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Vaisala introduces a new version of the weather transmitter, the Vaisala Weather Transmitter WXT520. The WXT520 measures wind speed and direction, liquid precipitation, barometric pressure, temperature and relative humidity – all in one instrument.

The wind speed and direction measurement is based on the ultrasonic Vaisala WINDCAP® Sensor, which ensures accurate readings from any horizontal wind direction without blind angles and corrupted readings. Barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity measurements are combined in one separate module using capacitive measurement for each parameter. The module can be changed without any contact with the internal sensors.

The precipitation measurement in the WXT520 is unique as it measures accumulated rainfall, rain intensity and duration, all in real time. It is based on the maintenance-free Vaisala RAINCAP® sensor that gives more detailed information on precipitation compared to traditional precipitation gauges.

The WXT520 housing with the mounting kit is water resistant and classified as IP66. The transmitter has a new interface card that fulfills the more demanding EMC/ESD requirements in the Marine IEC60945 standard. The WXT520 complies with the EMC standard EN61326-1; Industrial Environment. The transmitter is ROHS compliant.

A number of optional features are offered for the WXT520, for example, heating, a bird spike kit, a USB connection, and a new surge protector. The wind and rain sensors can be equipped with heating to improve the availability of correct measurement data also in severe weather conditions. The bird spike kit helps to deter birds from the WXT520. The USB connection facilitates the connection to a PC as a service connector, or when the PC is used as a terminal device. The Vaisala Surge Protector WSP152 is designed to protect the host PC against surges that may be entering through the USB port.

The power consumption of the WXT520 is very low; it can use solar panels as an energy source.

The WXT520 is suitable for weather stations, dense networks, buildings, golf courses, marinas, harbors, and hotels – almost anywhere where real time weather data is needed.

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Rockwool, the world’s leading manufacturer of non-combustible stone wool insulation solutions, has won the contract to supply around £600,000 of insulation materials for BSkyB’s new state-of-the-art building project near Heathrow in West London, which it is set to be Europe’s most sustainable broadcast facility for Sky Sports and Sky’s entertainment channels.

The insulation project is expected to be completed by the end of 2009, with the whole 23,000 sq/m, £233m centre due to be completed in 2011. BSkyB is the UK’s largest subscription and pay-TV provider, with more than nine million subscribers in the UK and Ireland.

Rockwool’s insulation material will be used to insulate all the mechanical services such as pipework and ductwork within the building. Rockwool’s insulation material has thermal properties which are important in fulfilling BSkyB’s green aims for its new headquarters. The insulation is comprised of an open fibrous structure, which makes it ideal for absorbing and regulating noise, which is crucial in a broadcasting environment.

Andy Halsall, Director of UK Sales at Rockwool, said: “BSkyB has made it clear it wants to have the greenest headquarters possible and Rockwool’s insulation materials will be important in achieving that. Increasingly major corporations recognise that they need to develop sustainable buildings in order to limit their structures’ Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) and Global Warming Potential (GWP).”

Ron Turner from Abbey Thermal, the thermal insulation contractor, said: “We selected Rockwool after completing an exacting tendering process. It was the only product that met our rigorous standards for acoustic and thermal performance while offering the highest levels of passive fire protection. The insulation meets all our criteria for sustainability, not only is it manufactured to very high ‘green’ standards, it can be recycled when the building comes to the end of its life cycle reducing the pressure on landfill.”

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Building Services Consultants, Pick Everard, recently completed the design of all the lighting for a major Education PFI project for five new schools in Derby. The projects were Sinfin Primary School, Hardwick Primary School, Lakeside Community Primary School, Merrill College and Da Vinci Community College.

A large proportion of luminaires, with a value of about £380,000, were supplied by Concord. Lighting designer Carl Ackers, of Pick Everard, comments: ‘One of the main reasons Concord was specified was because we considered them as a quality manufacturer, offering an excellent product and service proposition at a cost-competitive price’.

The lighting scheme had to meet the main objective of the lighting design for the new educational facilities. The design had to create a bright, vibrant and visionary learning environment for all areas within the schools. The schemes also had to be highly energy efficient, so all the lighting is controlled by an automated lighting control system, with both photocells and occupancy sensors, to maximise daylight use and to dim and switch off luminaires when not required.

