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Roofline and rainwater products from Swish Building Products have been specified by Broadaces Housing Association for installation on over 350 homes. Black half-round gutters and round downpipes are being supplied alongside white fascias and soffits through local stockist, Quay plastics, to contractor and installer, Newlife Windows.

This is the first time that the low maintenance building product manufacturer will be supplying the North Yorkshire-based housing association with components from its sustainable rainwater range. Broadacres wished to align the rainwater system with the roofline supplier, the Swish products proved to be the best value, high quality option. The housing association conducts value for money reviews on its technical specifications prior to tendering for all planned maintenance projects.

“Historically these [roofline and rainwater] components have been on a 30 year replacement programme however this may be reviewed going forward due to the increased life expectancy of new generation PVC-U products,” comments Ian Pollitt, quantity surveyor for Broadacres Housing Association. “We also pick up prospective replacement jobs following stock condition surveys carried out by our Technical Services team. In most instances, they new roofline and raintwater systems are replacing existing PVC products but on this year’s replacement programme there are 13 properties with timber fascias.”

Forming part of an annual replacement programme, 191 properties were completed under phase one; a further 161 will be upgraded during phase two which began in October and will continue into the New Year. Fascias and soffits are replaced on all elevations of the properties while rainwater goods are only replaced if required.

“It is a little too early to comment on the success of the programme but, so far so good, we have no cause for complain,” continues Ian. “The systems appear to be performing well and this should become more evident as the weather changes over the coming months.”

Broadacres provides a comprehensive range of services to approximately 5,600 homes in North Yorkshire. Established in 1993, the Association has grown both in terms of the number of properties it manages and its awareness of the needs and aspirations of its customers.

With headquarters in Northallerton, Broadacres currently has stock in Hambleton, Darlington, Spennymoor, Richmondshire, Harrogate, Redcar and Cleveland, Ryedale, Selby and Easy Riding of Yorkshire and Scarborough.

Broadacres provides homes for rent, shared ownership and outright sale, as well as providing a range of support services to different client groups including persons with mental health problems, learning disabilities, older persons, people with physical disabilities, those fleeing domestic violence and the homeless. In addition, it has a home improvement agency to assist with property adaptations and repairs to enable people to continue to live in their homes.

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Newton Waterproofing Systems are now issuing cards to all our Newton Specialist Basement Contractors as a further way of raising the standard within the industry. The Newton Specialist Basement Contractor Certified Card Scheme (NSBC-CCS) ensures that our clients are confident that our contractors have the best training and techniques available for waterproofing new and existing structures.

Contractors are trained in the following areas:

• Internal Waterproofing
  Newton System 500 Cavity Drain Waterproofing and Newton System 100 Cementitious Products
• Deck Waterproofing
  Newton System 200 Deck and Roofing, incorporating Newton System 700 Liquid Applied Floor Coatings and Newton System 900 Liquid Primers & Sealers. Course will include floor preparation.
• External Waterproofing
  Newton System 300 Waterproofing of Concrete Structures and System 400 External Waterproofing focusing on Hydrobond and Hydrobond-LM including spray application
• Pumps and Panels
  Newton ground water, grey water and sewage pumping systems. Control panels and battery back-up systems.

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The Low Carbon Exchange is using the Klober Solar Cable Outlet Kit with all new build and retrofit PV installations for the Poole Housing Partnership, Plymouth Community Homes, Alliance Homes, Aster Properties and Radian Housing. 8 and 16 cable kits are available for up to 8 cables of 4mm to 8mm with a choice of 5 collar widths. It provides the ideal means of providing a neat, weathertight seal for cables from other services. The product is fully wind-tunnel tested, available in brown, terracotta and slate grey and suitable for pitches between 20°- 50°.

Low Carbon Exchange spokesperson Jennie Miller commented, “The Klober kit has provided the perfect means of weatherproofing PV installations and we have used it on all projects since the company was established in 2010.”

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Complete Building Services goes with ‘easy to fit, minimum disruption’ Wilo options

With water companies continuing to reduce the mains pressure to help hit leakage targets, the requirement particularly from local authorities and housing associations for pressure boosting equipment to ensure there’s water coming out of the taps on the top floors of tower blocks continues to grow. Unboosted water struggles to get above the third floor in most parts of the country.

A company that has specialised in the provision of these systems is Letchworth-based Complete Building Services (CBS). Director Peter Bradbury says that several of their clients have been looking to install pressure boosting equipment and the key to the success of these projects – apart from reliable pressure boosting sets – is easy installation and as little disruption to the lives of tenants as possible during the installation process. They’ve hit on a solution to all these requirements through their partnership with leading pump manufacturer Wilo.

