MPdesign

Gentleman, I am looking for information on the proper maintenance, life, and refurbishment of natural gas piping and components including meters, valves, etc. I am looking at a distribution system owned by a university so it will include many items including bad grounding issues. Do any of you have any recommendations on where I can find this information?

Thank you gentlemen. You are always very helpful. It is appreciated.

I am not a specialist so I shouldnt say anything... (which means that I am).. But it may have something to do with the "flash steam" or "a little bit of steam" still in the condensate line that may propagate back up through the sanitary line if not made into 100% water before being dumped.

Hey guys, I was looking at a one story school with a steam boiler and just outside of the mechanical room (near the Vacuum return pumping station) and the condensate overflow drain, on the outside of the building was the steam venting as shown. I tried to trace it but couldn't. This looks excessive and my thought is that this is happening because of bad traps in the facility. What are your thoughts - I am not from the north and steam is not my specialty. Click to Enlarge 44.61 KB [:-wiltel]

For tankless just keep in mind that a family of four with a standard hot water heater will normally take short showers because they run out of hot water. Give the same family an endless supply and the 5 minute average US shower becomes 10+. Make sure the shower heads are all low flow (I have one nd they do work great and I do not miss OLD STYLE) and that will help also. Conclusion: More efficient - Yes (especially if installed near primary point of use - losses traversing cold piping is horrible) A savings - NOT in many households (per informal study of those who added them in my office).

It is my understanding that in most inspected areas a permit is required for *any* underground storage tank, UST, (such as http://www.spokanecounty.org/bp/data/Brochures/b36.pdf). It will be on a Reg report (you probably do not want to get one of these) and it should have been permitted (as such a permit will be in the file at the local permit office). I know, unquestionably, that this will not work in all instances - but it may help in many.

Thanks TJ. Well then perhaps you also could help me out with how many hours a cooling tower might run during a year in DC?

I am adding to this topic to keep all the Water tower good data together... Question: Over the years, about what year did people start using staged fans (not single speed) on normal jobs? 1980s, 1990, mid 90's or other.

Yer- thats what I thought.... Oh well, more model numbers...

Cooling Tower Fans -Single, 2 speed, or vfd - how to tell? Is there an easy way to look at the unit and tell without doing model number lookup? I swear that I wont ask anymore cooling tower questions for a while....[:-paperba

I see equipment from the off brands beside the big boys all the time. Stick with the tried and true big boys. It may take 8 years for you to notice the difference in the common wear and tear but take my word for it, it will start to show. When I hear "They have made recent strides" all I really hear is "Their current equipment has not stood the test of time yet"

http://www.inspectapedia.com/heat/LowWaterCutoff.htm

Good job.

When I look at Boilers (to determine if steam or heated hot water) I look for: 1) sight glass 2) Pressuretrol 3) Water pumps 4) Steam Traps 5) Heat exchangers 6) How is the hot water there generated? It can be very tricky. I have never seen a system like you have there... I have seen steam boilers used in heated hot water applications.

Replacing R22 condenser - what is recommended? So people are replacing condensing units. No big deal. Okay, The condensing units (99+% are R22) and they are going to quit making them. Big Deal. Given, R22 will be made for a long time; but people have 15-20 year old condensers and the whole thing needs replacement. I have heard clients complain that they need to replace the entire line sets and coils - is this true? I thought that R410A could work in the same line set? Many of the line sets are 2 floors away through lab areas or gosh knows where else. The people in these areas really don't even call maintenance unless there is a huge problem because they have 10 year old experiments running, are paranoid, etc.... In other words, it is not just as easy as "replace the whole system" because of the lineset locations and fan coil locations. What do you guys think is the best solution and why?

I am a quick learner. What I am looking for is information. Having a hard time finding it. Most places have field VAV's and PIUs with pneumatic controls. Johnson Controls handles most people in the area and in most cases (for these clients), they use JCI for most buildings and are adding VFD's to the supply and return fans over 25 hp. I was trying to find out where people see problems with this. Most clients think it is great and are doing it and pretty sold on it - more-so than I. I guess the crux is - what are the primary control (and other) issues that are overlooked in this situation? Thank you again for all of your help.

One thing with LEED (I am LEED certified by the way) is a real bother to me... It is so basically contrary to root of being green. According to LEED, grass is bad. It uses too much water. A company would be better off with a long lasting environmentally friendly non-VOC astroturf than grass - according to LEED.

Add VFD to 20 ton AHU Hey guys - It's me again... [:-bigeyes I am working on a portfolio of commercial buildings (various ages and sizes) where they are adding VFDs to many AHU's as part of a Johnson Controls retrofit and then adding Logic controllers to control the pneumatics of the field VAVs and Powered Induction Units. I have heard a lot of discussion about if this is advantageous or not because of pressures and flooding of coils, etc... I know they are doing it. I am thinking it may be a good idea for me to start recommending it where they have not done it yet. Is this a good idea or not?

For the good of people in the future... For BAC: Model: 3547-2CM yields the following information 3000 series, 547 sometimes correlated *roughly* to tonnage but not in this case, -2 tells us 2 cell, CM is accessories/options For general correlation of tonnages (which is many times wrong) and general data - see below. http://www.baltimoreaircoil.com/english ... ta_BAC.pdf This tower is 2 cell, 2@5hp motors, single speed fans, 850 total tons

Thanks Terry.

Baltimore Aircoil Co Mod 3547-2CM Ser 87400989

Clients.. I have a meeting coming up where I called the cooling tower in the picture a 2 cell cooling tower. Word on the street is that it is 2 cooling towers and I will be discussing with the client. I just want to confirm the correct terminology.

Exactly when is it proper to say "2 cell cooling tower" vs 2 cooling towers? ie. the attached. Click to Enlarge 40.66 KB Click to Enlarge 54.52 KB

The compliance plan has to do with large facilities making certain that they are not releasing (leaking) refrigerant to the atmosphere. I believe it to be part of LEED and sustainability initiatives.

No. No sky hooks. I am actually 43 myself. Don't kill me for it but electrical was actually my specialty for 12 years before inspection. It was in a prior inspection report on water coolers. Do you know if refrigeration maintenance compliance plans (which may require inspection every 2 years) extends to these units? I would think that it would extend to these.