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Acknowledged as one of Britain’s leading manufacturers of wiring accessories and circuit protection equipment, Crabtree’s diverse product range is renowned for its outstanding quality and excellent value for money. With over 200 pages, Crabtree’s new catalogue for 2010 provides contractors with all the relevant information required to select the right Crabtree product for the job, with the specific features and benefits of each range clearly detailed.

The product sections enable contractors to easily identify the items they require, while the technical pages provide all the necessary information regarding specifications, dimensions, capacities, performance and the standards and approvals to which the products conform. Typical installation layouts are illustrated for different types of consumer unit to assist contractors with circuit protection design in conformance with the 17th edition. In addition to product selection information for each range, the catalogue contains data that includes wiring diagrams and assembly instructions, all designed to help simplify on-site installation.

Recently introduced products include colour-coded additions to the unique Biocote? anti-microbial accessory range, energy-saving card switches, and an extension to the range of Part M accessories, including a new Seeklight that is suitable for use with all Crabtree light switches. The circuit protection section now includes Crabtree consumer units, benefitting from new style MCBs, RCBOs and spine backplate units, with many additional configurations now available. There are also additions to their associated modular control devices, including new-style time switches.

Advance information regarding the new Transform décor range is also included in the new catalogue, allowing a preview of the exciting possibilities this adaptable new product will bring to the marketplace. Overall, the catalogue provides a comprehensive and essential practical reference book, which should always be kept at hand by every electrician.

Copies of the new Crabtree Catalogue are available from Electrium sales, by phoning 01543 455010 or by visiting www.electrium.co.uk

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Soprasolar® Duo is a lightweight, flexible waterproofing membrane containing interconnected photovoltaic cells. It enables flat roofs which cannot support the weight of PV frames to be used for solar power generation. The system includes inverters, monitoring software and optional weather station and can be used up to a 5° pitch.

Soprasolar Fix uses rigid photovoltaic modules, but frames do not penetrate the waterproofing layer. With no moving parts, energy creation is silent and optimum generation is guaranteed even in diffused sunlight or when panels are not fully clean. Both options are supported by a fully underwritten 20 year warranty.

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‘Speed and flexibility’ is primarily why Looks Construction selected Marshall-Tufflex’s MT32 high speed underfloor prefabricated wiring system for the fast-track fit-out of units at Highbury Studios, a prestigious new mixed use residential and commercial development in North London offering flexible workspace, office, retail, restaurant and D1 space. This project forms part of the regeneration of Islington that included the Emirates Stadium and conversion of Highbury Stadium, the previous home to Arsenal FC, into the residential development now called Highbury Square.

Looks Construction of Dartford, Kent, has been contracted by Stadium Investement Ltd to carry out the building, mechanical and ongoing electrical fit-outs of the ground level units that range from 500–18,000 square feet, as they become rented to businesses and retailers and must be quickly transformed into offices or shops.

Each unit is bespoke and finished to the tenant’s specification. Modifications to internal layouts and power supplies are therefore needed to ensure that each one meets the differing requirements of the incoming tenant. Often this work is fine-tuned by Looks Construction as the tenant moves in, with the final positioning of desks, computers and lighting, for example.

Looks Construction established the need for a plug and play prefabricated wiring system to provide the essential speed and flexibility needed when installing power and lighting services to tight deadlines at Highbury Studios. As a result, the company explored the product options currently available.

“We researched the marketplace and found that alternative products did not offer the same level of flexibility as MT32 and other companies were not as good on lead times,” said Paul Jordan, of Looks Construction. “We therefore selected Marshall-Tufflex’s MT32 with the product supplied by Edmundson Electrical, Gravesend.”

MT32 is supplied as a total underfloor system taking complete cabling runs via a 32Amp plug and play connector to final outlets in pre-wired, pre-tested accessory boxes with male and female connectors, thereby eliminating hard wiring on-site, saving time and reducing costs. MT32 is a modular system, ideal for installations where power is fed from a main source and delivered over a wide area to a large number of outlets. Due to the flexibility of its design, it can accommodate up to three times the coverage of existing power track options and is also easily reconfigured where re-positioning of sockets is a possibility.

“The flexible conduit system to the accessory boxes is supplied to us in 3-5 metre lengths so that we only need to lift a small area of surrounding floor tiles in order to fit the boxes into the floor void,” added Mr Jordan.

