In 2012, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), the University of Cincinnati (U of C), and the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) began to work on a new sizing technique 80 years in the making. The main drivers were Dan Cole (IAPMO) and Steve Buchberger (U of C), and later Toju Omaghomi (U of C). As part of this effort, hundreds of thousands of data points were taken and evaluated to determine actual human behavior and plumbing fixture use in residential homes.
One of the best things about hydronic heating systems is that it’s easy to integrate some method of domestic water heating. This combination has been used for decades in systems where a boiler was the sole heat source. It’s also possible when a heat pump serves as the heat source.
Whether driven by rigorous state and local regulatory mandates, or simply the desire to live more sustainably, the demand for a smaller carbon footprint and greater energy efficiency is growing in both the residential and commercial building and renovation markets.
Ask a professional engineer about the energy used by the heating systems they design. Their response is almost guaranteed to apply to the “fuel” energy (e.g., natural, gas, propane, oil, pellets, etc.) used by the system’s heat source(s).
Central domestic packaged heat pump hot water (HPWH) systems can significantly reduce energy usage and provide a consistent and reliable source of hot water.
From the street, Bayview Tower in downtown Seattle looks like many other 1970s-era affordable housing apartments found across the U.S. This 13-story, 100-apartment property, run by the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA), provides an affordable senior-housing option to Seattle’s financially at-risk community. But, around the back of the building exists a domestic hot water (DHW) system, which is anything but 1970s.
Last month, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, representing the largest investment in clean energy sources in U.S. history. Though the bill is entitled “Inflation Reduction Act,” it's really a “climate change bill with a side helping of health reform,” as New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman describes.
In creating Hunter’s Curve, the beauty of what Dr. Roy Hunter did was to take an incredibly complex problem in probability theory and make it simple — so simple, in fact, that all it required was basic arithmetic.
I’ve covered pellet-fueled boiler applications in several past issues of PME. All of them have involved hydronic distribution systems. While such applications are certainly the prevailing way pellet boilers are used, they are not the only option. It’s possible to couple a pellet boiler to a forced air distribution system.