2009 was not a fun year. So we at Just Venting are resisting the temptation to look back and see where we were and what happened. Rather, we choose to look forward to the coming year. What does 2010 hold in store? What are the trends and issues that will shape how we will do business next year, in five years and even further into the future?

To get a sense of what is to come, we had a chance to talk with Gordon Holness, 2009-2010 President of ASHRAE, (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers). In a wide-ranging discussion, he spoke with us about the trends and events that will affect the industry for years to come.

Holness referred throughout our conversation to the fact that in America, “40% of our country’s primary energy is consumed by buildings, and 75-80 percent of the buildings that exist in this country today will still be here in 2030.” So if we are to reduce our energy use in a meaningful way, we will need to pay more attention to retrofitting existing buildings to make them more energy efficient.

“EPAC in 2005, EISA in 2007 and ACES in 2009 — while they are important pieces of legislation, they primarily deal with new buildings and energy efficiency. While ARRA (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) did address older buildings a little, there needs to be more emphasis on retrofitting existing buildings.” He noted that while politically you cannot force people to renovate, you can incentivize them.”

Holness mentioned a recent McKinsey and Company report that showed we could achieve a 23% reduction in building energy use with capital expenditures of around $170 billion, yielding a return on investment of 17% on that money. He went on to say that increasing energy efficiency of existing building stocks is a more productive use of dollars than investing in renewable energy.

“If you want to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, then improving energy efficiency of buildings already in existence is three times more effective than using alternative energy sources such as solar or wind,” he says. Solar and wind power are still not as economical as energy efficiency measures and are inconsistent as dependable sources of power, he notes, stating that the first step toward achieving the twin goals of reducing energy use and reducing greenhouse gas emissions should be to improve the energy efficiency of our existing buildings.

Another area worth a closer look, Holness believes, is groundsource heat pumps – what we call geothermal energy here in the U.S. “In Europe, they consider groundsource heat pumps to be a source of renewable energy, even though they do consume some energy. In the U.S., we have adopted a more purist philosophy that to be renewable, it can’t consume any energy, but under EISA, geothermal is now considered a renewable resource.” Holness added that in Europe, a heat pump must produce at least 2.7 watts of energy for every watt it consumes, and some produce at a ratio as high as four or five to 1.

Watch for Part 2 of this thought-provoking interview with Gordon Holness to be published over the next few days.

Rich Silverman
Goodway Blogging Team

One of the ways we’ve answered this can be seen in our GDS-15-PH Scale Remover System. Everybody knows that scale buildup on heating and cooling equipment is a major energy thief, so any scale removal system worth its salt will have to do the job and do it well. Ours actually delivers the cleaning chemicals directly into the heat exchanger equipment and evaluates the effectiveness of the process in real time by monitoring the pH level as the scale breaks down. It then injects additional chemical as necessary. Innovative? Check. Hi-tech? Check. Efficient, both in terms of the system’s operation and the beneficial final result for HVAC systems? Check.

As for user friendliness, this is where the GDS-15 PH system really shines, because it is specifically built to enable a hands-free experience once the process is started. After the inlet and outlet hoses are connected, the technician can go fulfill other tasks while the system performs its work automatically, all by its lonesome. No more need to manually monitor pH levels and adjust chemical levels during cleaning. At the end of the process, wastewater is flushed down the drain. So there you have it: the scale removal system as a better mousetrap.

We like to think this type of system epitomizes our philosophy of innovation and user-friendliness, and we’re always gratified when technicians let us know that they agree. If you’re planning to be at the AHR Expo, we invite you to stop by and see us at booth #2138, where you can examine the GDS-15-PH system and some of our other industrial cleaning equipment as well. You can also register to win a free Good Light. We’ll hope to see you there.

