September/October 2014

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INSIDE More refrigerant changes on the way

U.S. contractor group establishes Canadian foothold

Mentoring key in keeping young employees

Industry motorcyclists raise cash for Habitat

District heatingManaging volatile fuel costs

Fall Heating

iSeriesMixing Valves

ProFit Parts

Radiant Mixing Blocks

SoftwareHot Water on D’MAND®

Air Eliminators

Circulators ElectronicControls

FloProTutorials

l

Do your best work.

System commissioning 47Careful startup critical on high efficiency commercial systems

Residential DHW recirculation 54Bigger homes, higher expectations drive demand

Contents

Features

DepartmentsHot Seat .........................................5Making the case for fall tune-ups

Industry News ..............................7Refrigerant changes coming

Letters ..........................................13Furnace sizing versus efficiency

People & Places ...........................60Wolseley raises $40,000 for Special Olympics

Coming Events ............................65New products still the focus at CIPHEX West

Shop Management .....................67Performance reviews in a small business

Products & TechnologiesHeating ........................................19

Hot Water Heating ......................31

Refrigeration ...............................39

Pipes, Valves & Fittings ...............43

Plumbing ......................................54

Tools & Instruments ....................56

Cover: Municipalities are looking to district heating as a way to manage volatile fuel costs. Please see our article on page 14.

Fall Heating

Motor city milestone 50 years of ups and downs with the auto industry

www.plumbingandhvac.ca September 2014 – Plumbing & HVAC 3

Today’s combustion venting 19Reduced temperatures, new materials changing the game

The New IBC Touch Screen Boiler Controller

Express Setup

Load Status

User Setup

Installer Setup

Diagnostics

Back

At IBC we are dedicated to finding new and better ways to provide superior comfort and fuel savings to our customers. We are pleased to announce that all IBC boilers in the SL & VFC Series will be equipped with our new Stainless Steel Touch Screen Boiler Controller featuring the latest in advanced touch screen technology and software features.

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TRUE NATIVE BACnet Seamlessly integrate IBC BACnet enabled boilers into your currentbuilding automation system

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Publisher

Mark Vreugdenhil(416) 614-5819

[email protected]

Editor

Simon Blake(416) 614-5820

[email protected]

Design and Production

Tim [email protected]

Production Manager

Lilianna Kantor(416) 614-5815

[email protected]

Circulation Manager

Pat Glionna

Corporate Services

Anthony Evangelista

PLUMBING & HVAC Magazine is published eight times annually by NEWCOM Business Media Inc. and is written for individuals who purchase/ specify/approve the selection of plumbing, piping, hot water heating, fire protection, warm air heating, air conditioning, ventilation, refrigeration, controls and related systems and products throughout Canada.

NEWCOM Business Media Inc.451 Attwell Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9W 5C4Tel: (416) 614-2200 • Fax (416) 614-8861

POSTMASTER: Send all address changes and circulation inquiries to: Plumbing & HVAC Product News magazine, 451 Attwell Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9W 5C4. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40063170. Postage paid at Toronto, ON. Annual Subscription Canada: $40.00 plus applicable taxes, single copy $5.00 plus applicable taxes. Annual Subscription United States: $60.00 U.S. Annual Subscription foreign: $90.00 U.S.

Copyright 2014. The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in any manner without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A member of: • Canadian Institute of Plumbing & Heating• Canadian Circulation Audit Board• Mechanical Contractors Assoc. of Canada• Ontario Plumbing Inspectors Association• American Society of Heating Refrigerating & Air Conditioning Engineers• Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada• Refrigeration Service Engineers Society of Canada

September 2014Volume 24, Number 6

ISSN 1919-0395

Canadian Business Press

Member

Hot Seat

Those working in the residential HVAC industry often emphasize the need for a pre-winter furnace checkup. Few in the industry need much convincing of its importance, but many homeowners are not so easily convinced. As a result, the annual fall checkup has largely fallen by the wayside as modern heating equipment just continues functioning year after year if homeowners are savvy enough to change out their furnace filters from time to time.

That means the first step for the contractor is usually to convince the customer that this is important. For them, it’s primarily a matter of peace of mind. If the heating system receives a clean bill of health in the fall, they know they don’t have to worry over the winter. From a technical standpoint, a professional should periodically give heating equipment a thorough check. And if you didn’t install the equipment, this may be even more critical as some contractors/technicians are more diligent about doing things right the first time.

However, one of the problems is that HVAC contractors often assign the fall system checks to their lowest cost employee – the rookie or apprentice. But to do it properly, it really needs an experienced technician who knows what to look for and can spot problems before they become serious. It may be just a faint noise, a light discoloration or a slight odor that raises a red flag and would be overlooked by someone with less experience. Price accordingly.

It’s also a great opportunity to chat with the homeowner. The contractor can provide advice on things, like filter

replacement, that the homeowner can do themselves. At the same time, they can talk to the customer about how the system is working, the comfort levels in the home, etc. and suggest possible upgrades that they might consider.

However, be careful. I think that some companies push the sales side – the “value added” – just a little too hard. Keep in mind that you are trying to maintain a relationship and keep this individual as a customer for life.

If you are going to suggest replacement, you need to do a thorough examination of the existing equipment and make a good case as to why it’s better to replace than repair.

Homeowners may subscribe to a maintenance program because it sounds like a good idea – and, well, it is a good idea. But contractors will lose customers if they end up feeling like they are simply paying the contractor to make an annual sales call.

The pre-winter checkup should be included in the annual maintenance fee, it needs to be done professionally and, more often than not, it won’t result in any further work at that time. But when the furnace, boiler or air conditioner does need to be replaced, chances are the contractor will get the work if they’ve nurtured the relationship over the years. Unfortunately, there’s no easy money in this industry.

Fall heating checkup

DispatchingTime SheetsWork Orders

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Ontario Newgen Sales, 905-895-5999

Quebec Rafales Agency, 514-905-5684

Saskatchewan Asta Sales, 306-933-4125

Calgary Hydro Smart Systems, 403-287-7933

Edmonton Tom Donaldson Co., 780-486-2288

Manitoba Tom Beggs Agency, 204-953-1900

For a distributor in your area contact: Atlantic Canada Rafales Agency, 514-905-5684

British Columbia West-Am, 877-600-0210

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The winds of change are blowing some of the world’s most ozone damaging refrigerants out of our atmosphere; but where does that leave refrigeration technicians?

“There is a lot going on in refrigeration right now,” reported Jim Thomas, president of Refrigerant Services Inc., in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. “We were able to move from HCFCs to HFCs without too much concern. But now it looks like governments are going to move pretty quickly to target the HFCs that have the greatest global warming potent ia l (GWP) . The problem is with replacements for them…”

European officials are phasing down HFCs with GWP scores above 2400, which would include R404A and R507. In the U.S., it appears the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will de-list these two beginning next year (and are moving quickly against R134a, which is used extensively for air conditioning in vehicles).

