Users of the web site of “Modern Building Services” are being offered a 10% discount for a seminar to launch a new guide in the Knowledge Series of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. “Fan coil units : solutions for the 21st century” explains how chilled-water FCUs are a highly effective means of providing air conditioning for buildings. The event is on Monday 19 May at CIBSE's headquarters at Balham in South London.

Richard Forster delves into the issues comparing compact fluorescent and tungsten-filament lamps — and in doing so challenges conventional perceptions concerning efficiency and mercury.

The UK’s first centre of excellence in low-carbon technologies for buildings is set to open at London South Bank University. The Centre of Efficient & Renewable Energy in Buildings will open in 2009. It will be a unique resource for teaching, research and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies in the built environment.

Trox has completed the supply of £1 million-worth of airside fan-coil units and diffusers for various contracts for Bankside 1/2/3 on London’s South Bank.

The application of free cooling in a store of Wilkinson is having a dramatic effect on the use of mechanical cooling, leading to it being rolled out to 148 of its stores with ducted ventilation systems. The preliminary trial of a system installed by GK Industrial reduced the use of the cooling system from 45 hours to nine hours a week, a reduction of nearly 80% and achieving a cost saving of £4.30/m2, based on current energy prices. Wilkinson has nearly 300 stores in the UK.

A number of top firms in the industry have signed up for a new flexible learning programme aimed at addressing the growing shortage of qualified building-services engineers, launched by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers.

For the first time in over a hundred years, the look and feel of general lighting solutions are poised to change as LED technology develops. Steve Landau sets the scene.

Proportional balancing and variable flow do not go together, but it is taking time for a more effective approach to setting up waterborne systems to be widely adopted.

Jean Christophe Carette shares the secrets of successful hydronic balancing.