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 Electricity In The Air
A fascinating article here about research on electricity-powered airplanes. It would be great if they could pull it off for major transport, but a little skepticism is in order based on memory of the quest for nuclear-powered aircraft.
The Pentagon spent about two decades and gobs of megabucks trying to develop nuclear-fueled planes. They finally gave up in the 1970s after failing to overcome a fundamental technological obstacle -- the radiation shielding required to protect crews was simply too heavy. Water's buoyancy makes nukes feasible for subs and ships, but bringing tons of lead to military flight performance standards proved magnitudes more difficult to achieve. Boosts in power output led to corresponding increases in shielding requirements.
The article linked above notes that a similar issue, the heavy weight of storage batteries, is impeding the development of electric aircraft. -- Jim Olsztynski
In this edition:
- Siggy's NEW Glitch & Fix -- Give Me Full Flow
- Uponor's New Training Facility
- Sign up for a Green Virtual Trade Show.
- Many new products
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USGBC Founder Starts New Green Organization
The U.S. Regenerative Network, led by green building pioneer David Gottfried, held its inaugural forum in Berkeley, CA on April 28-29, with senior representatives from 19 founding member companies (including Sloan Valve), industry experts, and 60 real estate design, construction and ownership affiliates. Gottfried-founder of the U.S. Green Building Council (owner of the LEED® green building rating system) and World Green Building Council-created the U.S. Regenerative Network as a consortium of leading green building product manufacturers and service providers. For more information, visit:
www.regen-net.com.
Canadians Plan Hydronics Marketing Blitz
The Canadian Hydronics Council, a subsidiary of the Canadian Institute of Plumbing & Heating, has given a green light for the next step of a comprehensive marketing strategy to promote the value of hydronic heating. The concept, called "Beautiful Heat," was developed by independent consultants and will be presented to potential industry supporters. If the concept gains the necessary support, there could be more than $2 million to support a multi-media marketing campaign to grow the hydronic heating market. A decision on the final steps is expected before July 2010 with the goal of launching the campaign in early 2011. |
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 Uponor Hosts Radiantly Cool Summit
Uponor welcomed approximately 60 consulting and specifying engineers from across North America to its first-ever Radiant Cooling Engineering Summit. Held April 8 and 9 at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the event took place concurrently with the 2010 Uponor Convention, which itself drew a record 688 attendees-mainly plumbing and mechanical contractors, as well as distributors and independent sales agents.
Mestek Hires New Boiler Group Sales Manager
Mestek announced the hiring of Doug Bolasevich as its new Sales Manager - Boiler Products. Bolasevich will be working on a national level supporting all Mestek boiler product lines, including RBI Water Heaters, Hydrotherm KN Series and Smith Cast Iron Boilers. He comes to Mestek from Patterson-Kelley, where he held the position of western regional sales manager for all their product lines.
 Noritz Opens Showroom Near Atlanta
Noritz America Corp. recently opened a newly renovated, 1,650-sq. ft. showroom and contractor-training facility in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta. The facility will provide hands-on instruction on the benefits of tankless water heating for plumbing, mechanical and HVAC tradespeople, as well as their residential and commercial customers.
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Event Date: August 5, 2010
Reserve your place by: June 1, 2010
Total Target Audience - 250,000!
Benefits include:
• Cost effective - no travel or set-up costs.
• Time efficient - enabling you to see multiple prospects in one place.
• Convenient - more readily available than traditional face-to-face events.
• Marketing - print and online promotion for the event.
• Lead generation - full demographic information for anyone who stops by your booth.
View a demo at www.bnpevents.com/globalgreenexpo.
To exhibit or for more information, contact:
 Danielle Belmont
Online Events Manager
BNP Media
belmontd@bnpmedia.com
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 Green Banks Thrive
Capitalizing on the green movement, a growing number of financial institutions have sprouted up in the United States and elsewhere. Promoting earth-friendly policies, these green banks have appeared in numerous U.S. cities and other countries, including France, Mexico, and elsewhere. Read more about these green banks. |
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 Digital 2010 Radiant Flooring Guide Now Available
Are you at a client's home and forgot to bring a copy of the 2010 Radiant Flooring Guide? Or are you at a convention and need some quick information about using cork flooring over a radiant heating system?
Open your Internet browser, key in this address - http://tinyurl.com/rfg-digitalmag-2010 - and browse through the pages at your convenience. The Table of Contents contains links to take you directly to the article you want to read. Or you can browse through page by page as you would with the printed version.