In addition, this year the United States, Canada, and Mexico together submitted a formal proposal for the Montreal Protocol to phase-down consumption and production of a larger number of HFCs. It will be formally dealt with at the next meeting in November. Details could change, but current wording recommends

reducing HFC use by 85 percent over the next 20 years.Refrigerants with high GWP numbers would be

targeted first. These could include R134a, R134, R143a, R227ea, R236cb, R236ea, R236fa, R245fa, R43-10mee, and R23. Reductions will begin immediately in developed countries like the U.S. and Canada; while developing countries will have a five-year grace period to develop alternative technologies and supply lines.

ReplacementsOfficials insist that alternatives are available. The EPA has been talking about hydrocarbons (ethane, isobutane, and propane) and a hydrocarbon blend (R-441A) for stand-alone commercial and household refrigerators and freezers, very low temperature refrigeration, non-mechanical heat transfer, vending machines, and room

air conditioning units.For air conditioning it is promoting HFC-32. In most

countries officials are now pushing CO2, ammonia, propane, butane and a number of blended products being developed and studied by chemical companies. The EPA has published a list of acceptable substitutes for AC and refrigeration, which can be found at http://www.epa.gov/ozone/snap/refrigerants/index.html.

“Refrigerant manufacturers are working on these blends with lower GWP numbers,” says Thomas. “I think

the best they can do right now is about 1800, without moving to the exotic products like HFOs. The challenge with HFOs is they are flammable and very expensive.”

(HFOs, or hydrofluoroolefins, are chemical compounds composed of hydrogen, fluorine and carbon. – Wikipedia)

“Supermarkets have now embraced CO2, but it


Industry News

U.S. contractor group enters CanadaOne of the largest U.S. independent contractor organizations has gained a foothold in Canada. The Waterloo Wellington (Ont.) Mechanical Contractors Association has been accepted as the first Canadian chapter of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, which has 3,500 members across the U.S. The new chapter will be called the PHCC-Ontario Trades Association.

“Being part of an international association will have tremendous opportunity for us,” said president Henry Jongbloed. One of the key factors in choosing to partner with the PHCC was that it accepted all mechanical contractors, he added. For more information, visit www.phcc-ota.org.

Feds boost apprenticeship in gov’t contractsA new procurement initiative will urge contractors bidding on federal projects to use more apprentices. On June 30 Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) and Defence Construction Canada (DCC) announced Phase 1 of the program. Requests for proposals and invitations to tender for federal construction and maintenance contracts will include voluntary certification in which bidders agree to use, and require subcontractors to use, reasonable commercial efforts to hire and train registered apprentices and to fully utilize allowable apprenticeship ratios.

“Soft landing” for housingThe trend measure of housing starts in Canada reached 189,784 units in July compared to 185,952 in June, reports the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

“The trend in construction has increased modestly in recent months due to in large part to multiple starts, which have strong variability from month-to-month,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC chief economist. “Nevertheless, CMHC continues to expect a soft landing for the new home construction market in Canada.” More information is available at www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca

In Brief

Refrigerant changes comingGovernments targeting HFCs in next level of phase-out’s

Please see ‘Gov’t’ on page 8

By Bruce Nagy

Jim Thomas with one of the large Dana containers used to ship spent or outdated refrigerants to a hazardous waste disposal facility.

Wholesalers can’t stock that many refrigerants

and contractors can’t keep them all on the truck. I think everyone is looking forward to the day when we can return to four or five types.

The Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating (CIPH) held its annual business conference in beautiful Kelowna, B.C. June 22-24. Over 240 delegates and companions attended the event, titled “Elevating our Passion.”

Mentoring criticalMembers elected Paul McDonald of Bradford White Canada as 2014/15 CIPH chairman. In his address to the group, he emphasized how important it is to mentor young people joining the industry, recalling that he has enjoyed a rewarding career thanks to Pat Paterson and others at Triangle Plumbing & Heating Supply in Toronto who did just that.

“I’d just finished high school and I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do,” he admitted. But at Triangle (now part of Desco Plumbing & Heating Supply), education and mentoring of new employees was viewed as critical to business success. “They were unique in believing that what goes around comes around,” said McDonald.

McDonald’s other priorities as chairman include working to ensure that CIPH continues to meet the needs of its members in a world of rapidly changing technologies, strengthening regional CIPH chapters and harmonization of codes and standards.

And as a dedicated hockey fan, he couldn’t help but note that he is the 67th CIPH chairman and his beloved Maple Leafs haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967. “I hope this turns out to be a positive omen,” he laughed.

20 years of supportOne thing that CIPH members have been passionate about over the past 20 years is their support for Habitat for Humanity Canada. The group has donated over $10 million in cash and plumbing/heating supplies to the group, which helps struggling families afford a home.

As well, it has directly sponsored 10 home builds, with a 12-unit town home complex in Burlington, Ont. this year the most ambitious build to date.

CIPH members honoured Case de Jong (Franke Kindred Canada, Midland, Ont.) who spearheaded the CIPH partnership with Habitat. He also served on the Habitat Canada board and the group is recognizing his efforts by naming a street in the Burlington complex Case de Jong Lane.

Business sessionsBusiness sessions at the conference covered numerous topics such as wholesale distribution in a connected world and brand innovation. Keynote speaker Warren Macdonald spoke about setting and reaching almost impossible goals. The Australian mountain climber lost

his legs in a climbing accident in 1997 and, less than a year later, climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain in a modified wheelchair.

There were recreational events too. Whether participating in the Ed Hardison Memorial Golf Tournament, touring the Mission Hill Winery, or

bicycling along the Kettle Valley Rail Trail over 4,000 feet above sea level, participants couldn’t help but comment on the stunning scenery at every turn.

The next CIPH Annual Business Conference will take place in Quebec City June 14-16, 2015. For more information, please visit www.ciph.com.

8 Plumbing & HVAC – September 2014 www.plumbingandhvac.ca

Industry News

costs more to install and there were some bumps along the road when they first tried it,” reported Dennis Larson, past Refrigerant Management Canada (RMC) chairman. “It was difficult to find qualified people and parts to service the systems, and CO2 wasn’t commonly available. But that is to be expected. The industry is changing dramatically. In the last few years there has been more technical innovation than in all of my previous 30 years in this business.”

He notes that some stores are also using ammonia in secondary loops outside the store. Ammonia continues to be a good choice for arenas and curling rinks. “There is a segment of the North American refrigeration industry that thinks ammonia will continue to grow,” he added.

HCFC collectionEnvironment Canada is planning to toughen up its HCFC collection program and is seeking industry input into proposed new regulations this fall, with a view to implementing a mandatory program next year. “It’s been a long battle and it will be another great accomplishment,” says April Gucciardo, RMC manager. “The industry can be proud of what it has achieved through a voluntary program.

“The new regulations will give us some teeth so that

we can level the playing field between domestic players and importers who are not in the program.”

RMC is a world renowned, Canadian industry-led program that since 2000 has diverted over 2.7 million kilograms of refrigerant through producer levies, refrigerant collection by wholesalers, tank storage, recycling or shipping to destruction centres.

Too many refrigerants“The speed of change is a problem for the industry,” says Thomas. “If you add the old and new refrigerants together you’re dealing with about 50 different kinds. Wholesalers can’t stock that many refrigerants and contractors can’t keep them all on the truck. I think everyone is looking forward to the day when we can return to four or five types.”

