There’s no doubt the plumbing industry has had a hyper-focus on Legionella and prevention over the past few years. Yet a simple search on Google reveals outbreaks in an Illinois prison, a Hawaiian hotel and in Riverside County, California — all within the past two months.

Think you know pump systems? Think again. From misidentifying the major culprits of ownership costs to taking the wrong approach in implementing variable speed drives, misconceptions around pumps create missed opportunities for greater efficiency and cost savings.

In business, a decision based on incorrect information can have far-reaching consequences for an organization. This is not breaking news, of course, but consider this: Autodesk recently released a study in collaboration with consulting firm FMI Corp. on the prevalence of data usage in construction and the repercussions associated with data errors. 

PM Engineer Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke sat down with Elkay’s Michelle Hickey, senior manager of brand and media strategy, and Dave Sklodowski, group product manager, to discuss the bottle filling station market, current trends and some of Elkay’s philanthropic work in donating these products to communities in need of clean water.

The passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last year will help inject billions of dollars into both potable water and wastewater upgrades over the next several years. Coupled with that, President Joe Biden has issued an executive order and Federal Sustainability Plan that will put the U.S. federal government on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which includes directives for federal buildings and facilities to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 through energy efficiency, electrification and use of carbon-free electricity along with sustainability principles.

One of the things I love about engineering is remembering those moments that inspire us to keep learning. For me, most of the time, it was related to somebody trying to fix something that was broken.

For years, environmental considerations and sustainability have influenced innovation in manufacturing, and in 2021, those factors became the driving force behind new product development. 

Scald protection valves are the last line of defense in protecting occupants from dangerously hot water in plumbing systems. Point-of-use mixing valves keep building occupants safe and enable a variety of important domestic hot water recirculation applications. How are designers using scald protection mixing valves to advance the broader topic of DHW recirculation?

PM Engineer did a quick spot check with PVF manufacturers to get their take on current market trends, industry challenges and what to expect in 2022.

It’s not unusual for folks to wax and wane during conversations about experiences that we have had or read about that push the limits of our experience. When I worked as a pump applications engineer, I used to pour over the catalogs and pump curves of all the various manufacturers and think about what each type of pump was capable of.