Power outage causes chaos in Manchester

Businesses across Manchester have been left unable to operate today, due to a power outage. Carly Wills spoke to Jo Threlfall, Head of Digital PR at digital marketing agency, Embryo, who said that the company is currently finding a spot elsewhere in the city to connect to power, while some staff are being forced to work from home. However, many businesses on Portland Street are unable to work. The outage is thought to have been caused by a builder cutting through a power cable, and it is not expected to be resolved until the end of the day. Managing Director of Embryo, Ross Green, comments: "A fair few of our staff arrived for work at around 8:30 only to find that all the power had gone and, as a digital marketing agency, we sort of rely on electricity to get us through the day! We've been told that our building is not the only one affected because a builder had cut through a cable further up the street, causing the power to go out in quite a few buildings, Philpotts on the corner of Portland St has no power either. “Thankfully, we managed to secure a space for the staff that did arrive from outside of Manchester - those who live in the city centre have been asked to work from home. We're hoping this gets resolved soon as we rely on the office heavily for client meetings and internal catch-ups." Founder of call answering service, alldayPA, Reuben Singh, says that the company works with electricians across the North West and has advised that the company has received a high volume of calls today due to the power issues in the city and across the North West due to Storm Corrie.

Scottish households unprepared for law change surrounding fire alarms

Almost half of households (49%) in Scotland haven’t installed an interlinked fire alarm yet, according to research by Toolstation, despite the imminent legislation change. The survey also found that 82% didn’t know that there was a grant available to help install fire alarms in the homes of the elderly and disabled too. The law, which comes into effect in February, states that every home in Scotland must have an interlinked fire alarm. It means that if one fire alarm goes off, they should all go off. The rule is intended because households may not always hear the alarm closest to the fire, especially if they are elsewhere in the house. Homeowners will be responsible to ensure that homes meet the new safety standard. Toolstation, which has 40 branches in Scotland, conducted research that found 54% have installed or are planning to install sealed battery alarms, and that 21% are opting to install mains-wired fire alarms. One-in-five (21%) plan to have a combination of both. 50% of those who plan to have a mains-wired alarm will rely on a professional electrician or engineer to install it for them. Toolstation Electrical Category Manager Colin Freeland says: “It is important everyone gets to grips with the change to the law, and that all retailers and bodies do a good job of explaining it so Scottish households don’t get caught out. Our research found that 50% plan to have their mains-wired alarms fitted by a qualified electrician who will be ably placed to explain how they work. If households prefer they can opt for a long-life battery powered interlinked alarm which is  easy to install.” By February every home will be required to have one smoke alarm in the room that is most frequently occupied during the day, one smoke alarm in every circulation space such as a hallway or landing and a heat alarm in the kitchen. All of these alarms should be ceiling mounted and interlinked. Households that have carbon-fuelled appliances, like a boiler, fire, heater or flue must also have a carbon monoxide detector. This does not need to be linked to the fire alarms. Toolstation stocks a wide range of mains-wired and battery powered fire alarms both online and in-store.

NAPIT - celebrating 30 years of excellence with offers for members

As we enter 2022, NAPIT - The National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers is celebrating its 30th anniversary. To honour the provision of three decades of technical excellence across the electrical inspection and testing industry, The Association is inviting its members, staff and the electrical industry to join them in celebrating this achievement. As part of The Association’s anniversary celebrations, we will be offering some great discounts to members and customers every month. As we all know the launch of BS 7671:2018+A2:2022 (Amendment 2 of The IET’s 18th Edition Wiring Regulations) is due in March 2022. To coincide with the launch, we are announcing the first of many anniversary discounts, with 30% off Amendment 2 training courses! NAPIT Training are offering three training options for Amendment 2: • classroom • virtual and • online We have dates starting in April 2022 and candidates can book now to take advantage of a 30% discount from the list price. Looking back, Frank Bertie, Chairman of The National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers, says: “Having helped establish The Association in 1992, it is a great privilege to look back on the achievements and progress made within the industry over the last 30 years. I am very proud of our award-winning technical publications, CPD events and webinars which support the advancement of knowledge within the sector. Our commitment to industry committees for the improvement of electrical safety standards remains at our core, from initiating the Electrical Safety Roundtable in 2012, to contributing heavily to Government Working Groups and actively developing the evolution of BS 7671, (The IET Wiring Regulations) and Electrotechnical Assessment Specification. As we prepare for the implementation of the new standards in BS 7671, we are excited to announce our monthly offers to the industry which support the advancement of knowledge, understanding and awareness of changes and new opportunities within the electrical sector.”