“The boxes are all pre-wired and ready for plug and play connection to master circuit boards. We generally use ten circuits and 30-40 floor boxes with both ring and radial circuit cabling in the fit-out of a standard shell and core unit. With a fast turn around needed in every case, quick lead-in times were essential to us, as was speed of installation and flexibility. MT32 has delivered on all counts: it is fast to install, extremely flexible and it works very well,” he concluded.

The Highbury Studios scheme, part of the Highbury Islington Regeneration Project, is located just off the Holloway Road and has mixed residential and commercial space to great effect, with homes, shops, offices, restaurants, a supermarket, gym and studios for local artisans. The development also includes the new Emirates Stadium and Highbury Square and has been hailed as the ‘future of mixed use developments’.

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Platon DE25 drainage and storage membrane has been specified as part of the green roof construction at the new Universal Studios theme park in Singapore!

Occupying about 35,000 m2, the green roof is one of Asia’s largest. Platon DE 25 was chosen as the drainage/water retention layer because the wide structural spans of the immense roof and the fast track construction of the park demanded that the chosen system was light and easy to install. The other components of the green roof build up included a fully adhered layer of Evalon PVC-EVA terpolymer waterproofing membrane, and a non-woven filter fabric which was laid over the DE 25, followed by a primarily inorganic substrate and selected drought tolerant plant species which require little or no maintenance.

The excellent insulation properties of green roofs mean they act as heat and sound shields, protecting building interiors from the tropical heat and reducing sound transmission. This not only reduces energy consumption, but also extends the lifespan of the waterproofing on the roofs.

Platon DE 25 is available in the UK and Ireland from Triton. Depending upon general climatic conditions and the plants used, Triton can now also offer Platon DE 40/500 for projects where a higher water storage capacity is required. Contact Triton via www.triton-chemcials.com

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Providing householders with the advantages of electronic temperature control is easier than ever with the new Programastat wireless 7-day programmable room thermostat form Timeguard.

Wire free installation is ideal where it is impractical to run wires between a room thermostat and other central heating controls, and this new device can be relied on to transmit time and temperature programmes to its wall-mounted receiver box up to 60m away.

The room thermostat has an attractive illuminated display, showing temperature and status, while all the other controls are neatly hidden behind a drop-down flap. These enable householders to choose different settings for different days of the week, workdays and weekends for instance.

The Programastat range of electronic room thermostats and heating programmers also includes simple, hard-wired room thermostats and multi-channel heating and hot water controllers to provide all the options you will need to improve energy efficiency in your customer’s homes and, as you will have come to expect from Timeguard, the range combines superior, guaranteed performance with remarkably competitive pricing.

Behind the sleek exteriors of the range are sophisticated electronic controls that react immediately to changes in temperature, avoiding the over- and under-shoots (saw-toothing) of traditional thermostats. Even the simple room thermostats in the range (pictured right), with adjustable dials, are electronically controlled. The precise control these products exert can quickly add up to big energy savings.

Installation of all the products in the Programastat range is kept simple with Timeguard’s universal wiring centre box.

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Mitsubishi Electric has announced the appointment of two new VARs (Value Added Resellers) following the company's growth in market share in all areas of business during one of the toughest periods for the industry for decades.

The appointment of Logicool Air Conditioning Distribution Ltd of South Derbyshire and Intra-grated Solutions Ltd of Peterborough vindicates Mitsubishi Electric's decision to expand its product portfolio into renewable technology with the addition of more heat pump-based air conditioning and the expansion of the Ecodan® air source heat pump heating range.

Both Intra-grated Solutions and Logicool will supply the market with heat pumps and air conditioning and Mitsubishi Electric sales and marketing director, Deane Flint is confident that they will enhance the company's offering to customers.

“Our sales have gone from strength to strength in what has been a tough time for the construction industry and we put this down to our desire to deliver what customers want,” he commented. “These new partnerships extend our ability to reach even more of the market.”

Logicool and Intra-grated Solutions, join Hemel-based PACAIR as official resellers of Mitsubishi Electric products, with the company retaining the services of wholesalers, Kooltech and Dean & Wood, and its own nationwide sales network.

Intra-grated Solutions is managed by Dave Sheldon, a Chartered Building Services Engineer, who leads a team specialising in the design, supply and integration of sustainable green building solutions. They answer the needs of M&E contractors, consultants, architects, developers and installers by offering a full design, supply and commissioning service.

Mr Sheldon has amassed over 30 years' experience in energy management and design working for organisations such as the NHS, Barclays Bank and DSA. He started the company and built his team to answer the growing market demand for 'green' technology.

Logicool is a technically biased and customer focused specialist supplier of air conditioning products, which excels in customer service and project support. Logicool have technical staff that are experienced in all sectors of the industry and thus have a first-hand understanding of contractor, engineer and end user requirements.

