Energy savings of 55% have been achieved following the replacement of existing cooling plant with new Turbomiser chillers at the west London data centre of Colt Technology. The new chillers have also improved reliability and reduced maintenance costs.

An immediate 17.3% reduction in electricity consumption has been achieved following the installation of a voltage optimiser at Peasley Cross Hospital in St Helens. Before the installation of the equipment from Streamline Power, the average voltage on site was 246.3 V, peaking at 252.8 V —close to the legal maximum of 253 V. The voltage optimiser has reduced the voltage to 223 V, balanced the incoming phases and controlled the incoming voltage to within 0.5% of target.

Demonstrating the benefits, including improvements in the potential performance and energy savings, from the retrofit installation of sustainable water treatment to existing buildings is a major factor in the take-up and case for investment. Being able to demonstrate what is flowing where, not flowing or, even, flowing backwards can go a long way to establishing confidence with potential customers that your company knows what it is doing.

With funding and legislation coming together to support potentially the most significant building-refurbishment programme in decades, heating specialists are gearing up for an extensive programme of boiler retrofits, controls upgrades and new hot-water solutions. Ron Barker explains how this will change the industry.

Air-source heat pumps installed as part of a replacement heating system for the oldest working-men’s institute in Wales helped reduced running costs by 55% in the first year, signalling a payback of 10 years. Two Dimplex LA40 air-source heat pumps were installed by installer partner WDS Environmental during the cold Winter of 2009, with back-up heat provided by two gas-fired boilers.

Vokes Air has developed an online energy-consumption calculator for air filters. Entering requirements enables the energy consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions of current and optimised systems to be compared. The calculator also indicates the energy consumed and CO2 emitted during the manufacture and disposal of air filters.

Refurbishment often provides a viable alternative to replacing HVAC plant with new equipment — with significant cost and environmental benefits. Kim Rose explains.

As part of a conversion from oil to mains gas, two 350 kW gas burners from Ecoflam have been installed at Pencoed Swimming Pool near Bridgend. The burners were specified by Bridgend County Borough Council, whose senior mechanical engineer Nigel Baker says, ‘We’ve used various Ecoflam burners before, so we knew they would have the right product for the installation. After consulting their technical team, the Max Gas burners were clearly the best option and have helped make the conversion from oil to gas a great success.’

The installation of a biomass at Whitchurch Community Hospital in Shropshire is expected to halve its carbon emissions, while providing space heating and hot water. The Hamworthy Biomatic boiler has an output of 250 kW and was installed during a period of cold weather last Winter, so it immediately had to work round the clock using up to 20 t of wood a week. The hospital has 38 beds.

R22 is still a mainstay for much of the installed base of air conditioning in the UK. However, with its phase-out gathering pace towards 2015, it pays to take action now. Marc Diaz offers guidance for planning your strategy.

The development of sector- and function-specific standards has enabled the SFG20 standard maintenance specification for building services to become more widely used by enabling standards to be devised for specific projects. Peter Excell explains.

The conversion of the former headquarters of Imperial Tobacco at Bristol, dating from 1974, into apartments includes a central geothermal heating and hot-water system with interfaces to each apartment provided by 270 Nexus Bitherm wall-mounted units from MHS Boilers. Lakeshore, as it is now called, is a major renovation of the Grade 2 listed building and consists of studios and apartments with one and two bedrooms.

With the NHS aiming to reduce its 2007 carbon footprint by 10% by 2015, Chris Horsley describes how one NHS Trust has considerably reduced its carbon emissions by refurbishing its boiler house and moving from oil to gas for generating steam.

The ban on the use and sale of virgin HCFCs in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems has been in force in the UK for 18 months, yet many operators continue to rely on the availability of reclaimed or recycled HCFCs for their servicing and maintenance purposes. Mark Hughes explains the risks associated with this approach and provides an evaluation of options for facility managers to ensure business continuity.

Following the upgrading of the electricity supply to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall, an open-air amphitheatre cut into the granite cliff above Porthcurno near Lands End, Shenton Group has converted the existing standby generator to provide a 3-phase output. The power upgrade meant that the Scorpion single-phase generator supplied by Shenton Group in 2003 could no longer be used, and the theatre did not want to have to buy another generator.