CONEL launches Academy Hub to help Londoners get into construction

The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) has launched a new Mayor of London Academy Hub to fast-track Londoners into construction and green careers. The Green Academy Hub, in partnership with Waltham Forest College, will provide skills training to create jobs and help the capital’s economic recovery from the COVID pandemic. Capital City College Group (CCCG), which includes CONEL, secured £250,000 to run the hub after a successful bid to the Mayor’s Academies Programme. According to the Construction Skills Network, more than 217,000 new workers will be needed in construction and green industries by 2025. The new hub will help meet this demand and support the UK’s target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 with a focus on modern sustainable construction methods, green technologies and the expansion of EV charging points. CONEL Vice Principal Robin Hindley says: “London is an everchanging city and there is a huge shortage of highly skilled construction workers across the sector, which has been exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic. “The industry needs more people to work in skilled trades across the sector to enable them to meet their contractual commitments. The environment is also high on everyone’s agenda with a need to train people new technologies to ensure the UK meets its targets to cut carbon emissions. “Many employers have already given their firm commitment and support to our Green Academy Hub, and now it’s about building on those relationships, establishing courses and providing the industry with a pipeline of highly skilled, well-paid workers.” The hub will build on CONEL’s long-standing reputation for providing high quality training in construction trades including brickwork, plumbing and electrical installations at its centres in Tottenham and Enfield. It has been backed by employers and industry bodies including the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Morgan Sindall, Wates, Peabody, Vistry Partnerships, Absolute Solar, Retrofit Works, and the North London Waste Authority. There will be a strong emphasis on supporting those from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds including black and ethnic minorities, low earners, single parents, young people, caregivers, the disabled and unemployed. Robin comments: “We have huge experience in delivering training for this sector with well-established links with employers and a fantastic track record of getting people into work. Being part of CCCG means we also have links more centrally into Islington, Camden, Westminster and surrounding boroughs.” “Getting people trained and into work to help companies make profits and support the economy is a big part of it, but ultimately if we can build more sustainable developments and use green technologies to reach net-zero and prevent climate change to have a better quality of life, that will be the biggest win for all of us.” The Green Academy Hub is CONEL’s latest commitment to help more people into work, which also includes a new Skills Academy in partnership with Enfield Council and Vistry Partnerships to provide construction training for the £25 million Meridian Water regeneration in Enfield. Earlier this year the college launched the London Welding Academy alongside its London Rail Academy in Enfield with the number of welders in the UK having fallen by a quarter in five years. CCCG was also successful in winning bids to run hubs in Creative, Digital and Hospitality hubs run by CONEL’s sister college Westminster Kingsway College. The Creative Academy Hub is run in partnership with Film London.

Nescafé deploys EcoStruxure Asset Advisor to ensure efficiency

Schneider Electric has deployed its award-winning EcoStruxure Asset Advisor software at Nescafé‘s Toluca Complex in Mexico City. Producing approximately one million jars of coffee a day, the Nestlé Nescafé plant in Toluca, Mexico is the largest production facility for Nescafé and is key to Nestlé ’s overall global operations. In 2013, the company expanded the plant’s production capacity by 40% by investing approximately $125 million, making it the largest soluble coffee facility in the world. With the plant responsible for more than one million jars of coffee produced daily, preventing downtime is critical for Nestlé’s operations. Improving uptime reliability, greater visibility, and operational flexibility. Prior to Asset Advisor, maintenance was reactive. Eight unplanned shortages in one year, including a short-circuit inside an unmonitored section of the main substation that resulted in a 14-hour shutdown, costing the company approximately $588,000, saw production faltering. As service continuity is central to the production plant, EcoStruxure allowed Nestlé to move to predictive maintenance, letting teams resolve issues proactively to avoid costly disruptions that could cost up to $52,000 per hour. Implementing Asset Advisor gave Nestlé real-time visibility into its electrical equipment, allowing engineers to remotely monitor assets. By relying on data analytics to dictate service intervals, the electrical teams at Nestlé can now spend less time reacting to issues and the plant’s equipment spends more time performing optimally. Frédéric Godemel, Executive Vice President for Power Systems and Services at Schneider Electric says: “We’ve been seeing strong Services growth in our business, and we understand the importance of mission-critical systems and how it is non-negotiable for major production operation like the Toluca complex. With our EcoStruxture software, we are committed to providing customers like Nescafé greater visibility, increased resilience, and flexibility to improve their operational efficiency without the added costs and strain on the environment, and ultimately seen as the go-to-services expert in critical industries.” Luis Gilberto López Páez, electricity specialist in Nestlé Toluca Cafés says: “With a plant as large as Nestlé Nescafé, ensuring reliability of all the electrical systems is a particularly involved task. Across our operational network, we have been deploying flexible and scalable digital solutions to enhance our responsiveness, and the move to partner Schneider Electric was a natural one – having already collaborated in our production facilities in France and Switzerland. Since deployment, EcoStruxure Asset Advisor has allowed us to identify hot spots and attack them before they become a problem – saving us costly downtime, greatly enhancing our ability to respond quickly to changes in demand and ultimately better service our customers and reduce our operational carbon footprint.”

