Energy Counterintuition

How is it possible that a single person driving in a car can be more energy efficient than using urban mass transit? Cecil Adams, the pseudononymous author of the syndicated Straight Dope column (Motto: "Fighting ignorance since 1973 -- it's taking longer than we thought"), has crunched some numbers that make a plausible if not entirely slam dunk case .

The world is a fascinating place, constantly churning out counterintuitive information. Maybe everything we know is wrong. -- Jim Olsztynski 

In this edition:

• Siggy's New Glitch & Fix -- Radiant Heat & Mod/Con Boilers
• Online Now: Chicago MCA's Bold Green Training Initiative
• In the News: A.O. Smith, Takagi, Taco, Triangle, Rinnai, Grundfos, Sweeney Rogers Geraghty
  

EPA Extends RRP Deadline
The EPA has announced it will delay enforcement of the new Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule until Oct. 1 in order to provide much-needed time to get more remodelers and other contractors trained. In revised guidance released last week, EPA acknowledged that remodelers in many parts of the country have been unable to obtain the required training to comply with the rule. Individual contractors now must apply to enroll in a training class by Sept. 30 and complete the training by Dec. 31, 2010.

Home Star Passes House
The Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 (S. 3434), recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, provides financial incentives to homeowners to make a number of energy efficiency improvements to their homes. The initiative, which must now pass the U. S. Senate before becoming law, establishes a $6 billion rebate program that provides incentives to homeowners for the purchase and installation of energy-saving equipment.

Registration Opens For Global Green Expo
BNP Media brings you the free Global Green Expo on August 5, 2010. Attendance requires no flights, no nights away from home. Just log onto your computer from the comfort of your office or home and join the conference to attend live keynotes and conference sessions under three tracks - Green Building, Green Manufacturing and Design, and Energy and Resource Management. Global Green Expo is an AIA and USGBC Education Provider. Courses noted with credit will be approved for 1.0 AIA learning unit and/or 1.0 GBCI CE hour per 45-minute webinar PLUS 15-minute scheduled chat. For the full conference agenda and to register, go to www.virtualglobalgreenexpo.com. Exhibitor opportunities are still available. Contact Diane Brown at brownd@bnpmedia.com or 248-244-6258.

Plumbing + Hydronics Expo Postponed Until 2011
Messe Frankfurt Inc. has postponed the 2010 Plumbing + Hydronics Expo, originally scheduled for Sept. 15-17 in Baltimore. The show was to be co-located with the Remodeling Show, which is still taking place in the Baltimore Convention Center on those same dates. Show director Kristen Woodburn said Messe Frankfurt will perform additional analysis on the needs of the plumbing and hydronics market before announcing the 2011 location and dates. For more information, contact Woodburn at 770-984-8016 or kristen.woodburn@usa.messefrankfurt.com.

Comments Sought On Home Energy Rating Program
The U.S. Department of Energy issued a Request for Information inviting interested parties to submit comments regarding the proposal to create a National Energy Rating Program for Homes. The deadline for submission of comments to the DOE is July 10, 2010. Interested parties may review and download the proposed National Energy Rating Program for Homes here. Comments may be submitted through the Request for Information page at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/home_rating_rfi.html or via e-mail to buildingratingRFI@EE.DOE.GOV with "RFI: National Energy Rating Program for Homes" in the subject line of the message.

A. O. Smith Joint Ventures With Takagi
A. O. Smith Corp. and Takagi Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan announced that they are establishing a joint venture to market and manufacture tankless water heaters in North America. As part of the joint venture, A. O. Smith will take over the management of Takagi's existing North American sales and distribution organization, maintaining Takagi's North American headquarters in Irvine, CA.

Name Taco's Pump By June 30
What's the name of a black and yellow, high efficiency delta-T circulator that's made by Taco? The answer is: Well, there's no wrong answer. In fact, if you provide Taco with the name they're looking for, they'll send you home with a colorful, new, 2010 Smart Car -- a win-win for you & the environment. Submit your suggestion and contact info at http://flopro.taco-hvac.com. They'll pick the winning name on June 30, 2010.

Triangle Tube Allows Online Training Registration
Triangle Tube announced the availability of online product training registration. Registrants can now select course locations and dates online, register, and pay the tuition all in one transaction. Registration is confirmed immediately via email. The event can be added instantly to the registrant's Outlook calendar, and customized directions to the training locations are also available. Triangle Tube has recently opened a training center in Denver, CO in addition to the centers in Blackwood, NJ and Toronto, Ontario.

Rinnai Extends Heat Exchanger Warranties
Rinnai Corp. has extended the heat exchanger warranty on RC98HPe, RC98HPi, RC80HPe and RC80HPi condensing tankless water heaters used in recirculating applications from three years to 12 years. The new warranty pertains to recirculating systems that are controlled through an aquastat/thermostat, a timer or an on-demand system.

Danfoss To Get Energy Efficiency Award
The Alliance to Save Energy has selected Danfoss to receive the Innovative Star of Energy Efficiency award at the organization's 18th annual Evening with the Stars of Energy Efficiency black-tie awards dinner to be held on Sept. 14. Danfoss will be honored for a number of revolutionary new products designed to advance energy efficiency, including the patented Ecoflow valve, Performer VSD compressor and ERC102 control.