Trane offers retrofit services for chillers to optimise the performance and energy efficiency of plant, particularly equipment over 10 years old. These retrofit services can reduce annual operating costs by up to 20% — and more in some cases.

Recolight’s WEEE compliance scheme for lamps now has more collection options for businesses to help increase access to lamp-recycling facilities for all. Previously, businesses that did not recycle over a thousand lamps every three months relied on an open Recolight collection point or a range of commercially available services. Now, for a nominal charge, they have two other options.

The worst time to find someone to repair a boiler is when something goes wrong — unless you have a maintenance plan, in which case breakdowns are far less likely. Peter Gammon takes a look at why maintenance and service contracts can be a saving grace.

Detailed metering of the Daikin VRVQ air-conditioning system installed at the headquarters of Space Airconditioning in Guildford have shown an average 28.6% reduction in monthly energy consumption compared with the VRV system it replaced. VRVQ has been designed to enable older VRV systems to be replaced using the existing pipework and, in some cases, existing fan-coil units.

Energy savings of over 35 MWh a year are expected following the replacement of 35 and 50 W halogen lamps with LED lamps from Megaman. These 7 W GU10 lamps have been installed throughout the main public areas of the National Maritime Aquarium in Plymouth and are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by over 15 t a year.

Providing appropriate ventilation for refurbishment projects is just as important as new build, and just as every building is different so too is the ventilation solution. Steve Mongan discusses the importance of developing bespoke solutions for commercial and industrial applications.

The most important question to ask when a pump needs to be replaced is is there an opportunity to replace with a variable-speed option that will work only as hard as its needs to — according to Grundfos — and giving the potential to save up to 80% of the energy that would be required by a fixed-speed counterpart.

With more building owners opting for refurbishment rather than replacement, Envirotec reports a sharp increase in demand for its refurbishment services for air-handling units. The company’s Ron Flewett explains, ‘Even 20-to-30-year-old AHUs can be successfully refurbished with a major improvement in performance — and the financial and environmental savings are very significant.’

To enable fan-coil units to be flushed through quickly to restore them to full efficiency, Kamco has introduced a lightweight mobile descaling and flushing pump. It enables fast and efficient chemical cleaning of pipework and cooling circuits to be carried out when fouling and scaling problems are experienced.

The conversion of a former grammar-school building in Leicester City Centre into a conference, banqueting, office and resource centre includes Matrix Horizontal steel-panel radiators from MHS to provide space heating. Opened by the Bishop of Leicester, St Martins House, which has been nominated for a Leicester Civic Award, includes 70 of these flat-fronted heat emitters.

The upgrading of a listed building in the Dartmoor national park to provide a new headquarters for a market research company is one of the first installations of Timoleon’s Aether Dry ‘screedless’ underfloor heating system. Compared with systems installed in wet screeds, it can operate with flow temperatures up to 10 K lower, making it well suited to the air-to-water heat pump that is the main energy source.

To cope with the 70 000 visitors to Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin village near Edinburgh, largely prompted by the starring role it played in ‘The da Vinci code’, major refurbishment and upgrading of the infrastructure is near to completion. The chapel dates back to 1446 and has been a popular tourist attraction for many years.

A new chilled-water system for the surgical theatre areas at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridge has been installed by Weatherite Building Services to replace an obsolescent system that was far less energy efficient than current chillers.

Service and maintenance contractors will be under more pressure than ever to show how their work can deliver a financial return this year, says Sue Sharp.

The replacement of R22 air-conditioning systems with R410A units in several retail branches of Nationwide Building Society has been achieved while keeping existing piping and wiring. R22 gas is being phased out because it has ozone-depletion potential, and companies such as Nationwide need to find ways of replacing these systems whilst minimising branch disruption and costs.

Are you tempted by a 3-month payback on an energy-saving investment. Upgrading filters in plant such as air-handling units has that potential, as Peter Dyment explains.