Matt Cardin
Goodway Blogging Team

Photo courtesy of Goodway Technologies

Anyone who is responsible for maintaining a heat exchanger, chiller or condenser will tell you that cleaning tube bundles is one of the more time-consuming (read “expensive”) components of both your preventative maintenance and as-needed repair budgets. At the same time, budgets for capital expenditures have either been slashed or eliminated altogether, meaning you need to keep your chillers and heat exchangers in service longer than ever before.

Fouling and the buildup of scale on the inside of tubes can drive up operating costs by lowering thermal efficiency. Cleaning the tube bundles is a necessary evil, either as part of a PM program or when you notice declines in system performance between scheduled maintenance intervals.

The RAM-5SF is truly an improvement over other cleaning systems. All you need to do is roll it into place, hook up electricity and water, connect the shafts and tubes and start cleaning. To see what we mean, you can watch this video.

The key to the RAM-5SF is nothing more than simple, innovative design. Its innovative gun handle controls both the flow of water through the tube and the rotation of the tube. Just squeeze the top of the trigger and the shaft rotates and enters the tube. To bring the shaft back out of the tube, just press the bottom of the trigger. (I feel like I should be offering you a moon roof and tinted windows!) Nearly 100 accessories are available to accommodate a variety of tube sizes, configurations and designs.

If you’ll be attending AHR later this month, stop by the Goodway Booth (#2138) — register to win a free Good Light and test-drive a RAM-5.

Rich Silverman
Goodway Blogging Team

Photo Courtesy of Goodway Technologies

To get a broad overview of what is to come, we spoke with Gordon Holness, and in a wide-ranging discussion, he addressed the trends and events that will affect the industry for years to come.

An important goal for ASHRAE in the coming year is to raise awareness of the role existing buildings play in the use of energy. To that end, ASHRAE will be rolling out its Building EQ program nationally. The heart of the program is a label for a building which will describe both its as-designed energy consumption, based on engineering specifications and computer models, and, after data is available, its actual energy consumption.

“Knowing the actual energy consumption of a building, as compared to how much energy it should consume will benefit owners, operators and tenants,” according to Holness. Owners will find their more energy-efficient buildings to be more marketable to both prospective buyers and tenants. Tenants will be able to compare a variety of buildings in their market area, and operators will be able to use the data to work with management to improve their ratings.

“The primary job here is to keep the occupants of a building comfortable and happy. If a tenant or lessee can pay less for a building that keeps them equally comfortable, they will remain happy.”

Holness noted that in the European Union, legislation aimed at improving the efficiency of existing buildings dates back at least to 2003, with the passage of the European Building Performance Directive. Among other things, that law sets minimum performance standards for buildings, requires energy performance to be labeled and displayed and mandates inspection of boilers and air conditioning systems.

Europe is also leading the way in passive systems such as lighting, according to Holness. “Many offices in the U.S. have background lighting levels as high as 200 lumens and 1-1/2 watts per square foot,” noted Holness, quoting data from memory. By switching lighting schemes to more of a task orientation, lighting levels have been dropped to as low as 50-70 lumens or .6 to .65 watts per square foot”. In many European buildings, coupled with a switch to LEDs, that approach has reduced lighting loads by as much as 75%, Holness noted.

Among the areas that Holness feels will yield the greatest reduction in energy use for your renovation dollar are insulation, fenestration and lighting.

While ASHRAE’s name denotes its emphasis on heating, refrigerating and air conditioning, Holness says that the organization is evolving to encompass other building systems such as lighting and the building envelope. “To achieve the kind of energy efficiency levels that we need will require a totally integrated building design approach,” he says. To that end, ASHRAE is actively involved with the Department of Energy’s five Energy Alliances – retail, commercial, health care, education and government.

ASHRAE also works closely with other certifying and standard-setting bodies such as the U.S. Green Building Council, the organization that created and fosters the LEED program and the IES (Illuminating Engineering Society of North America).

One result of that cooperation is the proposed Standard 189.1 for high performance green buildings. “The proposed Standard 189.1 represents a certain amount of a move away from the idea of “the more air the better” and also away from the prior targets of 30% or more air than Standard 62.1, toward a more focused effort on contaminant source control.

