A.G. Coombs Group Latest Information

[News] A.G. Coombs Apprentice Wins Industry Training and Achievement Award

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:05:00 +1100

A.G. Coombs Service Technician Ben O’ Brien has been awarded the prestigious Air-Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors' Association Training Achievement award for 2010. Ben was named as the winner of the award at the AMCA annual industry gala dinner on August 7. read more...

[News] Allan Coombs Admitted into ARBS 2010 Hall of Fame

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:42:00 +1100

At tonight’s ARBS Industry Awards, Allan George Coombs was recognised for his significant contributions to the air conditioning industry in Australia by being admitted into the ARBS 2010 Hall of Fame. On receiving the award at Sydney’s Convention and Entertainment Centre, Allan’s son Philip Coombs acknowledged “It is a great honour to have my father’s work recognised in this way”. read more...

[News] A.G. Coombs Service wins ARBS Award for most “Outstanding Service and Maintenance Provider”

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:42:00 +1100

Tonight A.G. Coombs Servicing Pty Ltd was announced as the winner of the ARBS Excellence Award for most "Outstanding Service and Maintenance Provider". The award was accepted by Mr. Russell Telford (Managing Director, A.G. Coombs Group) and Paul Eagling (General Manager, A.G. Coombs Servicing). read more...

[News] Bryon Price Delivers Seminars at ARBS Challenging Industry to Become More Proactive in Building Tuning and Energy Efficient Maintenance

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:41:00 +1100

This morning Bryon Price (Strategic Development Director, A.G. Coombs Group) challenged ARBS attendees to engage service providers more effectively to deliver increased energy savings. Speaking on a panel of industry experts focusing on the “Low Hanging Fruit for Energy Savings”, Price indicated that both property managers and building service providers needed to more proactively share and document building performance information. read more...

[News] Stannus Presents Best Practice Building Tuning at ARBS With a Clear Message – “If your building isn’t performing, it isn’t green”

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:43:00 +1100

This morning at ARBS Warwick Stannus, Group Engineering Manager from the A.G. Coombs Group, presented a seminar entitled, “Seasonal HVAC Commissioning – Strategies for Year Round Efficiency.” read more...

[Advisory Note] Considerations for Gaseous Suppression Systems in Data Centres

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:31:00 +1100

Gaseous fire suppression systems are commonly used in data centres and other similar mission critical applications. The primary reason for their use is that compared to traditional systems such as fire sprinklers, the potential for non-fire damage to equipment or materials is significantly reduced. Furthermore post fire cleanup can generally occur much more quickly where a gaseous suppression system is present and has operated to extinguish a fire... read more...

[Advisory Note] Reducing Water Consumption of Fire Protection System

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:29:00 +1100

Due to prolonged drought in many parts of Australia there is a heightened community consciousness in relation to unnecessary water consumption. While water based fire protection systems are generally designed to be operated only when there is a fire, they need to be regularly inspected and tested to help ensure they will operate when needed. The inspection and testing regimes confirm both operation and performance of the system and although necessary,... read more...

[Advisory Note] False Alarms and Automatic Fire Protection Systems

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:29:00 +1100

BackgroundAround 30-50% of all brigade 'turnouts' are to monitored fire protection systems and it is estimated that well over 90% of those turnouts are classified as False Alarms, also referred to as Unwanted Alarms or Nuisance Alarms. Coupled with the increasing prevalence of monitored systems there is significant impact on Fire Brigade Operations and as such all Fire Authorities are placing an increasing priority on false alarm reduction.Irrespective... read more...

[White Paper] HVAC Retrofitting for Green Refurbishments in Occupied Buildings

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:55:00 +1100

Major retrofits in occupied buildings to achieve energy efficiency outcomes may pose significant issues and challenges. The works are carried out behind the scenes or on a staged basis and it is exceptionally difficult to deliver the works without significant disruptions over an extended project duration.

