PM Engineer articles from March 2009

PM Engineer archives from March 2009

Brew beer, save water.(publisher's note)
March 1, 2009... Commercial brewers use, on average, 5.1 barrels of water to produce one barrel of beer. This amount does not include the water required to irrigate the hops and grains or to clean the brew kettles. I acquired this knowledge last month when...

Looking for a manufacturer's mark.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... I very much enjoy your pme magazine and MyPlumbingPortal.com. Hope you can help me answer a question. I have a kitchen faucet that I bought four to five years ago for $150-$200. Unfortunately, it now leaks and I want to contact the...

Hydronic baseboard sizing.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... Every time I do a hydronic baseboard system, I end up with the same question: How do I size the gpm in the baseboard? I hope John Siegenthaler can help. We have one chart that says 3 or 4 fps in the radiant tubing, and that is straightforward....

A "greener" hydronic system.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... Frequently, I re-read articles by John Siegenthaler, P.E. Such is the case regarding A "Greener" Hydronic System from an older issue of pme [Oct. 2007]. I am in the midst of a home renovation project and have been doing extensive research on...

AHR show draws more than 50,000.(Industry News)(Conference news)
March 1, 2009... Despite the turbulent economy, the 2009 AHR EXPO, held at Chicago's McCormick Place Jan. 26-28, drew more than 54,000 registered HVAC/R professionals (including 34,973 attendees and 19,095 exhibitor personnel). The show featured 1,911...

PEX tubing added to California Plumbing Code.(Industry News)
March 1, 2009... Recently, the California Building Standards Commission certified the Environmental Impact Report on crosslinked polyethylene, or PEX, tubing, and unanimously adopted regulations approving PEX water distribution systems into the California...

RPA Board announces interim replacement.(Industry News)(Radiant Panel Association)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... The Radiant Panel Association's Board of Directors announced that Radiant contractor Jeff Brennecke will serve as interim board liaison and a temporary replacement for Larry Drake, the association's director for the past 15 years. Brennecke is...

Consortium to advise DOE on high-performance green building issues.(The Green Corner)
March 1, 2009... The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air--Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), along with nine other organizations, is forming a consortium in response to the U.S. Department of Energy request for consortia to advise the department on...

Plumbing's first green giant: remembering my friend Michael Martin, someone who firmly believed it was an engineer's responsibility to conserve energy and water whenever possible.(codes)
March 1, 2009... Since 1979, I have been involved with the ASME A112 Committee on fixture standards. During my first few years on the Committee, I met a towering man from California by the name of Michael Martin, who represented the California Energy...

Heat waves and smoke signals: this month, questions range from fire pump sizing and protection, to placement level of in-rack sprinklers, to friction loss on check valves.(fire protection)
March 1, 2009... Q: Do you have any friction loss data on older, single chock valves? I can't find much of anything. Our local building are having owners upgrade the headers to incorporate a backflow preventer. I don't really think it's fair to owners of...

10 ways plumbing engineers can prevent legionnaires' disease.(Green Plumbing & Design)(Cover story)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Legionnaires' disease, a deadly pneumonia, is caused by inhaling small water droplets contaminated with Legionella bacteria, or by accidentally choking the bacteria into the lungs while drinking. People can be...

Changes ahead for the design of dental facilities: revisions to NFPA 99 are on the horizon. Here's an overview of how they'll affect both health care and stand-alone locales.
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] All information in this article pertains only to dentist offices, not any other health care facility. This article will only review the design considerations of the dental systems, namely compressed gases and dental...

Pro-Pal valves for professionals.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Webstone has created a line of valves that separate the professional installation from the DIY look by offering these innovative valves to the professional contractor only. They simplify installations, create an...

Baxi Luna HT modulating, condensing wallhung boiler.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... Low-NOx, 98% efficient Baxi Luna HT wallhung boilers all bear the ASME H-Stamp and are gas/propane field convertible using the QAA73 controller, which, with outdoor sensor, can also achieve optimal performance. The Luna HT 380 combi heating and...

Sentinel cleans and protects hydronic heating systems.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sentinel chemical water treatment products improve boiler system efficiency and reduce gas consumption and carbon dioxide production. Sentinel cleaning and inhibitor concentrates eliminate the risk of premature wear...

