The City of London is adding heat pumps and boreholes to its Farringdon energy centre and hopes to encourage more commercial buildings to plug into its low carbon heat network
Category: Technical
The dash from gas: converting schools from gas to heat pumps
With the need to switch from fossil fuels to renewables becoming ever more pressing, one heat pump retrofit schools project in Yorkshire could be the example to follow. Phil Lattimore looks at the project funded by the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
Tightening up: TM23 Testing building for air leakage
The latest update to the Building Regulations includes reference to a new CIBSE TM23 guide on airtightness testing. Julie Godefroy reviews the new TM, which includes a new approved air testing methodology, and considers the impact of the changes
Optimising ventilation in the post-Covid classroom
To optimise classroom indoor air quality, schools need to take a holistic approach to natural ventilation and air cleaning technology, argues CIBSE’s Chris Iddon
Radical departure? Retrofitting for heat pumps
With the pressure on homeowners to replace domestic gas boilers with heat pumps, it is essential that engineers ensure that existing radiators and pipework are suitable for the lower-temperature heat source. David Palmer looks at the key considerations when upgrading a heating system
Decarbonomics: Delivering on the net zero promise
Organisations are setting ambitious 2030 targets in response to the climate emergency, but how do they decarbonise property assets in such a short period of time? Andy Pearson looks at how SNC-Lavalin is using data to assess buildings and set clients such as HM Treasury on the road to net zero
How Britain’s film industry was saved from the London fog
In the early days of cinema, the UK’s biggest studios were in central London, but pervasive fog – ‘pea-soupers’ – was entering film sets and causing huge disruption. Richard Farmer describes how pioneering air cleaning techniques saved the studios
Dual purpose: evaporative cooling
Switching between modes in dual evaporative coolers can result in large operational savings, according to a recent B&SERT paper. Tim Dwyer looks at the latest research on hybrid direct and regenerative evaporative cooling
Digging for Britain: Swaffham Prior’s heat network
Escalating energy prices and the urgent need to decarbonise means communities are looking to move away from fossil fuel as a heating source. A pioneering heat network in the Cambridgeshire village of Swaffham Prior is aiming to use a hybrid heat pump system, coupled with a solar farm, to provide ultra-low carbon, affordable heating for every resident, business and school.
Andy Pearson reports
Turning to CO2 refrigerant in large-scale retrofits
Using CO2 as a refrigerant in heat pumps is ideal for retrofits requiring higher-temperature heat. Daniel Clark, of Isentra, reports on the refurbishment of Wolfson College, which is using heat pumps for district heating and DHW