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Leading water softener manufacturer Tapworks says water softeners are far more common in the UK than you might think. With so many homes across the UK built in hard water areas, whilst the majority simply put up with the hard water coming through their water mains, a significant minority currently have taken the sensible step of doing something about it and improving their lifestyle situation.

Despite attempts to share the message that our American cousins have known for decades – a message that has seen literally millions and millions of softeners purchased and installed across the States – in the UK we’re really only just waking up to the news that installing a water softener will result in lower energy usage and – take a deep breath…..lower energy bills.

At a time when energy bills continue to head in an upwards direction, any investment that pays for itself in around two years and continues to save you money for as long as you use it, would seem to be an investment worth looking at closely – and worth recommending to your customers if they live in hard water areas of the UK.

A major independent research study in the USA – the Battelle Report – which began six years ago in 2009, with further updates after that date, concluded that ‘water softeners are amongst the ‘very best’ household energy savers’. As a consequence of the study, the Water Quality Association – an independent body in the USA, is now promoting water softeners in the USA as ‘the best energy saving device you can buy’.

If your customers live in a hard water area – which is around 60% of the UK, especially in London and the south east, East Anglia and the Home Counties – they will already know about hard water. Scum in the kettle. Scaling up of showerheads, limescale marks in the sink and loo.

But if that’s what can be seen easily, imagine what damage is being done where you can’t see it, in heating systems, in washing machines and dishwashers, prime targets for hard water damage. Scale will also form around the heating coil and eventually fill a hot water cylinder. It’s estimated that the annual amount of hard water used by an average family of four contains a whopping 70kg of scale. Untreated limescale simply means wasting energy, wasting money and having to replace appliances and heating systems.

Tapworks new high capacity water softener will fit comfortably in a standard kitchen cabinet. The Infinity offers all the benefits associated with the leading Tapworks range of softeners and meets the needs of families where space is at a premium in their kitchens.

Chris Eaton heads up the water softener company here in the UK: “We’ve seen excellent take up of our leading AD11 unit and the smaller Ultra 9 unit, but we’ve been asked by installers to consider bringing a new, higher capacity unit – that will still fit in a kitchen cupboard – to the market and we’re happy to respond with the new Infinity model which is available from merchants now. It’s perfectly suited to busy, growing families and with its higher capacity offers a more efficient unit too. There’s now a Tapworks unit for every sized home in the UK including a one inch valve unit for larger homes needing higher flow rates.”

Contrary to what you might think, over the last few years when the economy has been difficult, sales of water softeners in the UK have remained remarkably buoyant. People have clearly recognised the issues relating to hard water in their homes and decided that softened water improves their lifestyle, but importantly also cuts their costs – their heating bills in particular and the costs of cleaning and washing, because softened water allows soaps, shampoos and detergents to work harder, so you need so much less of them. This new model will open the door to many more people looking to replace elderly water softeners or those looking to install a new softener in their home for the first time.

Just a 1.6mm build-up of scale on the inside of heating system surfaces can cause a 12% loss in heating efficiency in pipes, in radiators and on heat exchanger surfaces in boilers. Scale will also form around the heating coil and eventually fill a hot water cylinder.. The most welcome benefit for householders in the current economic climate, is that having softened water in the home can reduce heating bills significantly – 15% reductions in energy bills are commonplace, often more – and importantly, having a water softener installed will reduce maintenance costs on those appliances.

Full details of the Tapworks range can be found on the company’s excellent website at www.tapworks.co.uk or you can call for information on 01494 480 621.

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New energy-efficient Crittall windows have been installed in a late 1960’s tower block at one of north London’s major hospitals for main contractor Kier Construction (London).

The £1.5 million contract saw more than 300 windows replaced in the eight-storey tower and two-to-four –storey podium building at North Middlesex University Hospital, and was carried out in a manner designed to reduce noise and disturbance for patients and staff in the hospital buildings.
Situated in Edmonton, the hospital has undergone a multi-million rebuild and upgrading in recent years. Crittall has been involved in the refurbishment of windows in the nearby stroke and cardiology departments.

