INDUSTRY NEWS
‘SAFE HAVENS’ BLUEPRINT GUIDE FOR INDOOR AIR QUALITY
T he Building
Engineering Services Association (BESA)
has completed its trilogy of free guides designed to help building owners and
managers turn their buildings into ‘safe havens’ that protect occupants from health risks linked to airborne contaminants and viruses. ‘Buildings as Safe Havens – a practical guide’ is the
third in its suite of guidance for measuring, monitoring, and improving indoor air quality (IAQ) and the second produced with the support of Mitsubishi Electric. The ‘BASH’ Guide off ers practical steps that facility managers and building owners can take to measure indoor air quality (IAQ) and off ers advice on the questions to ask ventilation experts. The foreword is provided by one of the UK’s most
respected experts on infection resilience in buildings, Professor Cath Noakes OBE. She states that poor ventilation is the most overlooked building safety issue and can be directly linked to high levels of Covid-19 transmission. “Covid-19 has been shown to be transmitted through the air. Even if only 10% of all Covid-19 related deaths
in the UK could be directly attributed to the failure to adequately ventilate indoor spaces, that would be more than 15,000 since the start of the pandemic – a shocking statistic that should make everyone sit up and take notice,” she writes in her foreword. “The pandemic has demonstrated that far too many of our buildings are under-ventilated, despite regulatory requirements that have been in place for a number of years. This guide will be an invaluable tool in raising awareness of the importance of good IAQ and making our buildings more infection resilient,” says Noakes, who is Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at the University of Leeds and a member of the government’s Scientifi c Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
The new BESA guide provides a step-by-step strategy
for monitoring and maintaining good IAQ in offi ces, schools, and public buildings and provides advice and strategies for dealing with ventilation problems. It outlines the questions building managers should ask their ventilation and air quality specialists so they can properly address their IAQ problems, and provides recommendations for conducting a building review, planning for improvements, and selecting the right technology.
NEW RESEARCH FINDS HEAT PUMPS NOW LESS EXPENSIVE TO RUN THAN GAS BOILERS
F
or the fi rst time, effi cient heat pumps in the UK are cheaper to run than gas boilers according to new analysis from RAP - The Regulatory Assistance
Project (RAP) - an independent, non-partisan, non- governmental organisation dedicated to accelerating the transition to a clean, reliable, and effi cient energy future. This is mainly down to gas prices increasing more than electricity pricing. The analysis shows that with a coeffi cient of
performance (COP) of 3, a heat pump starts to become cheaper to run than a gas boiler. In the past, a COP of around 3.7 was required to achieve the same running costs as a gas boiler.
Heating with a gas boiler will cost households an
average of £934 per year, up from £579. A very effi cient heat pump will only cost £723 per year, up from £536 per year. For an average household this is a 27% saving of £261 per year. “A COP of 3 can be relatively easily achieved by an
AWHP and 4 or above is possible for very well-designed systems and at LG we believe it’s possible to achieve
a COP of around 4.5 if the system installed is designed properly,” says LG’s Peter Spurway. “We know that when heat pumps under-perform below these levels, it is often the result of poor design, installation and maintenance.” Recent reports from the EUA claiming that heat pumps will cost more to run are believed to be based on assumptions that heat pumps only achieve a COP of 2.5 and best possible effi ciency for gas boilers (92%). In-situ monitoring studies of UK installed condensing
boilers have shown an average measured boiler effi ciency of less than 85 per cent. As a result, under the April 2022 energy price cap for
UK energy suppliers, it can be stated that a heat pump will be cheaper to run than a gas boiler if its ‘COP’ is at least 3. LG sees this as a very important ‘tipping point’ for the UK and may only make the case for air to water pumps even stronger as the volatile price of gas continues to increase as it has done over the past 12 months.
Inbrief
CIBSE and London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) has launched new guidance, developed to provide industry- wide defi nitions on Net Zero and address FAQs.
www.cibse.org
The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has joined forces with research body BSRIA to produce a comprehensive free guide for the use of refrigerant gases in building services.
www.thebesa.com
The Construction Skills Certifi cation Scheme (CSCS) has developed a ‘Smart Check’ app to help construction site operators verify the identities and qualifi cations of more than two million skills card holders.
www.cscs.uk.com
Daikin UK has opened its fi rst Sustainable Home Centre in North Wales, in partnership with builders merchants Thorncliff e Building Supplies.
www.daikin.co.uk
The Germany-based motor and fan manufacturer Ziehl-Abegg has announce the chief executive Peter Fenkl will leave the company after 22 years.
www.ziehl-abegg.com
Lochinvar’s sales director Liam Elmore has been appointed vice-chair of ICOM’s Commercial Heating Group.
https://lochinvar.ltd.uk
Wolseley UK has acquired the heating, plumbing, tiling and bathroom businesses Heat Merchants, Tubs & Tiles, and Hevac Ltd.
www.wolseley.co.uk
Kensa Group has appointed a dynamic new senior leadership team to help meet the UK’s target for 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028.
www.thekensagroup.com
The organisers of ISH China & CIHE have made a decision to postpone the fair in order to support pandemic containment eff orts.
https://ishc-cihe.
hk.messefrankfurt.com
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May 2022 7
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