He doubts that will happen very soon. “We seem to be going in all kinds of different directions at the same time. And there are some interesting new technologies too. Smaller chillers and compressors, absorption systems that use salt and water in a vacuum, the new HFOs,…I’ve even heard about a process that uses electricity to create cold without refrigerants of any kind.”

Whether they are hurricanes, the winds of positive change, or a lot of hot air from governments, the refrigeration industry is pretty sure that for the next little while anyway, they’ll continue to blow.

Gov’t eyes mandatory HCFC programContinued from page 7

Mentoring critical, CIPH members hearStrong support in early years lead to rewarding career for new chairman

By Simon Blake

It wasn’t all business – some CIPH conference participants bicycled along the historic Kettle Valley Rail Trail.

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Motorcycle riding members of the industry and friends met July 12 on a nearly perfect day in Southern Ontario in a fund raising ride for Habitat for Humanity. By the end of the day, once all the money from riders, their supporters and ride sponsors had been counted, the event raised $12,700 for Habitat.

About 45 people participated on 34 motorcycles. Organizers were somewhat disappointed at the numbers. The last event in 2012 had drawn about 65 participants. However, HRAI chairman Marc Gendron and his son Marc-Andre came all the way from Montreal to participate.

Riders started at Habitat ReStore locations in Vaughan (north Toronto), Kitchener/Waterloo, Hamilton and Belleville and rode via various scenic routes to Knock Community Centre in Innisfail, Ont., which proved to be an ideal location with lots of shade, washrooms, and lunch. Barrie, Ont. Habitat officials

had to scramble at the last minute to find that location when the original destination at Innisfail Beach turned out to be double-booked.

Sponsors, including Plumbing & HVAC Magazine, Grundfos Canada, Emco Corp. and Taco Canada, covered all ride expenses.

The Ride for Habitat is organized by Habitat for Humanity Canada and its Huronia affiliate, with

support from volunteers of the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI) and the Canadian Institute of Plumbing & Heating (CIPH).

Planning for next year’s event is already underway. If you own a motorcycle, mark your calendar for July 11, 2015 for what promises to be another excellent ride and an opportunity to raise money for a very worthy cause. For more information, please visit www.rideforhabitat.com.


Industry News

Habitat Ride raises $12,700

Riders arrive at Knock Community Hall in Innisfail, Ont.

Viessmann’s Harald Prell, left, chats with COHA’s Debbie Jamieson and Taco’s Sean Giberson.

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Editor’s note: Authors Brian Guttormson and Bob Bettles received this letter in response to their article on thermostats in the July/August issue.

Dear Editor:Good article… well done. I have a few comments:

Regarding the low to high fire timings of seven to 10 minutes, in my opinion and based on a lot of research done by Skip Hayden (at National Research Council labs in Ottawa), high-efficiency furnaces reach their peak efficiency in less than one or two minutes and as such the conclusion that the furnaces are less efficient if they are oversized is a myth. Now, true comfort is compromised, but not efficiency. Also there is no damage of components since the components are stainless steel and can handle this.

It really amazed me as to how many high-end appliances are installed without proper matching thermostats so that the benefits of having that appliance can be maximized. The timing modes and shortcuts that manufacturers build in should be

eliminated. I mean, why would our industry want to allow individuals to marginalize their product and risk damaging their name and reputation? It never ceases to amaze me.

In closing, I do question just how far we are going with regards to the controls technology when we have

not yet reached an acceptable level of professionally installed systems and created a broad awareness of the benefits and reasons for hiring professional HVAC/R installers.

When people know what a HEPA air filter is and have no understanding of what an HRV or ERV is, or that the HVAC/R systems in their homes have the greatest effect on their energy costs and comfort, we have not reached the point yet where we can rest.

If there is one thing that will be a blessing and a curse it will be the entry of the consumer giants who have deep pockets and thousands of SKU’s to use our HVAC/R products as loss leaders, which (will hurt the industry).

On the bright side, however, they market and promote with a 100,000 contacts per day in print, TV, radio, in store, etc… and that creates awareness and educates consumers better and faster than we have been doing alone.

Keep up the great work and, again, thank you for the history lesson.

D. Brian Baker, presidentCustom Vac LimitedWinnipeg


Letters

Furnace sizing versus efficiencyOversizing doesn’t necessarily mean inefficiency, but thermostat matching is critical

Why would our industry want to allow individuals to marginalize their product and risk damaging their name and reputation?

“Cost stability is the key,” says Alen Postalka, manager of district energy for the City of Richmond in British Columbia. “Natural gas prices are not stable over time. They rise and fall and will soon probably go up significantly. We’re already looking at alternatives like air source, solar thermal, solar PV and sewage heat recovery…With our mandate our projects cannot become an added burden on taxpayers. They are completely covered in the rates tenants pay. If we want to keep the tenants we have to be competitive.”

“Our distribution system is good for 40-60 years,” says Stephan Fevrier, mechanical systems specialist for the City of North Vancouver. “If we add one renewable energy source we can reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of 53 buildings.”

North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Energy Corp currently has six mini-plants that use a combination of high efficiency natural gas boilers, ground source heat pumps, heat recovery from building cooling, and solar thermal panels to heat hot water.

Richmond and North Vancouver are among many progressive cities investing heavily in district heating and cooling. Municipal facilities managers cite a long list of benefits, including operating cost predictability and savings as described by Postalka, economies of scale for capital investment, space savings, dependability (switching between mini-plants), easy adaptability to lower cost renewable energy sources, greenhouse gas

reductions, reduced maintenance costs, new municipal revenue streams and flexibility in future planning.

Providing options“It’s hard to predict the future. The best thing about district heating and cooling is its flexibility during changing times,” says Julian Boyle, manager of strategic energy policy and initiatives for the City of Halifax.

He describes an example in which a house is built with cheap electric baseboard heating throughout, then a few years later the cost of electricity goes way up and the homeowner is trapped. They might scrap everything and re-fit the whole house. On the other hand, if they had hydronic heating with a gas boiler and the price of gas went way up, while renewable technology costs fell; they may have been able to change the fuel source. “It’s the same idea with district heating,” says Boyle. “You can change the system for five buildings or 20 buildings without having to re-fit all the building systems.”

“Interest in district energy is definitely increasing, and for a variety of reasons,” says Ken Church, team leader, communities, at Natural Resources Canada. “A lot of municipalities want to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, either because of price volatility or because their greenhouse gas policies are being driven by legislation. Sometimes they just want to locally retain community wealth.” Rather than sending budget dollars elsewhere to where carbon fuels are extracted, they invest in district energy infrastructure and clean tech, using local contractors.

Geothermal in Richmond, B.C.The Alexandra District Energy Utility provides renewable geothermal energy for space heating, cooling and domestic hot water for City of Richmond customers. When completed, this will mean 19 megawatts for 3.9 million square feet of residential, commercial, office and institutional space; including 3,100 residential units, a Wal-Mart location, other big box stores and a daycare.


Building Green

Municipalities look to district heating and cooling for a solution

By Bruce Nagy

Controls in the Richmond, B.C. Energy Centre are remotely monitored.

HDPE mains distribute water to and from the geothermal field and the connected buildings.

fuel costsManaging volatile

The system consists of 385 boreholes, each 76 meters (250 ft.) deep, creating a huge geo-exchange field, beneath a city greenway corridor. “Everything is underground at least four to six feet,” adds Postalka. “All you can see (above ground) is an air intake valve header.”

