ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 05 NEWS Retrofit takes centre stage at COP26 Engineering services alliance Actuate UK has called for industry and government collaboration on the challenge of retrofitting and decarbonising the UK's existing buildings. Speaking on behalf of Actuate UK at the Construction Leadership Council’s COP26 session, Michelle Agha-Hossein, building performance and soft landings lead at BSRIA, said: “The UK government has acknowledged that the built environment will need to be almost completely decarbonised by 2050, and that achieving this must be through a mix of energy efficiency measures and a transition to low carbon technologies. "Currently the UK has the least energy efficient housing stock in Europe, but this is not just an environmental issue. For many people, high and increasing energy bills means a stark choice between heating or eating.” Agha-Hossein was talking about how retrofit is key to delivering net zero carbon in the Construction Leadership Council’s session Construction: The Build Environment at COP26. Also discussed was the importance of materials, design and professional services. Actuate UK is currently mapping the green skills needed to support retrofit and net zero agendas, with two of its members (BESA and FETA/HPA) already developing and delivering courses on new heating technologies. Michelle Agha-Hossein of Actuate UK R1234ze solution for dairy plant ICS Cool Energy has completed the turnkey installation of a new process cooling system at a leading UK dairy processing plant. The centralised installation will deliver 1.2MW of process cooling to serve two production areas and is based on three Imperium chillers using ultra-low global warming potential (GWP) R1234ze refrigerant. The ICS Cool Energy team designed the system around the three air-cooled screw chillers on a duty, duty-standby arrangement. The setup is capable of delivering a total cooling capacity of 1.2 MW to fulfil the production requirements for 1°C supply water temperature and includes additional standby capacity. The standby capacity was critical for the customer, as being a leading dairy manufacturer in the UK they needed to ensure the continuity of production. Ben Young, major account manager at ICS Cool Energy, said: “While the customer initially leant towards an ammonia-based system, which was traditionally used on site in the past, they changed their mind after we presented the benefits of a HFO-refrigerant based system. “Many industries and businesses are favouring an HFO like R1234ze over ammonia due to its non-toxic nature. The HFO also offers very low GWP value of less than 1. By utilising the latest technology innovations, process cooling systems with HFO refrigerants can create a safer, more trouble free, energy efficient option with equally low environmental impact as ammonia.” REMOTE ASSISTANCE BOOSTS PANASONIC CUSTOMERS Panasonic Heating & Cooling Solutions says its IFS Remote Assistance solution has had a positive impact on improving customer service efficiency across Europe. The company reports that the initial response times have been improved, the remote diagnostic and fault resolution have been increased, and a higher customer satisfaction level has been achieved. When a customer contacts the Panasonic service department, an online video session, either by PC or mobile device, is initiated and this primary function is used to help determine the root cause of the issue. This ‘remote access first’ approach has helped to focus activities where they are needed and provides the Panasonic service team with the resources to help their customers efficiently and without the need for excess travel. Richard Bishop, head of marketing for Panasonic UK and Ireland, said: “We take customer service very seriously, and with this new approach, we are now able to provide the same level of technical advice as previously, but we are now doing it remotely. This means that the costs are reduced, travel is reduced and it’s much more efficient. "For example, for a heating breakdown, where previously it may have meant that the customer would have to wait a day or two for an engineer to visit, has now been reduced to a mere matter of minutes, leaving the heating system operational again and the customer thrilled that we have attended to the situation quickly and effectively. We see many benefits coming from this flexible and dynamic tool. It will be extremely useful for on-site training, especially when engineers are unable to physically attend a Panasonic training centre but can virtually join through the IFS Remote Assistance tool.” The system has so far been deployed across Europe, with Germany, Italy and the UK taking particular interest as it provides an easy-to-use tool for sharing videos, audio and text data from live projects on site.