The actual phrase “penny wise, and pound foolish” is often mistakenly credited to Benjamin Franklin, but it actually originated with an Oxford Scholar named Robert Burton in his book, “The Anatomy of Melancholy” written in 1621! Needless to say, in 1621 domestic hot water wasn’t even a thing. It was before the advent of electricity, multi-story distributed hot water systems, and certainly before the advent of modern boilers, computerized boiler controls and mixing valves. And yet the phrase is nowhere more relevant than when it is applied to DHW installations where mixing valves are sometimes omitted for small overall reductions in material cost or piping complexity in a commercial, domestic hot water setting. So here’s “penny wise and pound foolish” as applied to your domestic hot water system . The Purpose of a 3 Way Mixing Valve in DHW In DHW applications using traditional direct-fired storage tank systems, a mixing valve has always been an important part of the overall system design as shown in the graphic below: The typical 3-way valve serves several primary purposes:
These numbers are just what is reported of course. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine estimates that as many as 70,000 people may suffer from the disease each year, according to a report released in August 2019. The disease can cause severe sickness and even death. Individuals with a history of health issues, smoking or who are over 50 are even more at risk. For facilities, the consequences of finding the bacteria can be catastrophic, even if not deadly. The water must be shut off, expensive mitigation strategies can be required, there is almost always negative media coverage often national, and of course, there is the potential for lawsuits or even financial ruin. How Saving Pennies threatens the whole system. It turns out that there is a lot of misinformation out there about what does and doesn’t compromise the integrity of a domestic hot water delivery system. Some of this misinformation is even propagated by manufacturers of tankless system who want you to believe that their on-demand systems are safe to run at much lower temperatures, thus saving energy. The truth is however quite simple and the science behind it is easily available on the websites of Federal regulatory agencies like the CDC, the World Health Organization, and private research companies. Consider the following commonly used table of Legionella growth. The disinfection of your hot water is dependent on two primary things: The temperature of the hot water and the time it remains at that temperature. Period. And the only way to manage the proper disinfection of hot water, without risking scalding injuries at the fixture, is through management of water temperatures using a 3 way mixing valve.
A Little More Work, A Lot More Safety Heat-Timer® recognized a while ago that installers needed a simpler and faster solution to the installation of 3 way mixing valves. That’s why we developed the Electronic Tempering Valve (ETV) and the Electronic Tempering Station or ETS. The ETS provides installers the convenience of a pre-piped and pre-wired assembly of the ETV valve and module. The installers only need to connect the hot and cold water supply, and provide power to the controller to have a completely safe, pre-plumbed solution to domestic hot water safety. For more information on Heat-Timer’s electronic tempering valve solutions for domestic hot water applications, please contact a Heat-Timer® representative today at: (973) 575 4004. Original blog posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/domestic-hot-water-solutions/
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Everyone has purchased something with an irresistible mail in rebate. Sometimes that product is even free after the rebate. Yet, the Wall Street Journal has estimated that about 40% of mail-in rebates are not redeemed. Many sources say that the number is well over 50%. According to the research done by the Wall Street Journal and others, many people forget to mail it in within 30 days of their purchase. Or, they lose the receipt. Others actually receive the rebate check and forget to cash it. These customers are literally leaving money on their kitchen table.
Do not leave money on the table when it comes to upgrading your heating system this summer. Both Consolidated Edison and National Grid are offering rebates to their gas customers who upgrade their boiler controls for their multi-family or commercial building. These utility rebates will pay property owners to purchase an energy saving internet boiler controller with apartment sensors. Adding an internet boiler controller like the Heat-Timer® Platinum Series Controller will reduce heating costs for years to come while giving you complete visibility into your building/portfolio from anywhere. Get paid today for saving money tomorrow Adding a boiler controller with space feedback like the Heat-Timer ® Platinum controller has been shown to reduce heating costs from 15% to 30%. Yet, some property managers procrastinate and don’t lock in those annual savings because those cost savings are tomorrow, while the controller installation costs are today. Fortunately, both National Grid and Con Ed understand people’s reluctance to spend money today for savings tomorrow, so both are offering substantial rebates for the installation of an internet boiler controller for customers with gas fired boilers. The rebate sweetens the deal because it reduces the payback period, meaning those savings show up faster on the bottom line. Going Green, doesn’t have to cost you any Green Con Edison multi-family customers who pay a firm gas rate are paying a “systems benefit charge” each month on their heating gas bill. This charge contributes to the energy efficiency rebate fund for New York State. Those same customers who contribute to the fund are then eligible to receive lucrative incentives towards energy efficiency upgrades such as upgrading their existing Heat-Timer® to become a real-time Energy Management System. The rebate process is simple, prescriptive, and is based solely on the number of units in the multifamily building. For example, a (42) unit apartment building in Manhattan would receive $8,000 from Con Edison towards this capital improvement. A (112) unit building in Westchester receives $18,000. National Grid also offers these incentives on Heat-Timer® boiler control upgrades. A (35) unit building in Brooklyn was incentivized $4,500 for their upgrade, whereas a (196) unit apartment complex in Queens was granted $13,600. This simple rebate process can often render the building a cost-free upgrade. National Grid offers Heat-Timer® upgrade rebates to both “firm gas customers” as well as those who pay “Temperature Control” rates. Call Heat-Timer® today to find out more Don’t be one of those people who leave their mail-in rebate check on the kitchen table. Talk to Heat-Timer® to find out how to apply for a rebate for a Heat-Timer® Platinum Boiler controller and wireless sensors today: (973)-575-4004 Original content posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/get-rebates-for-boiler-and-control-upgrades/ It is finally summer. It is warm outside, people are out on the street and the boiler room is cool and quiet, without the water hammer, the clanking of the leaky steam traps, and the roar of those big ancient burners guzzling fuel. Why does it get so noisy down there? It is like that Classic convertible that hasn’t been driven since last summer. There are alarming new noises from worn-out parts, and the engine starts hard and is using a lot of gas. Maybe this summer is the time to finally get some of those things fixed and make it run like it used to.
