Third rock from the son

Wiltshire-based MS Frise has come a long way from its origins as a domestic heating installation firm. Managing director David Frise has travelled even further as he spent 10 years serving on nuclear submarines before coming ashore to take over his father’s business.

Frise likes to claim that work on submarines was excellent preparation for the business of water heating technology, as a nuclear reactor “is just a big kettle”. In his early days as a midshipman on HMS Hermes he learned how to keep the ‘heads’ or toilets clean. He now claims to personally clean the boiler rooms at the company’s hotel projects before handover.

Showering has also become something of a passion for Frise and the ‘Monsoon’ power showers installed by MS Frise have become legendary in many upmarket services projects. His keen interest in this aspect is most likely due to the fact that submarine showers are turned off when the vessel sets off on its eight to 12 week trips – leaving a small space full of 100 unwashed submariners…

Today Frise is leading a major diversification of the business into sustainable technologies with the establishment of a second company called 3rd Rock Energy that specialises in solar systems, underfloor heating and cooling and ground source and air-to-water heat pumps.

The business provides the equipment and system designs via its network of competent installers (HVCA members) to a growing end user market. The company is also working directly with a number of architects and consultants as the range of projects requiring an element of renewable energy keeps on growing.

“Almost every inquiry we get now as a contractor has some element of sustainability,” says Frise. 3rd Rock is growing rapidly and will become larger than the original MS Frise business in less than two years, reflecting the soaring demand for sustainable systems.

MS Frise has exhibited at the associated Grand Designs exhibition at Excel for the past two years and will also be appearing at the Birmingham event this year.

Over 3000 people visited the company’s stand. “There are a lot of people out there trying to make their homes as ‘eco-friendly’ as possible and they are interested in all the possible options,” he says.

“There is a tremendous future in sustainable systems for the building services sector. The recent research project done by the HVCA proves how much of this work will be carried out by engineers with traditional services skills.”

Frise is chairman of the HVCA’s Sustainability Issues Group, which has been analysing the opportunities – and potential threats – posed by increased climate change related regulation.

Almost every inquiry we get has some element of sustainability.

The group commissioned consulting engineering firm FaberMaunsell to produce a report outlining the key sustainability market drivers and likely impacts on contractors.

“This helped us focus us on where we can make a difference and take a lead,” he says. “The group will look to pass on our enthusiasm for this growing market to other HVCA members and ensure we practise what we preach.”

There is a natural link between European and UK regulation and the work of building services contractors. No one is better placed to deliver the demands placed on clients by the European Performance of Buildings Directive than specialist engineering firms, according to Frise.

Despite rising energy prices, however, it is still a battle to explain the financial benefits to end users, but it is certainly a lot easier than a year ago. “We are trying to get people to look at the return on investment instead of ‘payback’ – that is a far more sensible way of calculating the financial benefits,” he explains. “If you have a unit giving a coefficient of performance of 4 to 1, then the more the energy price goes up the better your investment looks.”

Dinner table chat and word of mouth is also a powerful market driver with many domestic customers discussing the renewables approach with friends who then come to 3rd Rock for advice.

“The trouble is you often end up looking at houses with postage stamp size gardens, which are not ideal for ground source heat pumps,” says Frise. “But you can then send them down the air-to-water route.” For example, the AlphaInno Tec Solair heat pump can be installed either inside or outside the home and draws solar heat from the air.

However, 3rd Rock Energy is installing far more ground source systems either using a ground loop or vertical borehole. Frise has also been asked to explain the potential of ground source systems to the drilling industry. Often ground source systems are linked to low temperature underfloor heating to provide extremely effective warmth at very low energy penalty. “It is still a fledgling industry, but the momentum is pretty much unstoppable now,” says Frise. “More people are only receiving planning permission if they include some renewables in their design. Everyone has to comply with the new Building Regulations and using renewables gives you greater design flexibility to meet Parts L1 and L2.”

In the government’s recent Energy Review it was announced that planning permission would not be needed for solar heating, which will be a welcome boost for that market. “I just hope the government sticks to its guns on that one and we don’t have yet another U-turn.”

Before the diversification into renewables, Frise had already steered MS Frise into new waters by taking it away from the stormy environment of traditional contracting. The business now operates more like an old-style nominated contractor, working directly for end user clients, including a large national hotel chain and a number of high profile domestic customers.

The company was founded in Bath by Merton Frise, also an ex-Navy man, in the late 1950s as one man and a pushbike. The advent of the domestic central heating market catapulted the company forward in the 1960s and Merton was employing 40 people by the end of that decade and throughout the 1970s.

Part L allows us to show how well we can work with sustainable technologies.

Today the company has a turnover of £3·5 million and is now primarily a commercial m&e contracting business, but with a range of domestic customers at the ‘top end’ of the market as well as clients like Malmaison, Soho House, National Grid, Virgin Mobile and various schools and nursing homes.

“We are trying to become involved in projects earlier in the process so we can add value. Services are integral to every building project so leaving them to the end makes no sense, but it still happens.”

He is hopeful that the growing importance of renewables will ensure that the specialist contractor enjoys greater recognition and so will naturally rise up the contractual chain. However, he warns specialist contractors who want to work this way that they will have to adopt a very customer-friendly mindset.

“It’s no good telling a hotel manager who has no hot water that you’ll come on Monday to sort it out – he needs you there and then,” Frise explains.

“Where we have cocked up – and it has usually been as a result of poor communication in the contract chain – we don’t quibble about whose fault it is, but just go and put it right because that’s a chance to prove yourself to the client. There are so many poor companies out there that once they have found a good one they will try and hold onto you.”

Frise has also served as a member of the HVCA’s commercial and contractual committee. The committee tracks all the legislation contractors now have to contend with, which he says companies should be looking to use to their benefit.

“Part L is a perfect opportunity for us to show how well we can work with sustainable technologies and take a lead in this field. The government’s intervention in our industry gives us the chance to differentiate ourselves from the competition.”

Frise believes the HVCA Inspection and Assessment initiative introduced three years ago was a positive move towards raising the quality image of the sector and preparing it for the rise of Competent Persons Schemes.

“As an industry, we have a great opportunity to position ourselves right at the heart of the government’s strategy for combating climate change,” he says. “That is a pretty exciting and financially rewarding place for any contractor to be.”

David Frise is taking part in a seminar on the business opportunities growing from sustainability market during this year’s M&E Event at Olympia, London on October 10.