Tour & Andersson is recognising and addressing the shortages in training across the field of design and commissioning of variable flow systems within the industry.  By hosting a series of informative CPD presentations, the prestigious TA Hydronic College is committed to providing on-going training and support to young engineers and experienced employees.

HVCA Publications has launched a new, updated, and interactive version of SFG20 – Standard Maintenance Specification for Building Services.

A major new initiative, including a new business carbon footprint calculator, has been launched by the Carbon Trust to help businesses shrink their carbon footprints and save millions this winter.

Mitsubishi Electric has issued a reminder of the value of regular check ups for heating and cooling systems to ensure that they do not waste money or energy and perform well throughout the coming winter months.

The publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4^th Assessment Report in mid November 2007 was a significant piece of research.  It offers a stark wake up call to start this New Year. 

As Britain becomes an increasingly litigious society, more employees in the building services industry are making claims against their employers for stress at work. There is an inexpensive way, however, by which employers can minimise the risk of litigation, at the same time as improving productivity and decreasing staff costs. The surprisingly simple – and affordable - answer is Employee Assistance Programmes.

The Little Britain Challenge Cup, the largest annual property and construction yachting regatta in Europe, took to the main stage at the Whyte & Mackay Earls Court Boat Show to present cheques worth £127,000 to its nominated charities and representatives.  

Following extensive research and consultation with employers, SummitSkills has completed stage three of its Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) and laid out draft action plans to address the skills needs of the building services engineering (BSE) sector.

The ECA has given its backing to EAL’s new Vocationally Related Qualifications (VRQs), designed to support the 17^th Edition IEE Wiring Regulations (BS7671:2008).

npower business has launched a new service enabling major energy users that purchase flexibly to make better informed energy procurement decisions and unlock financial rewards.

The Carbon Trust has called for trade organisations to apply for the next wave of Networks funding, with funding bands of up to £30,000 or £140,000 on offer for those organisations keen to take action on climate change.  To apply for the funding, applicants are required to produce a detailed plan outlining how their initiative will deliver demonstrable carbon dioxide emissions savings, by 9 January 2008.  

Mark Brenner, CEO for BEST (Building Engineering Services Training), has announced major developments in BEST’s training services, including a 50% increase in the number of UK apprenticeship places available through BEST next year.

Grundfos’ main production company in Denmark has won an award for good environmental management from EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme), the official EU instrument that acknowledges organisations that have improved their environmental performance on a continuous basis. 

Recolight (the lamp recycling scheme) has now signed up 50 UK lamp producers and made a strong start in creating its recycling infrastructure.

Logic Certification has launched a foundation certificate in Basic Heating and Hot Water System Design and Specification, providing new entrants, and experienced installers alike, with the skills necessary to design accurate, cost effective and efficient heating systems.

Trend Control Systems is supporting the long-term interests of the building services industry through an ongoing campaign to attract apprentices.  Its efforts this year resulted in 50 apprenticeships in Building Services Engineering, out of 550 who responded to the campaign.  Seven are employed directly by Trend, the remainder by 26 Trend partner companies – independent building system integrators who install Trend products.

CIBSE Certification Ltd has been awarded UKAS Accreditation for personnel certification for its Low Carbon Consultants Scheme.

Buro Happold has appointed associate Lesley Dinnett to develop the environmental team in North Europe.

Durapipe SuperFLO has been specified for a new air conditioning system in anticipation of the ever growing numbers of people booking tickets to attend The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army Exhibition.

Resolving the conundrum of cooling Aimia Foods’ sealed, packaging area and providing its workforce with a more comfortable working environment has resulted in a further order for Breezair coolers for CoSaf Environments, a distributor of the Breezair evaporative cooling system.

Cooper Lighting and Security has designed, manufactured and supplied over 1600 bespoke luminaires for the platform lighting system at the revitalised St Pancras International Station.

Dalkia has secured a contract which demonstrates the way it is expanding its services for the hospitality industry. Dalkia is now able to offer UK licensed traders the installation and maintenance of drinks dispensing equipment and the O₂ is the first organisation to benefit from Dalkia’s new service.

Vaillant has provided high efficiency ecoMAX commercial boilers for a private school in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.  Cranford House School needed a new heating system when their old boiler began to leak.  The boilers were specified and installed by David Jones of Advanced Maintenance, Reading.