Old cars aren’t the only worn-out fuel guzzlers out there. Buildings with outdated heating systems are fuel guzzlers too. Maybe this summer is time to fix a few things in the boiler room to get some peace and quiet. A steam system survey is the first step to improving system performanceA car making strange noises usually means a trip to the mechanic to figure out what is wrong. Fortunately, mechanics today have computerized diagnostics to help find the problem quickly. Heating systems are similar. Steam heat has been around forever, but over the last 10 years, HVAC engineers have been able to use new computer-aided analysis tools to understand and optimize these old steam systems. One thing these engineers have learned is that the main air vents in one-pipe steam heating systems are typically undersized when they are controlled with a modern boiler controller like a Heat-Timer® Platinum controller. Most steam systems were designed for a different era when boilers fired almost continually, and air purges every cycle weren’t necessary. Upgrading a steam system with properly sized main vents can improve response to calls for heat and reduce overheating and under-heating. Property managers can find out if their main vents are properly sized and correctly located with a steam system survey. Follow the noise – Steam traps and air vents Even in well-balanced systems, one typical survey recommendation is to upgrade older steam traps and main air vents. Although a survey really isn’t needed to know that the clanking and hissing are probably not the sounds of a finely tuned heating system. Traps and main air vents that are over 20 years old are probably due for a replacement. Design improvements and new materials have improved these components by reducing steam leakage and increasing reliability. New, efficient steam traps, and main air vents, when correctly sized and placed, can pay for themselves in just a few years through reduced leakage. Payback is even faster with the rebates being offered by the local utilities so there may be no better time than this summer to get rid of the water hammer and clanking steam traps for good. A modern car is more fuel-efficient, and so is a modern burnerThe other places that have seen major improvements are burners and burner controls. Like new fuel-efficient cars, these new digitally controlled gas and oil burners burn more efficiently, capturing more energy from the fuel and reducing carbon and other emissions. These burners also have a higher turndown ratio than older electromechanical systems. Replacing an old burner with a digital modulating burner can reduce fuel usage by 5 to 10 percent. If the new digital modulating burner is coupled with a variable speed blower, the burner controller can reduce the combustion air fan speed as the burner is turned down, reducing the fan motor speed and electricity usage. For property managers not ready for the capital outlay and installation disruption of a new condensing boiler, a burner and combustion fan upgrade may be the right choice this summer to increase boiler efficiency. If the replacement is a gas burner, there may be rebates available from gas utilities to share the cost of the upgrade. Heat-Timer® controllers can get the most out of any hot water heating systemWhile a new digital modulated burner can make the boiler 5% to 10% more efficient by itself, the real savings come when it is paired with a boiler controller like the Heat-Timer® Multi-MOD Platinum Series controller. The Multi-MOD has control algorithms that can get the most savings out of the higher turndown ratios of these new burners. The controller is designed specifically to control from one to four modulating boilers. Even better, it can combine outdoor air temperature and space feedback from the units to constantly modulate the exact boiler temperature or steam pressure necessary to maintain comfortable temperatures in the units while saving up to 20% – 30% in fuel costs. Why wait another summer to save that kind of money? An old car can become a classic. An old heating system is just inefficient.If you have let too many summers go by without upgrading your heating systems and heating system controllers maybe it is time to take advantage of the rapid advances in heating system design and control this summer. Start with a system survey, get the upgrades, get the rebates, then ask Heat-Timer® how the Platinum series controllers can get the most out of your upgraded steam heating system. Original article posted here - https://www.heat-timer.com/summer-changes-to-your-heating-controls/ Summer is a great time to maintain or upgrade the steam or hydronic heating system in your building or apartment complex. The system can be offline for days now, without angry calls from residents! The boiler room is quiet, most pipes and valves are not burned hazards, and the boiler room temperature is not pushing 140 °F.
