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When you are developing a new brand of upmarket sandwich shops for the heavily fought London lunchtime market, you need a unique approach that will bring customer loyalty and attract business from traditional High Street outlets. And, when you have set up your business based on ethics and sustainability, you need building services that can help support these values.

That was the challenge for Mark and Lindsay Lilley when they started Abokado in 2005 and they have carried through their ethical philosophy into all aspects of the business, including the heating and cooling, with the installation of Mitsubishi Electric Mr Slim air conditioning at their City Road branch by Maidenhead-based Degrees of Comfort Air Conditioning.

Abokado was set up by the Lilley’s who were inspired to develop this unique eatery on their honeymoon in Australia, after realising that the fresh smoothies and take away sushi they dined on was like nothing else they could get in London.

They opened their first shop in Covent Garden in 2005 and now have five shops across the capital. The brand is now one of the fastest growing chains offering a unique choice of sushi, noodle soups, salads, wrap and fresh juices.

Ethics and sustainability are very important to Abokado, with the company removing both yellow fin and blue fin tuna from its menu in 2007 over concern about depleting stocks of these fish.

The same goes for energy use and in the City Road store, Degrees of Comfort Air Conditioning installed three Mr Slim PCA-RP-HA 12.5kW stainless steel air conditioning units to deliver stylish comfort combined with complete energy efficiency.

“The brief for this project was to fit a cost-effective, energy efficient, contemporary design,” says Kevin Rowe, Director of Degrees of Comfort Air Conditioning, who service and maintain heating and cooling equipment in all of the restaurants.

The internal air conditioning units are ceiling suspended with casing made of durable stainless steel that is resistant to oil and smoke, ensuring that the unit can be easily cleaned at all times. They offer heating capacity of 13.80 kW and cooling of 12.50 and deliver average COPs of 3.41, which is very important as Rowe explains: “The advanced inverter technology in these air conditioners means the units provide energy savings of up to 70% annually when compared to previous models and this was an important selling point.”

Degrees of Comfort are accredited Mitsubishi Electric installers and are able to offer clients full design and installation of new equipment and also service maintenance contracts for existing installations.

Operating noise has also been reduced thanks to improvements in fan design, while for retro-fit projects, existing pipe work is reusable for easier maintenance and installation. “In the case of the City Road shop, all the interconnecting pipe work and services have been installed on open baskets and is exposed on display to complement the contemporary installation,” adds Rowe. The condensers are located in the basement car park.

This year, Abokado received the Gold Award for Independent Sandwich bar of the Year and the company is continuing to open more shops, slowly and steadily. With the support of Degrees of Comfort and the advanced energy efficiency of Mr Slim units, the Lilley’s can be confident that their building services will help enhance the central ethics of both the company and the brand.

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Installations designed from the 1st July 2008 must comply with the 17th Edition Wiring Regulations.

This has major implications for all Electrical Contractors, Designers and Consultants.

Hager has created the Junction Box Guide to the 17th Edition to help you through these changes.

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Polymer specialist REHAU has launched a new range of pre-insulated flexible PE-Xa pipework for use in external plant rooms, biogas plants, swimming pools, district heating schemes and for connections to ground source heat pumps.

Branded RAUVITHERM, it is designed for projects where pipe flexibility and durability are of paramount importance. It features a flexible corrugated outer sleeve and open cell insulation allowing tight bending radii to be achieved around corners or when pulling into house inlets.

The outer sleeve is constructed from robust HDPE to cope with tough on site conditions and the outer layer of insulation is bonded to the sleeve ensuring that the pipe is both watertight and longitudinally stable.

RAUVITHERM uses REHAU’s renowned Everloc compression sleeve jointing system, which has been proven over a million times in underfloor heating and plumbing applications, to deliver a permanent leak free joint. Fitted easily using a compression tool, it can typically be fitted in half the time it takes to install a conventional joint.

RAUVITHERM is available in single pipe versions up to 125mm and twin pipe up to 63mm, and in coil lengths of between 100m and 300m.