Cardiff Council has found an environmentally friendly solution to its staff drinking water needs in the form of mains fed water dispensers from PHS Waterlogic.

Advance metal halide lamps from Venture Lighting have been used throughout the car parks at the prestigious Bluewater Shopping Centre in Dartford, Kent, during the recent re-lamping of the car parks. Housed in specially designed and manufactured luminaires from DW Windsor, the lamps have been used to replace the original Venture lamps that were installed in 2001 when the shopping centre opened its doors.  

Legrand will be a permanent support act at Liverpool’s newest concert venue after supplying a comprehensive cable management system for use throughout the multi-million pound Kings Waterfront development.

BSEE and the BCIA have once again joined forces to bring you an awards programme designed to bring together the entire building controls industry in a celebration of the companies, innovations and people that are achieving the highest professional standards and helping to drive this dynamic industry forward.

The Government’s energy white paper has set an aspiration to meet UK long-term reduction targets in the drive towards carbon neutral buildings.  The decision the UK takes on energy policy is critical in meeting these targets. Under the umbrella of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) Part L of the building regulations has already contributed to around 40% improvement in the energy efficiency of commercial and residential buildings.

Government targets on climate change have placed significant pressure on the UK to drive the use of environmental technologies.

The introduction of Part L of the Building Regulations emphasised the importance of avoiding unnecessary lighting during the times when daylight levels are adequate or when workspaces are unoccupied, and led to the need to look at the choices available for more energy efficient solutions. This, together with the fact that the use of natural daylight can help organisations achieve both significant cost savings and health benefits for occupants of their buildings means that natural daylight solutions are becoming ever more popular.   

Commercial buildings of all types are significant producers of the primary greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2). However there are plenty of technologies and control strategies to help reduce their carbon footprint, and it befalls architects, building services engineers and facilities managers to implement them.

‘Bid to win’ and ‘targeted estimating’ won’t be familiar terms to all contractors but for some these sum up a whole philosophy of maximising the chances of winning bids. And many contractors who take such measures are deploying information technology to help achieve their objectives.

Sustainability is not just a smart marketing angle these days, it’s a political imperative. As pressure to take positive steps to combat global warming increases, legislation compelling the construction industry to design sustainability into new buildings will become increasingly stringent.

The new price list from Manrose Manufacturing, Britain’s leading manufacturer of domestic fans is now available. 

Hager claims that the humble wiring accessory is evolving as it launches its intelligent room controller.  The four sides of the accessory are touch sensitive and can be used to control different combinations of lighting, blinds or curtains and heating, either individually or in a group.

Ellipse is a user-friendly lighting control time lag switch with simple push- button controls from CP Electronics Limited.

GET, a Schneider Electric company, has added a robust and practical Photocell to their range of energy saving lights and light fittings. Ideal for commercial or light industrial premises, the unit can be connected to most existing lighting circuits to provide automatic dusk to dawn coverage of property without the need for expensive or extensive rewiring.

Sienna, a slim, stylish T5 fluorescent pendant, is the latest development to evoke Thorn’s PEC programme, based on the principles of Performance, Efficiency and Comfort.

The XPress Carbon range of press-fit fittings from Pegler Yorkshire has recently been extended with the launch of 67mm fittings. This makes XPress Carbon the only UK carbon steel press-fit system available in this size.

Honeywell has made it much easier and faster to install versatile energy saving controls for underfloor heating and radiator systems served via a manifold.  The new Honeywell HCE80 wireless manifold controller works with existing popular Honeywell wireless heating programmers and thermostats; there are no control cables between the rooms being heated and the HCE80 which can be mounted close to the manifold.

Arko, from energy saving lighting specialists Fozz Lighting, is a sleek wall lamp that has been designed for both exterior or interior use.

The new Casino range of architectural luminaires from Riegens Lighting incorporates five different fittings with one common theme; they have been designed to function in the same way as daylight, whilst interacting harmoniously with it. The Casino luminaires achieve this by radiating indirect light that reduces the contrasts in a room, whilst controlling direct light by means of cleverly designed, double parabolic louvres. This louvre technology also ensures minimum energy consumption whilst providing optimum lighting conditions.

TridonicAtco has combined all of its activities in the LED sector under the new brand name of TALEXX, which represents an outstanding range of products with impressive user benefits. No longer just a supplier of lighting components, TridonicAtco is focusing more on finding technical solutions to specific lighting tasks utilising the latest LED technology, whilst concentrating on the system concept, functionality and economy.