On the economy as a whole, Holness notes that “While there has been some market upturn, we are not out of the trough yet.” He noted a correlation, however, between the incentives in ARRA and the performance of the economy. “The incentives in ARRA are a short term solution to our current economic conditions. I believe that when the incentives and stimulus money slow down, so will the economy before we see any long term upturn.”

Holness projects that technology will go a long way toward achieving the goal of reducing building energy use. He looks to SSPC 135 – BACNet – to gain more acceptance as a means for building systems to talk to one another. “We’d like to see the major manufacturers like Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Siemens embrace it as a standard – a supplier-agnostic way for everyone’s HVAC and other building systems to work together.

Holness also feels that the smart grid will play a major role in reducing building energy costs and consumption by enabling real-time management of HVAC systems. “The entire electric system in this country was built to accommodate a few hours of peak energy consumption. In a house with a smart grid connection and smart meters, a utility could turn off individual air conditioners for brief, 15-minute intervals, for example, to reduce peak power consumption – power which can cost 20 to 50 times more than ordinary power to generate.

As Holness’s wide-ranging discussion shows, there is a great deal happening in our business. And the ASHRAE winter conference January 23-27 in Orlando this year will be the place to catch up on all the latest developments – the changes that will affect how we conduct the day-to-day business of heating, cooling and lighting the buildings we own and operate.

The theme of the conference is Building Sustainability – From The Inside Out. If you happen to find yourself in Orlando for the meetings and the exhibition, stop by and see us at Goodway booth 2138.

Rich Silverman
Goodway Blogging Team

One of the innovations that we’re quite proud of, and that will be available for viewing at our booth (#2138) in Orlando, is the CC-140 CoilPro Self-Contained Coil Cleaning System. The whole point of this system is flexibility. That is, you can use it for just about any coil cleaning application you can imagine.

Its flexibility is due to its design. You can run it on AC or with its battery pack. You can hook it to a 3/4″ water line for continuous flow or have it draw from one of its own 5-gallon tanks. This means you can pretty much go anywhere with it. You just use the foam nozzle to apply some of our CoilShine detergent (expanding foam, very green-friendly instead of toxic and harmful) and then flip a switch to start driving the foam through the coils. The system’s overall design taps into several of the key tropes that define the current and future shape of the industrial cleaning market: efficiency, ease of use,and environmental soundness. Technicians consistently speak in glowing terms of their experience in using it.

Like we said, we’re proud of the CC-140 and would love to see you at our booth in Orlando, where you can inspect the system along with some of our other products. Don’t forget to register to win a free Good Light.

Chiller maintenance deferred is chiller maintenance denied. We’ve all heard stories about delaying or rescheduling maintenance procedures that we once did without a second thought when the economy wasn’t…well, lousy. You probably dismiss as urban legend the horror stories about failed chillers and clogged coils leading to catastrophic incidents. Sadly, they are true.

There are lots of reasons why important tasks like chiller maintenance might be put off . They range from “We don’t have the manpower right now because we’re all busy with project X,” to “I really hate that job because I can’t stand wearing a respirator and rubber gloves,” to the ever popular “We just can’t afford it this quarter, we’re already over our budget.”

Our reply is “You can’t afford not to do it”.

A too-little-used term in this business is “first-level failure”. In general, this is when a mechanical system begins operating outside of normal parameters. A good example would be a chiller with just a little bit of fouling in its coils. First-level failure in this case, according to process-cooling.com, will be characterized by several subtle and unnoticed, conditions:

elevated compressor head pressure
poor airflow through the coils
increased power consumption
reduction in true cooling tonnage capacity
Increased compressor cycling
None of these are good. They start out slow and their effect on your overall system may be negligible. But as time goes on, the effect becomes more and more pronounced. If you keep daily maintenance logs – and you should be – you’ll see the trends in your figures on power consumption and operating pressures.