The company was formed in 2008 and is geared towards busy contractors and consultants. Founder Karl Richardson has been in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning industry for over twenty years and the company prides itself on knowing what customers need, with old fashioned customer service values tied in with a technical sales approach.

“These two companies bring their own unique skills and customer-based approaches and I am sure that these partnerships will be very successful for all,” added Flint.

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Worcester, Bosch Group has extended its market leading collection of Greenskies solar thermal panels and accessories with the launch of new solar evacuated tube collectors for 2011 – the Greenskies Solar-Lux range.

In brief, the Greenskies Solar-Lux collection has been designed to offer installers a Greenskies solar thermal panel for every application, with the added benefit of even greater efficiencies to be gained from the evacuated tube design of the new collectors.

Whilst Worcester's existing flat plate solar collectors are extremely efficient, evacuated tube (or vacuum tube) collectors are even more so due to the cylindrical shape of the tubes that are housed in each panel.

The cylindrical pipes used in construction of the panels are well suited to absorbing energy from the sun, as a much greater surface area of each pipe is exposed to any available light. This makes the collectors particularly suitable for maximising solar gain, even at low light intensities, such as during the winter months when the sun is at its weakest.

Available in two collector sizes – 6 (1,43m2) or 12 (2,82m2) tube variants – Worcester's Greenskies Solar-Lux solar collectors have a lightweight aluminium frame with mounting solutions available for on-roof, flat roof and faÇade installations. Fast and flexible installation was an important consideration of the product design, and installers should find the new panels extremely easy to work with as a result of their construction.

For durability and to ensure a long life span, each panel features robust, 'double glass' vacuum filled tubes, which are designed to prevent leaking of single tubes and loss of vacuum. The panels are also Solar Keymark certified and have been tested to withstand hail storms according to EN129785.

Internally, Worcester's Greenskies Solar-Lux solar system is glycol based and works on the principles of 'direct flow' (U shaped tube) technology.

The new Greenskies Solar-Lux solar evacuated tube collectors also feature Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) mirror technology for increased thermal performance.

This special mirror sits behind the tubes within the solar panels to enhance the collection of solar energy, meaning direct and diffused radiation is led directly to the absorber – even when collectors are installed at adverse or acute angles.

Martyn Bridges, director of marketing and technical support for Worcester, said: “Since we first introduced the Greenskies range of solar panels in 2005 sales have increased steadily, as media interest in the environment and the Government's focus on combating climate change – with initiatives like the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) – have helped raise wider awareness of renewables.

“Installers are driving demand for solar products too, and we know many see the future potential of this type of technology from the high levels of attendance on our solar thermal training courses. Therefore, with both the market conditions and installers in mind, we have chosen to extend our Greenskies solar thermal range at this particular time to provide a greater choice of panels to suit an even wider variety of customer and site requirements”.

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Featuring compact construction and straightforward operation, Megger’s latest EGIL circuit breaker analyser is suitable for testing timing and travel on all breakers that have a single interrupter per phase. In addition, when used in conjunction with the SDRM option and the new SDRM201 accessory, the instrument can also be used to carry out static and dynamic resistance measurements.

• Loads of performance, economic price
• Suitable for testing timing and travel on all circuit breakers with single interrupter per phase
• Analogue measurement channels for travel transducers or general voltage/current measurements
• SDRM available

No compromises Although the EGIL is available at a very attractive price, no compromises have been made on its versatility or performance. It is, therefore, an ideal choice for operators of small power plants and for the maintenance of simple circuit breakers by power distribution utilities.

To aid ease and speed of use, the EGIL has a built-in sequencer that automatically runs the selected breaker operating sequence while making the appropriate measurements and recording the results. In addition, menu-driven procedures invoke sensible default settings, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming pre-setting.

Graphical and numerical output Megger’s EGIL test set offers three timing channels for the circuit breaker main contacts. Main contacts and pre-insertion resistor contacts can be timed on the same channel, with the results recorded graphically and numerically on the integral printer. Results are also shown numerically on the instrument’s large easy-to-read display.

Two additional galvanically isolated timing channels are provided for auxiliary contacts. In addition, an analogue channel is available as an option. While primarily intended for monitoring contact motion, this channel also finds many other applications. Static and dynamic resistance measurement SDRM

For EGIL test sets that have the SDRM option installed, the SDRM201 module extends the facilities to allow accurate resistance measurements to be made on circuit breaker contacts and other low-resistance devices. When used with the test leads provided, the SDRM201 is capable of supplying an instantaneous current of 200 A DC, falling to 140 A after one second. Multiple tests can be run with only a short waiting time between them.