Time spent in your boiler room now doing preventive maintenance and making some smart system upgrades will reduce your energy costs, and will keep you out of the boiler room at 3:00 AM during the upcoming heating season. Here are five suggestions for summer preventive maintenance on your commercial boiler equipment: 1. Start with a good cleaning A dark, dirty, and the cluttered boiler room is a boiler room filled with potential problems that you can’t see. Start your summer heating system maintenance with a good cleaning. Remove anything stored in the room that is not needed for boiler operation, replace any burned-out bulbs, and consider upgrading the lighting to make maintenance easier. Finally, clean the floor and vacuum out the cobwebs and dust from the equipment. While you are cleaning in those dusty corners, look around. Now that the place is clean, you can see those potential problems. 2. Give the system a thorough inspection Look for water stains on the floor, rust on pumps or valves, droopy pipe insulation, and damaged sensors or valve controls. These are all signs of pending failures. For steam systems, also inspect the mainline air vents. Again, look for water stains and evidence of leaking. Outside the boiler room walk the building, check radiators and make sure the steam radiator air vents have not been painted over or otherwise abused. If you have installed remote wireless sensors, like the Heat-Timer Wireless Sensor system, this is a good time to look into your control portal to see if any sensor in your building needs new batteries. If you don’t have a heating control and an associated network of wireless sensors monitoring your building and critical heating system functions, maybe this is the summer to install it. A Heat-Timer® Platinum series heating controller can monitor a network of wireless sensors and give you instant information about your building’s health and the operation of valves and boilers in your system. These sensors include room sensors that provide real-time information on the hot and cold areas of your building, allowing the self-learning algorithm’s in our control to keep temperatures stable without overdriving your boiler unnecessarily. In addition to wireless building sensors, our control provides internet and mobile app-based alarms and monitoring. From the comfort of your home, a building manager can see reports on energy usage, critical temperatures and can set or tweak all parameters associated with the efficient heating of the building. This data is available anywhere via an internet connection or on your cell phone. 3. Too hot for you? – It may be time to insulate those pipes If the pipes in your boiler room are uninsulated, or the insulation is damaged or missing, steam or hot water that is supposed to be heating your building is instead turning your boiler room into a sauna. Summer is the perfect time to insulate any exposed pipes and valves since they are all at a safe temperature. There are three major advantages to insulating the system heating pipes and valves:
4. Clean and inspect the boiler The boiler is the heart of the heating system. When properly maintained, it will provide heat reliably for decades. Neglect maintenance and it can fail in many sudden and expensive ways. Summer gives you the time to drain the boiler so that both the fireside and waterside of the boiler can be cleaned and inspected. A qualified technician should inspect and clean the burner and should also inspect, and if necessary replace, the three most critical safety systems on the boiler.
If you have decided to install remote sensors this summer, the boiler is another place where sensors integrated with a Heat-Timer Platinum Heating controller can warn you of boiler problems before they become serious. 5. Upgrade your controls Finally, while the technician is servicing your boiler, why not ask them whether it is time to consider upgrading the boiler controls? If your boiler controls are more than 10 years old, you will benefit from the advances in self-learning controls and internet connectivity provided by controls like the Heat-Timer® platinum series. For example, the Heat Timer® Platinum series controls come with outdoor reset and self-learning software that continuously optimizes the heating cycle for your building and climate. This reduces heating costs, while the system’s internet communication option will allow you to monitor and manage your heating system from anywhere. The Heat-Timer® Platinum interfaces with a variety of wired and wireless sensors, giving you a complete picture of how the heating system is performing, and all the hot and cold spots in your building. Summer is Hot, for Heating ControlsDon’t wait until things cool off to start thinking of heating. This summer, think about these five tips to give you the peace of mind that comes from knowing your commercial heating system is not going to give you a headache this winter. Original article posted at - https://www.heat-timer.com/5-tips-for-summer-maintenance-of-commercial-boilers/ The Climate Mobilization Act, NYC Local Law 97 (LL97) became law in May 2019. This environmental law mandates reductions in carbon emissions from buildings in New York City starting in 2024. It also adds a requirement to report annually on a building’s carbon emissions. This new law covers both new and existing commercial buildings larger than 25,000 square feet, or groups of two or more buildings with a total area of more than 50,000 square feet if they are under the same tax lot or part of the same condominium project. The carbon emission targets vary based on the occupancy class of the building and are calculated by the square footage of the building.
