Wearing only a smile – and some carefully placed pipework – staff at A1 Bridge Flue Systems have opted for the ‘Flue Monty’ for this year’s company calendar.

From logistics to manufacturing, the contracts department to the directors themselves, employees have lined up to strip off and raise a ton of Christmas cash for breast cancer research.

Instead of iced buns and flower arrangements, the menfolk of A1 have had their dignity preserved by carefully selected items from the company’s extensive flue range.

Whether sheltered by a dipstick or a draught stabiliser, everyone who stripped off for this special fundraiser has been delighted to take part – including three of the directors, Colin Moir, Tony Bilbie and Richard Parkhouse who held a naked board meeting to create the December 2009 page.

The driving forces behind the plan are Tracy-Jane Moir, Colin’s daughter and HR director and wife Janice Moir, financial director at the family-run company which has long supported breast cancer research – support more personal in recent times after Tony’s wife Frances suffered and has now recovered from breast cancer.

Tracy-Jane said: “We have done the Race for Life for the last three years, held Pink Days and Pink ‘bake-offs’ where the guys at the factory outdid each other with their cooking skills and a couple of weeks ago we were trying to think of what to do next. We batted some ideas around and came up with the calendar – I emailed them all and everyone just loved the idea.

“We had the photos done on Monday, dropped something pink into each one and the calendar on sale in early December for a bare minimum of £5.  We have had a really good laugh getting it all together, everyone has been buzzing with the project and we hope we will be able to raise a smile and some much needed cash at the same time.”

Shops in and around Ollerton, Nottinghamshire, where the company is based have agreed to stock the calendar and they will also be available direct from A1 Bridge Flue Systems.

For the third year running, the ladies of A1 Bridge Flue Systems have taken part in Race for Life which is a ‘women only’ event to raise money for cancer research – breast cancer in particular.

This year, Frances Bilbie, who is director Tony Bilbie’s wife took part. Last year, Frances discovered she had breast cancer and thankfully, she is now recovered and enjoying life to the full. She joined the A1 team with a few of her friends at Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire where the local race was held sporting her pink A1 shirt.

This year the team has so far raised £3500, with money still to come, beating last year’s total of £2000, which saw the team in the Newark Race for Life’s top five fundraisers.

As well as taking part in the race a number of other events have been held including a ‘Pink Evening’ run by director Janice Moir where everyone wore pink, drank pink drinks and ate pink food including a specially made and donated pink cake.  Accounts manager Angela Green is about to embark on a sponsored parachute jump and the A1 team sends an enormous thank you to all the suppliers, customers, colleagues, family and friends who have sponsored and supported them in raising the money.  Watch this space for Race for Life 2009 when we will see if we can beat our total raised so far!

Moving into place on top of Ashton Market Hall

Fresh air and natural ventilation will be brought to the newly redeveloped Ashton Market Hall, thanks to our WindAvent terminals.
The WindAvent range provides comfortable and controllable conditions for building
occupants, improving conditions but using little or no energy. Following a recent
agreement with Siemens, new controllers are now available that preset levels for the
dampers located at the base of each natural ventilation unit, ensuring that the right
balance of fresh air and temperature are achieved. Rain sensors automatically close the
dampers in the event of inclement weather – so shoppers stay dry as they browse the
market stalls.
Mike Clare explained: “With WindAvent we can reduce energy consumption and keep things comfortable for people inside. Ensuring good ventilation in buildings is a key consideration and the challenge has been to do this without wasting energy.
“Our latest range does this simply by harnessing the power of nature. The WindAvent
provides a controllable solution that provides natural ventilation but minimises any
discomfort from draughts, especially in the winter. We all have a responsibility to look at

the way we use energy in buildings and WindAvent is one of the developments we have made to help that process along”.
The new market hall has been completely refurbished following the fire that devastated
the original building in May 2004.