Ads are linked to advertisers' web sites to provide more information on products or services readers are interested in.
The 2010 Radiant Flooring Guide is an indispensable tool for architects, heating contractors, mechanical contractors, floor covering retailers and installers, builders, wholesalers, radiant system specifiers and homeowners. It provides all the information for making proper choices on flooring over radiant heating systems, including an updated directory of radiant floor product manufacturers.
To purchase printed copies of the 2010 Radiant Flooring Guide for $15, contact Stephanie Weingartz at weingartzs@bnpmedia.com, phone 248-244-1275, or visit www.AECstore.com.
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Quotes To Live
(Or Die) By
"Respect people for who they are, not for what their titles are." -- Herb Kelleher |
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 A Close-Up Look At Uponor's New Training Facility
When it comes to any business, you can have all the right equipment and tools on hand, but without the proper training, it's wasted potential. For professional contractors in the radiant, plumbing and fire sprinkler industries, keeping current with the right training is vital to get the competitive edge that sets you apart and helps you grow your business - and profits. |
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The Glitch & The Fix - May 2010
©2010, J. Siegenthaler - all rights reserved
Click here to access a full-size PDF.
Give Me Some Flow
The Glitch
An installer sets up a zoned distribution system as shown below. To keep things simple, he uses the same size piping for the headers and all the distribution circuits. The heat source is a boiler with high flow resistance. The distribution system operates at water temperatures where sustained flue gas condensation will not be an issue. To prevent heat migration, he installs a spring-loaded check valve at the beginning of each zone circuit, just above the header. To control differential pressure, he installs a partially open globe valve across the ends of the headers. He sets the globe valve for one-turn open.
Exercise: Can you identify and describe at least six details that should be changed?
The Fix
Here's what's wrong and how to correct it:
1. The high-flow resistance boiler will create significant variation in zone flow rates depending on which zones are open. If the boiler has low thermal mass, there could be an additional problem with flow starvation under low-load conditions.
2. The partially closed ball valve is a very poor excuse for proper control of differential pressure across the headers. The variable-speed, pressure-regulated circulator is now the state-of-the-art method for providing such control in systems using valve-based zoning.
3. Headers should always be generously sized to minimize pressure drop along the length of the header. This plays a big part in providing hydraulic separation between the load circuits.
4. Any "flow-sensitive" boiler supplying a system using zone valves should be decoupled from the distribution system through some means of hydraulic separation. In the fix drawing, this is accomplished with a pair of closely spaced tees. It could also be accomplished using a hydraulic separator or a buffer tank between the boiler and the distribution system.
5. It's never a good idea to install check valves near fittings that creates high turbulence. This is the case with the check valves shown in the glitch drawing. There should always be at least 12 diameters of straight piping upstream of any check valve to calm turbulence that otherwise will cause the check valve to rattle. However, heat migration in this system is eliminated by simply installing the zone valves on the supply side of the zone circuits. Do this and there is no need of installing the check valves.
6. Purging valves on each zone circuit are missing in the glitch drawing. They are shown in the fix.
7. The circulator location in the glitch drawing, in combination with the likely pressure losses of the piping system, puts the circulator in a "pumping toward" rather than "pumping away from" situation with respect to the expansion tank.
Visit www.hydronicpros.com |
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 Save Time Filling Solar Collectors:
The Solarcheck Mobile Center manufactured by ZUWA is used for servicing solar thermal systems and designed to save up to 50% of time to flush, vent and fill solar collectors with heat transfer fluids. The compact unit includes the pump, hoses, cart, and tank. May discounted price is $975.00 with prepaid shipping to anywhere in the USA to the first 25 customers! www.alphathermalsystems.com.
 Thermostatic Radiator Valves:
The Danfoss RA 2000 TRVs regulates the flow of hot water or steam through free-standing radiators, baseboards or convectors in hot water and two-pipe, low-pressure steam systems. The operators can now be attached to the TRVs with a "snap-action" connection. An audible "click" indicates that the operators have been installed correctly. www.na.heating.danfoss.com.
 Anti-Scale System For Tankless Water Heaters:
Watts has introduced the OneFlow® Model OFTWH for tankless water heaters for use with all major tankless water heater brands. OneFlow prevents scale by transforming dissolved hardness minerals into harmless, inactive microscopic crystal particles that make their way through plumbing systems without attaching to pipes, fixtures, valves or heating elements. www.TheScaleSolution.com.