We will only get close to the UK’s target for carbon emissions reductions if we start to properly maintain and refurbish our existing building services, including boiler plant, argues Mark Northcott.

When it was decided that the original cast-iron and carbon-steel soil stacks in a number of high-rise tower blocks in Birmingham could not be replaced with traditional alternatives, Polypipe Terrain suggested its plastic Terrain Acoustic dB12 drainage system as a suitable replacement. The blocks date from the 1960s, and many of the soil stacks were suffering badly from poor performance, with the bore of some of the 100 mm pipes reduced to just 25 to 30 mm by corrosion and internal build-up.

Behind those duct access doors, and there are seldom enough, can lurk all sorts of horrors. Dermott Quinn shares his experiences as a specialist ductwork cleaner and makes recommendations on good practice.

Andy Baker runs though the increasingly cost-effective capabilities of thermal imaging.

Salford University’s new facility to find ways of making old housing stock more sustainable has been opened by Greg Barker MP. The ‘Energy house’ is a full-sized, fully functional Coronation-Street style terraced house built in a sealed testing chamber. It will be used to test ways of making old housing stock more sustainable through the use of new materials, altering the behaviour of people and other innovations.

As part of a £3.5 million infrastructure of Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Grundfos Pumps worked with local consultant Harley Haddow and contractor Taylor & Fraser to provide an improved M&E solution. The upgrades included revamping the hot-water solution to include energy-efficient A-rated Magna circulators and variable-speed twin-head TPED centrifugal pumps.

The life of air-handling plant at Festival House in Cheltenham has been extended by 10 to 15 years by a complete refurbishment carried out by Thermal Technology for a relatively small investment compared to new units. This multi-storey office block was built in 1989, and its HEVAC plant was 22 years old. CIBSE Guide M indicates a life of 20 years for air-handling units installed indoors, so the plant was due for replacement or refurbishment.

SAV Systems mini-CHP system has helped a social-housing project in Scotland win one of Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Design Awards for 2009/10, with this refurbishment project being awarded over £100 000. The EC Power 15G unit can provide 6 to 15 kW of electricity and 17 to 30 kW of heat. There is no need to export surplus electricity to the grid as the system is controlled so there is no spare electricity. It has helped reduce carbon emissions by 65%.

Retrofitting a Bollfilter filter before the heat exchanger that rejects heat from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton to seawater in the dock is expected to reduce electricity consumption by about 5% and reduce CO2 emissions by about 117 t a year. This automatic self-cleaning filter has been fitted to the dock side of the heat exchanger to remove detritus such as seaweed from the water.

Bringing our existing building stock up to speed in terms of its energy efficiency will be vital if the UK is to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets. Ant Wilson explains how the Building Regulations 2010 reinforce this view.

The most important question to ask when a pump needs to be replaced is if there an opportunity to replace with a variable-speed option that will work only as hard as its needs to — according to Grundfos — and giving the potential to save up to 80% of the energy that would be required by a fixed-speed counterpart.

Sabien has reported a near trebling in sales for its M2G intelligent boiler load optimiser during the second half of 2010. This device is retrofitted to boilers and prevents them firing just to offset standing losses when heat is not required by the system. The MG2 monitors the temperature of flow and return water every 10 s and calculates whether the falling temperature is due to genuine heating demand or from losses through the boiler casing and flue — in which case the boiler is prevented from firing.

Refurbishing old chillers brings many of the benefits of replacing them — but at much less cost and with much less disruption. Trevor Dann explains.

Andy Green, a director of consultant Faithful + Gould, is now vice-chairman of a technical standards committee charged with further development of the HVCA’s ‘Standard maintenance specification for building services’ (SFG20). He will help the committee ensure that SFG20’s existing maintenance schedules continue to conform to industry best practice and current legislation and develop new schedules as required.

Riegens Illusion luminaires have been used to good effect in the refurbishment of offices on the first floor of 9 Savoy Street in London’s west end, near the River Thames. Owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, the floor offers around 460 m2 of accommodation and has been the subject of a major refurbishment.

