The Black Country might soon be known as the darts capital of England, according to a popular world champion who was left ‘amazed’ by the standard of amateur players with connections to the building-services industry at a branch opening in West Bromwich. Mark Webster, 2008 world champion and himself a qualified plumber, was the star guest at Pipe Center and Climate Center on Doranda Way, where he threw some arrows to officially unveil the facility.

When a building management system or building energy management system (BMS/BEMS) is in place, is there a need for additional controls? Sabien Technology’s *Tony Willis explains how specifiers can guide their clients to further savings with discrete retrofit controls.

It’s quite strange what you can find when idling away a few moments on the world-wide web. This extraordinary-looking creature is a Thermosaurus radiator, which is described as ‘highly efficient and energy-savvy, thanks to its complex structure that includes a skull, spine, ribs, legs, and tail bones’. Look carefully and you will spot the flow and return connections, but there are no obvious signs of a TRV.

Evaporative cooling for a new data centre at Cambridge University has helped achieve a PUE (power usage effectiveness) of less than 1.1. It is the second data centre completed by EcoCooling for the Department of Engineering and uses the latest fresh-air and evaporative-cooling techniques and technology. The data centre is currently achieving a PUE of 1.06, but is not yet fully populated.

Proposals to simplify the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme will save businesses millions of pounds, according to Edward Davey, Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change. He said, ‘We have listened to businesses’ concerns about the CRC and have set out proposals to radically cut down on “red tape” to save businesses money. The benefits of the scheme are clear, though. It will deliver substantial carbon savings to help us meet carbon budgets, and it encourages businesses to take action to improve their energy efficiency.’

The development of smarter and more sustainable buildings is a necessity if Britain is to meet its legally binding carbon-reduction commitments. Integrated environmental control solutions incorporating heat-pump based technology combined with heat recovery can make a major contribution towards this goal. John Durbin examines the significant energy savings possible using these systems.

With the distraction of a third legal challenge by the Government to December Feed-in Tariff reduction now ruled out by the Supreme Court, SummitSkills has urged the PV industry to focus on the future. SummitSkills’ research suggests that demand for environmental technologies will outstrip the number of trained and skilled installers over the next few years. It also believes that employers who are far-sighted enough to invest before then in training their workforce are likely to be in a better position to take advantage of the opportunities to grow their businesses and cater to that increasing demand.

The first building in the world to achieve a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating in the bespoke category is the Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre at Roden. McPhillips (Wellington) ltd achieved 100% of the available credits for management, energy and water use on the project. The final BREEAM score was 94.44%.

The Renewables Roadshow, which won the ’Best launch show’ category in the recent ‘Exhibition News Awards’, takes to the road again this Autumn with visits to six venues from 13 September to 3 October. The show was up against established multi-national businesses, and its owner, Dan Caesar, expressed his surprise: ‘The businesses we were up against have hundreds of staff and multi-million turnovers, so we were billing it as David versus Goliath. As you can imagine, we were absolutely delighted to win.’

The first higher-education building in the UK to achieve a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating for both design-stage and post-construction review is the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA). Hoare Lea was mechanical, electrical and public-health engineer for the project and worked closely with Lancaster University as the client and the project team, which included architect Sheppard Robson, to achieve this rating.

A new standard for wireless sensors and their networks has been ratified by the IEC for wireless applications with ultra-low power consumption. According to EnOcean, it is the first and only wireless standard that its also optimised for energy-harvesting solutions and, therefore, to EnOcean’s self-powered wireless technology. Together with the EnOcean equipment profiles drawn up by the EnOcean Alliance, this international standard (ISO/IEC 14543-3-10) lays the foundation for fully interoperable, open wireless technology.

A combined smoke- and natural-ventilation system from SE Controls is providing safety and comfort for a major residential development by Linden Homes in Hammersmith, London. There are 81 apartments from ground to sixth-floor penthouse level, together with a communal roof-top terrace, private gardens and secure parking.

There is a huge amount of activity around renewables and a multitude of initiatives, but are buildings actually ready to maximise the benefits of renewable energy? Blane Judd considers the question.

New EU roles for the ecodesign requirements for air conditioners and comfort fans that could reduce CO2 emissions by 24 Mt a year have been welcomed by the European Partnership for Energy & the Environment. Andrea Voigt, director general of EPEE, says, ‘Given the importance of ecodesign for energy savings, we call on the commission to swiftly conclude and adopt other ecodesign rules for critical products such as boilers and water heaters. This would benefit the environment, consumers and give the industry the legal and technical certainty needed for innovation.’

As part of a switch from oil to gas, Potterton Commercial gas-fired condensing boilers water heaters from Andrews Water Heaters have been installed at Range High School at Formby in Merseyside. This secondary co-educational comprehensive school has around 1300 pupils, 250 of whom are sixth-form students. The new plant will reduce the school’s fuel bill by around £7500 a year.

The need to crane replacement water heaters onto the roof of the Birmingham Hippodrome, with all its consequent disruption, was avoided by installing Rinnai continuous-flow water heaters. Two HD50i internal units serve over 130 tap outlets and 20 showers directly off the mains.

Ian Ellis urges energy and facilities managers to adopt a long-term approach to building energy management systems (BEMS) to achieve maximum energy efficiencies in their buildings.

As the use of building integrated renewables grows, it is important to ensure that these technologies are integrated into the building-services system — and correctly measured, monitored and managed.

Vicky Kenrick looks at the call for business to take control of their energy use and examines the effect this is having on the growth of the energy jobs market.