 Triangle Tube Controls:
Triangle Tube announced the availability of its Optima Series hydronic controls. This new line of eight controls is custom engineered to work with Triangle Tube's boilers for total hydronic system control. Installers can specify these controls utilizing packaged wiring and piping diagrams. These controls can be used to connect and control up to 16 boilers with full modulation, outdoor reset and lead stage rotation.
www.triangletube.com.
Data Loggers From The UK: Engenuity Systems, Inc. announced a North American exclusive agreement to represent Synetica's DataStream range of data loggers specifically targeted at the energy management market. The Internet-connected device enables users to collect, store and transmit data for energy management at an affordable price. Engenuity Systems is the world's largest distributor and value-added reseller of networked control products and related peripherals.
www.engenuity.com.
 40-Gal. HP Water Heaters:
Rheem Water Heating has expanded its line of hybrid heat pump water heaters with a new 40-gallon model designed for smaller households with a lower hot-water demand. The new Rheem HP-40 hybrid meets ENERGY STAR® requirements; certification is pending. The unit will be available in early June. Like the 50-gallon model unveiled in 2009, the new HP-40 hybrid offers an Energy Factor (EF) of 2.0, or more than twice the energy efficiency of a standard electric storage water heater.
www.rheemhpwh.com
 New Gas Vents:
Metal-Fab has introduced a totally redesigned line of special gas vents for condensing gas appliances, CAT II, III, and IV. Corr/Guard® II features a new design that eliminates the need for sealant at the joints. Liquid-tight connections are accomplished at each joint with the specially compounded SII Silicone Gasket. The two pieces are simply butted together and connected with a Vee band connector, engineered for exact, leak-free fit around the pipe flanges, no joint sealant required.
www.metal-fabcommercial.com.
 Eemax Tankless Heaters:
Eemax offers its Home-Advantage Series, a full line of whole house electric tankless water heaters with thermostatic control. With "Quick-Connect" fittings, they install easily, activate instantly, and deliver an endless supply of hot water to any point of use. Eemax HomeAdvantage products are 99% energy efficient and made in the USA. www.eemaxinc.com.
 Circulator Pump Installation Kits:
Webstone's Isolator® line includes kits featuring valves for installation on both the intake and discharge sides of a circulator pump. Each kit includes an original Isolator and Patented Isolator with Drain - in your choice of stationary or rotating flanges, two full-faced flange gaskets, mounting hardware, and bonus wing style "T" handles. www.webstonevalves.com.
 Webstone Installation Diagram: A convenient 11 x 17 laminated reference diagram depicts proper plumbing of systems and easily highlights the amount of time and leak paths saved by using the proper Webstone products in hydronic heating systems.
www.webstonevalves.com.
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AEC Store Corner
The AEC Store offers technical resources to help increase your knowledge, skills and profits.
 Radiant Precision Manual, $91.65
by John Siegenthaler
This book is not for the faint at heart. It is designed for the serious student or consummate expert of radiant heating and cooling. It is filled with the formulas, graphics and excellent schematics that John has become known for. Within its pages can be found everything from simple tube layout to intense calculations for flow restrictors in manifold assemblies. System design and wiring schematics for the latest in controls are explained in detail. Zoning, hydraulic separation, flow and pressure balancing, buffer tanks, mixing controls, mini-tube systems, proportional- integral-derivative (PID) controls and multi-load systems are just a few of the topics covered.
Follow this link to purchase this item. Call Stephanie at 248-244-1275 to order by phone!
Visit AECStore.com to view all of our products for the Radiant & Hydronics Pro. |
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Getting Industry News Has Never Been Easier!
This edition of Radiant & Hydronics e-News was sent especially to you
because of your interest in the radiant and hydronic industries.
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please write our editors and let them know
especially if you have suggestions how we can better serve your interests.
www.RadiantandHydronics.com |
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BNP Media
2401 W. Big Beaver Road, Ste. 700
Troy, Michigan, 48084-3333
U.S.A. |
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Radiant & Hydronics e-News is a twice-monthly newsletter compiled by the editorial staff of PM, Supply House Times and PMEngineer magazines. For questions, comments or requests of information, contact Editor Jim Olsztynski at olsztynskij@bnpmedia.com.
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