Sooner or later, if you put off maintenance long enough, you will have a failure. If you are lucky only the chiller will fail, causing you to incur the costs of repairing it and whatever it costs you in lost production time. If you are unlucky, whatever your chiller was keeping cool will also fail. Deferring maintenance doesn’t make the need for it go away. All it means is that your chiller expenses will rise and the chiller will chill less as the likelihood of a failure increases.

For what it’s worth, the way to look at the question of chiller – or any building system – maintenance is not what it will cost to do it, but rather what it will cost if you don’t.

Rich Silverman
Goodway Blogging Team

Image by Dieder Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Under a Creative Commons Generic License

March 7, 2004–Pick any action movie from “Mission Impossible” to “Austin Powers” and it’s evident a building’s heating, ventilation and cooling system is probably its most vulnerable area. Recent terrorist attacks by bombs, airplanes, anthrax, plus massive blackouts show how quickly the security and safety of a facility and its occupants can be threatened.

“The HVAC system of any building is the prime line of defense against emergencies and hazards,” says Leo A. Meyer, the author HVAC Security and Safety—for Vulnerability Assessment. Just released by LAMA Books, the book addresses the immediate need to assess risks to our structures and their inhabitants and take preventive measures. “The HVAC system of any building is largely responsible for the comfort, safety, and healthy working conditions of its occupants,” says Meyer. “It can spread disaster as quickly as it spreads conditioned air,” he reports.

The author of over 50 books in the HVAC industry, Meyer targets the scope of the problem and how to evaluate risks, and offers solutions to make HVAC systems as safe and secure as possible. He identifies and discusses the HVAC system’s role in emergencies and hazards to any building. Emergencies include terrorist or criminal attacks, natural disasters, blackouts, fire, riots and demonstrations. Among the hazards covered in HVAC Security and Safety are biological contaminants—bacteria, viruses, Legionnaires’ Disease, toxic mold—as well as chemical fumes such as VOC’s, carbon dioxide, tobacco smoke, and asbestos.

The book features user-friendly checklists for surveying the HVAC system. Additional topics include:

Forming a Safety and Security Team;
Conducting a vulnerability assessment walk-through;
Identifying 17 high risk HVAC areas;
Evaluating possible retrofit actions;
Emergency planning; and
Maintaining safety and security.

HVAC Security and Safety is the most recent addition to The Indoor Environment Technician’s Library, a series of twelve books by Leo A. Meyer. More information is available on the LAMA Book web site, www.lamabooks.com. To order, contact LAMA Books at 888-452-6244.

Cave Creek, Arizona, January 20, 2003— Streamline air conditioning introduced the HVAC Performance Diagnostic system to a few local builders. The HVAC Performance-based technology developed allows builders to address one of the most common sources of complaints by new homebuyers, those related to heating and cooling systems, before they occupy the home. As a result of utilizing Streamline, builders can provide consumers with better comfort and the assurance that their new homes are equipped with the most energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, which consume as much as one-half of all energy used in the home.

“Identifying the true performance after a complete system is installed, is essential for optimizing energy efficiency, comfort, and indoor air quality. We ensure builders that the heating and cooling systems are properly installed before a home is occupied. We see benefits from this not only for the builders but the installing contractors as well. Reduced callbacks saves the contractors in unnecessary costs as well as possible litigation complaints such as mold issues caused by improperly installed systems. We want the homeowner to be comfortable as well as happy with their builder and installing HVAC contractor.
I think we proved our point when we completed a tract of 110 homes. A year after all homeowners moved in only one HVAC related service call was recorded and it was for a rattling register. This is unheard of in Arizona, proving HVAC Performance Testing does work,” said Mark Prinz, President, Streamline Air Conditioning LLC.