For the eight-storey tower block, built in 1968, 322 C2000 composite windows were installed. The elevations have differing glass specifications with variations in the thickness of sound control laminators. Various windows also had Solarshield film applied where showers or toilets are being fitted internally.

Some 95% of the window replacement was undertaken using Camac Mast Climbers, seen as a far more efficient external access solution than scaffolding. New materials were loaded by Telehandler into the goods hoist through a larger side door, taken to the desired floor and pallet trucked to the work area.

The old windows, which were also Crittall units, were removed by levering out the vents, splitting the couplings, taking the frame out in sections and passing all parts to the inside of the building. They were then placed on trollies, brought down in the hoist and disposed of in skips to be recycled. No grinders are used and no glass was broken during window removals. This helped to keep noise and dust disturbance to a minimum which was particularly important as two floors were occupied by patients and staff.

www.crittall-windows.co.uk

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The TDR2050 is the first instrument in this class to incorporate a built-in 600 V input protection filter suitable for CAT IV 600 V applications. Furthermore the new TDR2050 features an enhanced and highly intuitive user interface. In addition, a tagging facility that allows users to add a name – such as circuit ID or building name – to saved traces has also been included for convenience.

As a further aid for users, the TDR2050 also features an AutoFind function to take them quickly to the fault while an automatic FindEnd function that provides a convenient way of making fast cable length measurements.
The dead zone effect of a standard pulse TDR can mask near-end faults and make them undetectable but the inclusion of a step function on the TDR2050 eliminates this problem. With step TDR technology the signal is injected at full strength and stays there until a disturbance is detected, making the TDR2050 suitable for detecting near end faults that standard pulse TDRs can miss.

Also featured is a distance-dependent gain function. This eliminates the drop off of signal due to attenuation on longer lines by gradually increasing the gain applied to the return signal. As a result, this function allows a more even representation of the relative attenuation at all points along the trace.

Like other instruments in the TDR2000 range, Megger’s new addition has a minimum resolution of 0.1m combined with maximum range of up to 20km, depending on the velocity factor selected and the cable type.

The new TDR is supplied complete with Megger TraceXpert software, which gives users full control over downloading, reporting and uploading of saved trace results.

Like all Megger equipment, the TDR range has been designed with user safety in mind. The instruments comply with IEC61010-1, EN60950-1, EN61010-3, UN38.3 and EN62133 safety standards.

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Market-leader Marshall-Tufflex has launched its new Cable Management Catalogue, delivering a  user-friendly guide with a fresh new look, added ‘Products by Application’ section and increased cross referencing for technical information.

Covering all the British manufacturer’s products, including PVC-U perimeter trunking systems, underfloor-to-desk solutions, PowerPoles/Posts to aluminium, steel and GRP systems, the catalogue reflects Marshall-Tufflex’s commitment to providing specifiers, distributors and installers with the widest range of cable management solutions available on the market.

The new user-friendly guide allows swift and straight-forward product selection with colour-coded sections covering each product range. Importantly each section includes new, simple to use cross referencing for technical information. Product updates, including improvements to the popular Sterling Profile trunking system, are also included.

A new addition to the catalogue is a ‘Products by Application’ section, designed to assist specifiers and contractors in quickly selecting the most appropriate solutions for each project, including:

• Education
• Office/Commercial
• Transport and Industrial
• Data and IT
• Laboratory/Healthcare

For a copy of the new catalogue, visit www.newcatalogue.co.uk, e-mail sales@marshall-tufflex.com or telephone +44 (0) 1424 856600

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As one of the nation’s most precious Victorian architectural gems, the Grade 1-listed Saltaire United Reformed Church, built in 1859, is a unique example of Italianate religious architecture. Renovation work on what was the spiritual centre of the model village, focussed on the mausoleum in which Sir Titus Salt and his family are buried. Saltaire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and work on the mausoleum roof involved hand crafting of a new ornamental, stamped natural zinc roof by VMZINC craftsmen. The zinc panels were then hand-worked and folded on site by restoration specialists Norman and Underwood, a VMZINC@Work Partner to ensure they matched the curvature of the stonework. Zinc was used to replace lead in order to remove the threat of theft following the approach by Overton Architects to English Heritage. The result is a restoration which is considered to have brought the building back to a standard not seen for more than a century.