Compact Industrial Boiler.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... Our new Industrial Boiler is a very compact and effective solution to retrofitting old, inefficient fossil fuel boilers, or for use in new installations. This boiler includes digital electronic temperature control, circuit breakers for each...

Stiebel solar panel/tank water heating system.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The solar closed-loop system includes flat plate collector panel(s) and mounting hardware, a storage tank with heat exchanger(s), a pump station with expansion tank and various temperature/pressure gauges, pressure...

FlexHead[R] flexible fire sprinkler connections.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... FlexHead Industries manufactures high-quality flexible fire sprinkler connections, which connect sprinkler heads to the branch lines. FlexHead's connections install at least five times faster than traditional hard-pipe while offering tremendous...

Anvil[R] Intl. introduces new grooved copper system.(Information Showcase)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Gruvlok[R] CTS Copper System is a grooved copper system that requires only a wrench for assembly on grooved-end pipe, eliminating conventional soldering and brazing. It allows installers of large-diameter copper...

Release/control panel.(New Products)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Viking has introduced a new release/control panel for preaction and deluge fire protection systems. The VFR-400 panel replaces Viking's current PAR 3 and FireCycle III releasing panels, which have been discontinued....

Full port ball valve.(New Products)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cimberio Valve's CimPEX (Cim No. 865) is a purpose-built full-port ball valve for use with PEX (cross linked polyethylene) tubing in residential applications, including hot and cold water plumbing systems and radiant...

Lav faucets earn EPA WaterSense label.(New Products)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Price Pfister announces that its Ashfield collection of lavatory trough faucets is the first in a new lineup of products designed to proudly bear the EPA's WaterSense label. The Ashfield line represents the company's...

Selling solar: solar power seems less like an 'alternative' form of energy these days.
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the past year since we first published a supplement on solar thermal energy called the Solar Installer, we've read more articles about the subject, heard more interest from our readers and seen more solar energy...

Variations on residential solar water heating: learn about closed loop/antifreeze-based systems.
March 1, 2009... Current interest in solar thermal technology is--to say the least--hot! Every month, more vendors enter the North American market with new hardware. Training programs for implementing this hardware are usually filled to capacity. At our office,...

A solar pioneer looks back: will history repeat itself?(Solar Works)
March 1, 2009... Everyone was in a panic. The energy crisis that was predicted in the mid-70s finally hit, and hit hard. Gas prices doubled almost overnight. Long lines formed at every gas pump. Interest rates were rising as fast as the gas prices, causing...

Evosolar offers full range of solar thermal products.(INFORMATION SHOWCASE)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Evosolar, a division of Jomar International, offers a full range of solar thermal products and pre-packaged systems. Evosolar has the broadest range of storage tanks with dual-coil, single-coil electrical back-up,...

Solar-compatible Baxi modulating wall-hung boiler.(INFORMATION SHOWCASE)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bard Luna 3 Comfort is a solar-compatible combination heating and domestic hot water wall-hung boiler. It senses the temperature of incoming water from the solar heating system and either circulates it to the proper...

Baxi Solar water heating system backed By Baxi Luna.(INFORMATION SHOWCASE)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Bard Solar water heating system combined With a solar-compatible Bard Luna 3 Comfort combi CH & DHW modulating wall-hung boiler can save 60 percent of the fuel normally used to produce domestic hot water. The Baxi...

2009 Hydronics Know How II DVD.(INFORMATION SHOWCASE)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Hydronics Know How II DVD contains all of the columns John Siegenthaler has written for Plumbing & Mechanical and PM Engineer--that's more than 200 articles covering everything from heat loss to hydraulic...

Radiant & Hydronics E-News, Web site.(INFORMATION SHOWCASE)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Radiant & Hydronics E-News is a twice-monthly e-newsletter full of the latest happenings in the world of radiant and hydronic heating professionals. Each edition features industry news, the latest products,...

Stiebel Eltron solar panel/tank water heating system.(INFORMATION SHOWCASE)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The solar closed loop system includes flat-plate collector panel(s) and mounting hardware, a storage tank with heat exchanger(s), a pump station with expansion tank and various temperature/pressure gauges, pressure...