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REHAU's PE-Xa pipework has been used in an innovative new project for Telford & Wrekin Council which will deliver energy savings for the redeveloped Wellington Civic and Leisure centre.

Part of an £8.5m town centre redevelopment, the building is being extended by 3,300m2 and will house two floors of council offices, as well as a swimming pool and leisure centre, library and café.

The Council's Property and Design department has worked closely with Interseasonal Heat Transfer specialists ICAX to design a sustainable heating solution for the new centre which minimises both energy losses and running costs and helps the building to achieve an EPC A rating.

A 20 borehole field has been installed in front of the building to create a ThermalBank which will store in the ground excess ‘free heat’ generated during the summer from solar roofing, solar chimneys, swimming pool and changing room ventilation for use during the winter.

REHAU has an established partnership with ICAX so supplied the RAUGEO 40mm PE-Xa probes for the 20 boreholes, which were each drilled 100m deep by Terra Firma GI.

REHAU PE-Xa header pipe was installed to connect the boreholes and Mark Bradley of Terra Firma GI estimates that the connection using REHAU's Everloc compression joint system took less than half the time it would have taken using the alternative PE electro-fusion fittings and PE 100 pipe.

The 30m x 10m x 100m deep ThermalBank will be connected to an ICAX Skid, which will extract heat using heat pumps when required for use in the winter to heat the building. When there is a requirement for heat, the ICAX Skid unit will analyse where it can be delivered from most efficiently and activate the appropriate heat source.

The Wellington Civic and Leisure centre, part of the council's borough town imitative programme, is scheduled for completion during 2011. The main contractors are GF Tomlinson.

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Andrews Water Heaters, part of Baxi Commercial Division, has supplied two SOLARflo water heating systems, along with Queen’s Award winning MAXXflo condensing water heaters, for the new Beacon Centre for the Blind in Wolverhampton. The centre brings together services for people with sight loss which were previously housed in eight separate buildings on the seven acre site. Some of these were in need of refurbishment and all were expensive to maintain and run so, after due consideration, the decision was taken to replace them with a brand new centre. The new state of the art facilities comprise a three storey office block and a separate support area to the residential block which have both been designed to achieve an energy efficient solution which minimizes CO2 emissions.

The whole Building concept scheme with the two SOLARflo systems were specified by Rediger Ltd., who are CIBSE registered Low Carbon Consultants. A spokesman commented, “We have used this equipment in the past and Andrews have a good reputation in this respect. The system comes as a complete package and the inbuilt controls provide all that is necessary for efficient operation. I n addition, there were no problems tying in with the BMS.”

Matched equipment from a single source, together with the availability of technical advice throughout the installation, is a particular benefit of the Andrews Water Heaters product range and after sales service.

The SOLARflo system serving the office block provides domestic hot water to washroom facilities and kitchenettes on each of three floors, a total of 24 wash hand basins and five sinks. In the residential support building, the system serves a kitchen with four outlets, a bar with two sinks, a hairdresser’s with four basins and two toilet areas with a total of eight wash hand basins. Both systems were designed and installed by William Davis Ltd. and a spokesman commented, ‘Everything went well from initial concept to completion of the project’.

The office block system comprises six roof-mounted, glazed flat plate solar collectors with a total area of 15.6 square metres, a 900 litre twin coil cylinder and a MAXXflo CWH120/300 condensing storage water heater. The MAXXflo water heater, cylinder and other components of the solar package are installed in the ground floor plant room, where the water heater is installed with a horizontal, balanced flue. The residential support block has seven roof mounted solar collectors with a total area of 18.5 square metres. A 700 litre twin coil cylinder, a MAXXflo CWH 60/300 water heater, with vertical balanced flue and the remainder of the solar package are again installed in a ground floor plant room. These high efficiency, gas-fired, condensing storage water heaters each have a capacity of 300 litres and recovery rates through 50oC of 1020 litres per hour for the CWH 60/300 and 2040 litres per hour for the CWH 120/300 which is the largest unit in the MAXXflo range.

Water is preheated by the glazed flat plate solar collectors, which have a transmission efficiency of 90.8%, an absorption efficiency of 95% and a low emission loss of only 5%. Heat is transferred to the two twin coil cylinders which in turn pre-heat the supply to the MAXXflo water heaters, thereby considerably reducing consumption of natural gas. In addition to the solar collectors and non-corrosive, stainless steel solar cylinders the complete SOLARflo package also includes solar controls, pump station, expansion vessels, first fill of heat transfer fluid and collector mounting accessories.

