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Sadolin Ultra is being specified by Hackney Homes Planned Maintenance following successful trials at Banbury House, where the highly translucent woodstain was recently used to redecorate over 450 window sets plus fascias and soffits.

Gary Lane Principal Contracts Manager said: “Ultra was presented as a practical cost effective alternative to the two-product woodcare system we were using for cyclical maintenance work. Keen to benefit from up to seven years decoration and protection, we put it to the test.

“This was a straightforward maintenance application of Ultra Mahogany topcoat to previously stained joinery. Two full coats brought all the wood back to the same deep tones, delivering a consistent translucent finish across the board.

“Our operatives were very happy with Ultra’s application characteristics and the ease of achieving a high quality finish. They also appreciated not having to carry two tins to every work station or change brushes as they weren’t swapping from base stain to topcoat.

“The trial was a great success delivering excellent results for our tenants and receiving a resounding 'thumbs up' from our decorators. Wherever and whenever we need to use a translucent woodcare system for planned maintenance work, Hackney Homes will be specifying Sadolin Ultra from now on.”

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Passive fire prevention is a major factor in any new build or refurbishment project. With this in mind Marshall-Tufflex launched a versatile range of Dry Lining Boxes in conjunction with the highly successful Envirograf Intumescent fire barrier gaskets. The gaskets offer up to 71 minutes in a dry-wall fitting and comply with edition IEE Wiring Regulations and Document B of the UK Building Regulations.

In the event of a fire, the cover plate of a socket, switch will sag and disintegrate, leaving a perfect escape route for flames to travel up the cavity and into an adjoining room or ceiling. The gasket expands in the presence of heat and creates an effective fire barrier.

This Envirograf fire protection is also available with a variety of other Marshall-Tufflex products, including wraps for PVC-U trunking or conduit systems and pillows for filling a trunking void. Different shapes, sizes and thicknesses are available.

Electrical contractors and building design professionals now have a legal obligation to ensure that the properties they design construct or refurbish, comply with the current regulations. By incorporating Envirograf passive fire prevention products into the M T range will especially help to protect lives and reduce fire damage claims.

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The 2009 ACR News Industry Awards gala dinner, held at Birmingham’s National Motorcycle Museum on 25th February, was a very special evening for Guildford based Space Airconditioning plc; as for the 6th consecutive time at this biennial industry event, Space Air was judged worthy of a major award.

The prestigious ACR News Awards are contested by many leading players in the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump industry, which coincides with the sector’s main exhibition at the NEC. Space has won the “product Distributor Award” no fewer than 5 times and in 2003 the company was presented with the “Marketing Initiative Award”.

The Awards were presented by actor/comedian Hugh Dennis and as he handed the coveted trophy to Neil Afram, Managing Director of Space Air, the compere announced – “Guildford-based Daikin distributor, Space Airconditioning plc has, through its detailed submission, once again convinced the judges of its leading position in the field of distribution. Another great achievement for Space Airconditioning Plc.”

A proud Neil Afram commented, “This award is a very important accolade for us. It acknowledges our continued commitment to providing the industry’s very best in air conditioning distribution services – as we have done since becoming Distributors for Daikin Europe in 1980. Every member of staff at Space Air makes his or her valuable contribution and this award is thanks to them”

Space Air was also pleased to see one its long-standing customers, the Adcock Group, winning Contractor of the Year award.

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Ceramic granite ventilated cladding supplied by Shackerley has been used in an innovative manner to enhance the exterior elevations of Allingham Court, a prestigious complex of luxury apartments in The Bishops Avenue in East Finchley, often referred to as “London’s Billionaires’ Row”.

The award winning development, comprising 12 individual residences ranging from £4 million to over £11 million combines modernism with vernacular architecture. The outer envelope features a striking combination of red brick, terracotta tiling and large format white-grey ceramic granite facade panels, manufactured and sized to simulate Portland Stone in a contemporary idiom.

Lesley Lawson of Scurr & Partners in Redbourn, Hertfordshire was the project architect responsible for designing and delivering the original PKS Architects’ initial proposals for the palatial building. Explaining her specification for the outer envelope she said: “Whereas ceramic granite is predominantly used to create sleek monolithic rainscreens, we wanted to use this versatile material to create a different aesthetic. We’ve used the panels not only as a conventional cladding material but also to create distinct pilasters, boxes and columns which change the planarity of our elevations and deliver the appearance of stone but with a very contemporary twist.”

Lesley adds “We considered a number of different materials including limestone but from the outset ceramic granite cladding presented a very cost effective and practical alternative. It offers flawless consistency and strength and the panels are very durable and relatively lightweight compared with a naturally quarried stone.

“Shackerley have their own versatile Sureclad carrier system and in-house cutting and prefabrication services, so we could have almost any panel format we wanted. We worked closely with the company to determine the most appropriate panel sizes in terms of cutting requirements and ease of handling for our contractor, Baris. Our rather complex designs also gave rise to a large number of specially cut panels for use on the columns and as infill pieces. Shackerley prefabricated all the panels in their Lancashire production facility which enabled Baris to fast track their part of the project and complete the ceramic granite cladding installation in just two months.”

