Connections case study

THE NICEIC MAGAZINE FOR APPROVED ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS & DOMESTIC INSTALLERS S

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Summer 2010 | Issue 174

Are you ready to go green?

Focus on construction Scottish regulations New paternity laws

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FEATURE

renewables

Green piece The introduction of feed-in tariffs earlier this year will further boost an already growing renewables market. Electrical contractors need to ensure they can take advantage

By Phil Thane

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ILLUSTRATION: IAN WHADCOCK

he popular press tends to highlight disagreement among scientists about the precise effect of CO2 in the atmosphere. But analysis of Arctic ice shows that CO2 levels have risen by 36 per cent since 1832, and that the average global temperature has risen by 0.75°C in the past 100 years.

It may be coincidental, but most scientists agree that it isn’t.

So politicians in the developed world are under huge pressure to cut CO2 emissions and are using tax breaks, loans and feedin tariffs to encourage domestic and industrial users alike to use less fossil fuels and more energy from renewable sources.

That means work for the companies designing and building the equipment, but also for installers.

Solar thermal hot water systems have been common around the Mediterranean for many years, and are becoming increasingly common in the UK. Even in winter they can generate useful amounts of heat, and can be combined with conventional domestic hot-water systems to reduce fuel consumption. NICEIC provides solar-thermal hot-water training for experienced heating and plumbing engineers.

Heat pumps are at the heart of a range of related systems, but are not in themselves renewable. A heat pump uses compression/expansion of a gas to transfer heat from one place to another. A fridge uses a heat pump, as does an airconditioning system to remove heat from a building. Many domestic air-conditioning systems are reversible, meaning they can be used to extract heat from the atmosphere and bring it into the building. This is the basis of air source heat pump central heating systems.

Ground source heat pump systems, meanwhile, use a network of pipes embedded in the ground outside the building as the source of heat. Soil temperature a couple of metres down is remarkably constant at around 7°C, which is plenty for a heat pump. If that seems unlikely, check out your fridge; the inside is around 5°C but the heat exchanger on the back is hot with the energy extracted from inside.

Heat pumps are actually a means of using low-level heat created by solar radiation, which is considered a renewable energy source. NICEIC provides a heat pump course for experienced plumbing and heating engineers, and also offers a course in underfloor heating, which is often used in conjunction with ground source heat pumps.

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Geothermal systems are sometimes confused with ground source heat pumps, but in fact they are a means to use heat stored in the earth’s core. In places such as Iceland, where hot springs are common, geothermal has been used effectively for many years. Modern drilling techniques derived from the oil and gas industry are now making the technique feasible in places where the hot rocks are much deeper. But it is expensive to undertake industrial-scale projects, and results are limited.

Biomass is the catch-all name for anything that grows which can be used as fuel. In the UK that’s mostly wood, although it can also include agricultural waste. For electrical contractors the interest lies mainly in using biomass boilers for central heating systems. Most of these burn wood pellets because they “flow” easily and are amenable to automatic control systems. NICEIC is undergoing UKAS accreditation to carry out installer certification for biomass systems.

The lure of microgeneration All of the above are used to create heat, but there is another category of renewable energy that is set to become more important in the coming years: microgeneration.

Small-scale electrical generation isn’t new, but it has become much more sophisticated recently. Early adopters tended to be eco-enthusiasts with DIY low-voltage systems backed up by banks of truck batteries. But now there is a great range of products compatible with the AC mains supply. Photovoltaic (PV) systems and wind turbines are the most common, but some lucky landowners with suitable streams can fit micro-hydro generators, often on the sites of former water mills.

To be really useful, a microgeneration system has to integrate seamlessly with a building’s electrical system so that in-house power replaces or supplements the grid supply, reducing demand and – at times when local production exceeds demand – capable

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‘Solar thermal hot water systems have been common around the Mediterranean for many years and are becoming increasingly popular in the UK’ of feeding current into the grid. Customers benefit three-fold: from 20-year – or 25-year for solar PV – guaranteed per-unit support payments (p/kWh) for electricity generation, known as feed-in tariffs (FITs); additional payments for every excess unit fed back into the grid; and further savings on energy bills, as every kWh they produce is one less to buy.

The FITs became available to UK households in April, even though energy suppliers are not entirely ready. The government is insisting that all households be fitted with smart meters by 2020, and suppliers are already beginning trials. To benefit from FITs the installation must be carried out by a company or individual certified under the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) (see box).