This is perfectly illustrated by recent work undertaken by the company for clients Enfield Homes, the social housing arms-length management organisation (ALMO) for Enfield Council. Four tower blocks in Enfield, just inside the M25 in north London needed pressure boosting equipment to get the mains water reliably up to the top of the 13 story buildings.

The existing equipment – based in the basement of Brittany House was not up to the job and its reliability had begun to be called into question. CBS was asked to provide a solution that would provide reliability, cost effectiveness and the minimum of disruption to the tenants in the nearly 400 apartments affected. CBS is well placed to deliver the complete package of support with its excavation, building and heating and plumbing expertise.

Enter Wilo UK with its comprehensive range of pressure boosting sets. They recommended their Wilo Comfort – Vario COR-2 Helix VE speed controlled pressure booster set, supplied with a CAVSA anti surge valve to address the potential issue of hydraulic shock in the mains water system. Controlling the flow of water into the system can prove difficult, as you don’t want to affect the flow rate under normal working conditions. Wilo multi-pump sets are fitted with a CFS (controlled fill system) which limits the starting sequence after a forced shut down reducing the rate at which the system is refilled.

Preventing a vacuum can be achieved by fitting CAVSA valves (combined air vent & surge arrestor) at the top of each riser which will act as a vacuum break by allowing air to enter the system. These valves will also control the release of the air from the system when it starts to refill, therefore slowing down the rate at which the water enters the system.

The pump set selected for this project combines three pumps and the three-pump approach sees one operating, one able to assist if the call on water exceeds the capacity of that first pump, whilst a third ‘sleeps’. All three pumps operate on a cycle, ensuring even wear across each of the pumps, with the added benefit that there is no stagnation of water addressing any legionella bacteria issues in the system.

Pete Bradbury says CBS received plaudits from the client Enfield Homes for the speed of the job they undertook: “They were really impressed by the downtime that was achieved on this job. The water was off to the nearly 400 dwellings for less than two hours whilst the old system was decommissioned and removed and the new one installed and powered up. They had no complaints from tenants at all having warned them the work was being done and that they would have to survive without mains water for a short while. It’s human nature to scoff when you get messages like that through your door and you prepare for the worst – possibly no water for a day! But we were as good as our word and had the water back on in less than 120 minutes from the time it went off!”

Kevin Alexander, senior mechanical engineer at Enfield Homes was impressed by every aspect of the project: “As the water pressures are reduced we have serious issues with the potable water supply in our high rise developments across the borough. With this particular project we seem to have hit upon a very straightforward, easy to install and effective solution to the problem for the nearly 400 tenants who live in the high rise blocks affected. The solution was suggested to us by Complete Building Services, using a Wilo pressure boosting pump set that does the job perfectly and the design of the unit offers the in-built reliability and back-up that is essential for us and our tenants. In an area of our work where tenants quite reasonably assume they will get reliable water supplies from the mains but do not see what is behind that reliable supply, it is a job well done. And the cessation of supply to our tenants to fit the new system was remarkably short – less than two hours. That was quite remarkable and very welcome.”

The Wilo pressure boosting system option selected by CBS – a Wilo-SiBoost Smart Helix VE – delivers in all areas. Powerful motors allow a powerful drive and reliable pressure boosting. The highly efficient automatic functions offer a wide range of flexible parameters to be utilised to optimise the pressure control according to the specific characteristics of the building’s water network. Moreover, the system hydraulics were designed to meet the highest demands in terms of long service life and effectiveness. Beyond the optimised 2D/3D laser-welded pump stages, flanged pipes minimise pressure losses while the stainless steel, high quality hydraulic parts ensure a high resistance to corrosion. The installation-friendly systems are easy to operate. The display with in-built backlight, shows all relevant information at any time and the transparent menu structure allows quick access to the main parameters.

Set-up is achieved in no time thanks to the standard interface on the control cabinet and the pumps. The combination of an LC display and “red-button technology” from Wilo, allows easy settings and status information and the Wilo systems are ready for use very quickly. In order to optimise security, the pressure gauge and the pressure transmitter sensors are protected with extra covers. In addition, a cable channel ensures improved integration of the cables. Communication between the pressure boosting pumps and building management systems if installed, is possible via different data buses, including LON, ModBus and BACnet.