These building carbon emission targets are going to decrease over time in two stages. The first stage, from 2024 to 2029 has been set based on annual energy benchmarking data to affect only the top 20% of carbon emitters. The second stage, from 2030 to 2034, reduces the emissions caps to impact 75% of all buildings. Unlike previous benchmarking laws however, there are substantial penalties for non-compliance to either the reporting requirements or the emissions caps in LL97. How to know if you comply to the emissions capsA property manager can find out if they comply with the upcoming 2024-2029 emissions caps, or the much tougher 2030-2034 caps today. With minor exceptions, the buildings covered by this new law have already been subject to the New York benchmarking laws LL84, and LL133, so affected property managers have been required to calculate and report energy and water usage to the city for the last few years. With the data collected from the benchmarking survey the property manager can use a Carbon Emissions Calculator to determine if they comply. How to get ready for 2024 (and 2030)Even if a building doesn’t comply with these future mandates today, one of the benefits of reducing the carbon footprint of a building is those carbon emissions come from burned fuel, either at the boiler or the electric power plant, so reducing the carbon footprint of a property means reducing the building’s annual energy costs. Make smart investments in energy saving upgrades and they can pay for themselves in a few years. Fortunately, for the property manager, there are climate action non-profit groups, and private engineering firms who have done the heavy lifting to determine the most cost-effective energy saving measures in commercial buildings. Data from these studies consistently shows that installing Domestic Hot Water controls like Heat-Timer’s Electronic Tempering Valves, can pay for itself in a year or less. This data in this report was generated by looking at over 16,000 data points gathered from the thousands of buildings subject to NYC benchmarking laws. Its recommendations are therefore general. Wouldn’t it be nice if a property manager had this kind of data for their specific building? If a building already has Heat-Timer® Boiler or DHW controller, that kind of deep data analysis is available just by installing internet access through Heat-Timer® Building Net. Turn Platinum data into smart investments in energy savingAs the world leader in automated heating control systems for commercial buildings, Heat-Timer® already has thousands of Platinum Series Controllers installed in boiler rooms across the country. Many of these controllers, however, were installed without internet connectivity features offered through Heat-Timer® Building Net. Through a simple upgrade, a Platinum Controller with an internet communication can further reduce energy usage and collect performance data that can be used to find more energy savings. For example, a Platinum controller with internet access can take advantage of Heat-Timer’s wireless space sensorswhich are now easily placed throughout a building. The Platinum Controller can use this real time temperature informationto continuality optimize its heating algorithm, anticipate and prevent building hot-spots and cold spots, ultimately saving an additional 15% to 25% in annual building heating costs for a very small upfront investment. If you don’t have a Heat-Timer Platinum Series Control in your building at all, the savings are even more significant. Since heating costs run anywhere from 40 – 60% of the operating costs of a building, installation of a Heat-Timer Platinum Series Internet Control can get building owners almost 50% of the way toward the Carbon Emission reductions required in the initial phase of local law 97, even if they did no other upgrades! If a property manager is going to turn data into cost saving, they need to start with the data. Adding internetcommunication allows the Platinum controller to access BuildingNet, Heat-Timer’s powerful remote access platform. BuildingNet allows the property manager to review historic data on heating system performance, and data from all remote sensors. A property owner/manager, reviewing the wireless sensor data can see areas in the building that are being overheated, or not receiving enough heat. Overheated areas of the building lead to open windows in midwinter, and tenants will warm areas without enough heat with inefficient electric space heaters. This is just one example of how a property manager can use BuildingNet’s big toolbox of data analysis tools, to reduce energy usage in the building. When you start investing in energy savings start with Heat-Timer®For New York building owners, local law 97 certainly provides motivation to begin thinking about greener buildings. The good news is that with or without the added pressure of LL97 compliance, installation of class-leading Heat-Timer®Platinum Internetcontrols is a darn good idea for your bottom line. And if you already have Platinum control in your building simply adding internet access to your controller can give you access to BuildingNet. BuildingNet’s tools can give you information you need to make targeted cost effective upgrades reducing your carbon footprint and adding a little green to your bottom line. To learn more about how Heat-Timer can help you make green, cost-effective updates to your buildings, contact us today or visit our website at: https://www.heat-timer.com/ Original Blog Posted at - https://www.heat-timer.com/local-law-97-new-york-mandates-a-greener-state/ There are gamblers out there who will bet on almost anything, cards, horses, dogs, you name it. But so far, we’ve never heard of a bookmaker giving odds on the safety of the water supply in a commercial domestic hot water system. Some property managers, on the other hand, either deliberately or inadvertently, are all in on that bet. They are betting that they can save a little money by not installing a 3-way domestic tempering valve, and still deliver hot water at the right temperature that is bacteria-free. They seem to gladly take that bet if it saves them some money in the short term. Unfortunately, if the bet goes bad, they stand to lose a lot more than if they had invested in a 3-way domestic tempering valve.
