ACR Journal

June 2022 | July 2022 NEWS 06 Volume 8 No.4 BESA COMPLETES ‘SAFE HAVENS’ GUIDES The 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 guide offers practical steps that facility managers and building owners can take to measure indoor air quality (IAQ) and offers 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. The new BESA guide provides a step-by-step strategy for monitoring and maintaining good IAQ in offices, 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. The contents of the guide were steered by a technical committee led by Nathan Wood, chair of BESA’s Health and Wellbeing in Buildings group, and the association’s head of technical, Graeme Fox. Hern Yau, ventilation product specialist at Mitsubishi Electric, added that the pandemic had emphasised the importance of ventilating indoor spaces: “This guide will help contribute to a greater understanding of the type of equipment available, as well as encouraging more productive conversations about what can be achieved in our buildings in the long- term,” he added. “It also reinforces the importance of building managers only working with properly trained and competent IAQ specialists.” All three BESA guides addressing indoor air quality (IAQ) can be downloaded for free at www.theBESA.com/iaq BITZER’s recipe for success at bakery High efficiency BITZER Ecostar condensing units operating on lower GWP refrigerant R449A have been chosen for a major refrigeration upgrade at Millers Bespoke Bakery in Wimbledon. The premium wholesale bakery was established in 1997 by founder and managing director Marcus Miller following his return from Hong Kong, where he was head baker at The Grand Hyatt Hotel. In line with the client’s requirement for the highest possible quality and efficiency, four high performance Ecostar units were chosen by contractor Adcock Refrigeration & Air Conditioning to replace the existing system serving a bakery freezer. "After struggling to meet design conditions, it was decided a full upgrade was needed to ensure the business had the resilience and continuity of cooling required to support its demanding production requirements," said Adcock's Mark Bushell, who led the replacement project. "BITZER Ecostar condensing units are known for their reliability and efficiency, and we have installed around 30 of the systems over the past year. It was therefore our go-to recommendation for this project." The Ecostar units on R449A deliver a combined 36kW of cooling to maintain a steady -30°C in the bakery's freezer store. They replaced four units operating on high GWP refrigerant R404A, delivering reduced running costs and cutting the carbon footprint by two-thirds. The project included replacement of all pipework and valves. Ecostar offers full inverter control of the compressor, enabling precise matching of refrigeration output to load. This further increases energy efficiency and ensures operating sound levels are kept to a minimum. Ecostar offers full inverter control of the compressor, enabling precise matching of refrigeration output to load Dawson seals double at NRGS golf day Richard Dawson of Airkool claimed the ACR Journal Trophy for the second time in a row at the Northern Refrigeration Golf Society (NRGS) day at Selby Golf Club. The NRGS vice-captain scored 19pts to finish ahead of ACM Air Conditioning's Phil Wray (18) and Nick Wilks of Fujitsu (15 on c/b) as the competitors tackled the challenging Selby course in glorious sunshine. The ISD Trophy went to Mike Grace of GS Air Conditioning, (40), with TQ Environmental's Gary Hall (39) runner-up and Paul Airey of Oceanair (37) third. Anyone interested in joining the NRGS, or playing in future tournaments, should contact Paul Airey, paul@oceanairuk.com . Richard Dawson, left, receives the ACR Journal Trophy from editor Andrew Slater Professor Cath Noakes