The Wilo-SiBoost Smart Helix VE system has two to four stainless steel high-pressure centrifugal pumps – in this case three – of the Helix VE range with an IE2-equivalent standard motor. The pumps of this highly efficient and connection-ready water-supply unit are switched in parallel and vertically arranged – including an air-cooled, integrated frequency converter. The integrated dry-running protection makes sure that in the event of low water, the motor control electronics will be automatically switched off. Thanks to the Smart Controller SCe control device, operating this system is particularly easy.

A subsequent project for the same client on a tower block in nearby Edmonton saw the water off for just an hour whilst the new Wilo pressure boosting set was installed.

Full details of the Wilo pumps used in this installation and the other pumps in the range can be found at www.wilo.co.uk. More information on Complete Building Services can be found at www.completebuildingherts.com and more information about Enfield Homes can be found at www.enfield.gov.uk/Enfieldhomes.

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In response to the growing need for earth electrode resistance measurements, Megger has added a new model to its popular and successful MFT1700 family of multifunction installation testers. When used in conjunction with the appropriate accessories, the new MFT1735 provides comprehensive facilities for two-pole, three-pole, stakeless and ART earth

electrode resistance measurements, as well as all the functionality needed to test electrical installations in line with the 17th Edition of the IET Wiring Regulations.

• Two and three wire non-trip loop testing for RCD protected circuits
• Type-B RCD and 3-phase RCD testing for industrial applications with no Earth
• 3-terminal earth test and stakeless testing for earth electrode resistance measurement **

Internal memory and Bluetooth® communications
Simple colour-coded test selection and large clear back-lit display for ease of use
EN61010 CATIV safety ratings and tough IP54 case

** The MFT1735 is supplied with a 3-wire earth test kit, however optional accessories are required for the ART and stakeless techniques.

Adds a range of earth electrode test to its multifunction
The wide range of earth test facilities provided by the new tester mean that it is well suited to virtually all earth resistance measurement applications, including the testing of electrodes in TT installations, as are used for certain vehicle charging points, verification of earthing performance in lightning protection systems and checking the earth systems used in wind turbine and other renewable power installations.

Safe, adaptable and hard working

Like all models in the MFT1700 family, the new MFT1735 features simple colour-coded test selection and a large clear backlit display, an EN61010 CAT IV 300 V safety rating, full input protection against accidental connection to live supplies when set for dead-circuit tests, visible and audible safety warnings of hazardous voltages, and rugged durable construction with an IP54-rated case.

The MFT1735 also offers a choice of two-wire and three-wire non-trip loop testing, along with high-current loop testing, which means that users can always choose the loop test method most appropriate and most convenient for the application in hand. Other key features include the ability to test all commonly used types of RCD, including Types AC, A, S and B as well as programmable types, and provision for three-phase RCD testing in industrial applications with no earth. A timesaving auto-test feature for standard single-phase RCDs is also included.

Rechargeable from line or vehicle supply

Power for the MFT1735 tester is provided by NiMH rechargeable cells, which are supplied with the instrument. This arrangement eliminates the cost, inconvenience and environmental impact associated with using ordinary disposable batteries. A mains charger is supplied as standard and a charger for use with 12 V vehicle supplies is available as an optional accessory.

Learn more about the MFT1735

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Triton’s new ‘Type B’ waterproofing website has been designed as the perfect resource for specifiers of watertight concrete structures. Triton supplies a complete range of products for structural waterproofing but this new site focuses purely on the company’s BBA approved watertight concrete system that conforms to BS 8102 (2009).

Used primarily in the construction of basements, underground car parks, swimming pools and lift pits etc, the system comprises a unique chemical admix, products for sealing construction joints and products to make repairs.

There are direct links on the site from individual product sections to technical data sheets, detail drawings and case studies on Triton’s main website. The enquiry form lands directly on the desk of technical staff who can help you with your project.

Triton offers full system support, including liaison with the concrete batching plant, mix design, construction joint detailing, site monitoring as well as concrete repair systems and a warranty when required.

Visit www.typebwaterproofing.co.uk

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Roof ventilation market leader Klober has launched the 20k tile vent. This will not only enable far fewer vents to be used on a roof but fulfil the need for a bigger aperture required for MHVR. In addition to a tile vent, a slate vent is available for use with natural and man-made slates. Both have been designed for universal use and can be fitted with a 150mm adaptor.

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An established care home in Swindon is a warmer and safer place thanks to the specification of Stelrad LST radiators as part of an overall refurbishment project. The Ridings Care Home provides 32 self-contained flats offering a mix of one and two bedroomed accommodation, for a mix of active elderly individuals and couples, some with 24 hour care needs.