Vital Text HARDHAT to 85258 Service launches 1st February

The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity is adding another route to vital wellbeing support by launching their text HARDHAT to 85258 service to provide immediate support to the construction community. This latest addition to the charity’s extensive portfolio of support services, launches on 1st February and underpins their mission that no construction worker or their family should be alone in a crisis. The text HARDHAT to 85258 service will complement their existing 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline and Helpline App and offers immediate support to those who feel more comfortable texting with someone rather than holding a one to one telephone conversation. Just like the charity’s helpline, the text HARDHAT to 85258 service is available at any time of the day or night and offers free, anonymous and confidential support to anyone in the industry who is feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, suicidal or simply struggling with everyday life. Individuals can access support simply by texting the word HARDHAT to 85258. This will put them in touch with trained volunteers who will ask for a little more information about what the problem is, with the individual sharing what they feel comfortable with. The volunteers listen without judgement and can provide support and guidance on a huge variety of issues including; feeling anxious, relationship problems, loneliness and isolation, abuse, addiction, depression, bullying and harassment, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts and feelings. The text conversation will only finish when the volunteer has helped the person to reach a calm and safe place. They will also be able to provide a plan so that users can understand how to help themselves going forward and signpost to further resources or tools to provide more expert support. Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity says, “Our new text HARDHAT to 85258 service comes at a time when many are still struggling on a daily basis with debt, anxiety and family issues. Some things are returning to normality but there are still far reaching consequences and underlying problems that remain as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. These pressures are in addition to the normal stresses and strains of working in an industry where two workers take their own life every single working day and a fifth of all work related illness is due to stress, anxiety or depression. Last year our charity supported 2788 families, an increase of 23% on the previous year and we delivered £1,077,015 of charitable giving to our construction community. This support ranged from making sure there was a meal on the table for families and paying household bills, helping with debt and financial issues, and providing quick access to professional counselling sessions. We know that there are many people who feel embarrassed or unable to reach out for help by calling someone.  Introducing our text HARDHAT to 85258 service is yet another route to access support before situations escalate out of control. We cannot stress enough that it really doesn’t matter how small or large you think your problem is, there is always support available and we can provide that help through the channels that people feel most comfortable with. That could be by using our free Construction Industry Helpline App, calling our 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline and talking to someone and now we have our text HARDHAT to 85258 service.”

Speeding up low carbon heating in social housing

Low carbon heating is to be installed in social housing to help cut bills and carbon emissions for people unable to afford the switch to clean heating. The ‘Right to Heat’ project will see new hybrid boilers - which use both gas and electricity - installed this year alongside solar panels and batteries in up to 25 homes across the South East to create a template for green heating in social housing. The partnership between electricity network operator UK Power Networks, Stonewater, Social Energy, Passiv UK, and SGN – is helping make sure nobody is left behind in the switch to low carbon technology: a key part of tackling the climate crisis. Latest figures show up to 3.9 million people around the UK live in social housing, and these homes account for 15% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The compact hybrid heating systems have smart controls that can automatically switch between gas and electricity at certain times, depending on different factors including changing energy costs. By sometimes using electric heating, residents will use less natural gas overall. With solar panels providing renewable energy, and batteries storing the power for later, residents will also use less energy from the electricity network, saving them money and reducing household emissions at the same time. Stonewater customer Paul Brennan, who had a heat pump installed last winter as part of a related trial, says: “Even though my heat pump has only been installed a short time, it was immediately noticeable how much I was saving. If you think about all the people in this area using less than the energy they would normally use, it’s not just the savings to the people that would matter, but the impact overall would be brilliant as well.” Ian Cameron, head of customer services and innovation at UK Power Networks, says: “Right to Heat is about creating a scalable template for social housing so no one is left behind in tackling the climate crisis. We’re determined to make the transition work for all our customers, no matter their circumstances.” SGN’s regional development manager Dave Raymond adds: “What makes this exciting project so unique is the exceptional collaboration from all the partners involved, as well as its focus on those in society who otherwise would have difficulty in keeping up with Net Zero.” Adam Masters, environmental sustainability manager at Stonewater, says: “We understand the importance of everyone having a warm, comfortable and affordable place that they can call home. Our involvement with Right to Heat will enable more of our customers, but also residents of other housing providers, to reap the environmental and cost benefits of low-carbon heating - sooner rather than later.” Right to Heat continues to March 2023, and follows UK Power Networks’ HyCompact project, which is testing hybrid heating systems in seven homes across Wales, London and the South East with gas network Wales & West Utilities.