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‘Many companies and government departments will have an initial screening stage in which someone looks through the bids and throws out any that don’t comply’

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winning business

FEATURE

Contract killings In today’s ultra-competitive environment tendering for contracts can be a depressing experience. But there is more you can do to make your pitch stand out from the crowd

By Alex Blyth

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t is one of the most frustrating feelings in business – you’ve found an ideal contract to tender for, you’ve worked long and hard to put in what you feel is an excellent bid, and then you discover the job has gone to one of your rivals. Everyone who runs a business will have experienced it and for many of us it is an all-too-frequent occurrence. But no matter how many times it happens, it never gets any easier to take.

It is especially painful when work is scarce and every potential new contract allows you to keep staff, invest in essential equipment or just keep the business afloat. You need these contracts, which is why you try everything you can to make your bid attractive. You tell them about all the similar work you have done, you present your proposal professionally and you even offer a good price.

Unfortunately all your competitors are doing the same and very few contractors bid on jobs for which they are inexperienced.

Professional bid documents are the norm and everyone is under-cutting everyone else in a desperate bid to win the work.

You need to do more than this to get ahead of the game.

Without doubt the most important factor in whether or not your bids are successful is the quality of your work and the strength of your reputation. But it is not everything. Here are seven ways you can make your bids stand out and increase your chances of winning those all-important contracts.

a contractor who did this and discovered that one of the people making the decision was a strong advocate of environmental protection. The contractor included a short piece about his company’s environmental credentials, even though this was not mentioned or required in the brief. He found later this had helped to win the work.”

2) Use social media Not every potential customer will be willing to talk to you, but this doesn’t mean you should give up on researching the brief before answering it. Claire Chapman is a social media coach and she advises electrical contractors to use the social networking site LinkedIn to find out about the people they are pitching to.

“LinkedIn is where professionals network,” she explains.

“If you know the name of the person who will make the decision about your bid you can find them on the site. There you can find out about their professional experience, career history and qualifications, as well as more detail about their current job role. This gives you additional insight into the person you are doing business with. You can then find out if anyone you know is already connected to them and could potentially introduce you.”

Richard Ilsley, founder of Synogis, a global consulting firm for independent consultants, has helped many electrical contractors increase their conversion rate from proposals to bids. His first piece of advice is to try to make contact with the person who wrote the brief. “You’ll be amazed how much more you can discover in a conversation with the potential customer,” he says. “Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone – ideally try to arrange a face-to-face meeting.”

He says you should find out whether there is an incumbent supplier and, if so, why they want to change. Find out what general policies they have for suppliers and how they will make the decision on this particular contract. Try to get a list of the criteria they will use to select the new supplier.

“You will always find out more in an informal conversation like this than you will from a written brief,” says Ilsley. “I worked with

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While it is important to do all this background research, you should also take care to read the actual brief thoroughly and then to answer it precisely.

“One of the most common reasons for suppliers failing to win bids is that they did not follow the brief,” says Ilsley. In fact, a review of 50 recent bids on behalf of a number of contractors showed that around a quarter had been rejected at the initial stage because they had not addressed the brief, he adds.

“It is a bit like not answering the question on an exam paper,” says Ilsley. “You may write a great answer, but if it doesn’t address the question, you will fail. It’s worth being aware of the fact that many companies and government departments will have an initial screening stage in which someone looks through the bids and throws out any that don’t comply with the brief. This is not a manager who is looking for added value; it is someone simply seeing if you have followed the required structure.”

>

ILLUSTRATION: LEE WRIGHT

3) Answer the brief 1) Question the brief

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FEATURE

ventilation and heat recovery

A breath of fresh air A lack of installers for new ventilation and heat recovery systems, along with updated environmental legislation, is presenting opportunities for suitably qualified contractors

By Steve Rogerson

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nce, ventilation in the UK meant opening a window.

Today, with new houses being sealed tight and the government demanding greater energy efficiency, the whole subject of ventilation and heat recovery has become a primary concern for housebuilders.

But there is a problem, and that is a lack of qualified installers for the latest ventilation and heat recovery systems. For electrical contractors who are willing to spend a little time and money on training, this need can create a seriously lucrative business opportunity.

First, they have to be aware of an impending change in the regulations, which in itself improves the situation for qualified installers. That change is encompassed in Part F of the Building Regulations, which comes into effect in October. This part is all about ventilation, but is tied into the new Part L on the conservation of fuel and power.