High density polyethylene (HDPE) mains distribute water to and from the geothermal field and the connected buildings. Inside each building, controls monitor heating and cooling requirements and modulate the flow of water from the utility. These, and the controls in the Energy Centre, can be remotely monitored. Heat pumps elevate water temperatures for heat or reject heat back into the system for cooling.

During the peak winter season, the system is designed to operate at a minimum supply temperature of -1°C (30°F). During the peak cooling season, it operates at a maximum of 32°C (90°F). A 1.0 MW condensing, gas-fired boiler is used for backup and supplemental heat at peak loads.

Richmond is located in the flight path of an airport, which means that few buildings use operable windows

for natural cooling because the jets overhead are too loud. “So this is pretty unique among district energy facilities,” says Travis Kulak of Corix Utilities Inc. of Vancouver, the utility operator. “It supplies both heat and cooling, and it’s a huge field.” Kulak says the system achieves the efficiencies expected during the original modelling, with two 75 horsepower pumps at 1750 gpm, two 50 horsepower

circulation pumps, and three 500-gallon expansion tanks located in the Energy Centre.

Challenges“With the high water table, we did mud rotary drilling and kept the trenches fairly shallow at 4 to 4-1/2 feet so we could work safely,” says Rick Nelson, branch manager at GeoTility Systems Corp. of Kelowna, B.C. “We had to pump as we went along, but we didn’t exactly do de-watering, which means you completely lower the water table. That would have been very expensive. In some cases we did socket and butt (pipe) fusing on land then dropped the assembly into a trench full of water.”

GeoTility has been installing geothermal systems for a couple of decades and doing its own drilling for the past 12 years.

“At 400-plus tons of cooling and heating, it was the biggest field we had done at that point. There are thirty one-inch loops per header, with four-inch supply and returns back to the vault; and from there 10-inch HDPE to and from the properties.”

Nelson describes the risk that any of its systems might fail in the future, creating the need to re-open the ground, as completely untenable. “We go above and


Please see ‘Attractive’ on page 17

It’s hard to predict the future. The best thing about district heating and cooling is its flexibility during changing times.

Gas-fired boilers provide supplemental and backup heat.

The Richmond system has been designed with the capacity for future development.

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beyond with testing. Our standards are higher than the industry standards. The guidelines say 6.0 gpm with a one-inch loop when flushing and purging, but we go to 8.0 gpm and beyond.”

They pressure tested each loop before and after installation, conducted pressure and hydraulic tests after connection to headers, did the same after connecting headers to the vault; then used a flush trailer for further purging and hydrostatic testing.

“Purging isn’t just for debris,” added Nelson. “You want to get any airlocks out so that you can achieve the expected efficiency.” Each and every test is documented and signed off.

Energy economics and conservationRichmond tried to get the project going in 2005, but at the time they could not reach an agreement that made financial sense to development partners. A few short years later, much had changed, including the entry of a builder with geothermal experience. It is sometimes more difficult to plan and structure a district energy development than to build it. They typically involve city council approvals, developer cost sharing, numerous sub-trade specialists, separate operating and maintenance entities, and so on.

Nonetheless, says Church: “Municipalities everywhere are attracted to district heating and cooling – Vancouver, Toronto, Markham, Burlington, Calgary, Montreal, Whistler, to name a few – because the economics are attractive.”

As reported in the March, 2014 edition of Plumbing & HVAC, Dartmouth, N.S. was faced with replacement of very old chillers using noncompliant refrigerants at $800,000, and boilers at $300,000. Instead, the municipality invested $1.6 million in an innovative borehole cooling system that stores ice-cold harbour water deep in the rock until needed in summer. It saves about $400,000 per year on oil and gas costs, which will pay for the system in about a decade.

The side effect of increased interest in district energy is that a clean tech seed has been sown. The city shows that it can create something, so now it can ask large private developers to do the same.

Once they try it, private developers will begin using cleaner tech for all their projects. The implication is that everyone will be required to incorporate even more energy-

saving, clean technologies, including big developers. The same is true in the world of municipalities. Now

that implementation of district heating and cooling is reaching a tipping point, all municipalities will be asked why they are not reviewing its numerous community benefits. Fuel prices in the future may be difficult to predict, but the trend toward district energy for municipalities is likely to grow for many years to come.

Building Green

Attractive economics suggest bright futureContinued from page 15

Bruce Nagy is a Toronto-based freelance writer that reports on green technologies and solutions. He can be reached at [email protected].

It is sometimes more difficult to plan and structure a district energy development than to build it.


photo courtesy of TRCA

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In l a s t m o n t h ’ s article, I revisited the topic of common venting of pressure vented boilers and

it occurred to me, as I was wrapping up, that most gas-fired appliance these days are pressure vented, so it is time to look at the state-of-the-art in venting systems today. We aren’t just talking condensing boilers here. Forced-air-furnaces, water heaters – you name it – are all being vented with “non-traditional” venting systems. What has happened to traditional? Well it hasn’t changed at all

– we just have more choices now because of reduced flue temperatures.

Traditional metal ventingWhen I started in this industry, the people who taught me had not seen a significant shift in how things were done during pretty much their whole careers. What a difference a few decades makes. Venting of natural gas appliances has been turned upside-down.

Read through the venting section of the CSA B149 Gas Code and you see page after page after page of prescriptive text and charts – all developed over – well, likely a hundred or so years of trial and error and precise engineering for high temperature (over 250°F /120°C) venting systems. Then, in less than 30 years, low temperature venting and Type BH or “special venting systems” have become the norm – venting systems that


Heating

Please see ‘Lower’ on page 21

TODAY’S COMBUSTION

VENTINGReduced flue temperatures, new materials,

code revisions are changing the game

By Roy Collver

This multiple boiler installation uses CPVC venting.

Metal venting has worked well for many years, but corrosion issues have arisen with condensing appliances.

most of my teachers could not have imagined.Condensing appliances needed venting materials that

were non-corrosive and able to handle positive vent pressures without allowing flue products to escape (cool flue gasses just don’t want to float up the chimney on their own). This was a very sudden change and the race was on to develop inexpensive new systems to do the job.

Improved materialsStainless steel alloys with gasketed joints were the first approved systems out of the gate. They are widely used with higher temperature power vented appliances – but their price is high (and may be one reason that these types of appliances have never become really popular). Enter the condensing appliance. With vastly reduced flue temperatures, plastic vents become possible.

Early adopter appliance manufacturers made the call that ABS (styrene plastic) drain pipe was just dandy – even though the ABS manufacturers never endorsed that use. However, problems and code concerns caused ABS to be phased out and most appliance manufacturers defaulted to PVC and CPVC.

Canadian code officials further mandated that

venting systems had to be tested, approved and labeled as Type BH, certified to the S636 standard – a big change (dig up my October 2006 article in this magazine). Like stainless BH venting systems, all components in a S636 “system” had to be provided by a single manufacturer, who also had to provide installation instructions and engineering information. All of a sudden, you couldn’t just grab any old piece of PVC or CPVC pipe from the back of the truck to finish a job. Many suppliers at first did not carry enough inventory, but at least they carried the same material from the one manufacturer in the game in those early days.