Here is the bet that some property managers take. Most local and national plumbing codes require that the maximum temperature delivered to the hot water tap cannot exceed 120° F. This safety rule is in place because a water temperature of 125°F can scald an adult within 3 minutes and a temperature above 130°F can scald in seconds. Children and the elderly are even more at risk. Instead of installing an Electronic Tempering Valve (ETV) like the Heat-Timer® ETV Platinum Plus to precisely control the temperature going to the faucets and showers, a property manager will just set the hot water heater/tank thermostat to 120°F and gamble that will be good enough. A Risky Bet Keeping the domestic hot water at 120° F is a risky bet because the temperature growth range for Legionella bacteria, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease, is between 68–122°F. Between 122°F and about 130°F the bacteria can survive but not multiply. If the hot water heater/tank is set between 120°F and 125°F there is no place in the entire hot water system that is hot enough to kill the Legionella bacteria. That takes a temperature above 140°F. Here is where the property manager rolls the dice. If the domestic hot water temperature is set between 120°F and 125°F they are betting that there is no Legionella in the hot water system. Because once the bacteria is in the system, it won’t leave. Even in a circulating hot water loop, there are sections near the end of the loop that can drop below 120°F during periods of low usage. In those cool sections of the system Legionella can multiply. Once that water gets back to the water heater, it will be too hot for the bacteria to multiply, but not hot enough for it to die. The bacteria are ultimately pulled back into the circulation loop where they again have a chance to multiply. Maintaining a safe DHW system doesn’t have to be a gamble There is a better way to protect hot water users from both dangerous water temps and the risk of Legionella inside the hot water system. First the tempering valves like Heat-Timer’s ETV can maintain a steady temperature of 120 +/- 2 degrees in the loop, preventing temperature swings in the facility, even under rapidly changing flow conditions, thus reducing the potential scald hazard. Second, using an ETV allows the hot water temperature to be stored above 140°F, ensuring that any Legionella is not just rendered inert, but it is actually killed. The high temperature in the water heater/tank means that no live Legionella enters the circulation loop, meaning that it cannot populate the sections of the loop that may drop below 120°F. Any bacteria that is either in the loop or entering in the make-up water is returned to the water heater/tank where it is killed by the high water temperature. With a Heat-Timer® ETV building occupants are winners too. For the occupants of the building, the benefit of having an ETV tempering valve is obvious during high demand periods.Water usage in the systems without an ETV and 120°F storage temperature will begin to pull down the temperature in the water heater/tank as cold makeup water is introduced. This demand outstrips the ability of the water heater/tank to heat the incoming water. Resulting in just lukewarm water at the showerhead. With an ETV installed in the system, a drop of a few degrees in the water heater down from 140°F will not affect the water temperature at the showerhead. This is because the ETV Platinum Plus controller will maintain a steady 120°F temperature in the hot water loop, even during peak demand in the morning. At the showerhead, the water temperature stays just right. With a Heat-Timer® ETV Platinum Plus you get safe hot water and BuildingNet too. Investing in a Heat-Timer® ETV will ensure that the hot water system is safe for users and stays safe. For the property manager, the ETVPlatinum Plus interfaces with BuildingNet, Heat-Timer’s remote access software, like all Heat-Timer® Platinum products. BuildingNet allows you to monitor the performance and see alarms from the DHW controller on a mobile device anywhere with internet connection, whether on vacation at the casino or at home in a nice hot bath. With the Heat-Timer® ETV, you’ve made a winning bet every time! To learn more about safe domestic hot water solutions, contact us today or visit our website at: https://www.heat-timer.com/ Original Blog Posted at - https://www.heat-timer.com/why-roll-the-dice-with-water-safety/ In many organizations, it’s common practice for IT to standardize equipment. It might seem that this policy only benefits IT, but everyone in the organization wins. By doing this, technicians only need to learn to configure and troubleshoot one type of system, over time familiarizing themselves and improving service. When there is only one supplier, it reduces compatibility problems that leave two suppliers pointing fingers at each other, while the technician and users are left without a solution. Similarly, large manufacturers will specify the same brand of equipment in all factories worldwide. A technician can walk into a factory in Shanghai, Tennessee or Germany and know how to operate and repair the equipment. Cost savings discovered in one plant can immediately be used in the other plants, maximizing efficiency worldwide. Most building managers don’t have properties located all over the world, but wouldn’t it make life easier if an HVAC professional could walk into any building and know how to operate and repair the heating system? Or learn how to optimize the heating system in one building and then be able to apply what they learned everywhere? While every building and every boiler is different, getting cozy with one heating control manufacturer is possible. Why not then learn the most versatile, and advanced heating control in the market so that you can be sure you’ll have a product that works in all kinds of applications both complex and simple? Heat-Timer® can indeed allow HVAC techs to live the dream, through its series of Internet Heating Controls. Why should you change to a single boiler control supplier? Modern boiler control systems are a complex network of old and new technology. A boiler technician has to understand how a controller connects to burner controls developed decades ago, while also being able to install wireless equipment developed more recently. Then there are settings for sensors, outdoor reset and alarms, and the parameters used to control dozens of control elements accessed through some kind of a menu structure. It’s no wonder so many HVAC techs are looking for an EZ button here. Even an experienced professional can take a long time to configure and optimize an unfamiliar boiler controller. That is learning time that the contractor or building manager is paying for. If the contractor only works with that brand of controller occasionally in one building, then re-learning needs to take place every season. Any person who occasionally needs to switch between an Android and Apple smartphone phone knows the time and pain of re-learning. Perhaps the most important benefit of standardizing your boiler automation systems around Heat-Timer® Products, may be economic. Other controllers tell you what they save as compared to before they were installed but Heat-Timer® self-learning controls are the only ones in the world that have data showing we can save as much as 20% additional energy costs over an existing boiler outdoor reset based control system. That’s because our boiler management software “learns” the unique heating characteristics of your building, its hot spots and cold spots, and can anticipate how to get acceptable