A team of Scientists at the University of the West of England have developed smart bricks that are capable of retaining and recycling waste water, and able to generate electricity from the sunlight absorbed by the living architecture of the bricks. Each brick is made up of microbial cells and algae which form a process where new detergents are produced, electricity is generated, phosphate is reclaimed and water is cleaned. When combined with computing and engineering bioreactor walls can be created which will enable them to adapt to the various environmental factors inside the buildings, essentially adapting to the people inside the building using digitally coordinated mechanisms that will detect their presence and modify the... Read More »

An agreement has been drawn up between the Specialist distributor Switchtec and French surge protection specialist, Citel, which will provide exclusive distribution rights to the wide and vast range of Citel’s surge protection equipment within Great Britain. This means that the company will be able to improve the infrastructure focus more on the DIN rail mounted AC surge protectors market. The CITEL AC power surge protectors, have been developed using a patented technology that combines a high energy varistor (MOV) network and a specific gas tube (GSG). The specialized circuit has been built into certain SPDs, so they can achieve a higher protection level, longer life duration (due to the suppression of leakage current), and continuous operation and power... Read More »

A new Electrical Inspector Scheme for installers has been launched that’s designed to help businesses and consumers find the right tradesperson for electrical inspection and testing work across the industrial, commercial and domestic sectors where the demand for this type of work is high. This means that electrical tradespersons who are registered with this scheme, will have to verify their qualifications and insurance documents of the Electrical Inspectors, to ensure that they provide a sample of their EICR work, which is then subject to regular inspections and assessments. Within the private rented sector the NAPIT have long since campaigning to solve the problem with electrical safety checks by incompetent tradespersons; this new scheme aims to help solve those problems also... Read More »

DIYers have come to rely heavily upon ‘how to’ websites to provide the information they need to complete a task. These are websites which run through the process you need to complete in order to sort out a problem. It could be addressing a faulty electrical outlet or repairing an electrical circuit in an appliance; there are a lot of ‘how to’ websites which will be able to give you the information you need in these matters. The thing that novices need to avoid is to have a false sense of security about completing what is typically electrician’s jobs. They may feel that because they have a simply and easy... Read More »