This prestigious Award was announced at an Awards Ceremony in London. The HVR is the national magazine for the heating and ventilating industry. The Awards Ceremony celebrated the outstanding achievements of companies within the building services industry, honouring companies’ technological achievements and service capabilities in seven awards categories.

David Stafford, S I Sealy Director commented: “It has been a difficult time in the construction industry over the last few years, but we have bucked the trend and have seen unprecedented growth. We have won some major contracts, including the design of the new Co-operative Group Headquarters building in Manchester, as well as the design review of the Houses of Parliament, and we have expanded into the Middle East having landed a major contract. We are delighted to have won this prestigious Award, and be recognised for our achievements.”

Constructing a building to cope with the 2080 climate would be prohibitively expensive and pointless if engineered systems are used, as they often have a 25 years life expectancy. Instead, using sophisticated modelling, we can analyse how the building will perform in future years. We can then take a stepped approach, implementing further measures to reduce overheating as the climate changes. The key to future proofing is designing so the building can be adapted at a later point.

We of course limit solar gain, looking at the building orientation and solar shading, as well as minimising internal heat gains such as using natural daylight capture systems to reduce the use of artificial light. Internal fountains for summer cooling and humidification, with natural ventilation, high thermal mass, Phase Change materials and night cooling, may be sufficient for the current climate, but mechanical ventilation may be needed later. This means designing the building with void space, risers and future plant space.

If buildings require mechanical cooling now, we can over-size the chilled water-pipe work. So when the terminal units and plant are replaced, larger units can be installed easily. Similarly if mechanical ventilation alone is currently sufficient, consider the future need for evaporative cooling and allow space for cooling coils and chillers.”

David Stafford, S I Sealy Director comments:

“We are delighted to sponsor this prestigious lunch, which attracts around 200 decision-makers in the property and construction world.”

This house was a rather tired 2 bedroom end terrace which pre-dated 1919. It suffered excessive heat losses and poor living conditions. The property was completely stripped bare, the building fabric was improved with high quality thermal insulation and the air permeability was reduced significantly. Solar water heating and small scale photovoltaic electricity generation were incorporated into the refurbished building.

The CO² emissions of the property prior to the refurbishment equated to 98.33Kg/m²/year, following our refurbishment the emissions reduced to 17.43Kg/m²/year, which is 37% below the current building regulations Part L requirements for new builds. This is comparable to achieving Code for Sustainable
Homes Level 3.

The refurbishment also involved installing an energy monitoring system which would normally be included in a commercial building.

Danny Madden, the Mechanical Engineer responsible for this project comments:

“The energy monitoring system allows us to remotely monitor the energy consumption via the internet anywhere in the world. This data will be recorded over a two year period to enable a true assessment of the energy savings achieved.

“We have taken a rather tired 2 bedroom end terrace and created a smart, stylish, well insulated and attractive house that will cost very little to heat, and has no more controls than a conventional house.”

David Stafford, Director, comments:

“We are really excited to have received this grant. The project involves looking at the expected changes in the weather and extremes expected and developing new technologies and adaptable systems capable of coping with global warming.”

Merton Council urgently needed additional sixth form accommodation. Following a consultation period four new colleges received planning permission. They were located at four existing Secondary Schools in Bishopsford, Raynes Park, Ricards Lodge and Rutlish.

As the requirement was so urgent the council tendered the project based on an off-site modular construction. This approach was taken to reduce the construction time which could affect the operations of the adjacent schools, and to reduce the capital cost. Extraspace Solutions, an off-site modular building contractor was appointed to deliver the buildings.

David Stafford, S I Sealy Director comments:

“We have been working in partnership with Extraspace Solutions since 2008 on a number of projects in a variety of sectors, including: healthcare, education, highways, public authorities and private sector. On this project we carried out a detailed material selection and preliminary computational thermal modeling to ensure that the buildings had optimum thermal performance.”

The building will include 320,000 sq ft of open plan office space over 16 storeys and will be an iconic building on the Manchester skyline. The Co-operative Group’s high sustainability aspiration is demonstrated by their desire to achieve BREEAM “Outstanding” for this building, and for the building to be Carbon Neutral. S I Sealy will ensure that these aspirations are met through incorporating into the design a number of innovative sustainable technologies.

Tony Grindrod, Construction Manager for BAM, who are the main contractors for this project, said:

“This is a hugely exciting and impressive project in terms of design, construction techniques and the expertise it will demand of everyone involved with it. The Co-operative Group’s desire for a Carbon Negative building made the appointment of a strong and proactive mechanical and electrical contracting team crucial.”

Dougie Brash, director of Rotary North West said:

“It was essential for us to bring on board a team of highly experienced mechanical and electrical engineering designers to ensure the success of this project. S I Sealy has exceptional skills and knowledge, as well as a determined approach. They are an excellent addition to the team.”

David Stafford, S I Sealy Director commented:

“S I Sealy is delighted to have secured the commission from Rotary North West to provide detailed design services for Manchester’s largest and most prestigious construction project. This follows an unprecedented period of success and growth of our company culminating in our current status as one of Manchester’s largest specialist MEP practices. At the same time we are still flexible enough to also undertake much smaller commissions.

“As a prestigious project, detailed design work for the Co-op project will be undertaken through Spectrum Consulting, our Joint Venture with Hannan Associates and Gill Massey initially formed to deliver major overseas projects. Spectrum has over 100 full time MEP engineers, enabling us to bid for major projects worldwide such as the Co-op project.”