comfort, for the least amount of fuel. Heat-Timer® has a controller for every heat and hot water configuration found in a commercial building. Period. It doesn’t help to select a single heating controller supplier if they don’t cover all the bases or just cover them a little. Because we are the industry’s largest and longest manufacturer of heating controls, our ability to save money on energy through sophisticated boiler control is unmatched. While some competitors brag about their 2nd or 3rd generation control, our evolutions are well into the double digits. Starting in 1937 with the first outdoor reset control. Whether maintaining one or ten systems, a building manager needs a control that can handle all the possible steam heating or hot water configurations within their buildings. You need centralized management of multiple boilers, multiple boiler rooms, in multiple buildings. Our Platinum series controls in conjunction with our BuildingNet website/mobile app, and wireless sensors, were designed for this purpose. Heat-Timer® Platinum Series controllers can manage steam and hot water boilers in every configuration, including condensing, non-condensing, staging, and more, as well as integrated control and monitoring of domestic hot water. In addition to the boiler controllers, Heat-Timer® makes pump controllers, electronic tempering valves and a variety of wired and wireless sensors. All of these components are engineered and tested by Heat-Timer to work together. Sometimes, it’s good to stay in the family. Getting cozy with Heat-Timer® means getting cozy with BuildingNet BuildingNet is the Heat-Timer® control online portal. It allows building managers and HVAC professionals to monitor and control every aspect of operation from anywhere there is a web browser. If you’re a phone guy, then download our free mobile app where you can monitor alarms and sensors throughout your building. You can stay cozy on your couch when you get cozy with BuildingNet. Building managers initially choose Heat-Timer® controls for their energy savings, but the experience of our remote internet and mobile app management of those controls brings a quality of life benefit that is just as compelling. The operational benefits are endless. You just have to live it for a while. Heat-Timer® means peace of mind In the end, the advantage of going with Heat-Timer is peace of mind. No more worrying whether your control is really saving all the money it could or should be. No more worrying whether you’ll remember how to adjust the control. No more worrying that you’ll need a midnight trip to the boiler room to diagnose or fix an issue with heat in the middle of winter. Standardizing on one heating control manufacturer is the right move for your commercial HVAC business. Cozy up with Heat-Timer® Contact us today for more information on your heating control needs. Visit https://www.heat-timer.com/ Original content posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/get-cozy-with-one-heating-control-supplier-heat-timer/ A Building Management System (BMS), also called Building Automation System (BAS) is a system that allows building managers to monitor and control a building’s major mechanical and safety systems in one central, easy-to-use application.
A BMS can be thought of as a distributed network of building systems supervised and controlled in one central platform. The network of field controllers and other system controllers are distributed throughout the building and communicate to the BMS through a local area network. Field controllers can be general purpose, supplied by the BMS integrator and used for simple applications like lighting control, ventilation fans and building access. With a BMS, these applications can also be separated by zone, floor or other combinations to yield optimal HVAC performance. Field controllers for mission critical systems like fire alarms and heating are specialized and can act independently, as well as under BMS control. The Heat-Timer® Platinum series boiler control is a good example of a controller that is fully independent, yet capable of passing variables and status to the BMS. The BMS also has the capability to change the Platinum controller’s setpoints remotely. The Heat-Timer® Platinum Controller works with all BMS The Platinum series controller, like most controllers in the BMS network, primarily communicates to the BMS application through BACnet. BACnet is a Building Automation and Control protocol specifically designed for the needs of building systems. By communicating via BACnet the Heat-Timer and the BMS can speak to each other via a common language. The BMS can ask for status about temperature, boiler firing rate and other important information that the Heat-Timer is controlling or monitoring. Over the years since its introduction, the BACnet protocol has become the universal language of building automation. This protocol allows Heat-Timer’s Platinum controllers to be capable of integrating seamlessly into any and all building management systems. While having all building systems controlled in one place is not only highly convenient for a building manager, it can drastically reduce operating and maintenance costs with a short return on investment. Statistics show that 70% of a building’s total energy cost is in lighting, heating and cooling, which can all be controlled and optimized by a BMS. Of that 70% in energy cost, almost 50% of a building’s total energy costs are for heating and cooling. That is where Heat-Timer™ can make any building management system better at its core purpose – saving fuel and running the equipment efficiently. Let Heat-Timer® manage the boilers The Platinum series controllers by Heat-Timer™ are designed and optimized for efficient, cost saving boiler control. The Platinum controller works hand in hand with the BMS to make the entire building more efficient. If the BMS is the General Contractor, the Heating Control is the sub who takes care of the heating system. For example, the Heat-Timer® control can respond to the call for heat from the BMS, and then optimize the boiler temperature and cycling based on the outdoor conditions. This is made possible by the Platinum controller’s use of sensor data, outdoor reset, and most importantly, its own self-learning algorithms that map the heat transfer characteristics of your building over time. The BMS can also respond to the tenant’s weekend and holiday schedules, reducing temperature setpoints based on reduced occupancy and ensuring it is comfortable when residents return. Whether managing one boiler or ten, the Platinum controller can respond to changes in your heating schedule and efficiently balance the fluctuating heating load. As a fail safe, if the Platinum controller loses communication with the BMS because of downtime or network failure, the Platinum controller remains fully functional. Utilizing its own outdoor and indoor temperature sensors, the Platinum controller will monitor and maintain the building’s temperature for as long as necessary until communication is re-established with the BMS. Whatever BMS you have, Heat-Timer® is the smart choice for boiler control When it comes to saving energy and lowering costs, a BMS is only as good as the network controllers it supervises. To maximize energy savings while optimizing system control, it makes sense to choose the best boiler controls available – the Platinum series by Heat-Timer®. Visit https://www.heat-timer.com/ Original content posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/how-heat-timer-controls-can-make-your-building-management-system-better/ What is Outdoor Reset?