The main Concord luminaires used on the Derby project were:

• The Ovation 65 system was used wherever suspended lighting was required in areas without a dropped ceiling. Ovation proved to be a flexible system for these applications and enabled fully automatic dimming, daylight linking and presence detection. The Ovation system could also be installed in continuous lengths, with flexible length ‘dummy’ sections, where required.
• The LED 100TE luminaire was specified as a highly effective downlight solution within the corridors, due to its small size, low recess depth and cost-effectiveness – an important consideration in all the circulation spaces.
• Lumiance Pento pendants were used in the double-height circulation spaces and some of the dining halls, using various lamp wattages from 1x32W to 4x32W, to maintain a common design theme.
• In most teaching spaces with dropped ceilings, the Equilibro range of fittings was the chosen solution. Again, all luminaires are dimmable and connected to the automatic lighting control system.
• In more utilitarian areas, such as storage and service rooms, Sylpack and Sylproof Pro fittings were employed.
• The circulation spaces and play areas around the exterior of the schools needed lighting too, for both safety and visual comfort – here the Monitor wall light played an excellent role, due to its powerful 70W CDM-TT lumen package and high IK10 impact rating.
• In one location there was a special need to bridge a gap in the ceiling created by a light well. Concord’s Channel system was employed to great effect, due to its slim, unobtrusive profile, which didn’t obstruct the view.

Project lighting design: Pick Everard, Building Services Consultants, working with Concord

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'Best Manufacturer Of The Year’ For Project Slam'

And more good news – Wilo, has added another award to its bulging trophy cabinet! It was recently named ‘Best Manufacturer of the Year’ by Lorne Stewart to Project SLAM – the tri-service initiative to upgrade progressively the worst single living accommodation in the British Armed Forces to ‘Grade 1’ physical condition by 2013. The aim of the project is quite simply to provide servicemen and women with the quality of living accommodation they deserve.

Sales Director Dan Wild is understandably delighted with the award: “It’s quite amazing when you think that we were brought into this project to replace and turnaround the poor service they were getting from the original supplier. We’ve turned around the situation with a lot of hard work and by living up to the high levels of customer service we provide to our customers and we’ve been able to supply everything for the project in partnership with Pipe Center, Slough and Constant Air Systems, proving that putting in place the right partnerships can be key to quality delivery.”

Wilo’s Sue Claydon accepted the award for Wilo from Lorne Stewart Strategic Development Director Gary Edwards: “My colleague Mark Wilkinson and I have been working hard to ensure that Wilo’s involvement in Project SLAM is up to our usual high standards and we’re delighted that we have been singled out for this award. It means a huge amount to us and is further evidence of the growing awareness of the overall offering that Wilo is making in the UK – and the growth of our business in response to the quality of our products and the quality of the service we offer to our partners.”

Wilo’s wide range of high efficiency pumps, incorporates models from small domestic circulator pumps right through to large commercial pumps, for virtually every end use. Full details of the range – and of the challenge to find the oldest working Wilo small circulating pump in the UK can be seen at www.wilo.co.uk or by calling Wilo on 01283 523 000.

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Every now and then the security industry throws out a story with a jaw dropping wow factor, keep reading because this story is it for 2009.

Granted, reading it here won’t be the same as when you witness the video footage, but when you do, remember you read it here first.

You know those crash tests we all stop and watch at IFSEC and other shows, the footage of trucks crashing into security bollards designed to stop terrorist attack? Well if you are at IFSEC this year make a point of taking a walk over to Stand C40 where ATG Access will be showing their latest and most spectacular crash test. Even if you are not at IFSEC then take a look at the video because if you are interested in physical security then you are going to want to see this.

One single ATG Access SP1200 Automatic Rising Bollard has stopped a fully laden 30 tonne truck travelling at 50mph, yes that was 30 tonne at 50mph. There is nothing to compare this test to, a testing site representative who witnessed the test said “at this time this is the highest energy level ever tested to in the world, this product has performed to a level which surpasses our own original specifications.”

When the truck struck the bollard the energy produced was around 7400 kJ just for illustration this is roughly equivalent to the energy of a 1.5 tonne car travelling at over 220mph.

Words are sometimes not enough to illustrate a point, just take a look.

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Buildings old and new, suffer with sound penetrating through thin walls. With the additional expansion of timber-framed property, the problem of sound absorption in walls now needs to be urgently addressed to meet current Building Regulations. The Envirograf Acoustic Protection Cover offers excellent sound absorption properties and has been recently accepted by Robust Details. The cover is made of 15mm thick sponge for housing both switch and socket boxes. Tested to BS EN ISO 140-3 (1995) and rated in accordance with BS EN ISO 717/1 (1997) meeting acoustic criteria.

The cover can be combined with the highly successful Envirograf fire protective gaskets for electrical sockets and switches to meet the revised 16th Edition IEE regulations. The Envirograf gaskets are used by many socket manufacturers and suppliers including Marshall Tufflex, BG Electrical, MK Electric and Rexel Senate and they will offer up to 4-hour fire protection in metal boxes and 70minutes integrity and insulation in a dry wall installation. The covers and gaskets are available for Single, Double and Twin socket fittings.

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VW Caddy van prize for oldest one found before 30th June 2009

Wilo, the leading European pump manufacturer is on the look out for the oldest operating Wilo small circulator in the UK! And whilst finding one will be interesting in itself, for the installer or contractor who finds the oldest one still working in the UK there’s an extra special reason for being pleased – he or she will drive away in a brand new VW Caddy van!