from Mike Clare

There has been a bit of a rush to install biomass boilers – but in the flurry of activity, crucial flue requirements are being overlooked. People have got so used to oil and gas over the years they don’t realise a number of other critical factors must be dealt with when using the different types of biomass fuels in order to maintain the safety and integrity of their system.
The first decision is which fuel will be used. This may sound obvious, but you really do have to make a choice as confusion will lead to real problems later on. For example, wood pellets have a higher calorific value, burn hotter and produce less ash than woodchip, which in turn has a higher sulphur content because there is more bark present.
Sizing must be carefully considered and can vary depending on the fuel chosen. Some appliances are sold on the basis that they can burn either fuel, but the fuel supply mechanism must still be altered to accommodate the different fuel sizes. A lesser calorific value will not achieve the required output so, for example, if pellet supplies run out and woodchip is substituted, failure to correctly alter the feed mechanism will cause the appliance output to drop by around 66%. Additional factors include different fuel storage system requirements.
Aesthetics also suffer in this type of scenario. To work properly, the chimney height needs to be at a minimum of five metres on all biomass appliances in order to achieve the right efflux properties. The architect may make a decision not to have the chimney rising higher than say 3.6m, but for the system to work properly this would have to be revised.
Designers, manufacturers and installers are going to have to learn to communicate with each other far more effectively. We had an example recently where natural ventilation terminals had been selected for location adjacent to the the flue arrangement for the biomass boiler – not a situation anyone would want as the natural ventilation would simply draw the waste products back into the building. Fortunately, because we were supplying both elements of the contract, we were able to correct what would have potentially been a considerable error and provide the right advice before the installation had taken place.
We can absolutely understand why, in the planning process, the two types of system were selected but in our efforts to create greener buildings we have to ensure that the systems we choose don’t end up clashing with each other, causing long term problems and ultimately greater expense.
Collaboration, communication and a sense of partnership among those who have the expertise to share and those designing the buildings is essential if we are really going to make a difference in the future.
In some instances, planning for cleaning access is not being done properly. Access is required because particle build up occurs in the horizontal sections and although the incorporation of flue gas cyclones is said to ease the problem of Pm10 particles -the worst kind for air quality purposes – build up will still occur.
To date we have found that maintenance is not being properly undertaken, which is extremely dangerous. Our anecdotal evidence suggests that most people under a certain age do not appreciate the reality of wood burning, a reality that means when you burn wood you produce ash and other particles that must be dealt with – or ignored at your peril.
Add to this the Clean Air Act requirement that stipulates during full load conditions the efflux velocity for appliances up to 2500kW should not be less than 6m/sec, and you have a challenge on your hands. Achieving those figures is virtually impossible on condensing appliances and difficult on woodchip because of the low flue gas temperatures. With pellets it is possible but only by oversizing the flue, then using the excess draught to reduce the terminal diameter. This builds efflux velocity and improves the potential for good dispersion.
People need to think carefully about the outcomes they are looking for and turn to those of us who have been dealing with a wide range of fuels and flue requirements over the years so they can get some practical help in finding the best solution. Time and again we stress the need for customers to involve us at the design stage. With the correct design input we can make sure that the flues are correctly sized, that they achieve the right efflux velocity and they suit the system.
Advice should be sought at the earliest possible stage of the planning process so that headaches, costs and, most significantly, dangers, are minimised from the outset – so come and talk to us, we really want to help!

from Richard Parkhouse

Time out at the A1 Bridge Flue Systems 2008 Fly Fishing Day

A1 Bridge Flue Systems hosted its 2008 fly-fishing day at the recently reopened Arnfield Fly Fishery. This beautiful 40-acre stretch of water not only shares its position with the majestic Pennine Hills close to Hollingworth in Derbyshire but is well on the way to becoming one of the top fly-fishing venues in the North West.

Steve Cuthbert the water manager and owner has gone to great lengths to provide not only top class brown and rainbow trout for the discerning angler but excellent facilities with a new purpose built lodge and seating areas.
The dedicated body of anglers arrived at the water at 07.30 am and after a quick cup of tea,
toast and local hints and tips from Steve. It was off in the boats for those who preferred a leisurely row to their chosen spot and a gentle walk around the water’s edge for the others in search of their quarry. It was not long before some of the party discovered why this water is rapidly gaining a reputation for holding hard fighting fish. Several 2 to 3 lb rainbows were tempted by number 14 black buzzers together with two 6 lb examples taken on dries towards lunchtime. Catches of 10 to 16 fish were the general order of the day with all but two of the catch returned to fight another day.
Lunch was held at 12.30 in the lodge with a blazing log fire and typical tales of the ones that got away. Outside on the lawn, the art of casting a fly into a designated area was put to the test with much encouragement from those who thought this was an easy task – at least until it was their turn. Martin Draper of D & D Consulting, a relative novice to the gentle art of fly fishing, eventually taking the honours by casting his fly into the tyre no less than three times.

Final honours of the day however must go to Ian Craft of FlowMec Products. While all other anglers were catching trout of varying sizes Ian persevered and with dogged determination caught several (large) perch (Ian’s words not mine!) Not least of which was a fine specimen of at least 5 oz. This was no mean feat in water heavily stocked with only game fish and goes to show that dedicated specimen hunters will not be deterred when all around are catching what they are supposed to be catching. Well done Ian.