Outdoor reset is a feature of heating controls that optimizes the efficiency of steam and hot water boilers used for building heat based on the temperature outside the building. For hot water boilers, it will raise the boiler water temperature as the outside temperature drops, for steam boilers it will adjust the on-off cycling length of the boiler. Outdoor Reset Can Help Prevent Overheated Buildings Building codes require that the heating systems in residential and commercial buildings be sized to keep the interior warm at the location’s “Design Temperature.” Design Temperature is defined by ASHRAE as the minimum outdoor temperature that the location is statistically expected to experience for 99% of the year based on a 30-year average. This means that 1% of the time that the outdoor temperature is above the Design Temperature, the building heating system is oversized for the conditions. In a typical single-family home this is not an issue. On mild winter days the thermostat continually cycles the heat from full on to full off. Because the home heating system is small, it responds in only a minute or two when the thermostat calls for heat, and when the thermostat is satisfied the boiler shuts off and the residual heat in the system dissipates quickly, causing a only small temperature overshoot. A commercial building is very different. The hundreds of feet of pipe and hundreds of gallons of water in a commercial heating system have a lot of thermal mass that takes a long time to heat up and cool down. If a thermostat calls for heat in a commercial steam building, it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes just to make steam in the boiler. Then due to the size of the building and the condition of steam traps, air vents , etc. it can sometimes take an “additional” 10 to 20 minutes to fill the system with steam. During this time, the building is still cooling down. Once all that mass is hot and the thermostat is satisfied, the steam or hot water remaining in the system will continue to give off residual heat into the radiators, significantly overheating many rooms in the building. Because of this lag in heating the thermal mass, and then having it give up its residual heat, the thermostat is always playing catch-up, overheating the building, and wasting energy. Outdoor reset solves this problem by allowing the boiler controller to predict how much heat the building requires based on the actual outdoor temperature. During the 99% of the time that the outside temperature is above the Design Temperature, the boiler controller adjusts the boiler output to match the anticipated need. How Outdoor Reset works with Hydronic Heating The advantage of outdoor reset is easiest to understand in a hydronic heating system. A properly sized hydronic system will keep the building warm at the Outdoor Design Temperature when the circulating water is maintained at the boiler’s maximum operating temperature. However, this is too much heat for the building 99% of the time. With outdoor reset, the boiler controller will lower the operating temperature of the boiler in a ratio with the outside temperature. This ratio, called the reset ratio, varies from building to building based on various factors. For example, if the boiler operates at 180° at the Design Temperature, the controller will use the reset ratio to reduce the boiler temperature to a lower temperature on a mild winter day. This reduces the amount of residual heat in the system and eliminates overshoot when the thermostat calls for heat. With a condensing boiler, the controller can lower the water temperature much lower in the spring and fall, delivering exactly the amount of heat the building needs. The savings of lowering boiler temperature are significant. For every 4°F the boiler water temperature is reduced, there is 1% energy savings. This alone can result in a cost savings of 15% or more during the heating season. How Outdoor Reset Works with Steam Heat For a steam system, outdoor reset is even more important, because condensing steam can release almost 7 times the energy into the building as an equivalent weight of hot water, leading to large temperature overshoots and overheated rooms. Outdoor reset allows the boiler controller to predict ahead of time how much heat is needed in the building and how long the boiler’s on-off cycle needs to be. When the outdoor air temperature drops, the boiler controller turns on the heat source. During the first part of the logic the boiler controller fires the boiler until the heating system sensor, a temperature sensor located at the far end of the heating system, indicates that steam has reached the entire system. This is often called “establishing heat.” Once heat has been established in the system, the boiler controller will calculate how long the boiler needs to stay on based on the outside temperature. At the end of the calculated time period the boiler will shut off, and the residual heat in the system will heat the building. Because of the energy savings from outdoor reset, basic outdoor reset functionality on new commercial construction and renovations has been required by the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and IRC since 2015. To comply with these requirements, basic outdoor reset is now included standard with many new boilers. Basic Outdoor-Reset is Only One Factor in Building Energy Conservation While basic outdoor reset saves energy, it is only a first step in reducing a building’s energy costs. A full-featured premium boiler controller like the Heat-Timer® Internet series boiler controller with wireless space sensors, offers several other energy saving features, which working together have been shown to save an additional 20% of energy costs over outdoor reset alone. It turns out that the most important feature of a premium boiler controller is the ability of the controller to use the information from multiple space sensors placed throughout the building to optimize the boiler response. Buildings have different heat loss characteristics due to age quality of insulation, quality of windows, etc. So the Heat-Timer control offers various reset ratio options, to try and match the heat loss of the various types of buildings. The difficulty with tweaking selecting the correct reset ratio is that you need to get accurate feedback from the building. This is usually accomplished by asking tenants or occupants. So now you are left to make energy saving and comfort decisions based on the personal preferences of a few. When using a Heat-Timer® control with space feedback, the control uses an additional piece of information. It is a reset control, but now you can give the control a desired space temperature target that you are trying