Grundfos Honored For Career Training
Grundfos Pumps was recently recognized by the Kansas School of the Deaf (KSD) for the school year of 2009 - 2010 for continued involvement in the Career Training program offered to the students through the KSD.

Jeff Woods Joins Sweeney Rogers Geraghty
Sweeney Rogers Geraghty announced that Jeff Woods has joined the rep organization in as business development manager for the Mestek Products Division. Jeff got his start in the industry at Sweeney Rogers Corporation in 2000 and has since held positions at Mestek, Inc. as Northeastern regional manager for RBI Boilers and national sales manager for SpacePak Central Air Conditioning. He was most recently employed in the Business Development Department at Emerson Swan.

The search for a rep just got a lot easier.

The 2010 Rep Locator, brought to you by the publishers of Supply House Times, PM Engineer and Plumbing & Mechanical Magazines in partnership with AIM/R, provides a comprehensive database of manufacturers' reps in the plumbing market.

Year-Round Reference

• Published in print in the June issues of Supply House Times, PM Engineer and Plumbing & Mechanical
• Fully searchable online at www.locatearep.com year-round (launching June 2010)
• Key information all in one source, complete contact info, lines represented, states and territories served and much more.
• Online extras like company brochures and line cards, live web and email links, Google-based keyword search, and more, right at the fingertips of manufacturers, plumbing contractors, engineers and wholesalers to locate products and representatives.

Reps who wish to stand out from the crowd may purchase print ads, listing enhancements and online upgrades. Pricing and packages are available for every budget. AIM/R members receive special discounts and exclusive options.

Contact Deborah Reda at redad@bnpmedia.com or 630-694-4389.

If you have listed your rep firm in AIM/R's printed Locator in the past, your account is already set up. For new listings, changes or inquiries contact Breanne Rozek at rozekb@bnpmedia.com, or 248-244-6259.

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.

Quotes To Live
(Or Die) By

"Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." -- Peter Drucker

Training Is The Key To A Green Future

The Mechanical Contractors Association of Chicago and Pipe Fitters Local 597 have established a Green Construction Institute to pave the way.

©2010, J. Siegenthaler - all rights reserved

Click here to access a full-size PDF.

Radiant Floor Heat And Mod/Con Boilers

 

The Glitch

Overview: A project requires both medium- and low-temperature radiant floor panels. The installer proposes the following system design. Since the mod/con boiler already has an internal outdoor reset controller, he decides to use a standard 1-inch tempering valve to lower the water supply temperature to the lower temperature zones. He also decides that since the boiler supply and return connections are 1 inch, he can pipe the entire system with 1-inch tubing.

Exercise: Can you spot at least six design or installation details that are going to create problems?

 

The Fix

The header piping in the original design is the same size (1-inch) as the piping to individual zone circulators. This will likely create a high pressure drop when all zone circulators are operating. The pipe size of the distribution headers in the fix drawing has been increased to minimize head loss and, thus, minimize hydraulic interference between zones.

The boiler circulator needs to be hydraulically separated from the circulators in the distribution system. This has been corrected using the closely spaced tees.

The 1-inch tempering valve with Cv = 3.0 has been replaced with a properly sized three-way rotary mixing valve with much higher Cv (Cv = 10) and hence lower pressure drop. Although a motorized actuator is shown on the mixing valve, it may not be required.

A manually set (nonthermostatic/nonmotorized) three-way valve can provide proportional reset control to the lower temperature zones when the hot water supplied to the valve is reset by the boiler. The motorized actuator is recommended in situations where the lower temperature zones will have frequent setback or temperature adjustment. A check valve is installed in the hot water pipe to the three-way valve to prevent flow reversal when other zones are operating.

The remaining glitches and their corrections are as follows:

• A microbubble air separator has been added such that flow from the boiler passes through it during both space heating and DHW operating modes.  
  
  
• In the original drawing, the purging valves on the return side of the zone circuits were installed backwards.  
  
  
• In the original drawing, all zone circulators are shown with very little distance between their inlet port and the header. This distance should be a minimum of 12 pipe diameters to reduce the level of turbulence entering the circulator.  
  
  
• The DHW circulator in the original drawing lacks a check valve. Without it, there will be some reverse flow through the coil of the indirect water heater when the space-heating portion of the system is operating.  
  
  
• Finally, the point of no pressure change in the original system is incorrectly located on the discharge side of the circulators.

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Greening Steam: How to Bring 19th-Century Heating Systems into the 21st Century (and save lots of green!)  -  $30.00

Author: Dan Holohan

When it comes to saving money on heating, old steam systems are delicious low-hanging fruit. There is so much you can do to make them better, and most of what you do won't cost a fortune. - Dan Holohan

There are many steam systems in service today, and they'll be around for some time to come. It's not that easy (or inexpensive) to rip out a steam system and start anew, and that's why so many of them are still around. Dan Holohan's Greening Steam: How to Bring 19th-Century Heating Systems into the 21st Century (and save lots of green!) walks you through your old steam heating system and shows you how to get the most out of it without putting a lot of money into it. It's an entertaining and informative book that will have you looking at steam heating in a whole new light. You'll be amazed at how small changes can make a big difference when it comes to efficiency and savings. Read this book and start greening your steam heating system (and your wallet) today! Follow this link to view the table of contents or to purchase this item.  

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