Lesley concluded: “We are incredibly pleased with the overall appearance of Allingham Court. It has been a very prestigious development to work on and we’ve delivered a stunning building. I’m now completely sold on the versatility and aesthetic and performance benefits of Shackerley’s ceramic granite and am planning to incorporate the material in conjunction with the Sureclad system on many projects in the future.”

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Mira Showers will be exhibiting for the first time in its own right at the KBB Show, which takes place from 2 to 5 March, 2008 at the NEC, Birmingham. The main highlights of the stand will be products from the recently launched Autumn Collection, including the range of miniature-sized Mini mixers, the design-led Orbis electric shower, available in white and revolutionary black, and the environmentally friendly ECO handset.

Mira’s new Mini mixers are half the size of conventional mixing valves, yet deliver the same great performance you would expect from a Mira product. The Mini range, which follows the global trend towards miniaturisation of high technology items, will be available in built-in and exposed single sequential control valves (Minilite), built-in and exposed concentric control valves (Miniduo), and a new format of exposed vertical dual control valves (Minibelle and Miniluxe). To cater for retrofit installations of a standard sized valve, an adjustable elbow pack is available, allowing the Minilite and Miniduo inlet centres to be adjusted from 133 to 153mm. This ensures the valves can retrofit all current Mira products as well as many other shower brands, without the need to move or adjust inlet pipe work.

Minilite, Miniduo and Minibelle are complemented with Mira fitting kits and the stylish Miniluxe shower is provided with a new deluge head and rigid riser. The Mini range offers the consumer added style options at a competitive price, and gives both installers and retailers even more opportunities to recommend a Mira branded product.

The stylish Orbis, available in white and a stunning new black finish, is set to steal a share of the design-led, upper-mid market electric shower sector. Orbis offers thermostatic control with LCD technology – a first for Mira. Positioned at a similar price point to the Mira Escape, the Orbis provides a link between the traditional ‘white box’ on the wall and the stylish, design-led Azora and Galena products. As well as displaying temperature, Orbis also features a clock, a first in the shower market for electric showers.

Orbis is available in 9.0kW, 9.8kW and 10.8kW models, each with three power options. The slimline case features soft curves and a simple circular-shaped, push button power selector. Thermostatically controlled with safe maximum temperature limit for added user protection, this high performance product is suitable for new and replacement projects and will retrofit current Mira Sport showers and some competitor products.

A specially dedicated and designed ECO Area will be included, illustrating the high level of commitment Mira gives to developing products that are sympathetic to the environment. The display, which will have particular appeal to customers interested in ‘green’ issues, will feature the new ECO handset. To be sold alone, Eco is suitable for use on mixer and power showers (not suitable for electric models). Designed to reduce the amount of water normally used by up to a massive 75%*, which in turn will offer users huge savings in energy to heat the water.

The adjustable Eco handset offers three aerating spray modes that reduce water consumption while still giving a great performance. The ‘ecofficient™’ technology uses a Venturi principle – introducing air without a pump. Mixing air with the water spray creates larger droplets filled with air bubbles. The droplets explode on impact and produce similar coverage to conventional, finer sprays giving the impression of increased volume of water and a refreshing shower.

Mira is anticipating a huge demand for the handset from both the private sector as well as hotel groups and house builders where there is a growing responsibility for improving the energy use within a household. Available in white and chrome, the Eco handset is competitively priced. A BIR version is also available, and new packaging has been developed that is also environmentally friendly.

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Mitsubishi Electric has secured two more prestigious awards for its energy saving products and initiatives, all designed to help building occupiers achieve a controllable internal environment in the most energy efficient ways.

The recognition came at one of the industry’s most famous award ceremonies, the ACR News Awards held to coincide with the RAC/H&V’09 Exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC.

The company secured the Environmental Initiative Award of the Year for its Green Gateway Initiative®, a bold and continuous building process which seeks to highlight the ways in which the UK can achieve a reduction in energy use in the built environment of more than 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2016.

The initiative beat strong contenders from Arctic Circle with three green products; from Daikin for its recycling service; from Earthcare Products for its high pressure refrigerant blends; and from Space Engineering for its CO2 systems in conjunction with Tesco.

Mitsubishi Electric also received praise from the judges for its unique PWFY commercial water heater, by securing the Air Conditioning Product of the Year Award. The water heater removes the need for a building to have a commercial boiler, by taking excess heat from a VRF air conditioning system to provide a constant supply of hot water.

The innovative system beat tough entries from Airedale for an air-cooled, high capacity chiller; a new approach to air handler design from Eaton-Williams; an entry from ClimaCheck Sweden which can determine how well a system is operating; and Daikin’s heat recovery system.

“We are absolutely delighted by the recognition from our peers,” explained Philip Ord, Product Marketing Manager, who collected the Air Conditioning Product Award.