The care home – one of many owned and managed by The Guinness Partnership – used to feature an ageing electric underfloor heating system with electric immersion heaters providing hot water. As well as being ‘past its sell by date’, it was expensive to run option and needed upgrading and replacing with modern energy efficient and reliable heating options. Hewer FM, based in Gloucester was selected to replace the heating for the care home and the old system was ripped out and replaced by a traditional wet heating system using three modern gas fired condensing boilers to provide the heating source, and two further gas boilers operating in conjunction with solar thermal and solar PV panels to preheat the cylinder and provide hot water.

Because of the differing levels of disability and care requirements in the home, LSTs – low surface temperature radiators – were selected. These comply with the strict requirements of the NHS Guidance Note for ‘Safe hot water and surface temperature’ and can be installed in domestic, commercial and public buildings running heating systems with total public safety assured. The surface temperature of these LSTs will never exceed 43°C. It’s for buildings such as these that Stelrad’s LST range has been designed, to ensure that elderly and vulnerable people cannot suffer the serious dry burns that are possible from falls against standard radiators where the surface temperatures can exceed 70 degrees Celsius.

In all, more than eighty Stelrad LSTi Plus K2 radiators were supplied for this project to heat the flats, the corridors and other public areas of the care home and The Guinness Partnership is very happy with its investment so far: “When you are providing a home for elderly tenants, warmth and safety are the two key features of the property and the Stelrad LSTi’s, as part of this new heating system, offer both perfectly,” says The Guinness Partnership’s Oliver Wilkinson. “As well as being effective and safe, they are aesthetically pleasing and blend in nicely in both the rooms and the wider care home – the covers for the radiators look good and have rounded edges to ensure there are no sharp edges to touch or fall against and have the added benefit of being finished in a long-lasting anti-bacterial coating which is perfect for an environment such as this. The smooth fronted casings are easy to keep clean and hygienic.”

HewerFM’s John Hendzel was the contract manager responsible for the Ridings project: “The LST i Plus from Stelrad is supplied with the addition of an integral remote sensing thermostatic valve to allow adjustment of room air temperature, making it even more energy efficient than other LST radiators, as well as offering an arthritic adaptor that makes it far easier for older people who may have grip problems to adjust the level of heat in their rooms. There are also additional components to discourage unauthorised tampering for the radiators situated in public areas of the building. Importantly the LST i Plus features curved casing edges which ensures no square edges to damage anyone falling against it. The design has been well thought through and provides an ideal solution for heating in a property such as this one.”

Each Stelrad LST emitter provides high outputs through convection for outstanding heat performance and is guaranteed to perform to a maximum working pressure of 116 psi (8 bar) and conform to BE EN 442 – the European standard for radiators.
Full details of the range of Stelrad LSTs can be found at its website at www.stelrad.com.

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Monitoring the performance of water and energy saving initiatives is essential to demonstrate the benefits, ensuring that systems operate to specification and are tuned for maximum savings to deliver fast pay-back on investments. And London based PA Energy who specialise in the supply, installation and ongoing monitoring of turnkey sub-metering systems have used Micronics ultrasonic, clamp-on flow and heat metering products to good effect on a wide range of water and or energy saving projects.

The projects have included rainwater harvesting, fuel cell and solar/thermal installations on commercial buildings in the London area and the simple clamp-on, non-invasive solutions from Micronics have offered significant advantages over the traditional alternative of in-line meters and their requirement for system drain-down, pipe cutting, re-filling systems and the associated costs, which are all avoided by the use of a clamp-on solution.

For the rainwater harvesting project a claim for a reduction in the sewage charge is being developed by using a Micronics U3000 to demonstrate how much rainwater is being dumped to sewage by metering the amount of water being pumped into a grey water tank in comparison to the boosted cooling water entering the tank. Another application was measuring the LTHW heat flow from a fuel cell calorifier again with a U3000 to demonstrate the performance of the fuel cell process. And yet another was monitoring the heat transfer/performance from a solar/thermal panel by measuring the water /glycol mix and differential flow and return temperature with a heat calculator to calculate heat transfer to the buffer vessel heat exchanger to demonstrate the performance of the solar/thermal system i.e. that it was performing to specification.

PA Energy selected clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters for the clear advantages of being low cost, non disruptive and simple to install in comparison to in-line meters and Micronics were selected as the supplier due to a combination of their long-term experience with non-invasive, clamp-on technology, product performance and pre-order assistance.