“It’s all part of Europe, the world and the UK moving to zero-carbon buildings for newbuilds by 2015,” says Bob Towse, head of technical and safety for the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA). “Achieving that is a large step forward for appliances and energy efficiencies.”

MAIN PHOTO: ISTOCK

Raising the roof Ventilation is a key contributor when it comes to managing a building’s energy efficiency because of strict requirements on how much air is allowed to leak out of a building naturally. “There is a lot of work going on to make them much tighter,” adds Towse. “They don’t want nice warm air leaking out.”

But all buildings need ventilation and, for new buildings, this will result in an increase in rooftop-based air extractors.

These are similar to those used in kitchens and bathrooms, but on a larger scale, only now they are drawing air out of the whole building. This rooftop box is also likely to be connected to a heat recovery system to pre-warm the incoming air.

Many of these are more complex than the old passive ventilation systems based purely on ducting that were more common up to about five years ago. Modern systems are managed using sensors in

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different rooms to detect humidity, temperature and occupancy.

The UK is a little behind in this type of technology compared with other countries, notably those in Scandinavia and in North America where they have had controlled ventilation and heat recovery systems for decades.

“The industry wants to drive the uptake of these higher value, higher performance products,” says Kelly Butler, marketing director for the energy and power industry trade body Beama. “One driver has been the new Building Regulations that make buildings tighter. That has had a big impact.”

Another factor has been energy-efficiency schemes where there are targets for carbon emission figures for buildings.

Ventilation equipment makers have responded to this by promoting how big a part their products can play in this.

“This has created major growth in this market,” says Butler.

“Manufacturers keep trying to come out with the best-performing products. In 2004, the general efficiency of these products was just above 60 per cent and now they are up above 90 per cent. It has had a dramatic impact.”

This has also meant, he says, that modern ventilation systems have continued to increase sales, despite a fall in the number of new builds, because they have taken a larger share of a smaller market. The concept of demand-control ventilation, where sensors and timers dictate when the ventilation is turned on and off, has seen the most movement.

The question now is whether these should be purely automatic or whether householders should have control. “Once you give someone control, you have to ask if you will have the right ventilation at the right time of day at the right level, and the answer is no,” says Colin Hone, UK sales director for Aereco. “You’ll either over-ventilate or under-ventilate. The biggest problem is the tenant.”

Butler agrees. “With complex systems, as soon as you let the customer take control you have problems,” he says. “The best way is to make it sensor-based so it can work out what to do itself. But you still need a customer over-ride switch.” > Roof-mounted stack ventilation duct from Aereco

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‘This isn’t going to become a fringe market, but an essential one. There are not enough installers out there so this could be an opportunity for electricians’

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YOUR SHOUT

lobbying government

Making your voice heard NICEIC is lobbying government on a range of issues, including suggestions put forward by contractors, aimed at creating a fairer and safer electrical industry

By Emma McCarthy

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS/REX

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ICEIC’s lobbying activities started long before election fever gripped the nation back in May. Over the past 12 months I have met with MPs and their representatives, civil servants and individuals from the wider industry.

I’ve had detailed correspondence with Vince Cable, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, along with Ed Davey and his team responsible for consumer protection at the same department. Bedfordshire MP Andrew Selous is also a strong supporter of our business as a local employer and I have met with Greg Barker, minister of state at the Department for Energy and Climate Change. The list goes on.

In May, when the election was at the forefront of everybody’s thoughts, NICEIC emailed 18,000 of its registered contractors to establish the main issues they would like to see NICEIC lobbying government for on their behalf. The response was fantastic and the key themes that emerged were: • The ability for electricians to refit/remove cut-outs from main power companies; • Stop DIY outlets selling certain electrical equipment to the general public; • Make it law for landlords to have a periodic inspection report (PIR) before a tenant moves in; • Make it compulsory to be registered with an electrical scheme.

These issues are now being put in front of ministers and civil servants as we integrate them into our wider lobbying activities.

Remove cut-outs The ability for electricians to remove cut-outs is a huge issue and one which the entire electrical contracting

> Vince Cable

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industry has tried to tackle. Indeed, the Electrical Safety Council, with assistance from NICEIC and the Electrical Contractors’ Association, has lobbied hard to change the regulations on this in the past, but unfortunately without success – the network companies withdrew from talks.

