 to 20°C.

Aermec free-cooling water chillers are providing energy-efficient cooling at 55 Baker Street in London by delivering free cooling without the need for glycol circulation in the primary chilled-water system.

he CHP system being supplied by Ener-g for the UK’s tallest residential building, Pan Peninsula next to Canary Wharf, is expected to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 207 t a year.

Experience gained working closely with UK consultants with its FloCon and AquaCon system has led to SAV devising an approach to monitoring energy use at a localised level in extensive building-services systems.

Danlers’ comprehensive range of passive infra-red occupancy switches for automatic lighting control include the popular ceiling flush-mounted version. These products are easy to install, using existing wiring.

Decorating behind radiators is made much simpler by installing a Rotarad connection between the radiator and radiator valve. This device enables the radiator to be moved away from the wall to provide easy access behind it, without having to drain down and refill.

WindowMaster has added a versatile heat-exchanger system to its range of natural cooling and ventilation control systems.

Broag-Remeha’s Gas 210 Eco Pro compact, pre-assembled, free-standing gas-fired condensing boiler are available with four heat outputs from 87 to 200 kW, modulating down to 18%.

Eaton-Williams has developed a new approach to moving air in air-handling units, based on using a number of small-diameter direct-driven fans rather than a single large fan.

The performance of the cooling system in existing data centres can be improved by 60% using a cold-aisle containment system developed by Knurr.

Electronic time-lag switches from Danlers provide a simple way to save energy in stairwells, store rooms, student accommodation etc.

Honeywell’s MTA06 multi-function water-valve assembly combines the four functions needed for the point of water entry into an apartment into one compact device. They are shut-off, strainer, pressure reduction and backflow prevention by means of a double-check valve.

Stokvis Energy Systems has introduced seven Econopress pressurisation units to suit a wide range of applications for heating and chilled-water systems.

A hand-held infra-red thermal imager that can instantly reveal a wide range of problems in buildings has been launched by Testo.

EnOcean self-powered wireless switch inserts are now available in a high-gloss pure-white version. They were previously available in pure white, anthracite and aluminium matt colour variants, and the high-gloss finish is a response to UK requirements.

Mira Showers has introduced a mixer shower aimed at the less-able market, often referred to as the ‘inclusive’ market. The Select Flex has been developed from the existing Select mixer and is the mixer equivalent of the Advance Flex electric shower.

Frico has introduced a heat-pump version of its popular Comfortline air curtain. Suited to applications such as retail, business and industry, these air curtains can achieve an energy reduction of up to 70%, in addition to energy saved by reducing heat loss across a doorway.

PRI is trialling its new Home Energy Controller (HEC) as part of project to reduce energy demand funded by two Government departments, EDF Energy and other partners — ahead of the Government’s aim to roll out smart metering to all UK households over the next 10 years.

Mitsubishi Electric has phased out all R407C fixed-speed models in its Mr Slim range and replaced them with R410A inverter-driven models, which deliver much better energy performance, especially at part load.

Ferroli’s RVL range of air-source heat pumps is available in four sizes of domestic unit with outputs from 5.5 to 11.1 kW. The company also offers commercial units up to 700 kW.

Nu-way has launched a renewable-energy package combining an air-source heat pump and solar-thermal arrangement as an alternative for the domestic oil-boiler market.

The Ultramax R600 range of condensing, gas-fired, floor-standing boilers from MHS Boilers comprises seven models with outputs from 150 to 570 kW with ‘best-in-class’ NOx emissions and efficiencies of up to 109%.

Fire-alarm control-panel manufacturer Kentec has achieved ISO14001:2004 certification for environmental management systems.

Expansion joint specialist J&P Supplies has added to its product range and technical services and can now supply a complete range of pipe anchors and pipe guides to compliment its Stourflex expansion joint range. J&P Supplies says it can advise its customers on this important part of the product selection and ensure the correct match of pipe anchors and pipe guides for the expansion joint installation.

One of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, Galliford Try, has named the Glow-worm brand as the sole specification for domestic heating boilers on all of its private and social housing sites.

Mira has strengthened its entry level electric shower offering with the introduction of Vie. Introduced exclusively for the merchant/distributor channel, this range offers a competitive specification and competitive margin opportunities for the merchant.

A new development of luxury apartments is benefiting from an advanced fire detection solution from Wagner UK. The original building dates from 1895 and was recently acquired for residential development.

Toshiba Air Conditioning has launched a new industry-wide benefits scheme that goes hand in hand with a fresh appreciation of the value of its installers throughout the UK. The scheme is called ‘Additions’ to emphasise that it is all about giving added value. Registered Additions members gain points on all system purchases, redeemable for free Toshiba products.

Developed for use as a high-efficiency flashing visual-alarm device in fire-safety systems, the Sinesto flashing beacon is from Siemens Building Technologies rapidly attracts attention to an alarm condition by making use of specific response characteristics of the human eye.

Glow-Worm’s combi range proved to be a big hit, with 10 lucky installers winning free Ultracom boilers at a special PTS event held recently in Orpington.

Following 12 years of growth, Britannia has moved to bright new premises, centrally located in Leamington Spa.