The essential issue is that most building energy related systems, especially the HVAC are structured and controlled over multiple floors. This combined with usually inadequate system documentation and knowledge can and often does lead to very significant on-site issues. Additionally the major stakeholders: owner, tenants, builder or head contractor, property or facility manager and service providers will all buy into the ultimate objective however they have different and often conflicting agendas and expectations.

A different paradigm is required for these projects: one that is heavy on planning, project management, expert engineering support and most importantly, effective and proactive communication across all project stakeholders. We have done or are engaged in a number of major projects in this genre and share some of our experiences in this paper.

[Advisory Note] R22 Refrigerant Phase-out

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:59:00 +1100

Widely used in air conditioning systems in buildings, artificial refrigerants including chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) have long been identified for their ozone depletion potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP). In 1996 the internationally agreed Montreal Protocol established a schedule for the phase out of these substances. The more harmful CFC’s, including R11 and R12, are now virtually phased out... read more...

[White Paper] Sustainability: Bridging the Knowledge Gap

Thu, 24 May 2007 13:50:00 +1100

The Australian real estate market continues to demand greater environmentally sustainable performance at a time when the skills required to achieve performance enhancements are decreasing in the industry.
The skills shortage is compounded by a ‘knowledge gap’, which has occurred as critical knowledge of building design and operation is lost between different stages of the building life cycle.
A focus on a single rating number is contributing to a lack of the specific data that is required in order for performance uplifts to be achieved and maintained.
The introduction of tools that rate environmental performance, such as Green Star and ABGR, has brought about a change in the way real estate is designed and operated and has lifted awareness across the property sector.
The take up of the rating tools has been high, with over 100 projects having received or been registered for certification under Green Star and some 29% of the national office market having been rated using ABGR.
The rating tools have the potential to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, and to improve understanding of the real issues around sustainability performance outcomes, by focusing on data reporting at a more specific level.
If the knowledge gap is addressed, the Australian market environment presents a unique opportunity to achieve innovation and global best practice in measurement and reporting on sustainability performance.
Environmental performance rating tools have the potential to drive this change; however the industry must play a role in ensuring that Australia takes advantage of this opportunity.

[White Paper] Maintenance for Energy Efficiency and Ongoing HVAC System Tuning

Tue, 15 May 2007 13:48:00 +1100

This paper recognises the drivers and trends in the broader property industry that are demanding energy efficient maintenance and ongoing tuning for HVAC systems to improve their energy efficiency. The current HVAC maintenance paradigm is reviewed together with general maintenance practices and a series of issues and challenges are identified. Energy efficient maintenance is defined in terms of focus, scope, cost and benefits. The paper offers a way forward and suggested actions to encourage the development and promulgation of energy efficient HVAC maintenance practices through the industry.

[Advisory Note] Green Fire - Ten Key Principles for Sustainable Fire Protection Systems

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:02:00 +1100

Fire Protection Services are one particular area of buildings that has not been fully explored with respect to sustainable design, maintenance and management. There is significant opportunity to reduce the amount of water they use over their life, to substantially lessen the extent of materials and other environmental impacts required for their installation and ownership, and to lessen the limitations that fire services can sometimes place on achieving... read more...

[White Paper] The Ten Key Principles of Green Fire

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:32:00 +1100

Ten key principles for “Green Fire” are put forward in this paper, grouped for convenience into the categories set out in the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star Office Design Rating Tool (v2). The appropriate Reference Number is provided where there is a direct correlation to Green Star points.

[White Paper] Fire Safety Engineering Design and the Implications for Facility Managers

Wed, 03 May 2006 12:57:00 +1100

One of the primary benefits of a fire safety engineering or performance approach to fire and life safety systems design is that it allows for the consideration of all the features that will be inherent in a particular building, including structure, installed systems and management and occupancy regimes, when assessing the overall fire safety requirements. This can lead to substantial cost savings for building developers at the time of construction.

However because fire safety engineered solutions often rely on how the building will be operated and the integration of various systems they can place significant responsibilities on the Facilities Manager to ensure that the fire safety of the building is maintained. A very clear understanding of the resultant elements of a fire safety engineering design is required when formulating occupancy and maintenance management systems and procedures.