Pushing the maximum temperatureCut to the present. A big concern in the boiler industry is that vent temperatures can at times exceed the 65°C upper limit for PVC S636 pipe, so the more expensive CPVC pipe has to be used. In reality – some boilers may be really

pushing the upper 90°C limit of CPVC certification as well. However, now there is another option.

Polypropylene (PP) is now widely available in North America and so far two manufacturers that I know of have brought S636 certified PP gasketed venting systems to the Canadian market. Most contractors I know have already used this stuff and are quite happy with it – although they were hoping it would have been much less expensive. The addition of flexible PP to both product lines was a real bonus for many. If you haven’t used it yet (there may be a few) I suggest you check out the web sites – you will find some useful information, but be careful. Both

sites may show products and applications that may not be approved in your jurisdiction yet – most notably cascade (multi) venting applications, as I covered in last month’s issue.


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Heating

Continued from page 19

Lower temperatures, new materials

Please see ‘Single’ on page 23

At least two manufacturers are offering flexible polypropylene, which eases installation.

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System woesAs I mentioned, most users are pleased with this type of venting system, with one exception – distribution practices.

Because these products are to be installed as a “system,” you cannot mix and match material from two different manufacturers. Unfortunately, the PP manufacturers initially entered the market by aligning themselves exclusively with specific distributors. At first, wholesaler “A” stocked PP “A”, and wholesaler “B” stocked PP “B” – and you were out of luck if you liked to do business with wholesaler “C”. Things have loosened up somewhat since the start, but the problem still remains.

As a contractor, you may prefer a specific product, but if your favorite wholesaler doesn’t carry it, that can be a pain. A bigger pain may be when you are out of town doing a job and you need just one more fitting to finish up, but the only wholesaler in town doesn’t carry that brand. That can get expensive if you are not good at planning ahead. Hopefully, your favorite wholesaler has come up with a no-charge re-stock policy so you can make sure you get to the job-site with plenty of extra “just-in-case” pipe and fittings – but please don’t abuse it – it really does cost them money to do a restock, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt you to keep some extra stock yourself (this stuff is just going to get more common).

It does get complicated sometimes. I get it that distributors may not want to stock two brands – but they should be able to readily access the other brand if a customer really wants it. On the other hand, contractors really should support their favorite wholesaler and give their chosen product lines a good try. The wholesaler has invested in inventory and training. Loyalty does have many benefits.

Detailed instructionsAh yes – those detailed instructions. Some of the code officials I know tell me that, in general, installations have improved with the new PP systems – primarily because installers are (mostly) following said detailed instructions and using all the bits and pieces that have been purpose designed for things like support, termination, condensate drainage, etc. However, there always seems to be those – how shall I describe them? – “independently minded” installers and distributors who think they have better ways of doing things. Not so fast! Remember – these are “systems” and will only qualify as such if the installation instructions are followed to the letter.

This is especially true with common venting. IF it is allowed in your jurisdiction, you can’t just decide on your own which product to use. Keep in mind that

until the B149 code specifically allows for common venting of pressure vented appliances, code officials are really being generous by allowing it to be done at all. The rules are very strict, and that’s a good thing.

When it is allowed – it usually must be engineered and approved by the appliance manufacturer – the materials have to be supplied by them – and they have to supervise, inspect and approve the installation and the start-up. There is no room for creativity on the part of

either the distributor or the installer. I have heard cases where an installer and/or distributor (because they might not carry that brand, or they think the appliance manufacturer’s price is too high or delivery is too long) – will try to cobble together a common vent system out of a different product. Don’t let that happen to you – it likely won’t have a happy outcome.

Heating


Single source supply

Roy Collver is an author and consultant on hydronic heating based in Peachland, B.C. He can be reached at [email protected]

Common venting is allowed in some jurisdictions, but not in others.

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Venting of natural gas appliances has been turned upside-down.

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Modulating gas water heaterOffering up to 98 percent thermal efficiency, the Cyclone Mxi 98 percent AFUE modulating, high-efficiency condensing commercial gas water heater from A.O. Smith adjusts the burner’s firing rate to a specific demand, increasing energy efficiency and dramatically reducing operating costs. An advanced electronic control with built-in diagnostics is iCOMM compatible and network ready for remote monitoring. Other features include maneuverability and ease of installation due to lightweight design, a helical coil heat exchanger that maximizes heat transfer and the company’s PermaGlas lining process for protection against corrosion.A.O. Smith www.hotwater.com

Compact residential boilerThe new GC144 from Bosch/Buderus is a compact precision cast Energy Star compliant boiler capable of delivering 85 percent AFUE. It is available with input heating capacities of 74, 103 and 132.5 MBH. It has a durable flexible, corrosion resistant GL180M cast iron heat exchanger and 1 1/2” wrap-around insulation for better heat retention and less fuel usage. A stainless steel atmospheric gas burner with electronic ignition offers precise premixing. The company’s AquaSmart control provides outdoor reset with a heat manager function that adjusts water temperature based on load.Bosch/Buderus www.buderus.us

Even temperature distributionThe A952E Energy Star qualified, 95 percent AFUE two-stage constant torque gas furnace from Armstrong Air is designed to deliver consistent heat with improved temperature distribution. It usually operates at low heat, automatically ramping up to higher heat when required. An efficient ECM motor allows precise temperature control. The company’s

EHX technology enhances the durability of the heat exchanger, eliminating hot spots and allowing more air to contact the heat exchanger surface area.Armstrong Air www.alliedair.com

Efficient fire-tube boilersThe new FTXL fire tube boiler line for light commercial applications from Lochinvar offers five models ranging from 399,999 to 850,000 Btu/h. They deliver up to 10:1 turndown and 98 percent AFUE. These units are equipped with the company’s all-in-one Smart System control technology with a redesigned multi-color LCD screen and many new control features. It offers direct integration into a building automation system through communication protocols such as Modbus or BACnet.Lochinvar www.lochinvar.com

Built-in buffer tankNavien NPE-A series on demand water heaters include the company’s ComfortFlow technology that incorporates a built-in buffer tank and recirculation pump to provide a zero GPM activation rate, eliminating the “cold water sandwich” common with tankless units. With a return line, the pump saves considerable water. Standard features also include: dual stainless steel heat exchangers, 1/2” gas lines up to 24’ and two-inch PVC venting up to 60 feet.Navien www.navien.com

Hybrid water heaterThe Rinnai RH180 Hybrid water heater combines tank and tankless DHW technologies to offer a 180-gallon first-hour rating and reduced recovery time as compared to traditional tank-style water heaters. It uses standard connections – including a 1/2-inch gas line, the same water connections as a standard tank and four-inch B-vent or common vent – for a fast and easy install. The unit also offers a controller with diagnostic capabilities, easy repair and component accessibility, and minimizes standby loss.Rinnai www.rinnai.us

Most efficientThe Coleman Echelon CP9C modulating gas-fired furnace and several LX Series furnaces have been named Energy Star Most Efficient 2014 when combined with the company’s residential communicating control. They had to achieve an AFUE of 97 percent, offer two-way communication with the system controller, automated configuration, and fault mode transmission. As well, the control translates diagnostic and setup information into plain text

and provides access to outside temperature data.Coleman www.colemanhvacdealer.com

Daikin adds gas heat optionDaikin Applied has added natural gas heating as an option to its Skyline commercial outdoor air handler line. Installation requires only a single-point gas line connection and a controller, making the air handler virtually a “plug and play” unit, reports the manufacturer. They are designed for harsh weather conditions with a gasketed frame channel, double-wall, injected-foam panels and cross-broken top panels.Daikin www.daikinapplied.com


Heating

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Now available in 3- to 12.5-ton models, the new Allied Commercial™ Z-Series™ rooftop package unit delivers fl exibility and value, along with proven performance.

ell, it is that time again with thoughts of the new heating season ahead of us. Some of

us work on commercial rooftop models and others work strictly on the residential units, one

home at a time. The theory of cleaning, servicing and identifying future problems and presenting

those findings to the customer for approval is basically the same.

