NEWS In brief
DECC LAUNCHES RHI ‘ROADSHOW’ The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has kickstarted a national awareness campaign to alert consumers and installers to the opportunities offered by the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which gets under way in April. The ‘Roadshow’ will visit
Ecobuild and events in the Midlands, Scotland, Wales, the North of England and South West. DECC will be showcasing the
‘whole house offer’ available under the RHI, in tandem with the Green Deal.
BALFOUR BEATTY’S 4D BIM AT SHEFFIELD HALLAM Balfour Beatty will use building information modelling (BIM) to create a ‘4D’ design for Sheffield Hallam University’s new £23m Institute of Education.
The BIM model will include a time schedule and will provide a basis for a building management system. Balfour Beatty Engineering Services will deliver the mechanical and electrical services package, including the data centre and solar panels. The two-block, seven-storey
building is due to be completed in autumn 2015.
ENERGY COSTS FORCE PEAK-TIME SHUTDOWNS Some of Britain’s heavy manufacturers shut down their operation during peak times because of high energy costs. Executives claim this is happening because of the rules of Britain’s power market. The biggest electricity users
are not charged according to annual consumption; instead, bills are calculated according to power consumed by the 100,000 heaviest users during three undisclosed half-hour periods of peak demand between November and February. Tony Pedder, chairman of
Sheffield Forgemasters, said: ‘It can cost us £27 to boil the kettle. We end up telling our workers to sit in the mess room together to keep warm because we can’t afford to keep going.’
8 CIBSE Journal March 2014
A plantroom created in BIM by Cundall for the recently completed Two Snow Hill project in Birmingham
All the latest news from around the building industry
BIM is key to international markets, reports survey
Lack of common standards could hamper adoption of BIM on international projects
UK consultants who do not adopt building information modelling (BIM) could struggle to secure overseas work, according to the first International BIM Survey. In all, 57% of respondents to the survey in New Zealand, and more than 60% in Finland and Canada, reported they were using BIM, compared work 39% in the UK. Usage is increasing rapidly in all these countries with adoption tripling in the three years since NBS launched the UK National BIM Survey. Almost all respondents, across all countries, said they expected to be using BIM in five years’ time. However, a lack of common standards could hamper
wider adoption of BIM on international projects, according to NBS, which added that the use of Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs), the vendor-neutral format, which allows models to be worked on independently of specific software, would be the crucial next step. The use of BIM throughout the life-cycle of a building remains in its infancy, with just 2% in New Zealand and only 15% in the UK providing evidence of BIM in the management and maintenance of completed buildings. ‘There is still some way to go to reach a universally understood approach to BIM and common standards,’ said Adrian Malleson, NBS’s Head of Research, Analysis & Forecasting. ‘Where BIM is being used, the focus is still very much on design and construction, with use as an operational and management tool for buildings lagging behind.’
Air conditioning not to blame for online security breach
A massive online credit card fraud, that affected nearly 70 m customers of the Target retail chain, may have originated in a heating and cooling contractor based near Pittsburgh in the US. However, the contractor has denied that it would have been possible for the cyber criminals to gain access via remote monitoring software used to manage the giant retailer’s heating and air conditioning systems. Computer hackers, who stole millions of customers’ credit and debit card numbers from the online retailer, are thought to have first infiltrated the contractor’s ordering system to gain access to the wider Target network.
The mechanical services firm said it had been the victim of a serious cyber attack and was co-operating with authorities investigating the security breach that led to details of 40 m credit cards being stolen and offered for sale around the world.
The hackers are thought to have accessed Target’s checkout system – used in around 1,800 stores in the US – during the busy pre-Christmas shopping period. As well as credit card details, they also gained personal information, such as emails and home addresses, for millions of other customers.
About 17 m debit and credit cards have been replaced following the attack, at a cost of more than $170 m.
www.cibsejournal.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80