PA’s Managing Director – Percy Albuquerque says “The Micronics clamp-on flow meters have proved to be an effective component in providing accurate water flow and heat measurement data for our web based aM&T plus data analysis services. The product performance has been good, even on partially filled pipes and on the rare occasions that we have had application problems the Micronics support has been good.”

The potential for similar use is significant and PA’s experience is an example of how clamp-on, ultrasonic technology can be successfully implemented to gather information and demonstrate the performance of water and energy saving installations. For further information call +44(0)1628 810456, or visit www.micronicsflowmeters.com.

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In HVAC system terms, heat recovery is a process of capturing, and putting to good use, heat that would, in the normal course of events, be “rejected to atmosphere”. One example is heat energy that is absorbed and rejected by an air conditioning system during its cooling cycle. This, to all intents and purposes, is free heat that can be successfully redirected for space heating, domestic water heating or any other process that requires heat.

Heat recovery is being successfully applied in all types of buildings, schools, manufacturing plants and office buildings. It typically provides a very attractive return on investment for building owner/operators.

Hotels with their relatively high year-round internal cooling loads combined with high hot water demand are excellent opportunities for “green” heat pump, heat recovery chiller technology.

Importantly, heat pump heat recovery systems can allow for substantially downsizing or even eliminating fossil fuel, combustion based heating equipment such as gas boilers. This was the case in a project undertaken and described here by the Daikin Distributor, Space Airconditioning plc.

Space Air has enjoyed a partnering agreement with a leading UK hotel group for over 20 years and, for a refurbishment project in the heart of London, supplied a 320kW Daikin air-cooled chiller with a heat recovery option. In addition to satisfying specific, almost continuous cooling demands, this chiller also provides warmed water to 4 x 500 litre indirect DHW cylinders.

The hotel’s hot water supply is pre-heated by the chiller’s heat recovery process; this in turn dramatically reduces the output required of new high efficiency gas fired water boilers.

The result is significant kW savings in energy and huge reductions in mains gas consumption.

The Hotel Group had committed to refurbish the Covent Garden Hotel including all guest bedrooms as well as function rooms, reception areas and restaurants.

Space Air technicians in conjunction carried out a survey with the hotel’s maintenance company. It was determined that whilst the existing Air Handling Unit serving the common areas and restaurants etc. was in good condition and could be re used, an existing air cooled chiller needed replacing, due to the fact that it was designed to operate with R22 refrigerant (the use of which for service purposes will be banned from 2015) and was in a state of disrepair with only one working compressor circuit.

The concept that a new Daikin Chiller to replace the old machine, could also provide cost effective heat recovery features, created interest because the hotel’s existing gas boilers were due to be replaced.

Space Air presented the features and specification of the Daikin Heat Recovery system to the client. Space Air was able to illustrate cost savings the Heat Recovery option would provide, and combined with the reduced costs for the smaller gas boilers, substantial reductions in the hotel’s hot water services operational costs could be realised.

The Hotel group decided it made good financial sense to proceed with the Heat Recovery option.

The new Daikin heat recovery chiller operates 24/7 and an existing back up (cooling only) Daikin chiller is only used in case of unlikely
failure. This means the new chiller provides virtually continuous pre-heated water for the DHWS.

On a seasonal basis it has been calculated that the chiller will produce an average of 236.6kW of hot water, free of charge. This takes into account the chiller operating for 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 day a year (8760 hours).

Four x 500 Litre indirect cylinders provide pre-heated water on a separate circuit to the secondary heat exchanger in the basement, which serves the main feed to the showers, and DHWS for the hotel guestrooms.

Allowing for losses in the cylinders and pipework etc., the system achieves delta T of approximately 20°C. So the mains water supply to the DHWS heat exchanger is increased by this temperature rise resulting in a much lower demand than usual on the new gas boilers.

To put this into perspective the cost to heat 2000L of water based on a ∆T of 20°C with a gas boiler was calculated and compared with the ‘extra’ cost of providing a heat recovery option on the chiller price to perform the same function.
Approx. 46.44kWh (per hour) of energy is required. Over one year based on 24/7, 365 days (8760 hours) operation and with gas at 4p per kWh, the cost of gas would be approx. £16k.

The premium cost for the optional HR circuit on the Daikin Chiller plus the required tanks, pumps, pipework etc. Installed = £30/40k (Estimated). This equates to a payback period on the investment of less than 3 years.

So far the client is delighted with the cost savings achieved and is looking to apply similar heat recovery principles in more of his property portfolio.

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