What the end of the home charge grant means for consumers

The grant that allows UK residents to save £350 on an electric vehicle home charging points ends on 31st March 2022. With just one month left for consumers to make a claim, EV industry expert Pilgrim Beart (DevicePilot) provides comment below on the impact of the grant, the future of the UK EV industry and what consumers should do now to avoid missing out. Pilgrim Beart, DevicePilot CEO and founder, says: “The UK EV industry is at a tipping point. March is an important month, in an important year, in a pivotal decade for electric vehicles in this country. “We saw with the end of solar subsidies, that the general public rushed to get the grant while they still could. This boom and bust was fleeting and did not stop the growth of the sector longer term. The initial subsidy of solar helped the industry mature and bring costs down more quickly, after which it could stand on its own, and I expect we’ll look back at the EV grant in similar terms. If you’ll forgive the car metaphors, it should help jump start the industry, accelerate growth and drive prices down. It’s a one-off grant which cannot and should not go on forever, but has helped the industry reach the stage where it can stand on its own and become self-sustaining. “Consumers considering an EV purchase should try to take advantage of the home charger grant while they still can. You should do it now if you can, because you’ll need one eventually. EVs are coming and you’ll have a charger at home eventually, but some people will have theirs subsidised by the government and some won’t. “As for the industry, the end of the grant will incentivise businesses to try new business models. They may start to see EV charging as less of a product, and more of a service. There is so much potential in the nascent home charging industry. Now is the time for vendors to look to build ongoing relationships with customers, offering the kind of consumer experience people expect from any other utility. Early adopters will accept shortcomings in new tech, for charging to be fiddly or unreliable, but mainstream consumers will not. If people charge their phone overnight, they expect a full battery when their alarm goes off in the morning. They will expect the same of their cars - for their car to charge overnight 100% of the time, all on a low energy rate of course.”

Knightsbridge brings décor matching with plaster wall lights

Knightsbridge has added two ranges of gypsum plaster wall lights to its extensive decorative lighting collection. [gallery ids="29129,29130"] Available as up/down surface-mounted wall lights for living spaces, or recessed fixtures that are ideal for use in areas like hallways and stairs. These new arrivals are all supplied in a stylish, timeless plaster white that can also be painted to match any interiors scheme. They work well when installed as standalone items, but also create a striking feature when mounted in series. The surface-mounted wall lights come in four curved or cuboid design options, with widths varying from 110mm to 200mm, heights from 90mm to 180mm and projections from 70mm to 150mm. The lamp fitting is designed for G9 LEDs. Offering discreet style, the recessed lights have a defined edge with a narrow opening, allowing for a subtle light output. They come in two shapes and sizes: rectangular, which is 350mm high, 100mm wide and 73mm deep; and a 78mm deep circular unit, the cut out for which is 250mm x 210mm. The lamp fitting for both items takes GU10 LEDs.

Ansell launches powerful Z LED Plus

Offering an impressive efficacy of 200 Lm/W, the Z LED Plus is a powerful new addition to Ansell Lighting’s Z LED high bay lighting range. Highly efficient, the luminaire delivers optimum lighting performance and optics, reducing the number of fittings required to achieve desired illumination levels, lowering power consumption and energy costs. The first of 30 new products set to be revealed during 2022 to mark Ansell Lighting’s 30th anniversary, Z LED Plus is ideal for a range of industrial, commercial and retail settings thanks to its versatility and durability. Designed with a high resistance to corrosion and wear and tear in mind, the IP65 rated Z LED Plus provides full protection against ingression from water and dust and is suitable for installation in harsh and high dependency environments. It also has a high impact rating of IK08, ensuring the fixture can withstand potential knocks and impacts. Thermal management has also been cleverly considered, with the heat produced by the fitting designed to dissipate away from the fixture, extending its lifetime and ensuring no premature failures. Quick and easy to install, the Z LED Plus can be ceiling mounted, suspended or wall mounted and is supplied pre-wired with a 3M H05RN-F cable to save fitting time. It is available in three output wattage options, 75W, 115W and 150W all of which feature a 0-10V dimming setting as standard, enabling lighting levels to be easily controlled. The Z LED Plus is also available with an IP65 programmable microwave sensor option which has a built-in daylight sensor, and an emergency option which removes additional costs as there is no need for separate emergency lighting. Mark Abbott, Managing Director at Ansell Lighting says: “We are really excited about the launch of the new Z LED Plus. It is an unbelievably powerful fitting which, thanks to its high Lm/W efficacies, delivers a significant level of lighting, reducing power consumption and lowering energy costs. “As the first of 30 new products set to launch this year, to mark our 30th Anniversary, it showcases perfectly what Ansell Lighting as a business is all about, creating high quality, durable lighting products that reduce environmental impact and offer long lasting economical benefits for the user.”