The MAXXflo range of high efficiency, condensing, gas-fired storage water heaters has won the Queen’s Award for Innovation for it’s energy saving capabilities. These units are therefore ideal for buildings with a high demand for hot water and, thanks to their fast recovery rate and innovative design, carbon footprint, NOx levels and running costs are kept to a minimum. MAXXflo storage water heaters incorporate a fully modulating burner to provide maximum performance and flexibility, using condensing technology to achieve an operational efficiency of 109%. Heat input and flow are carefully regulated to produce a closely controlled water temperature and a high temperature anti-Legionella program is incorporated as standard.

Editor’s Note

The Beacon Centre for the Blind in Wolverhampton helps local people with sight loss to live fuller and more independent lives by offering them the finest facilities and support, including a mix of residential, day care and community services. Formed in 1875 as the Wolverhampton Society for the Blind, the current name was adopted in 1991 and, in 2003, the former individual workshops on the site were eventually closed. The decision to redevelop the site completely was taken against the background of Government forecasts which predict a rise of 35% in visual impairment by the year 2020, due to an ageing population and the prevalence of diabetes.

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An interactive Building Configurator will be available on the REHAU stand for the first time, enabling visitors to enter the parameters of their planned build and then to see instantly how they could optimise its efficiency by using a range of energy efficient and renewable energy solutions from REHAU.

Many of these solutions will be exhibited on the stand including, for example, the new GENEO® super energy efficient window, the AWADUKT Thermo ground – air heat exchanger and the RAUGEO ground source energy probe partnered with REHAU underfloor heating.

An animation will be shown for the first time at the exhibition to demonstrate the significant impact which these products can have on improving the efficiency of the building fabric, and reducing energy losses from H&V systems.

The REHAU stand will have three clearly defined zones enabling visitors to see products in one zone, services such as the Building Configurator in another and in the final zone they will be able to collect product information and locate the REHAU Authorised Partners in their own local area.

This is polymer specialist REHAU's third successive appearance at Ecobuild, during which time its range of energy efficient solutions have become mainstream choices for domestic and commercial projects across the UK.

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– reduced emissions and reduced fuel bills

Limescale is a major problem in terms of energy efficiency and savings in hard water areas – which account for more than 60% of the UK. It’s a primary cause of higher levels of emissions and higher fuel bills. Fact.

So finding a way of addressing the problem and at the same time helping to comply with the new Part L of the Building Regulations makes a huge amount of sense. This is where the SESI from Salamander Engineering can help.

There’s a frightening selection of physical water conditioners on the market for specifiers and installers to choose from including magnetic, electrolytic, electrostatic, electromagnetic and electronic. The reality is that the science simply doesn’t exist to prove these all work, and why, perhaps more worryingly, they appear to work well in one property and don’t in another, just down the road, with the same water mains and same water hardness.

Fit a unit that is proven

So if you’re looking to fit a water conditioner, you need to fit one that is proven and which has the science to back it up. In these circumstances, an electrolytic physical water conditioner – and one from a respected name in the water treatment sector – is the ideal choice. Even better if it’s proven to work, based on an independent study undertaken by the Cranfield University School of Water Sciences.

The SESI from Salamander, part of the Sentinel Group, works by flushing the hard salts through the system. It uses a zinc electrode and a natural electrolytic process to flush hard salts through the system rather than allowing them to settle and build up as limescale. It’s environmentally friendly and cost-effective operation has been proven in tests over the last 20 years. In simple terms, the crystals of hard salts in suspension change shape as they pass through the SESI and are unable to ‘stick’ to the metallic surfaces inside the pipes and radiators that untreated salts can – and do, alarmingly quickly. The process also ensures the crystals retain that shape and don’t quickly revert to the old damaging shape as soon as they have passed through the SESI unit.

Electrolytic physical conditioners such as Salamander Engineering’s SESI offer the ideal solution to the problem. They have the advantage of being able to protect an entire household’s pipe system from the formation of limescale encrustation, without the use of chemicals or salt and without the need for any electrical power supply. With no magnetic or chemical effect on the water, the units provide a cost effective and environmentally friendly solution. SESI is WRAS approved and fits in-line on the incoming main, providing whole house protection against limescale. The unit is non-magnetic, requires no chemicals, is non-polluting, maintenance free and comes with a 5 year guarantee.

As well as delivering an answer to the problems of hard water, the SESI helps specifiers and installers to meet the requirements of Building Regulations Part L cost effectively. Part L now clearly states that “where mains total hardness exceeds 200 parts per million, provision should be made to treat the feed water to water heaters and the hot water circuit to reduce limescale build up.” SESI offers an immediate and very convenient answer to this.