Estimation’s Enterprise Estimating software is more than just a simple estimating system; it is a full-blown enquiry management system for medium to large and corporate building services contractors. As such, it provides a high degree of configurability and customisation, so it can easily be tailored to each user’s needs.

Honeywell has released its latest BA295 compact backflow preventers, which ensure contaminated water cannot flow back into the public mains supply.  The new valve models are specifically designed to meet fully all requirements of the UK WRAS (Water Regulations Advisory Scheme).  They use the well-proven RPZ (reduced pressure zone) principle. 

Sontay has announced that its 2008 catalogue is now available to order via its website, www.sontay.com. Available in hard copy, CD-ROM format or as a downloadable pdf, the catalogue details product features, service improvements and competitive pricing information on the company’s extended and comprehensive range.

An online video from CentraLine shows its powerful LION building controller being installed and commissioned in just 1 minute 35 seconds.  The clip is on YouTube (search ‘CentraLine’) and the ‘CentraLine City’ website at www.centraline.com (click LION poster on ‘City’ view).

VRVIII-HR from Daikin, which is ideal for use in commercial office complexes, hotels, apartment stores, restaurants and a wide range of public sector buildings, offers important benefits in energy efficiency and cost savings to installers and their end user clients

It is now a whole lot easier to source the latest ideas in energy efficient cooling solutions using Airedale’s updated website www.airedale.com.

JS Air Curtains is launching a new air curtain that can be fitted with many different mounting or suspension options to tie-in with an entrance’s architecture. It has an extremely attractive round design and is available in stainless steel or any RAL colour.

A new small linear thermoelectric valve actuator from CentraLine by Honeywell provides precise and reliable operation of water valves in heating and air conditioning systems.  Stylish in appearance and silent in operation, the MT010-N actuator can be used with many types of 2-way and 3-way valves as well as thermostatic radiator valves (M30 x 1.5).

Clivet UK Limited has introduced a new, high efficiency water loop heat pump range of products extending the already comprehensive Versatemp catalogue. The EVH Room ceiling mounted units are designed for ducted applications, offering high COPs and EERs, the EVH Room range consists of terminal units with heating/cooling duties from 1.7 -7.1kw. Each unit incorporates a high quality rotary compressor, thermostatic expansion valves and brazed plate heat exchanger, resulting in high levels of efficiency.

Airedale has launched its most efficient chiller yet, the TurboChill air-cooled, high capacity chiller. Central to the design of the TurboChill and key to its superior performance, are revolutionary centrifugal Turbocor compressors optimised with a raft of cutting-edge components. Brilliantly engineered, using Airedale’s vast expertise in cooling technology, the TurboChill minimises environmental impact by lifting efficiency to new heights and pushing down sound levels.

Johnson Controls has launched a new range of PED approved pressure switches for refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump applications.

Dimplex has introduced the new Solar Eclipse solar hot water system, making it easier than ever to take the all-electric route to Part L compliance.

Hardwiring external lighting connections should become a thing of the past according to Hager with the launch of its weatherproof IP66 Klik connection system.  The company claims that it will make installation, maintenance and replacement of external light fittings faster and simpler with this first UK external plug-in lighting connection system.

Honeywell has launched a stainless steel version of its D06 compact pressure reducing valve, which in its original brass version has sold over 15 million units.  The new D06FI can be used to maintain a constant pressure, even where there are wide inlet pressure fluctuations.  It extends the popular D06 range to applications in pharmaceuticals, processing, chemical, buildings, hospitals and any industry where a stainless steel body and fittings are required.

Draka has launched a new generation of OHLS – Zero Halogen Low Smoke – cable that, it claims, sets a new and higher level of fire safety performance.  Draka’s new Saffire cable complements the company’s award-winning Firetuf range of performance cables that today embraces low voltage (cables up to 1kV) building wires and power cables that are available throughout the UK, Ireland and the Middle East. 

With condensing boilers now becoming the norm, Dunham Bush has engineered its Avant Garde range of fan convectors to operate with lower flow and return temperatures to maximise energy savings through condensing.

The SeaChange Smartserver from SC Controls is a standalone supervisor in a module which provides unique plug and play Ethernet connectivity to a SeaChange control system without the complexity of bespoke or specialised supervisory software.