The funding that currently allows heating engineers in England to receive free training for the energy efficiency qualification is almost coming to an end.

Following industry confusion about possible refrigerant handling legislation and the reclassification of refrigerants as hazardous waste, REFCOM, the register of companies competent to handle refrigerants in the UK, has made a renewed call for anyone hiring air conditioning contractors to exercise additional caution.

Building Engineering Services Training (BEST) has raised its entrance criteria for craft apprenticeship with the aim to encourage only the highest calibre learners to apply for the limited places offered by employers.

Following the successful launch of the Merlin range of products S&S Northern have opened a southern division based in Essex. S&S Northern will continue to supply high quality gas control systems for kitchens and school laboratories.

Geoffrey Robinson, Managing Director of Geoffrey Robinson Ltd, a long established mechanical and electrical contractor based in Billingham, County Durham that employs over 100 staff, has become the new President of the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA) for 2005/6.

Alpha Controls has completed controls installations at two sports and leisure centres. The order was placed by contractors, M S Frise and the sites are the Warminster Sports Hall and the Castle Place Leisure Centre in Trowbridge where Compri HX4 controllers from Priva Building Intelligence were specified.

In a roll-out programme to install comfort cooling in Asda stores, Lennox is supplying a range of packaged rooftop air conditioners and chillers to meet the individual needs of each store. Lennox was specified by Asda following a competitive tender exercise involving four manufacturers.

Pick Everard has designed an inspiring and futuristic building for Stephenson College in Leicestershire which has been shortlisted for 'Building of the Year' in the ProCon Leicestershire Property Awards.

The news that the Queen is investing £1million in a hydro-electric power plant to produce ‘green energy’ for Windsor Castle has been broadly welcomed by environmental campaigners including Friends of the Earth. But although this sets a fine example, not everyone has the means to invest in alternative fuel technologies, so what can ordinary businesses do to reduce their environmental impact?

Thanks to various recent changes in legislation, sending discharge lamps to landfill will soon be a thing of the past. Bryan Neill of Mercury Recycling discusses the implications of these changes and the way forward for building operators.

Alan Wilkinson, Managing Director of FAW Electronics, Midlands based design and manufacturing house of customised electronic control solutions,examines the changes to building management systems (BMS).

Mixed mode ventilation is perhaps the buzz phrase of the moment, combining the best of both worlds - air conditioning and natural ventilation. But what is natural ventilation, and how does it work, and why should it be incorporated into commercial buildings?

Simon Ward, Director - Partners BMS for Tour Andover Controls looks at the need to raise the industry bar on partnership working.

The ever increasing use of electronic and electrical equipment in schools makes it necessary for electricity supplies and data services to be readily accessible to teachers and pupils wherever they are in the school building. This requirement is generally met by compartmented trunking systems for the distribution of the necessary power and data cables.

Lochinvar has supplied heating equipment to Roundhay Park in Leeds.

Leading architectural and engineering practice Pick Everard is building a £3.5million wing repair facility and workshop at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland with contractors Laing O'Rourke as part of the Harrier Jump project. The 2,000 square metre building, commissioned by BAE, has been designed by Pick Everard's architects and civil and structural engineers.

Soaring 170 metres into the sky above the historic harbour of Portsmouth, the elegant new Spinnaker Tower will soon be open to view.

Laing O'Rourke has appointed Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers for the detailed design phase of the Pathway project - a £761million, five year plan to extensively reconfigure and develop the University Hospitals of Leicester, (Leicester General and Glenfield Hospitals and the Leicester Royal Infirmary).

Over 21km of Wieland Electric’s podis power bus system, as well as over 4km of gesis NRG flat cable, are being supplied for use on baggage conveyors on Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5 (T5). The products have been specified to provide the electrical power distribution supplying the drives on the baggage systems.

The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) and the Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to work together to promote professional engineering standards within the electrical contracting industry.

Over the summer the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has been busy with the construction industry. Just a few weeks ago the OFT raided a number of demolition companies in the Northwest. Prior to this raid, the OFT had already announced that it had launched dawn raids on 22 firms in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire on the basis of suspicions that they had been colluding on tenders for the past five years. The OFT is an independent statutory body that has the principal role of enforcing prohibitions relating to anti-competitive behaviour (see below). Given the potential consequences of a visit from the OFT, fines of up to 10 percent and imprisonment, set out below is a summary of the current position and details of what to do if the OFT pays you an early morning visit.

The last 18 months has seen fluctuating wholesale energy prices bring increasing economic pressures on UK businesses. With no short term solution in sight, there is now a paradigm shift across industry from the historic ‘best price’ focus to now ensuring ‘best use’.

Fläkt Woods’ fans and some expert advice are helping to create a new phenomenon in Milton Keynes, by introducing to the UK a craze that’s swept the US, simulated skydiving, otherwise known as ‘bodyflying’.

Johnson Controls, Inc. will acquire York International Corporation in a sale expected to be worth approximately $3.2 billion, including the assumption of approximately $800 million of York debt.

Ministers in Scotland have approved the NICEIC as a scheme provider for Certifiers of Construction (Electrical Installations to BS 7671), the revised electrical safety standard introduced in the Building Regulations by the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA) in May.