Almost 80% of all water consumption comes from two groups: No. 1, thermoelectric power, and No. 2, irrigation (farming). Public supply, which includes industrial buildings, commercial buildings and residences, accounts for only 10%.

As with most things hydronic, there are multiple approaches, and the “best” approach for each installation has to consider cost, aesthetics, access to the existing piping, available wall space and the goal of how the overall system will operate based on existing or newly created zones.

Two apartment buildings in the Bronx will soon get their heating, cooling and hot water from wastewater and geothermal energy. No more money down the drain, literally!

There’s long been talk about how to divvy up the heating expenses in buildings that have tenants. Should each tenant have their own meter? Their own boiler? Boilers are a lot smaller than they used to be, right?

Venstar, founded in 1992 and based in Southern California, designs and builds a broad variety of innovative thermostats with more than 10 million installed. 

What characteristic do solar thermal collectors, hydronic heat pumps and thermal storage tanks supplied by biomass boilers have in common?

There is no doubt that issues with natural resources and conservation of energy will continue to make daily news headlines. The concerns around exploiting our depletable resources and sensitivity on the battered environment have led society to find alternative and better ways to use and manage the energy that is available to us, principally in the use of renewable resources such as absorbing and storing solar energy.

I love design-build mechanical projects, and York Arts was one that presented many challenges. The basement level would be two large pottery classrooms with a third room isolated for the electric kilns, the first floor an art gallery and offices and the upper floor was to be classrooms and a large open space where lectures, painting classes or gatherings would be held. With such a diverse and wide-ranging load for maintaining thermal comfort, multiple zones would need to be created.

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.