A visual inspection is always warranted and time should not be a big concern; after all it is part of your service program. Manufacturer’s manuals are required to be on site and within reach for reference

so the technician can look up flash codes, installation information as well as set-up features. As part of the maintenance, the recalibrating of the system is required by code and a temperature rise should be performed before leaving the site. Approved gas pressure test tags should be present on each piece of gas or propane equipment.

The gas line(s) should be inspected, making sure they are supported and not dependent or held solely by the unit. It is possible that supports might be missing or that there is not enough in place. Gas lines should also be leak checked for safety and any non-approved fittings should be removed and replaced in accordance with the CSA B149 gas code. Inspect all exterior panels and make sure they are secure. Any stripped or missing panel screws should be replaced and in some cases will need to be enlarged if the hole is stripped.

Newer installations tooWe must always be aware that newer installs, as well as older ones, can be bad, or very bad, completed by the “it’ll do” contractor. Sometimes property owners are looking for a savior or a different look-see as to what’s costing them money. Placing red tags or shut-off orders on the equipment may be necessary due to unsafe conditions that the technician recognizes as part of the due diligence package built into the B149-10 code. Do not allow any person to talk you out of these tag placements or to


Heating

Offer your customers peace of mind with a thorough pre-winter checkup

By Bob Bettles and Brian Guttormson

The second technician on the site of this new instal-lation will have to fix a number of problems – some obvious and some hidden.

Fall FURNACE MAINTENANCE

W

second-guess yourself. It’s you and your customer on the line and they are relying on your knowledge for safety.

Checking the AC sideAir conditioning season can also play havoc, resulting in things such as sticking relays, switches and contacts. These electrical components may need to be spray cleaned for reliable operation into the following season.

The technician should inspect the AC evaporator coils. If a visual inspection is not possible, then the next best thing is to check the system with the furnace fan operating and the use of the static tips and a manometer to check the resistance drop through the coil. This will show the severity of the dirt built up on the coil. Further cleaning of the coil is normally an extra charge above the maintenance fees, but can eliminate possible limit trips later into the heating season due to longer run times.

Of course, filter sys tems must be inspected and filters must be changed or cleaned. In past articles we have covered and explained the importance of the match-up of the filter to the duct system. Systems are typically designed with a return air static pressure of .10 inches of water column or (W/C). Filters that are built with a dense material will prevent some systems from working.

For example, a filter density of 0.2” WC new will become more restrictive

as time progresses, increasing the temperature rise and the possibility of a service call for limit trips. This limit cycling will add unwanted stress to the primary and secondary heat exchangers. Increased stack temperatures can develop, causing vent motor and/or draft motor assemblies to fail prematurely. This must be kept in mind during filter selection.

Condensing furnaces more criticalCondensing furnaces require a close look at the vent system, more so than in years past. More and more problems arise every year due to mixing newer

and older systems. P r e s s u r e s w i t c h failures are occurring more often due to the closer proximity of the pressure switch differential setting for safety, made by the manufacturer.

T y p i c a l l y , t h i s f lash code directs contractors towards a switch failure, but in most cases the switch is doing its job! This

failure will present itself during longer heating cycles. Our last heating season, with many days at and below design temperatures, highlighted marginal vent installations! These problems didn’t affect only particular models; it depended more on the route chosen to place and hang the venting during an install. These vent pipes require a minimum slope of a quarter inch per foot (one inch every four feet) to allow

the return of liquid condensate to the drain system within the equipment. They can sag and the resulting pond or pocket of condensed water. Homeowner renovations may create issues as well! It should be noted the pressure switch does not usually need to be replaced. Once repairs have been made, it will resume normal operations.

High efficiency furnaces produce condensed water at or above .08 percent acidity within the secondary heat exchanger; this accrues because of the product’s ability to reach over 87.1 percent efficiency ratings.

This condensed water must be


Please see ‘Venting’ page 29

Vent terminations need to be checked and brought up to code. Another poor vent termination. What was the technician thinking?

Sometimes property owners are looking for a savior or a fresh look-see as to what’s costing them money.

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removed from the furnace without affecting operation, so a condensate drain trap is usually located at the end of the secondary heat exchanger. These trap assemblies along with the furnace bodies have gotten much smaller in recent years, reducing tolerance for unusual operating conditions.

Traps that have developed a buildup of sludge or other materials will also cause pressure switch code failure trip offs. Even from the get-go, a new furnace can get plugged up when the byproducts of a new install burn off and deposit a film or oily residue. This will need to be cleaned; check with each manufacturer for approved cleaning procedures.

Dealing with rustRusted components of any commercial or residential furnace are a problem. They do not come apart for service very well and operation may be hindered due to corrosion. Burners of either ribbon or in-shot designs

are affected by rusting, so regular descaling and cleaning is necessary during inspections.

If servicing does not restore the flame pattern back to its original state, then the burner must be replaced. Improper temperature rise or over fired or under fired appliances can add to the shortened life of these components. Short cycling of the furnace due to incorrect anticipation settings may also increase the chance of excessive burner corrosion.

Whatever the case, a visual inspection with the use of proper instruments will be necessary to complete the product’s annual service.


for the brands

Uni-Line has been at the forefront of controls distribution for 50 years. You know our brands which have been staples in the HVACR controls industry for over a century. We understand distributor and OEM needs for quality, technology and delivery excellence. We are proud to be your partner.

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Uni-Line®,, Ranco®, Paragon® and Robertshaw® are trademarks of Robertshaw Controls Co., its subsidiaries and/or affiliated companies. All other brands mentioned may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Heating

Venting more critical in condensing furnaces


Bob BettlesHVAC author and trainer Robert

(Bob) Bettles is technical service

adviser and product trainer for

B&B Trade Distribution Centre.

He can be reached at [email protected].

Brian GuttormsonHVAC author and trainer Brian

Guttormson is technical service

advisor for Trent Metals Ltd.

(Supply). He can be reached at

[email protected].

There’s a good reason for regular filter maintenance. Where it hasn’t occurred, a thorough system cleaning will be required too.

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In my last article (P&HVAC, April, 2014) we talked about making sure a hydronic system design was done before the quote, equipment purchase and installation begins. Okay, I talked

and you listened … hopefully. In this installment we’re going to discuss how that design comes to be and what information the designer needs to properly size and select the system components. I will also try to show why the designer needs this information and what the consequences can be when we don’t supply it (or don’t supply it accurately).