RAUVITHERM is an addition to REHAU’s range of pre-insulated pipework which already includes RAUTHERMEX, a closed cell insulated alternative which is designed to deliver optimum thermal insulation for longer heating distances and larger distribution networks

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There’s still eight months to go and the organisers of this year’s National Painting and Decorating Show tell us that 80% of the stand space has already been sold.

Last year’s event attracted a record number of visitors, and all of the industry’s leading suppliers have signed up again. These include Akzo Nobel ICI Paints, Crown Paints and PPG. The principal stockists of decorating materials – Crown Decorating Centres, Dulux Decorator Centres, Johnstone Leyland Decorating Centres, and Brewers – are also exhibiting in their own right.

The exhibition takes place on 9th and 10th November at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Call 020 8645 2433 for more information and register for free tickets on www.paintshow.co.uk

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A forthcoming and important European Commission Directive drawing up new requirements for calculating and expressing air conditioning equipment performance has already been pre empted by Daikin Europe and incorporated in its new Seasonal Inverter RZQ-E range.

The performance of air conditioning equipment, generally expressed in terms of nominal performance, merely hides the significant differences that exist between rated and actual performance. The new EuP Directive seeks to reduce the environmental impact of energy using products within the EU and establishes a framework for their Eco-design. Since more than 80% of a product’s environmental impact is established at the design stage, Eco-design ensures improved environmental performance throughout the life cycle by the incorporation of environmentally conscious systems at the earliest stage of design. All such products will also require a new ‘seasonal efficiency’ rating to be quoted that takes account of multiple cooling and heating temperatures as well as unit operation at partial load instead of just full capacity. It will also consider the power consumed by equipment in auxiliary mode when the compressor is off. This ‘seasonal efficiency’ rating will eventually appear on a new energy label giving users a better idea of anticipated real life performance. The new regulations will come into force around 2013 at which time, all units unable to meet EuP requirements will be banned.

The new Daikin Seasonal Inverter RZQ-E therefore, has been redesigned ‘from the ground up’ with the result that its performance in terms of seasonal efficiency is 20% greater than the current series in real life situations with a 50% improvement over contemporary non inverter systems. Furthermore, it already meets the EU Commission’s 20-20-20 target (20% saving in total energy consumption, a reduction in CO2 emissions to at least 20% of 1990 levels and a 20% use of renewable energy by 2020). The Seasonal Inverter is scheduled for introduction in April 2010 in single and 3 phase models with capacities between 7 and 14kW and offers all the features of the current RZQ Super Inverter range.

Under EU legislation, a total ban on the use of R-22 comes into force in 2015 but prior to that, the use of virgin R-22 is also banned from January 2010. From then on supplies will obviously become increasingly scarce and the growing lack of availability will severely compromise certain maintenance operations such as compressor replacement, leading to longer system down time.

Like the current RZQ range, the new Seasonal Inverter, based on zero ODP and reduced CO2 emission R-410A refrigerant, incorporates all the features of the current Super Inverter range, including the use of Daikin ‘filter less’ technology, offering users of R-22 models a cost effective and efficient replacement and the re-use of existing piping.

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AMTECH Group has launched LUCKINSlive.com, the first ever free online information service for the entire building services industry, comprising mechanical, electrical and plumbing sectors.

LUCKINSlive is set to become the largest single source of information on up to 750,000 building services products; including brochures, specification sheets, images, videos and more. This information is free to access and is available 24 hours a day -with no login required.

Advanced search functions make it easy to find information and links are provided directly from all AMTECH, Estimation and nes Specification Expert software, so that sourcing information becomes a seamless part of the workflow.

Users can also subscribe to the free ‘Price Watch’ newsletter that provides information on all the latest price movements in the industry, together with industry news, while an upgrade to the full LUCKINSlive service gives access to up-to-date pricing data.

Current Luckins data subscribers will automatically be entitled to enhanced product and pricing information available online through LUCKINSlive. The site is also mobile-enabled, allowing information to be accessed on the move, at any time of day.