The network companies declined to establish a scheme that would allow electricians to withdraw the cut-out fuse in order to work safely on the customer’s installation. The reason for this, said the representatives of the network companies, was health and safety, but perversely the Health and Safety Executive has been supporting efforts to bring about such an agreement.

This is frustrating for the trade and costly to the householder because they incur more cost, inconvenience and a higher frequency of unauthorised removal of the fuse. However, NICEIC and the industry as a whole will no doubt keep this on the agenda.

Limit sale of electrical kit Limiting the availability of certain electrical equipment to DIY enthusiasts is also something NICEIC supports. A similar model to that of trade distributor Electricfix, with which NICEIC entered a partnership in 2009, may be a solution to DIYers creating a safety issue by installing faulty electrics.

Electricfix claims to only sell to those people registered with a competent person’s scheme. So, taking this model to the DIY market, only card-carrying members of the Approved Contractor or equivalent competent person’s scheme would be able to buy certain pieces of equipment. In reality this means that only a competent person could install them. > Ed Davey

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REX

However, although it may be possible to argue against DIY outlets selling electrical materials to the general public, in a recession this may be a difficult pill for the government to swallow. There is also little doubt that these large multinational companies, which bring millions of pounds of revenue to UK plc, will fight this hard. Indeed, gas safety campaigners have already decried the fact that boilers can still be purchased over the counter of DIY stores.

Obligatory PIRs Our safety message also extends to landlords, of course, and PIRs are central to this. In fact, we have recently launched a marketing and public relations campaign to consumers and landlords urging them to make sure they get their electrics “MOT’d” with a PIR. This campaign will also be communicated to MPs and civil servants.

Compulsory registration In terms of compulsory registration with a competent persons scheme, NICEIC wholeheartedly supports this for the domestic market and will continue to push the relevant ministers and civil servants. NICEIC also believes that all competent persons schemes should be UKAS-accredited so that consistency across all schemes is maintained and independently verified.

For many years now we have been calling on government to effectively help police competent persons schemes, which has been a recurring theme expressed to us by registered installers since 2005, when Part P was introduced.

In line with this and all of the electrical contracting issues on which we lobby, NICEIC has expressed its concern to minsters that more than 8,000 house fires occur every year due to electrical faults. In 2007, these fires caused 31 deaths. NICEIC believes that government should take steps to reduce the number of fires and deaths attributable to electrical causes.

Of course, lobbying to government means potentially helping to find solutions to problems that are approaching on

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‘This government’s big issue currently may be the economy, but the energy credit crunch will be a huge problem for us all in the coming years’ the horizon. Currently there are huge issues surrounding the supply of energy to UK homes, with the real possibility of power shortages in the next decade. This government’s current big issue may be the economy, but the energy credit crunch will be a huge problem for us all in the coming years. Renewable energy is part of the solution to this problem.

We are advising the government on the levels of skills needed to meet sustainable targets through renewables and microgeneration installations, particularly in the home, and how to meet the skills needs of a green economy. There’s no doubt that the electrical contracting industry needs to be at the forefront of these opportunities and NICEIC intends to make that the case.

This also ties into the skills shortage that our industry is currently experiencing. Fantastic work by the likes of providers such as JTL helps to push the cause of apprenticeships at the very highest levels of government. I have also been calling on government to encourage more women to enter the construction industry.

There’s no doubt NICEIC’s lobbying programme has been strengthened by the contributions of registered contractors. Many of the above points have been on our agenda for a while.

What NICEIC contractors can be assured of, however, is that we will always do our best to represent their interests to ministers, MPs and civil servants. > Emma McCarthy is chief operating officer of NICEIC Group

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CONTRACTOR PROFILE

EMS

He who dares When Chris Allum started EMS in 1982 he knew he was taking a gamble. But since then he has built up a strong business that is finally getting the recognition it deserves

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ack in 1982, a then 35-year-old Chris Allum took the decision to quit his job and start up his own electrical business with his brother-in-law. With just one electrician working for them and no client list to speak of, Electrical Management Services (EMS) was born.

“I had three young children and my brother-in-law had taken early retirement and suggested we had a go together,” says Chris, who had previously worked as a distribution engineer with the London Electricity Board and subsequently qualified as a lighting engineer.

“We took a big chance and set ourselves very tight budgets for the first three years. We could just about afford to live at the time and took it on from there,” he says.

The company’s first client was the high-street electrical chain Dixons, performing maintenance work and providing breakdown cover. Shortly afterwards the fledgling firm started working for various Texaco and Mobil garages and gradually developed a reputation for working in hazardous areas that continues to be one of its strengths today. It also worked for retail outlets such as Fosters Menswear and Adams Childrenswear.