So, first of all, what does a design


Hot Water Heating

Please see ‘Meeting’ on page 33

Buildingreliable

efficient systemsCareful planning and design prevents projects from going sideways

By Barry Cunningham

Pre-planning and careful design results in a tidy job that works as required. The design drawings for this installation by Bruin’s Plumbing & Heating in Red Deer, Alta. have been pinned to the wall, making maintenance easier in the future.

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consist of? Well, ultimately it’s a collection of information, resulting from a series of calculations and the application of expert knowledge, which provides the installer the necessary data for component selection and installation procedure. Simply put, that means, give the designer the right information and he/she will size the boiler (or whatever heat source you’re

planning to use), pumps, pipes and heat terminal units.

They will also probably figure out a way to get the water into the system, the air out and keep it out, they will size components to remove dirt and other contaminates, calculate the system’s fluid volume and size the expansion tank you’ll need. In addition, they will probably size and help you place the headers for any remotes you might have or need.

They will probably do this with the aid of some really slick software that helps them do this job faster and neater, but every good designer will have the ability to do this work by hand using a pencil and a calculator. (We don’t allow counting on fingers and/or toes anymore due to safety regulations. Picture a plumber in the office with his boots and socks off and … well you get the picture!)

Spotting design errorsThe manual method will also probably utilize some tables out of an old book. It has to be this way because the rule is, if you can’t do it by hand, you’ll never know if the results you get from the computer are correct. Experienced designers can look at the stuff the computer produces and go: “No way that’s right! What the heck happened here!” and go back to the data looking for the input error.

Having already spent a lot of time on it they may not use ‘heck’ as a descriptor if they have to do it again. Just saying. I know some designers. The ability to make that call comes from having done this work, often by hand, and by doing so recognizing when the design outcome just isn’t right. Without that ability and knowledge, the error goes into the design and ultimately into the building’s heating system.

Those critical detailsSo what does the designer need from you in order to do their magic? Well, they need to know all about the space we’re trying to heat. No, it’s not enough to stroll into the office in your muddy boots and say: “I’ve got an 1,800 square foot house. What size boiler do I need?”

The best source of information is

a blueprint or detailed drawing of the building. The drawing will provide most of the information the designer needs to do the heat loss, such as the layout of the building, insulation values and locations as well as window and door sizes.

They will also want to know where the mechanicals will go, how much room there is and where the vents will go if the proposed heat source is burning fossil fuel. They will do a room-by-room heat loss to determine how much heat is required in each area in order for the building to maintain temperature during the most severe conditions.

The designer will then start to grill you on other necessary information, like what the end user expects or had

requested. Very often the customer has already decided that they want radiant floors or maybe it’s baseboard convectors or perhaps it’s a fan coil with air conditioning.

So at this point you need to fill in the designer on everything you know about what the customer asked for in their discussions with you. Or in other words, thinking forward to when the designer grills you, make sure you know the questions to ask your client so you have that information.

Meeting the customer’s expectationsI always think it’s best to get the customer to tell you what their needs

Hot Water Heating

Meeting the customer’s needsContinued from page 31

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and/or expectations are first. Then it’s your job to make it happen. There are always budget considerations and you probably have to qualify them a bit during your discussion to see if they are aware of the potential costs, but don’t make the big mistake of prejudging what they can afford or are willing to pay to have the comfort they desire.

I can’t tell you how many times I have talked to clients who didn’t get what they wanted because either the builder or the heating contractor talked them out of something they originally had in the plans for their dream home. I think that often happens because the one doing the selling is afraid the client will react badly to the sticker shock and punt them off the job or accept a lower quote from another installer. I say, if the concern is that you will lose the job because you are more expensive, then you need to sell the client based on what you are providing or offer them a less expensive option.

Be careful to point out the differences between the two quotes and stress the benefits of the more expensive option. Many people will choose the more costly route if they know what they are getting for their money. The

kitchen cabinet guys really know how to do this well.Explain the possibilitiesOnce you get the basic ideas of what they want, try to get some details that will help with the design. Talk to them about zoning. Show them how they can have a nice warm basement recreation area while at the same

time the bedrooms can be set at a lower temperature. For some people that’s a real bonus. The attached garage can be part of the same system but be kept just above freezing. How about a nice towel warmer in the

master ensuite? If you want to get a good referral from these folks, you can’t do anything nicer for them than warm towels and robes.

If making domestic hot water is part of the job, and it should be, you need to help the designer with sizing the indirect or storage tank. Look for that big-ass tub or monster body spray in the shower, and ask the clients if they were planning something like that. You have to plan for that in the design.

Oh geez, look at the time! We will have to carry on this conversation in a third installment. In that one, we’ll talk about the design itself and what it means for the installer, how to specify the components, decipher the data the designer gives you and explain a bit as to why it’s important that you stay true to the design during your install. We’ll also try to answer the question posed in the first article, when the guy asked me why they made all those different sized pipes if you always use the same one anyway. I hope you’ll join me then.


Hot Water Heating

Exploring possibilitiesContinued from page 33

Barry Cunningham is general manager of Triangle Supply in Red Deer, Alberta and a former chairman of the Canadian Hydronics Council. He can be reached at [email protected].

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In the last issue we had an overview of refrigeration system efficiency. We identified three components of a system’s efficiency in which we were interested: refrigeration load, system efficiency and useful output. In this issue we are going to drill down and look more closely at the refrigeration load.

First, let’s define the refrigeration load as any heat (sensible or latent) that must be removed from the refrigerated space by the refrigeration system in order to maintain space conditions. This should be an obvious starting point for optimizing or increasing the efficiency of a refrigeration system. If we can simply stop the heat from getting into the space, we don’t have to move it; not moving heat is always more efficient than moving it! Here are some of the most common types of heat transfer that we need to consider:• Transmission (heat gain through panels)• Internal loads (forklifts, battery chargers, people,

lights)• Infiltration and ventilation• Product load• Defrosts• Transmission loads

Losses through heat transferHeat transfer through walk-in or warehouse panels is well understood and simple to calculate. It is also often

not as significant as people think. The importance is dependent on the use of the cooler or freezer. What thickness of insulation to use should be determined on an individual project/application basis.

For example, a small 13’ x 7’ x 8’ freezer has 500 sq. ft. of panel surface if you include the floor. The end user cost difference between four and five-inch panels is approximately 75 cents per sq. ft. (Panel pricing is highly variable and should be checked for every job and analysis.)

The change in heat gain from four to five-inch panels for this box size at peak load is 450 Btu/h. If we assume the freezer has a COP of 1.5, we need to use 300 Btu/h (88W) of electricity at peak load to make up for the difference if we used four-inch panels.

At first glance an extra $375 to increase the panel thickness seems like a good deal but, in this case, how do the numbers shake out? Remember that the 88W of electricity we are saving is only at peak load. How often does a freezer run at peak load? The answer is of course that we don’t know… they are all different.