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Saint-Gobain PAM UK, part of international materials company Saint-Gobain, has launched a new range of steel channels, gullies and gratings for use in most industrial and commercial applications.

Adding to the company’s VortX range of cast iron floor, roof and shower drains, the steel channels, gullies and gratings can be used internally and externally and are 100% recyclable at the end of product life.

Supplied in Grade 304 stainless steel as standard with Grade 316 versions also available, products are designed to suit terrazzo, tiled and vinyl floor finishes. Grating options include a high flow, anti-slip bar grate, ideal for areas where more slip resistance is required, and can withstand loads of 15kN to 250kN.

Commenting on the launch, Mike Rawlings, Marketing Manager – Soil, Drain & Rainwater at Saint-Gobain PAM UK said:

“This launch adds to our ever-growing VortX range, which is the result of a continuous development programme that offers installers everything they need to do the job, without complicated selecting procedures.

“The standard range is suitable for a number of applications including food and drink processing, pharmaceuticals, commercial kitchens, hotels and restaurants, hospitals, supermarkets, sports and leisure, prisons, railways and utilities.

“In addition to the standard products in the range, we can offer an array of bespoke products that can be manufactured to suit the customers’ exacting requirements.”

For more information, visit www.pam-vortx.co.uk or telephone 0115 930 5000 to request a brochure.

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Saint-Gobain PAM UK, part of international materials company Saint-Gobain, has extended its range of cast iron, VortX roof outlets with the launch of a new 150mm vertical body unit.

Designed in accordance with BS EN 1253, the new, BSP threaded outlet has a compact vertical body and is available with both a flat and domical grating, with the domical version achieving a flow rate of 14.5 litres per second – making it one of the highest performing cast iron roof outlets on the market. Connections to 160 OD pipework are made using a cast iron spigot adaptor.

Commenting on the launch, Mike Rawlings, Marketing Manager – Soil, Drain & Rainwater at Saint-Gobain PAM UK said:

“The high flow rate and compact body design of the new 150mm outlet offers space saving benefits to the customer, and potentially means fewer outlets are required to remove water from flat roof structures.

“Also new to the range is a stainless steel gravel guard to suit the vertical roof outlets.”

The rest of the VortX roof range includes a 100mm vertical outlet as well as balcony outlets with flat and notched gratings, along with two-way outlets, clamping rings and raising pieces. All bodies are available as spigot and BSP versions, allowing connection to cast iron, PVC and other materials.

To ensure durability, all of the flat gratings in the range are sherardised, which provides a hard wearing and anti-corrosive finish. Cast iron domical gratings, clamping rings and raising pieces in the range are supplied black epoxy coated.

In addition, cast iron roof outlet bodies are supplied in a grey epoxy coating used for EN877 pipework, performing to high standards of adhesion, chemical resistance and temperature cycling.

Cast iron has a proven track record for its longevity over the lifetime of the building. Manufactured from up to 97% recycled content, end of life cast iron products are also 100% recyclable, and can therefore be returned to the furnace to make new cast iron products.

Rawlings continues:

“The VortX range is the result of a continuous development programme that offers installers everything they need to do the job, without complicated selecting procedures.

“As all of the outlets in the range are made from cast iron, they offer robust, long lasting solutions for most construction market applications. We’ll be adding more products to the VortX range throughout 2015.”

For more information on the new range of VortX roof outlets, visit www.pam-vortx.co.uk.

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