“We see this as justification for our continued development of innovative products that add further benefits to customers in terms of more flexibility of the indoor environment, whilst also allowing them greater control of the energy they consume.”

Mitsubishi Electric’s PWFY water heating unit, which was launched in 2008, uses excess heat from a VRF City Multi air conditioning system to provide all the hot water that a building needs. The unit and further details on the Company’s full range of products can be found at www.mitsubishi-aircon.co.uk/.

The Green Gateway Initiative highlights different areas that can be focused on to lower energy use within our built environment, whilst providing levels of controllable comfort that match both legislative and cultural needs. Further details on the initiative can be found at www.greengatewayinitiative.co.uk.

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Doorcom – professional standards of access management for home and office.

Affordable, available now and easy to install.

Doorcom is a new range of high-quality, beautifully-designed video and audio door access systems from one of the must trusted names in home control, Timeguard.

Doorcom provides affordable added security for people living or working alone or in restricted areas of a building, ensuring that occupants know who is at the door before they allow them in.

Installation is simple with simple two-wire connection.

The new range includes video entry systems with crisp CMOS colour or black and white screens and with the option of simple push-button entry or two-way intercom, as well as audio-only options. Sound quality throughout the range is impressive.

Dual channel models are available for offices or flats where the main entry to the street is shared.

The silver-coloured external panels are sleek and, at just 28mm, remarkably slim. Used with standard 12v door strikes, Timeguard’s Doorcom systems can add security to almost any entrance.

As ever, Timeguard has backed its products with a full three-year warranty, and offers them through electrical wholesalers nationwide.

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This includes the new City Multi and Mr Slim Zubadan systems, which use a unique flash injection circuit to allow the condensers to continue delivering full heating capacity at outdoor temperatures as low as -15ºC and increases the guaranteed operating range down to -25ºC.

“We are unlikely to see such extreme temperatures in the UK but traditional outdoor units can sometimes lose as much as 30 per cent of their capacity at temperatures of -5ºC and below, which was what much of the country was facing only a few weeks ago,” explained Philip Ord, Product Marketing Manager for the company’s comprehensive range of air conditioning products.

The operational capacity of all standard models decreases to some degree when it gets colder outside because a lower evaporation temperature is required. This leads to a decrease in the compressor speed, to avoid overheating, and a decrease in the amount of refrigerant in circulation.

“This unique new system optimises refrigerant flow in low ambient conditions by bypassing some of the refrigerant to the compressor through a flash injection circuit to maximise the heating efficiency and increase the heating range,” added Ord.

Zubadan boasts a super-quick start up and breaks between defrost of up to two or even three times longer than normal. It is available in a variety of configurations across the Mr Slim and City Multi line up.

Also displayed at Mitsubishi Electric’s double stand – which straddled both the RAC and the H&V Shows – was the advanced AG150 controller, the new WR2, WY ground source heat pump system and the unique PWFY water heating system which uses advanced heat pump technology to provide a building’s hot water in place of a traditional boiler – by taking excess heat from the air conditioning to reduce overall energy consumption.

The company also showed off its new range of Photovoltaic (PV) power generating products for both residential and commercial applications and a new range of heat recovery ventilation units for the residential market, in addition to demonstrating the latest developments to the award-winning Ecodan® air source heat pump range.

“We are continuing to highlight the most advanced and energy efficient products available because we know that in the current economic downturn, businesses are looking for savings in all areas and particularly in energy costs,” added Ord.

“We are confident that by pushing the energy efficiency agenda, we will continue to demonstrate our worth to customers and help ensure that the industry not only survives the current downturn but also has an essential role to play in the future.”

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The new headquarters of the Burberry Group has been purpose designed to house the organisation’s workforce and operations at Horseferry House in Westminster. And to complement the customised individual interior of the 160,000sq ft eight storey building, Crittall Windows have been installed.

The building was originally built in the 1930s and following its transformation, boasts cutting edge showrooms and a modern, contemporary office space which retain some of the original architectural features. The windows were installed as a like for like replacement scheme to fit in with planning schedules for the Westminster area, and Crittall W20 profiles were specified. Additionally, the company also supplied glazed steel screens for the interior in keeping with the aim of the refurbishment to create light and a modern working office environment. This is the first time that all of Burberry’s employees are housed together under the same roof.

The internal steel glazed screens were an integral part of the interior design scheme, with the original lightwells transformed into dynamic day lit circulation spaces, made active by the incorporation of steel framed bridge links connecting the two halves of the building. Says John Pyatt, managing director of Crittall: “The use of the screens opens up the space as intended, allowing natural daylight to be part of the interior lighting scheme .Externally, the replacement windows, in Burberry Brown match the interior and comply with all planning requirements by the local authority. We matched the small pane detail with the W20 profiles, which offer very narrow sightlines that do not detract from the beauty of the original architecture and style of Horseferry House.”

The building is now complete and with Crittall glazing featuring both inside and out, presents a fitting and contemporary home for the world-renowned Burberry name which makes the most of natural light for an ideal working environment.

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