Used in conjunction with the SDRM201, the EGIL test set supports dynamic resistance measurement from 0 to 32 mO, and static resistance measurement from 0 to 2 mO. The inaccuracy of static resistance measurements is 2% ±2 µO or better.

New software too To complement the latest models of its EGIL circuit breaker analyser, Megger has introduced a new version – R03A – of its CABA Win computer-aided breaker analysis software. Designed to run under Microsoft Windows on a standard PC, this adds full support for static and dynamic resistance measurements, new test plans for applications where the EGIL is used with the SDRM201, and 19 new timing parameters for multiple operations.

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There’s a view circulating in the heating sector that water treatment is….well simply water treatment. It’s all the same, much of a muchness and it may even all be made by the same people.

Well its not. Very much the same way as Kelloggs has come out and said if it doesn’t say Kelloggs on the packet, its not Kelloggs in the packet, leading water treatment brand Sentinel has come out to state categorically that it doesn’t make water treatment products for anyone else and to highlight what is actually in the Sentinel bottles that makes it different from the competition.

Over the past few months, Sentinel has been highlighting its TripleTech™ technology – having launched its TripleTech™ branding on its X800 Jetflo cleaner and its X100 protector and inhibitor. Sentinel’s John Lynch says it’s time to differentiate between the quality brands and the others on the market: “Since water treatment products were first included in the Building Regs Part L Guide for Installers document, there have been a host of new entrants to the water treatment sector and we welcome that – competition is a healthy thing. But it’s very much been in many of these new entrants interests to promulgate the theory that there’s nothing much to choose between the products – they all do the same job. The product in a bottle of Sentinel X800 and many other cleaner products is the difference between chalk and cheese. As is the product in a bottle of Sentinel X100 and many other bottles of inhibitor.”

TripleTech™ Anti Corrosion Technology ’ in X100 is a unique formula which has three different kinds of heavy duty specialist corrosion inhibitors, each of which target a specific metal-type for unrivalled performance in a multi metal system.

TripleTech™ Anti Corrosion Technology has been formulated to protect against corrosion, scale, boiler noise and hydrogen gassing in all types of indirect heating systems.

X800 Jetflo contains ‘TripleTech Power Clean Technology’ – another unique formula which has three different chemical technologies which penetrate and attack system scale and corrosion debris, dissolving into a 'ready to flush' solution, whilst leaving a longlasting anti corrosion surface protection.

X800 Jetflo with TripleTech Power Clean Technology is a powerful, highly active cleaning agent. Its unique composition allows Sentinel X800 Jetflo to act as a penetrating dispersant under neutral pH conditions, eliminating the need to clean with conventional acids and the problems associated with them. The formula also contains agents to protect metals from corrosion.

“Boiler manufacturers wouldn’t recommend Sentinel by name in their installation instructions unless they were convinced by the information we share with them, that what we offer is the best,” says John Lynch. “Boiler manufacturers are aware that the majority of problems they have, come from poor quality installation – which includes not flushing systems and not using quality water treatment products and from poor quality circulating water. That’s why they want all installers to use quality water treatment products and that’s why they include using them in their training courses.”

Sentinel has invested huge amounts over the years in research and development and in testing products, again and again. It’s not something every water treatment company does. It’s funded independent research by GasTec to find out what really happens when you use water treatment products. Over the past two years its invested huge amounts in developing a range of specialist products for renewable heating systems, that need cleaning, flushing, and protecting just as much – arguably more – than traditional heating systems. These are not the actions of a ‘follower’ who simply bottles chemicals as inexpensively as it can and offers them to the industry. These are the actions of an industry leader dedicated to providing quality products to ensure that heating systems run as energy efficiently as possible, with as low a level of emissions as possible and keeping maintenance levels as low as possible.

The quality water treatment companies have given huge amounts of their time to attend a myriad of meetings over the years in an effort to get standards agreed, to get water treatment recognised by the Government in Building Regulations, and have joined and given time to the official trade organisations – such as HHIC and the DWTA – that operate so that they can encourage and put pressure on those who need to be convinced of the value of quality water treatment as part of the energy efficiency programme of the heating sector for this country.

There should be absolutely no doubt out there that water treatment is a vital component of our heating industry. Nor that there should be significant differentiation between those that take the sector very seriously and are dedicated to ensuring that the sector can benefit from the best expertise and technology and those that are part of it simply because they can make a quick buck.

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