General news All the latest news from around the building industry government to probe biomass boilers poor performance Review finds biomass boiler operating below efficiency required by RHI Commercial biomass projects are underperforming by as much as 20%, according to a report published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Biomass installations account for more than 90% of payments under the governments Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, but underperformance appears to be widespread the study said. DECC admitted that this was leading to higher carbon emissions than predicted. The RHI has paid out more than 130m to biomass installations, but total payouts could eventually top 10bn as payments are guaranteed for 20 years. To qualify for RHI payments, a biomass boiler needs to operate at a minimum of 85% efficiency for converting fuel to energy, but the average rate of the installed boilers standards and regulation. Incorrectly sized biomass boilers will perform poorly and will actually increase emissions. Allowing system thermal losses to be typically 50% of the energy input cannot be acceptable, said Incorrectly sized biomass boilers will perform poorly and will actually increase emissions surveyed was 66.5%. The desk-based review, produced by Steve Luker Associates for DECC, also showed that the highest average rate achievable was 76%. Industry observers have expressed alarm at the potential waste of public money and blame a lack of David Frise, head of sustainability at the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES). Frise said the RHI was a positive initiative, but had led to a worrying amount of mis-selling and unrealistic expectations. Some installers are obviously overstating potential performance Top architect to be guest speaker at Building Performance Awards Ken Shuttleworth to attend CIBSEs prestigious annual event One of the worlds leading architects, Ken Shuttleworth, has been announced as guest speaker at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards on Tuesday 10 February 2015, in London. With a career spanning 40 years, Shuttleworth has delivered a portfolio of iconic, innovative and sustainable buildings. In 2004, Shuttleworth founded Make Architects an award-winning, employee-owned practice that has a reputation for design excellence. Before that, he built up a portfolio of experience as a director at Foster + Partners, where he worked on some of the worlds most recognisable and groundbreaking buildings. Fast-forward 11 years since Makes inception; Shuttleworth continues to lead the practice and acts as guardian to the 168-strong staff with studios in London, Hong Kong, Beijing and Sydney. He oversees the design development of every Make scheme, and the practice has won numerous projects and accolades across a wide range of sectors both in the UK and overseas. The practice has completed 44 major schemes to date, including: the Copper Box, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; Dunbar Place, Hong Kong; The Gateway Building, University of Nottingham; and the widely acclaimed City of London Information Centre. Make has a further 24 projects on site, including: 5 Broadgate; Rathbone Square; London Wall Place; and St Jamess Market in London, as well as The Temple House Hotel in China. Central to Shuttleworths design philosophy is an unwavering emphasis on smart environmental design, driven by the continuous innovation in pursuit of sustainability, energy efficiency and economy of means. You can view the shortlisted entries and book a table at www.cibse.org/bpa by talking in terms of boiler combustion efficiency, he added. The Microgeneration Certification Scheme regulates domestic biomass installations and commercial systems up to 45kW capacity. However, almost 90% of all commercial biomass boilers are above that threshold so are, effectively, unregulated. DECC said it would now carry out more work to fully assess the performance of biomass boiler systems and installer competency. Additionally, CIBSE recently published AM15 Biomass Heating, which is designed to help engineers make informed decisions on biomass boiler system design. esos gathers pace CIBSE has predicted that over 300 Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) Lead Assessors will appear on its register by April. ESOS requires large organisations to have a detailed audit of their buildings, industrial processes and transport to find out how they can save energy. CIBSEs register of Lead Assessors has passed the 150 mark, and Professor Andrew Geens, head of CIBSE Certification, expects to see another 150 names on the list by April. CIBSE has also applied for its assessors to carry out ISO50001 Energy Management audits an alternative route to ESOS compliance, along with Display Energy Certificates and Green Deal Assessments which, if successful, will be useful for those in the next registration cycle. See more on ESOS assessments here. aC blamed for space station emergency green deal assessments riddled with errors Assessors were difficult to find and showed a lack of interest or enthusiasm A mystery shopper exercise analysing consumers experience of Green Deal assessors has revealed serious variations in the quality of the service offered, and major discrepancies in the data used to recommend home improvement measures. These inconsistencies have led to inaccurate specifications and, therefore, inflated running-costs for consumers, said researchers. The investigation, carried out by ICF International for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed that participants often experienced problems simply finding a Green Deal assessor willing and able to perform an assessment. Numerous calls were required to secure a booking; some participants could not secure four assessments and, therefore, dropped out of the research, the report recorded. Some people reported a lack of