Lighting control in the headquarters of Damart in Bingley, West Yorkshire, based on microwave detectors from CP Electronics is part of a scheme expected to save over £800 a year, with a payback within four years. The ‘carbon catcher’ scheme devised by lighting and electrical contractor RCE Services showed a detailed calculation of previous lighting running costs and put forward a scheme with lighting controlled according to the presence of people and available daylight. RCE also advised Damart about an interest-free loan from the Carbon trust.

It will not be possible to achieve the UK’s carbon-reduction targets without a serious campaign to refurbish existing buildings. Hywel Davies presents CIBSE’s perspective.

The redevelopment of Glencanisp Lodge in the north-west Highlands as part of a green-energy development initiative includes the installation of an oil-fired condensing boiler from Atlantic boilers. The 90 kW R Series boiler has been selected as a part-load boiler with a seasonal efficiency of over 94% GCV.

Many of the consequential improvement requirements of Part L of the 2006 Building Regulations are reinforced in the 2010 version. So building services engineers need to ensure they don’t forget what these requirements are, suggests Ant Wilson.

Simply adding renewable energy to existing buildings may not get the best returns. Andrew Percival stresses that they are just part of the energy-reducing package

Refurbishment projects provide a magnificent opportunity to make significant improvements in energy efficiency, but only if a series of pitfalls are avoided. Wayne Rose explains.

SE Controls, one of the largest providers of smoke-control systems, natural-ventilation systems and maintenance services, can provide a complete preventive maintenance services for smoke-ventilation systems. The scope of the service extends from early involvement in new and refurbished building projects to long-term ongoing maintenance. The company has over 28 years’ experience in the sector.

Reducing the maintenance budget for a building risks incurring more cost than is saved — especially when considerable returns can be achieve for small investments. Paul Cottam looks at the opportunities.

System Hygienics has added to its list of projects for cleaning ventilation systems in prisons with a large-scale contract at HM Prison Doncaster. The contract involved cleaning ductwork in six areas of the prison — initially including the three house blocks, entry building, staff offices, visiting area, kitchens and internal services. This work was followed by the company being invited back to complete further cleaning of the 65-bed healthcare centre, gymnasium and segregation unit.

Johnson Controls has marked the first 10 years of a 30-year contract for facilities management of the 10 000 m2 British Embassy in Germany. The contract was awarded in June 2000. Services provided by Johnson Controls include contract and project management, management and maintenance (including energy management), cost planning and control, purchasing and procurement, waste disposal, janitorial and gardening services, copy and printing services plus a postal service, catering, events management, and snow and ice clearance.

Large boilers at King’s College Hospital in south-east London have been converted to condensing operation using Thermal Energy International’s Flu-Ace heat-recovery system to recover up to 90% of the heat that is normally lost. The order was worth £303 000. The syste4m is expected to reduce energy consumption by over 8 GWh a year and reduce CO2 emissions by over 1500 t a year.

Lumicom’s recycling service for luminaires uses recyclers that are authorised by the Environment Agency and capable of 70% recovery by weight and 50% re-use and recycling of components, material and other substances. Lumicom finances the recycling and requires its recyclers to used the best available treatment practices and advises them on the recyclability of new materials used in producing luminaires.

To replace inefficient R22 chillers at the National Gallery in London, Airedale has designed an efficient bespoke solution based on the Turbocor R134a oil-free compressor with magnetic bearings. Four TurboChill chillers have already been installed, and two more will become operational in 2011. A bespoke sequencing scheme designed by Airedale Controls specialists will integrate the six chillers into a single, highly efficient operating system.

ABB has launched a swappage scheme for drives and motors to enable companies to trade in their old products from any manufacturer for energy-saving ABB drives and motors. The scheme offers at least 17.5% off published list prices for new drives from 120 W to 400 W and new motors from 750 W to 710 kW when old equivalent products from any manufacturer are traded in.

With many users reliant on R22 and other blends chasing recycled refrigerants, A-Gas has launched the next generation of its fractional distillation technology to boost supplies of recycled refrigerants. The latest system was built by the company’s own engineers and will enable it to reprocess much larger quantities of material.