Limescale build up is damaging and is reducing the efficiency of customers’ appliances by up to 12%. Restoring optimum efficiency levels could save customers up to £100 a year on their energy bills – as highlighted by British Water.

The average life of a boiler heat exchanger – the element that actually heats the water flowing through it – is 10 – 15 years. But in hard water areas, this can dramatically decrease to just 2 – 3 years. However, if a specifier or an installer is knowledgeable about the hardness of the water and specifies or fits a limescale prevention device such as SESI, this rapid deterioration can be prevented and the heat exchanger should remain efficient for its full lifespan.

For more information on the SESI and all Salamander water treatment products visit www.salamander-engineering.co.uk, or call 01928 583280.

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Part M of the Building Regulations 2000 (access to and use of buildings) is designed to make it as easy as possible for all persons, regardless of ability / disability, to enter and use buildings and the facilities within them. This requirement applies to the wiring accessories contained in the buildings as much as the buildings themselves, and will apply to all non-domestic new-builds as well as any modifications carried out to existing, non-domestic buildings. Crabtree has therefore been introducing products throughout its range of wiring accessories to enable compliance with Part M. It is important to realise though, that just using the products themselves does not ensure conformity.

With Crabtree, however, these products do help to make the job of the contractor as easy as possible. For example, a high contrast between a front plate and its corresponding background makes it easier for everyone to find the switches, while in particular providing valuable help for those with limited eyesight. The Crabtree solution also helps save money and resources especially for refurbishments, as there are many upgrade solutions, like replacement power outlet or switch surrounds, which avoid having to replace an entire wiring accessory.

To help the visually impaired, products meeting Part M standards should also clearly indicate whether they are ‘on’ or ‘off’ – Crabtree use red flashes in the switch rocker and neon indicators, the latter proving particularly useful at night or in low-light conditions.

Light switches, which are to be used by the general public, are encouraged to have large push-pads, a feature available on the majority of Crabtree accessories, and they should be at door-handle height. This obviously makes it as easy as possible for those people with a physical disability or visual impairment to locate and activate them, and is backed up by the suggestion that these larger push-pads mean that a fist or elbow would be able to operate them as easily as a finger. Couple this with Seeklight perimeter illumination for light switches, and it becomes easy to identify their location, even in the dark.

The ‘ease-of-operation’ aim that these requirements propose extends to ranges of components using multiple switches. Part M stresses that multiple switched components should always be ‘well separated’. This means that all visitors should find it easier to avoid inadvertently selecting an adjacent control; an example being the highly popular Crabtree Capital switched socket outlets, which can be ordered with outboard rockers – making it virtually impossible to accidentally activate the wrong socket outlet. Rockergrid, which is a modular system of boxes grids, plates and switches, can quickly and easily be assembled to customers’ specifications, enabling several circuits to be controlled from a single location. The switches have large concave rockers with barriers between each one to avoid inadvertent selection of adjacent controls.

The features and requirements laid out by Part M in the vast majority of cases only provide guidelines. This means that the contractor and developer have to ensure that the installations that are carried out meet with these guidelines, and both are expected to use their own judgement to ensure that any components chosen do not fall outside the scope of Part M. It is because of this that Crabtree have ensured that their products can meet with the vast array of variables set out by Part M, making this difficult task as easy as possible.

When it comes to specifying electrical wiring accessories that comply with Part M, there is a wealth of products that meet with the requirements contained in the guidelines. Crabtree, in particular, has a vast and extensive portfolio of products ranging from specially designed switches and sockets to contrasting replacement components. All these features of the Crabtree range are there to benefit the specifier and contractor in making the best choice when it comes to meeting the requirements laid out in Part M.

For further assistance, Crabtree have produced a handy printed guide, together with literature detailing their PartM compliant product range. For your free copy please phone 01543 455030 or circle the reader link card at the back of this magazine.

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The lighting in an area leading up to Blackfrairs Bridge in London has been revamped by lighting designers Firefly using Crescent CLVS linear colour changing RGB system. Seventeen lengths of the slim profile were installed behind curved mirrors above a pedestrian ramp area on the north bank entrance to the bridge, to shine up into the bridge structure.

The lighting system was programmed by Crescent with strict instructions for no red, blue or green alone to be used, but subtle mixtures of the three colours.

The programme runs daily from 3pm to 9am and has a static gold colour for the first 55 minutes followed by a ripple of cool colours along the length of the modules for 5 minutes.

The next 55 minutes has the gold fading back & forth with yellow before the ripple effect starts. Then yellow is the static colour before the ripple again. This sequence is repeated for the rest of the programme with other static colours replacing the yellow and a cool ripple replacing the warm one at 4am.