Wilo has launched a similar competition in Germany recently and the oldest found so far there is 54 years old – still running flawlessly! Wilo’s Dan Wild says they don’t expect to find one that old in the UK but you just never know: “Clearly Wilo UK has not been in existence as long as Wilo has been trading in Germany so to find one that old would be amazing, but we are confident we’ll find one that is thirty years plus and still working so watch this space!” he says.

Clearly a pump that’s still working several decades after installation is doing so because it was and is a quality product, but because technology has moved on, however well the old pump is operating, replacement by a brand new, high technology, high efficiency Wilo pump will be overdue! Saving energy, reducing emissions and energy costs, using up to 80% less energy to run it, for starters.

There will be regular quarterly prizes for the oldest found during the search – with installers winning a Wii if they have the oldest one at the end of January and April 2009 but the finder of the overall oldest will be presented with the van for their efforts after the 30th June closing date.

Wilo is running the competition in conjunction with a major awareness campaign across the UK, making installers and specifiers aware of the facts behind the on-going growth of Wilo pump sales in the UK. Very definitely the second largest player in the UK marketplace, with pockets of the UK where it is by far the most popular brand – Northern Ireland for example – Wilo is seeing increasing take up of its energy efficient small circulator offering, particularly since the launch of the Wilo-Stratos ECO pump which offers up to 80% energy saving over standard uncontrolled pumps, that still operate extensively and expensively in millions of homes across the country.

“From research we’ve undertaken, it’s clear that many installers and specifiers had no idea that we invented the first small circulator pump and that we are the leading supplier of small circulators to combi boiler manufacturers across Europe,” says Dan Wild. “We manufacture more than 5 million small circulators a year in Europe and there are more than 3.5 million Wilo pumps operating either in combis, system boilers or independently in conventional heating systems in the UK. The numbers are phenomenal and we recently saw the Wilo-Stratos ECO independently tested as the most energy efficient small circulator you can buy, anywhere – tested by one of Europe’s leading consumer groups. It’s all good news and we need to get the message out and about to those who think there’s only one brand of pump in the UK – there’s a second – and its taking chunks of the marketplace year on year, as we grow, year on year.”

Installers looking to win the VW Caddy van need to search for Wilo pumps still operating in their customers homes and if they find one that has clearly been doing the business for a good many years, they need to take a photo of the pump in situ and take a note of the serial number which will allow Wilo to check exactly when it was manufactured. They can go to the Wilo UK web site at www.wilo.co.uk and send the information via the web site with the photo of the pump to Wilo’s head office.

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For those seeking a roof window which combines good eco-credentials with added flexibility of use and security, Fakro's FPP preSelect® is unique. It is made using only close-grain, knot-free, redwood pine from FSC approved sources, while every element of the window can be stripped out and recycled. At the flick of a switch in the frame, opening can be changed from top hung to centre pivot operation. The window’s patented, topSafe® technology offers the highest standard of security and safety currently available (Class 3 – EN 13049), its micro-opening facility enabling it to remain secure even when open. An additional steel reinforcement profile is built into the lower part of the sash, while improved lock reinforcement and screws driven into the sash at an angle prevent hinges being broken. With an overall glazing area around 10% bigger than windows operated by a handle in the upper part of the frame, the FPP provides an overall U-value of 1.4W/m2K.

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The Tehalit C60 range of 3 Compartment Trunking offers numerous features to make your job easier. With comprehensive stocks in the UK you can be assured of quick delivery whatever your project requirements.

The C60 Range is very easy order, it has simple part reference numbers, the base and lid is supplied complete and is available in 2 metre and 3 metre lengths as standard. As well as being easy to order, it’s just as easy to install. The bases are pre-punched and there are also push-out knockouts between the compartments, so there’s no need to drill through to fix to the wall.

The compartment knockouts fit into the base to aid alignment. And for those awkward corners that are not truly at a 90-degree agree, Tehalit also offers adjustable moulded corners to get that perfect fit.

The Tehalit C60 Range is also easy to cable. With its 170mm x 60mm deep profile, it allows more space for cabling, it minimises the potential damage to cables by providing smooth elongated knockouts between compartments. Data cable bend radii respected, maximising data integrity. The Outer compartment cable retainers are supplied as standard with trunking (2 per metre).

You can choose from 3 different base and lid profiles, they are available either complete or separate. Corner cover kits plus joint covers are also available both internal and external.

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For 2009’s Ecobuild, single ply and green roof specialist Flag-Soprema Ltd presented its Soprema systems for the first time. These include the Duoflex lightweight structural waterproofing, Sopralene elastomeric and Alsan liquid waterproofing systems, all of which were shown together with the company’s diverse range of extensive and intensive green roofs. At 70m2, both the stand and the products on display reflected the diversity and increased size of the range. The company’s TPO single ply membrane range, manufactured using an innovative formulation of non-toxic EPR modified polyolefin liner is rot-proof, puncture, UV and wind shear resistant, and highly adaptable to structural movement.

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