Product category:
Window Systems
News Release from: Profine | Subject: The Kommerling GOLD
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 July 2003
Energy Savings Paramount For Islington
Energy-saving was the top priority for the London Borough of Islington when it was looking to replace windows at almost 1,000 apartments on two estates.
Because the on-going contract began before Part L of the new Building Regulations came into force, the Council could have taken the line adopted by many social landlords at the time, of not complying with the regulations But Dave Hardcastle, Senior Technical Officer with the Council, says energy-saving is a long-standing prime concern, and outweighed any additional cost of installing windows with a u-value of 2.0 W/m2K or lower before there was a legal requirement for them
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 16 Jan 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Housing Association Inspires PVC-U Breakthrough
For the first time, the PVC-U industry has attempted, and succeeded in meeting, indicative PAS023 and 024 test results on outward opening double entrance doors.
Regeneration Programme Creates Employment
Partnering in 'Sustainable Communities' programme does not simply involve the successful completion of a project, but deliberately puts something sustainable into the community.
Which is a philosophy echoed by Radway, the company manufacturing and installing the windows and doors specified for the two estates in the ?1.75m contracts.
"We had adapted our manufacturing process enabling us to fabricate and install windows which would comply with Part L up to three months before the new regulations took effect," says Quality and Technical Manager Harpal Singh.
"This is because we work at the quality end of the windows market, and many of our customers, such as Islington, pre-empted the new Building Regulations by asking us to fit Part L-compliant Kommerling window systems before it became mandatory last year.
Further reading
Taking Care With The Windows
Conroy Brook's latest £500,000 homes in Halifax have all been fitted with the classically-curved Kommerling Connoisseur.
Ovolo For The Oval
Spire was given the £387,000 contract to supply and fit Kommerling's classically-curved Ovolo Connoisseur windows for South Hylton and Albany.
"We also took the initiative to manufacture several windows from our extensive product range and arranged for their testing at the National Physical Laboratory to ensure they met the requirements of this new legislation." Radway Door and Windows Ltd., which is the UK's third-largest commercial window fabricator, was awarded the first contract because, according to Dave Hardcastle, it is the highest-rated LHC company.
That contract was to provide Tilt-before-Turn windows along with patio and residential doors at 395 apartments at Islington's Elthorne Estate.
Following on from that, came a 45-week contract to replace single-glazed sliding aluminium-in-timber-sub-framed windows with Kommerling GOLD Casement and Tilt-before-Turn windows, and patio and residential doors, at 243 apartments on the Girdlestone Estate in the Borough.
And Radway was further awarded Phase Two of the Girdlestone refurbishment, involving a further 274 apartments.
The Kommerling GOLD system used at Islington is the 58mm, with Pilkington K GlassTM air-filled glazing, with aluminium spacers.
This gives a unit u-value of 1.8 W/m2K and whole window u-value of 1.97 W/m2K.
The windows provide energy savings in line with the Government's agreed objectives detailed in the Kyoto Agreement, which allows for the reduction of energy in the United Kingdom by 20% below the 1990 levels by 2010.
With Building Regulations stipulating a u-value of 2.0 W/m2K or lower in England and Wales, u-values in Scotland have just been reduced to 1.8 W/m2K -- a move which John Warburton, Kommerling's Technical Manager, says may well be copied in England and Wales within the next three to five years.
• Profine: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Buildingtalk email newsletter
• Buildingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