Based in Ashford, Middlesex, EMS is well placed to serve London and most of the south-east. Today, the business boasts an impressive client list across a wide variety of sectors, including BSkyB, Norland Managed Services and Visa.

It undertakes regular periodic testing across 630 buildings at the University of Reading and hazardous area testing at the University of Cambridge.

At BSkyB, EMS works on both a training centre at Hatfield and the company’s main operations centre at Isleworth, where recent projects have included installing the floodlighting used on Soccer AM and refitting the lighting in the new Sky Sports high-definition studio.

Other recent projects include lighting a 35m tower run by Norland Managed Services at Fenchurch Street in London, which has been installed to commemorate the Great Fire of

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PHOTOGRAPHY: SAM KESTEVEN

By Nick Martindale

‘We don’t tend to go in for the big building contracts. If someone offered us a £250,000 job I’d say we can’t do it’ London, entirely using LEDs; and replacing major distribution board installations at The Dorchester Hotel.

“We don’t tend to go in for the big building contracts,” says Chris. “If someone offered us a £250,000 job I’d do what I’ve done before and say we can’t do it. We’re a cash-pregnant business; the money’s safe, we pay people on time so why not keep it like that? When you’re running those big projects it’s all about cash flow so we deal with blue-chip companies where you know you’re going to get your money.”

Extended family EMS currently employs 16 people, including nine engineers, as well as operations manager Tammie; one of Chris’s three children. And the family connection doesn’t end there – in September the company’s marketing manager Crispian Lorford became Chris’s son-in-law when he married his other daughter.

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“We had testimonials from the client saying how well it had gone,” says Crispian. “Obviously in a college you have to work around students so it was recognition for the delivery of it as well as the energy savings.”

On the back of winning the award EMS ran a campaign offering companies a free energy audit, and recently completed a project at the University of Oxford Brookes replacing more than 5,000 lights. “Traffic to our energy section of the website increased by 80 per cent,” says Crispian. “As a company it’s been fantastic for us and has opened up a lot of doors.”

Energy and waste management are likely to form part of the company’s strategy going forward, says Crispian, and EMS has recently enquired about NICEIC’s microgeneration scheme. “We’ve got a good business base to build on that with the universities and almost every company is getting an energy manager now,” he adds.

Weathering the storm

> EMS founder Chris Allum (top left) and with his family team at the company premises in Ashford, Middlesex (above)

Crispian came on board in 2008, and has played a key role in helping to promote and grow the business during the economic downturn. “Sometimes that’s the best time to market yourself,” he says.

“It was a delight to walk into a company that had such great strengths already, but which wasn’t really pushing those. We put together a website, case studies, testimonials and a credential document. The strategy was to build up the presence of EMS and to give it more of an identity and a brand,” says Crispian.

Where this has been most evident, however, is in winning the title of electrical contractor of the year in the 2009 Electrical Times awards for a project installing 359 lights at the College of North West London, which resulted in long-term energy savings of 45 per cent and gave a payback period for the client of just 18 months.

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The focus on marketing the business means EMS has remained on an even keel during the downturn, turning over around £1 million a year.

“We’re not the cheapest company, but we’re not the most expensive either,” says Chris. “Some people would rather pay a little more and get quality and know that their installations have been carried out properly.

“A lot of electrical firms have no business acumen,” he adds. “We work off a spreadsheet that tells you what it costs to send out an engineer. If you go below those figures you’re going to lose money. You usually find that the company that is fighting below that is never going to do the job the way the client wants anyway.”

Despite the firm’s exposure to the public sector, Tammie remains buoyant over the future. “Public services are being hit quite badly now, but I believe that’s more of a labour issue,” she says.

“They still have a duty of care to the people coming in and out of the building and there’s a big focus around health and safety where our industry is involved. They may not have the decorative lighting done in reception, but there may be a need for an electrical test somewhere else in the building.”

Chris, now 63, plans to remain at the helm for another two years, meaning the medium-term future of the company is uncertain, although he admits he would like it to remain within the family.

“I hope it continues and that all the staff who I’ve trained and who have been with me for a long time continue working for this business, earning a reasonable living and getting a good deal,” he says. “If it grows a bit, then all well and good.” > If you would like your company to be considered for a profile in Connections, please email editor@niceicconnections.com

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