When Borstal institutions for boys were established in 1902, one of their ideals was to teach workshop skills. HMYOI Rochester – the original Borstal, named after the village close the prison – is ensuring its young offenders have continuing opportunities to learn with the conversion of the old laundry to a high-specification building dedicated to providing purposeful activity.

Lochinvar has supplied high efficiency water heating equipment to a number of schools in Southampton.

Spirax Sarco Easiheat Engineered Systems have cut water heating bills at Harefield Hospital by 30 percent and are saving £3,000 a year in maintenance costs. They have also overcome temperature control problems in the domestic hot water supply during peak demand.

JS Actuators has recently supplied three high-torque, high-speed Neptronic actuators to Lafarge Plasterboard Ltd for their manufacturing plant in Bristol. Three UB8000 Neptronic actuators were installed by BSL Brammer to close a large damper in an air handling system in Lafarge’s plaster mill.

Recurring Problems with sludge build up in old boiler pipework installations were solved when Wandsworth Council installed the Filter-less Cobra Cyclone systems to some of its large centralised district heating systems.

Simmtronic Ltd has provided an intelligent digital lighting control system for a new hospital in Romford. The £260m PFI hospital is being built by Bovis Lend Lease for Barking, Havering & Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust and the use of this technology represents a new approach to lighting control within hospitals, providing an opportunity for significant energy saving.

Metainy Building Services Group has specified and installed a large-scale application of Toshiba’s VRF air-conditioning system Super Heat Recovery Multi 2 (SHRM2) in an extensive three-storey premier office block in West London. The fully-glazed building required a new system that could respond rapidly to high solar gain, without losing working time whilst refurbishment took place.

Best known as the home of Britain’s Trident submarine fleet, HM Naval Base Clyde is now also the location of one of the country’s largest fully networked, analogue addressable fire detection and alarm systems. Supplied, designed and commissioned by Morecambe-based Cookfire, under contracts awarded by Babcock Naval Services (BNS), the expanding system currently incorporates some 80 Gent Vigilon fire panels. A newly developed Gent network card, allowing direct connection of the panels to the base’s extensive fibre-optic network, has made the economical creation of such a large system possible.

In the face of strong competition, Grundfos Pumps Ltd has been granted a share of the Anglian Water Borehole Framework Agreement. This new agreement will run for an initial three years with the option for a further two additional years available.

Connell Mott MacDonald along with architects, Foster and Partners and Gateshead Council were recognised for their role in the design of the Sage Gateshead when representatives collected the Best Local Authority Building award at the highly prestigious, British Construction Industry Awards in London.

Whitecroft Lighting has been acquired by Fagerhult AB of Sweden.

The European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE) considers the results of the European Parliament Second Reading vote on a Regulation on Fluorinated Gases a significant step forward in the fight against climate change. This position is a strong signal in support of a containment system to reduce emissions of fluorinated gases (F-gases) across Europe.

The London Fire Brigade has launched the first solar-powered fire station in the UK.

The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) has welcomed the decision by HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) to postpone the implementation of the proposed new Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) by a year to April 2007.

Across the boardroom tables of UK industry, environmental considerations are the subject of much debate. Steve Fitzsimons, Sales Manager, npower business, looks at how meeting environmental and CSR ambitions can deliver real commercial benefits.

The merger of Tour Andover Controls and Satchwell creates an organisation of more than 3,500 employees with offices in over 75 countries. But what do these changes mean for the UK Building Controls industry and its customers? Derek Duffill, MD of TAC UK explains that it is about using shared skills and experience to deliver cost savings for customers.

Let me take you back to 1995. Most offices are littered with typewriters and the fax machine is still the trusty stead for speedy communication as there's no email, no world wide web. And this is only 10 years ago.

Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon, in the North East of England, is utilising Honeywell integrated technology to help preserve Britain’s railway heritage and to keep visitors to the museum safe, secure and comfortable. Appreciating the running costs of a national museum - Shildon is affiliated to the National Railway Museum in York - management also recognises that an upfront investment in automated building controls will deliver exponential return on investment over time.

As government legislation becomes more complex and increasingly demands environmentally sound approaches to energy management, the idea of outsourcing the problem becomes more attractive. Brendan McNulty, Regional Service Director for South and West Europe, York International, examines the options.

Increasingly, achieving comfortable temperatures with minimum energy consumption requires efficient humidity control to optimise the performance of cooling systems. Dave Quelch of Able Instruments discusses the vital role of the RH sensor.

Heating and cooling premises in order to provide a comfortable environment for occupants is often a challenge and one that can prove to be expensive. It is typical for most premises and building complexes to have variable climatic requirements, with certain areas requiring heating at the same time as others requiring cooling. Achieving the right balance can be made more complicated because of the daily temperature changes created through the effects of sunlight and shade. This is particularly relevant for buildings having high glass content or in locations with limited exposure to sunlight.

The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill (the Bill) is set down for a Second Reading at the end of this year. According to recent press, the Bill is currently a hot topic. It was first introduced in the House of Commons in June and the Sponsor of the Bill was Mark Lazarowicz MP. The Bill aims to promote renewable energy sources including microgeneration and renewable heat, making it cheaper and easier for people to generate their own energy and it will affect utility companies.