to maintain. The control analyzes the actual space temperature vs the desired target space temperature and automatically adjusts the reset curves to try and attain your desired space temperature. It does not just do this at one point in time, but is constantly adjusting to maintain your desired space target. This not only saves energy , but also dramatically increases building comfort. All outdoor reset systems include a single heating system sensor either on the condensate return line in a steam system or on the supply in a hydronic system. That single sensor doesn’t tell a basic system what is happening in the rest of the building. A Heat-Timer internet control with wireless space sensors can use the temperature data throughout the building to optimize its heating curves. Monitoring heat in multiple areas of the building has been shown in DOE studies to significantly increase resident comfort and local heating code compliance. Heat-Timer makes Energy Savings Easy It has been reported that 53% of people with programmable thermostats don’t use the programmable features, which makes it clear that even if a full-featured boiler controller can reduce energy costs, the controller can only do so if the energy saving features are actually used. That is why Heat-Timer® makes system set-up and maintenance easy, with simple, easy to follow display menus, detailed, easy to find online manuals, and outstanding technical support. Best of all, many of these energy saving features can be monitored and optimized from anywhere with BuildingNet, Heat-Timer’s exclusive remote management website and mobile app that allows building managers and HVAC professions to access the Heat-Timer controllers from any device with internet access. Why just settle for basic outdoor reset, when you can have the energy saving features and remote connectivity of a Heat-Timer® Internet boiler controller?' For more information, visit https://www.heat-timer.com/ Original content posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/how-outdoor-reset-works-in-heating-systems/ Some buildings are just hard to heat.
Every heating contractor has one or two hard to heat buildings. Big multi-use buildings like schools, churches and public buildings that have a tough combination of large spaces and small offices scattered throughout the building. Older buildings that may have had several renovations or additions over time. Sometimes the building’s heating system was just poorly designed in the first place. However, the tenants don’t care about why the building is so hard to heat, they just want an apartment or office that is not so cold they need mittens or so hot that they need to keep the windows open in the winter. Building managers and owners want that too! An HVAC technician faced with an unbalanced, hard to heat building needs some powerful diagnostic tools to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. Heat-Timer® wireless sensors can help diagnose those tough heating problems One of the primary tools are the wireless room sensors from Heat-Timer®. These sensors can be mounted permanently throughout the building or can be moved to different locations by a technician as needed to diagnose specific problems. The Heat-Timer wireless sensors can be used two ways to analyze a troublesome heating system. The Heat-Timer wireless space sensor measures the air temperature in a space and gives a residents perspective of the room temperature. The wireless temperature module sensor can be clamped directly to a radiator, feed or return pipe giving near instantaneous feedback on the heat distribution through the building. With BuildingNet® technicians can solve heating system problems from anywhere Wireless temperature sensors are not new. What makes Heat-Timer wireless temperature sensors so powerful as a diagnostic tool is the BuildingNet® Website and Mobile App. A technician using BuildingNet can monitor the wireless temperature sensors in the building in real-time, or look back at a sensor’s data history, which can show how the heat at that location varies throughout the day or over the heating season. The mobile app also allows the technician to monitor and change setpoints in the Platinum controller easily from anywhere. For example, a technician can use BuildingNet’s mobile app to call for heat, and then monitor a series of sensors to see how it is impacting the building. The technician can make some adjustments to the system, and then try it again to see if there has been any improvement. Wireless sensors and BuildingNet can solve the most challenging heating problems An apartment complex in Albany, NY used both wireless sensors and remote monitoring to diagnose a particularly difficult heating problem. The southeast side of the building tended to be too hot, while the north side units typically did not receive enough heat. Oddly, some of the north end units received heat in some registers, but not others. The contractor used multiple wireless space temperature sensors to monitor temperatures throughout the building. After some detective work, they realized that the north side steam pipe runs crossed from the north to the east side of the building, so some apartments were receiving heat from two separate sources. The second problem was that the solar gain on the south side of the building was so high that it was skewing the calculated building average temperature that the controller was using to control steam output. This caused the steam to shut off before the north side of the building was up to temperature. Once they understood what was happening in the building, they were able to adjust the response of the Platinum boiler controllers and then monitor the response until they were able to perfectly balance the heat throughout the building. No walls or plumbing were harmed in the making of these optimizations! Heat-timer® Room Sensors should be in your Technician Toolbox If you are responsible for a hard to heat building, consider the Heat-Timer® Platinum series internet controls as a solution. The combination of flexible Platinum controllers, wireless temperature sensors and BuildingNet for complete internet or mobile app visibility, can help you find and fix the toughest heating problems more easily. Visit https://www.heat-timer.com/ Original content posted on https://www.heat-timer.com/how-wireless-sensors-can-solve-your-heating-problems |
AuthorHeat-Timer® corporate office and manufacturing facility is conveniently located in Fairfield, NJ. Here, Heat-Timer® manufactures its electronic controls, sensors, valves and actuator products using specialized computer controlled equipment and automated testing systems. Archives
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