“Through our 25 years experience in the retrofit and new construction segments, we’ve found that problems exist in the HVAC systems of approximately 80 percent of the homes we’ve tested,” said Randy Carlson, CEO Streamline Air Conditioning LLC. “Our high level of diagnostics, allows contractors and home builders to completely identify ways to improve the performance of their heating and cooling system installations. Unqualified technicians, a new tool or so called computerized testing systems could not produce this level of highly accurate diagnostics, it requires an extreme amount of experience and dedication.”

Streamline is an independent testing company for Arizona. This ensures that the highest level of unbiased professional quality is maintained.

How The HVAC Performance Diagnostics Works

Streamline identifies problems related to the airflow through the duct system, as well as the actual real time performance of the heating and cooling equipment. The proper condensate removal is tested to avoid any type of water related issues. If problems exist, they are identified and corrected before the home is occupied, the system is then re-tested to assure compliance as well as the prevention of heating and cooling-related customer complaints.

The equipment used includes a laptop computer with special software, portable printer, digital photography, engineering flow hoods and sensors, which are all NIST calibration traceable. These sensors are placed at supply and return air ducts in attic or crawlspace areas and at the air conditioning condensing unit outside the home. A system technician then analyzes both the airflow and refrigeration sides of the HVAC system. The ductwork is inspected to verify Uniform Mechanical Code Compliance and integrity. The insulation is inspected in the attics to also verify compliance. The resulting data allows the technician to provide the builder with a computer-generated report documenting if the HVAC system is properly installed and operating per manufactures and industry specifications. If problems exist, our system generates recommended corrective actions.

From cold storage to restaurant walk-in units to general building space, the Sensaphone 2000 monitors HVAC systems, refrigeration units, chillers, or other untended operating facilities. The system tracks the following critical environmental and operating conditions: temperature changes, power failures and surges, pressure, timers, alarms, excess humidity, water seepage, floods, intrusion, and more.

Sensaphone 2000 capabilities:
· Collects data at remote sites
· Controls cold water loops
· Monitors cooling of cellular tower facilities
· Reports chiller trouble and fail-starts
· Records heat pump performance

“The Sensaphone 2000 system ensures that a facility’s heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, or cooling system is operating at peak efficiency,” said Jim Fairburn, director of sales and marketing for Sensaphone. “It enables facility managers, whether at a restaurant, grocery store, cell tower, or anywhere else – at anytime – to take appropriate action to prevent damage, disruptions, and downtime. Our monitoring systems monitor just about any input such as 4-20mA, pulse count, temperature, or dry contact, enabling the user to bring a wide variety of monitoring capabilities to their application.”

Sensaphone 2000 also allows users to receive notification of problems and solicit reports from any location at any time, and enables real-time data and event logging to record information at specified intervals. This flexibility enables facility managers to more efficiently deploy the proper resources to manage their systems.

About Sensaphone 2000
Sensaphone 2000 can report up to eight remote, analog, or digital conditions, including room temperature, outside temperature, humidity, tank level, tank temperature, pressure, flow rate, flooding, and HVAC controllers, plus power failure. It can be programmed to communicate with up to 32 destinations to deliver alarm messages or status reports in real-time. Users can program the unit for custom settings. Sensaphone 2000 has extensive built-in data-logging features capable of storing up to 32,000 records. It has the most flexible dial-out capabilities of all Sensaphone models – from any combination of telephone, fax machine, pager, e-mail account, or computer. Plus, alarm and critical data point information is automatically formatted into a Web page and uploaded to a specific Web site for online access.

About Sensaphone
Sensaphone stands at the forefront of remote monitor and control solution design, setting industry standards for advancements in technology. The Sensaphone family of products provides a comprehensive line of feature-rich, flexible technology for monitoring equipment, safeguarding property, and reporting critical data. Sensaphone serves a broad range of applications/industries, including telecommunications, network servers, computer rooms, oil and gas, water/wastewater, HVAC & refrigeration, science/health labs, agriculture, greenhouses, and vacation homes. For information call 610-558-2700 or visit www.sensaphone.com.

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