Peter Veale of Firefly commented:

“We did the project with the architects The Facility. It was quite a tight budget project and we wanted to create an animated colour-changing design where the fittings and drivers were hidden behind the reflectors, but the effect still needed to be visible from the other side of the river. All equipment had to be durable against the elements and we knew that the Crescent CL fittings were up to the job.”

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Work has begun on the innovative retrofit of a 1960's social housing development in West London, with 24 tonnes of Rockwool EnergySaver granulate insulation being pumped into the Cavities of the 24 storey high towers at the Edward Woods Estate.

The practice of filling cavities with granulate stone wool insulation is now a common sight across Britain, with homeowners utilising measures to increase the energy efficiency of their homes with minimum cost and disturbance. The stone wool is pumped from machines set in the back of a van adjacent to the building through a hose. However, the Edward Woods Estate project, filling 1380 cavities with insulation weighing the equivalent of 36 mini coopers, is truly exceptional in scale..

Andrew Champ, Business Development Director at Rockwool said “This clearly is a massive undertaking, and has involved meticulous planning from the start. Working closely with our approved installer UK Homes Insulation we have engineered a quick and effective way of providing cavity wall insulation to residents of the Edward Woods Estate with the minimum amount of disturbance”.

The Edward Wood Estate is a 1960's social housing development that is to be refurbished rather than demolished and replaced. The £12.2 million regeneration project is intended to extend the life of the towers for another 40 years through a thorough thermal and visual upgrade. Residents have been involved in the scheme from the start, with representatives from each block working with the design consultants, using their local knowledge to help steer the proposals for the benefit of all who live there.

As well as Rockwool EnergySaver, other Rockwool products to be used in the project include external wall insulation, roofing boards, partition walls, Rockfon ceiling tiles and Rockpanel – an external wall cladding chosen by the residents that increases the aesthetic as well as thermal value of the buildings.

Gary Cox, Managing Director of UK Homes Insulation, the installer of the insulation added “Cavity wall insulation is a popular cost effective solution for one or two storey single dwelling houses, mostly in the private domestic sector. However, this project is about multi-storey social housing buildings. We had to adapt the installing technique and the machine setting for the task, but it is expected at a project of this scale. The installation itself is a speedy process, which does not require manual handling and causes minimal disturbance to the residents”.

The installation of cavity wall insulation in all three towers is expected to be completed by the end of September 2010.

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Arena Coventry Limited, a total facilities management company, which manages all the facilities at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, has reduced water consumption and achieved significant cost savings. The company’s original investment in Micronics meters was a Heat Meter installed in 2008 to establish and monitor the energy costs associated with underground heating of the pitch. This was a success and following a later meeting with Seven Trent, triggered by a reduction in water consumption, the valuable information gained and clarification that the water used for the pitch heating does not go to sewage led to a reduction in water charges.

Energy management to reduce consumption and costs are a key function of Alan Pickering’s role as the Ricoh Arena’s Deputy Facilities and Energy Manager.

He said: “Water consumption is a big issue on the site, which led us to invest in the installation of three Micronics Ultraflo 2000, Clamp-On, flow-meters in 2009, which we use with an on-site Monitoring and Targeting system to manage the significant water consumption on the site.”

The three meters were supplied and installed by Micronics, and provide individual half-hour consumption data for the north concourse, arena and southern concourse areas. Within three weeks of installation, the investment identified intermittent continuous flushing periods of some WCs in the southern concourse area, which when remedied reduced the site water consumption by 50%, providing a payback of one month!

In addition to the above, Micronics meters have also been installed in the new Exhibition Hall to provide consumption data for automatic billing of water consumption for this area, which is shared between the on-site G Casino and the Ricoh Arena.

Having considered various measurement alternatives, Clamp-On Ultrasonic meters were selected due to the installation and maintenance/service benefits associated with the non-invasive technology including low cost and minimum disruption installation with no system drain down required plus dry maintenance and service. And Micronics were selected as the supplier due to Alan’s previous experience with them and a combination of their long-term experience with Ultrasonic Clamp-On technology; competitive pricing and product performance i.e. best value!

Micronics’ Clamp-On flow meters in conjunction with Alan’s effective use of the on-site Monitoring and Targeting system has delivered a significant reduction in water consumption and reduced overall costs by 50%! He has been very pleased with the performance of the Micronics products and says the pre and post order service support has also been very good.

Alan believes there is significant potential for ongoing savings on-site and the project has demonstrated how Clamp-On – Ultrasonic technology can be successfully implemented as a cost-effective solution to improve heat energy measurement and water management on similar sites.

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