Riegens Blocks suspended luminaires have been installed in the refurbishment of King Solomon Academy in north-west London. Specified by Arup, the brief was to provide high-quality, robust luminaires that would deliver a good even light distribution.

Major refurbishments can be completed three times more quickly than new build and achieve emissions similar to new build. Phil King discusses how refurbishment can play a key role in meeting Government targets for reducing carbon emissions.

Huge reductions in gas consumption have been achieved by English Partnerships, now part of the Homes & Communities Agency, following the replacement of the heating system with a high-efficiency multi-boiler cascade system from Buderus. The new installation is a cascade system of four Buderus GB162 100 kW boilers.

Replacing its old oil-fired boiler house with four packaged plant rooms made offsite by Armstrong will cut nearly £250 000 off the energy bill for the Hutton Hall site of Lancashire Constabulary, giving a payback of less than a year. CO2 emissions will be reduced by 744 t a year. Offsite manufacture enables the new system to be installed within an extremely tight timescale, so that staff were not without heating and hot water in the winter months.

It is now clear that meeting carbon targets for the UK’s building stock will rely heavily on increasing the efficiency of existing buildings. Robin Putman explores the importance of effective maintenance and targeted refurbishment

Oventrop valves were selected by building-services consultants Bianco Sale to facilitate a fast-track refurbishment project in Tunbridge Wells to convert the offices of an insurance company into a health centre for Assura. When complete, the medical centre will accommodate several general practices, diabetic suite, renal unit and a pharmacy.

An upgrade of the lighting at Everards Brewery in Leicester has reduced costs by about £15 000 a year. The project, designed by Chalmor, involved replacing existing lighting and introducing lighting controls to minimise energy wastage. The control system takes account of activities in the building to provide the most cost-effective solution.

The unsatisfactory heating provided by radiators for Mickleton Village Hall in County Durham has been solved by replacing them with Caspian fan convectors from Smith’s Environmental Products. The hall hosts a variety of private and business functions, as well as theatre shows, musical and parish council meetings. The bar area doubles as the village Post Office during the week.

The first project to receive 100% grant funding to install a Dimplex ground-source heat pump is Rendcomb Village Hall near Cirencester. Dimplex was supported in the project by its installer partner Ecovision Systems, which helped with securing grant funding, speci­fying, installing and commissioning the SI 14 ME system.

David Lettis sees the growing restrictions and ultimate ban on the use of R22 as stimulating positive opportunities for building owners/occupiers and the air-conditioning industry.

In selecting a replacement boiler for an existing heating/hot water system, the application of modern high efficiency boilers to old systems needs careful consideration to maximise the system efficiency, reliability and performance, to achieve expected savings, says Bob Walsh.

Lighting energy consumption is expected to be halved at the head office of Ipswich Building Society following the installation of new lighting using intelligent lumin­aires from Cooper Lighting. The head office of this building society previously used switch start category 2 modular fittings with four 36 W lamps. They have been replaced with Cooper’s Intellect Digital Combiform Plus semi-recessed luminaires, which deliver a combination of direct and indirect illumination.

Refurbishment offers much scope for upgrading the performance of building-services systems and avoiding the cost of replacement — As Marcus Sawkins explains.

The ground-source heat-pump installation for the new building inside the burnt-out shell of Ramsgate’s historic library building extracts its heat from the ground using collector pipes that were hydraulically pushed rather than drilled boreholes. This approach is said to be quieter, quicker, create less mess and cheaper than rotary drilling.

A £3.1 million rehabilitation facility in the centre of Harlow created from an uninhabited Grade 2 listed building has its heating and hot water provided by boilers donated by Potterton Commercial. Parent company Baxi Commercial Division was approach by CRASH, the construction and property industries charity for homeless people about donating the boilers.

JS Air Curtains has supplied a bespoke Rund air curtain for the newly refurbished reception area of the offices of Cadbury in Birmingham. The area was becoming cold from air ingress through its main door, and the air curtain was designed to tie in with the architecture of the entrance. The slate-grey air curtain is 2 m long and has a round design. It is supported above the entrance door by matching slate-grey supporting posts.