interest or enthusiasm on the part of many assessors. The investigation found that the information systems directing Green Deal customers to the assessors were not sufficiently accurate or localised to be useful. An analysis of assessments showed many differences in the values recorded by different assessors for the same property, including mistakes in total floor area and the energy efficiency rating of building fabric and technologies. As a result, the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating varied by 11 points on average in each dwelling. A possible leak of ammonia from an onboard air conditioning system caused the evacuation of part of the International Space Station, NASA has confirmed. In what turned out to be a false alarm, sensors detected toxic ammonia apparently leaked from the air conditioning, forcing six US astronauts to take refuge with their Russian colleagues. However, the all clear was later given by Mission Control which described the incident as unscheduled excitement and the American crew members returned to their own area. ahus specified for public health england Bradford-based Mansfield Pollard has been appointed by Whitehead Building Services to design and install bespoke air handling units at Southmead Hospital, as part of a 25m investment in the consolidation of pathology services with Public Health England. Mansfield Pollard supplied 15 air handling units, each of which had to comply with stringent HTM03 hospital specifications. They were installed to serve the hospitals main office and pathology laboratories. National Audit Office slams government bill payment record Report uncovers failure by Whitehall to hit five-day target The government is failing to back up its commitment to pay 80% of undisputed invoices within five working days to help support SMEs, according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO). The government has pledged to pay invoices more quickly than the 30 days required by law, but the NAO believes the policy is boosting the working capital of main contractors rather than benefiting smaller firms further down the supply chain. Businesses told us they welcome the governments commitment to pay invoices early. However, there has been a disappointing lack of effort to check whether the implementation of the policy is actually helping SMEs, said NAO boss Amyas Morse. We are also seriously concerned about the prompt payment performance figures publicly reported by departments. These were overstated by the four departments we looked at. It remains to be seen whether the changes proposed in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, and secondary legislation, will be enough to bring scotlands first gas to grid project goes online in Perthshire about improvements, added Morse. Central government spends 40bn a year on goods and services, of which about 4.5bn is spent with SMEs. The NAO found that the four departments it audited were taking between three and seven weeks to pay 80% of the value of paper invoices. Government suppliers could benefit from reduced interest costs of up to 88m a year if government departments did pay within five working days, it found. The NAO criticised the centre of government for showing little strategic leadership in relation to prompt payment in the public sector. It recommended that the Cabinet Office set out the principal objectives of the five-day payment commitment, its benefits and costs. Industry research highly ranked Electrical and electronic engineering featured highly in the recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) results, which determine the level of research funding allocated to the UKs higher education institutions. Almost 7,000 impact case studies, written by more than 52,000 staff at 154 institutions, were submitted in a bid to receive a share of the total taxpayer-funded pot of around 1.6bn annually, for the next six years. The University of Oxford received the highest gradepoint average in 10 of the REFs 36 units of assessment, with Imperial College London the top-ranked multidisciplinary institution. Medical and life sciences scored highest in terms of overall research quality and will receive the most funding. However, electrical and electronic engineering, The first gas to grid anaerobic digestion (AD) project has been completed in Coupar Angus, Perthshire. AD is a natural process where organic material is broken down by bacteria to produce biogas. Recent headlines about plummeting milk prices have emphasised the need for farmers to diversify their businesses. Using slurry, silage and crops grown specifically for AD could mean advantageous, long-term supply agreements for farmers. Also, the by-product of AD is an organic fertiliser that can be returned to the fields. Chicago show breaks records Even before the 2015 AHR Expo opened at Chicagos McCormick Place last month, its organisers announced that it hadbroken three all-time records. The Expo boasted 2,100 exhibiting companies, together occupying more than 480,000 ft2 both record figures for what is claimed to be the largest HVACR event in the world. The Expo now in its 67th year was set to be at least 10% larger than the previous biggest show, and to feature 8% more exhibitors than last years event in New York City. The total of 380 new exhibitors, and 592 international companies, from more than 30 countries, represents a 16% increase on the previous record. metallurgy and materials chemistry, physics and mathematical sciences led the way for physical sciences, and are also expected to receive generous funding allocations. Usually only subject areas that receive three and four stars secure research funding from the public purse and, with so much at stake, it has been estimated that the institutions spent a combined 47m preparing their submissions. See page here for Paddy Conaghans article on disseminating research among practitioners.