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Landfill charges have a significant negative effect on the bottom line for building companies across Britain, but two major projects being run by Carillion Construction in Wales have showed over recent months how massive savings can be made – reducing costs and cutting the company’s carbon footprint.

Seventy six tonnes of building components have been saved from going in the skip thanks to the work of Plastic Surgeon: the repair specialist having been tasked with carrying out various snagging operations at the Ferrara Quay and South Quay developments; both in Swansea.

The scope of the works encompasses almost all of the specialist skills offered by Plastic Surgeon and the products saved from going to landfill include internal and external doors, windows, worksurfaces, wood laminate flooring, baths, basins, shower trays, and various types of tiling.

At Ferrara Quay the company has repaired more than 300 internal doors as well as a significant number of the wood veneered fire doors that form the corridor entrance to each dwelling. The repairs – often more than one per door – generally involved carefully filling to restore the profile, before they were rubbed down and the colour or wood effect could be restored by hand.

Then in the kitchens Plastic Surgeon’s involvement concerned filling and colour matching high gloss cupboard doors. In many cases getting the sheen or reflectance right so that the area of the repair would not be distinguishable took longer than colour matching repairs to the granite worktops. Meanwhile, scratches and other damage to the stainless steel splash-backs were simply polished out in a process similar to that which the Finishers use for glass.

While the 458 internal doors repaired across the two projects saw a total waste saving approaching 10 tonnes, a heavier individual weight meant the 149 entrance doors actually beat this figure.

With natural granite being the densest material dealt with, the worktops added another 2.7 tonnes to the figures, while the 29 baths repaired prevented nearly another tonne of waste, as well as considerable bulk, filling the skips.

Overall the 20 different categories of product or component saved – which also included a fireplace and a large number of fascia panels on the apartments’ balconies – has brought the tonnage for the job up to the current total of 76 tonnes.

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The new Daikin VRV-Q system represents an innovative and highly cost effective upgrade for VRV systems still operating on shortly to be banned R-22 refrigerant.

Scheduled for introduction to the market from February 2010, the Daikin replacement VRV-Q comes in 9 heat pump and heat recovery models with capacities between 5 and 30HP and offers drastically increased efficiencies and hence, reduced energy consumption compared to existing installed equipment.

Ban on R-22 refrigerant

Under EU legislation, a total ban on the use of R-22 will come into force in 2015 but prior to that, the use of virgin R-22 is also banned from January 2010. Clearly, from then on, supplies of R-22 will become increasingly scarce and consequently more expensive and the growing lack in its availability will restrict certain maintenance operation such as compressor replacement with the attendant risk of longer down times.

Current users of R-22 VRV systems are therefore, faced with the dilemma of doing nothing (!) or installing complete new systems in place of their still operational equipment with their associated full installation costs. The advent of Daikin’s new VRV-Q however, using zero ozone depleting and reduced CO2 emission R-410A, now offers these users a technically secure and cost effective option to upgrade.

The Daikin solution

Daikin’s innovative solution allows all existing VRV R-22 piping as well as the possibility of indoor units installed since 1996 and controllers to be retained – only the outdoor units and heat recovery BS branch selector boxes need to be replaced. A phased replacement programme with costs spread over a period of time and minimal business disruption is therefore possible.

The upgrade is achievable because VRV-Q is designed to operate at the lower pressures required by existing R-22 piping without compromising high efficiency levels. With a COP of 3.98 and an EER of 4.00, the higher efficiency of an R-410A, 10HP system for example, is in fact, around 50% higher than its R-22 equivalent.

In the past, oil and contaminants in existing piping could cause equipment malfunction, requiring the copper piping to be replaced whenever a system with a different refrigerant was installed. VRV-Q however, incorporates new Daikin technology whereby the contamination in the R-22 piping is captured and retained. During subsequent recharging of the system, new R-410A refrigerant circulates through the copper piping and collects any residual contamination. The refrigerant, including the remaining oil from the R-22 system is filtered in the outdoor unit in which the contamination is also then deposited. This process needs to be carried only once and generally takes about one hour. Daikin is the first manufacturer to date, to offer this automatic refrigerant charging and piping cleaning function.

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