Let’s assume our freezer has a load ratio of 70 percent, meaning that it runs 70 percent of the time at design conditions and is off the other 30 percent of the time. This is a pretty generous assumption in most cases. Over the course of a year our 88W penalty would turn into about 540 kWh. Assuming an electrical rate of $0.10/kWh, a decision to use five-inch panels would save us $54 per year for a simple payback of seven years. With the information we have used and all the simplifications we’ve made, it’s pretty much a wash whether to use the thicker panels.

Realize that we are talking about less energy than a 100W incandescent light bulb. If there is a freight increase due to the thicker panels (there usually is), if the thicker panels take more time to install, if the cooler is loaded less than we thought, or if the owner is concerned about losing six percent of the storage volume of the box (we didn’t account for the fact that a five-inch box is smaller), the payback becomes even worse.

I’m certainly not saying don’t use thicker panels,


Refrigeration

Please see ‘Fan’ on page 41

Optimizing refrigeration efficiency

Fine-tuning the load can result in significant gains

By Greg Scrivener

This small freezer box includes three 1/15 horsepower evaporator fan motors and florescent lighting with low temperature ballasts.

Grinders and saws plugged in inside a cooler add to the refrigeration load.

Heat transfer through walk-in or warehouse panels is well understood and simple to calculate. It is also often not as significant as people think.

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but merely pointing out that the savings are often smaller than you think. Remember though, every situation is different and we could just as easily come up with an example that had an excellent payback.

There is degradation of insulation over time and all types of insulation can get wet, some with worse consequences than others. I once observed an insulated cork floor from a 40-year-old freezer being removed. The individual sections had to be lifted with block and tackle, they were so full of water. There would have been no insulating value left.

Internal loadsInternal loads are present in every freezer and cooler. The two most common internal loads are lights and evaporator fan motors. Lights generally range from 1 to 1.5W per sq. ft. of floor space. On larger freezers and coolers this can be a lot of energy and there are very often retrofit possibilities for significant savings. In our little 13’ x 7’ freezer this would be about 140W. At the very least make sure the lights get turned off!

The energy (heat) that evaporator fans add to the space can be incredible. A quick look through a couple different manufacturer’s catalogues shows that our 13’x7’ freezer could have an evaporator with three 1/15 horsepower motors; evaporator fan motors run 22-24 hours a day depending on defrost set up. The two most common types of fan motor in Canada are the shaded pole motor, which uses the most energy and therefore generates the most heat, and the permanent split capacitor (PSC) motor, which is slightly more efficient.

The third option is the electronically commutated motor (ECM). This option is becoming more popular thanks in part to energy efficiency requirements in the U.S., but they do cost more money.

In our example the shaded pole motors would require a total of 366W – 3200 kW/year, which costs approximately $320. If we spent some extra money and bought the ECM units we would only consume 1550 kW/year or approximately $155. That is a savings of $165 per year on direct electrical consumption alone and isn’t even including the benefit of adding less heat to the refrigeration load (which is actually what we are talking about here).

Once we make a few assumptions about the COP of the freezer and about how much of the electricity actually gets converted to heat, we can get the savings up to about $275 per year. Obviously there is a premium for the ECM motors, but in my experience the payback is usually less than two years.

(Most people assume that all of the electricity used by the evaporator fans is converted to heat either by the motor itself or by the air resistance of the fan. Because it is a closed system (i.e. the fan and motor are in the refrigerated space), this is a reasonable assumption. On centrifugal evaporators where the motor is not in the refrigerated airflow, the blower adds only a portion of the heat.)

Other loadsThere isn’t much you can do about most other internal loads other than try to remove them. If your customer is charging forklift batteries in the freezer or cooler (which unfortunately is pretty common) or operating a conveyor motor, then they are paying for the

electricity almost twice. If they are okay with that, there is not much you can do.

To give you an idea of the load distribution of some coolers, Figure 1 shows three similarly dimensioned coolers with no defrost at a meat facility. Notice that in Cooler 2 there is a very large product load; often in these cases

the thickness of the panels plays very little role in the energy consumption of the cooler or freezer.

In the next issue we will finish up talking about the product, defrost and infiltration loads and discuss some things we might be able to do to minimize them.


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Refrigeration

Fan specs can make a big differenceContinued from page 39

Greg Scrivener is president of Cold Dynamics, Meadow Lake, Sask. He is a journeyman refrigeration mechanic, holds RSES CMS designation in commercial refrigeration and is a mechanical engineer in training. He can be reached at [email protected]

Figure 1 – These charts show the dis-tribution of de-sign loads for three different coolers.

InternalLoad17% Transmission

25%

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Infiltration35%

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Macerating toilet manufacturer Saniflo Canada, headquartered in Guelph, Ont., has formed a partnership with Conestoga College, also in Guelph, for

the construction and development of its first mobile training centre.

Working alongside instructors from the plumbing, electrical and woodworking departments, students participated in the design and construction the training centre while earning credit towards their program.

“As a company that has strong roots in the Canadian marketplace, we feel that these types of

partnerships are very important for our industry and its future. Fostering relationships with top schools such as Conestoga is one of many such partnerships that we anticipate. We hope to engage in future builds

and projects, which will provide real-life practical applications to students,” said Ross Evans, national sales manager for Saniflo.

The training centre features five working models, a full product display and finishing products. It will be used at trade shows, training sessions and exhibitions for consumers, contractors and wholesalers to showcase the Saniflo line.

The company offers macerating and grinding toilet systems as well as waste water pumping systems for residential and commercial applications. For more information, visit www.saniflo.ca.

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AT city hall in a medium size Ontario city, some sections of the building

are only occupied during business hours, Monday to Friday. Several years ago a rare event was planned for a Sunday afternoon on the second floor. The HVAC control system was reprogrammed to cool the space for that event. Unfortunately the new setting was never put back to normal after the event, so for more than two years the unoccupied building was cooled on Sunday afternoons, before it was discovered by a third party commissioning company that was checking the operation of the system.

In another city a system was installed with no balancing valve, just a hand valve. At some point someone opened the valve and for several months or years – nobody knows for certain – the water flow through the condenser was twice what it should have been. When it was discovered and corrected during re-commissioning, there were signs that the condenser was likely to fail prematurely.

In a third example a building was extensively renovated and expanded, significantly affecting the HVAC loads and settings, except that nothing was

done to adjust for any of the building changes. It operated on its earlier settings, creating months of complaints and unfounded suggestions about the equipment, the renovators, the whole idea of the expansion. Sometimes the reverse happens, with the building staying the same, but boilers are changed, or air handlers or snow melt systems added over time, without proper adjustments.

These are only a few of the sad stories encountered by third party commissioning firms and only a tiny excerpt from a long list of ways our industry can hurt itself when proper commissioning is not included in the process.

In pursuit of design operation“We think if we flick the switch and it blows cold then the system is working,” remarked Darren Cooper of Renteknik Group Inc. in Burlington, Ontario. “But when we give it a second thought, we realize that operating does not necessarily mean working according to the design goals of the system.”

Over the years managers of large projects have learned that including commissioning, in one way


Engineered Systems

efficiency Operating savings from effective equipment setup can’t be ignored

Please see ‘critical’ on page 49

Third-party commissioning often reveals a number of low cost or no cost operating improvements that can be made, says Renteknik’s Marti Foura.

Chillers in an arena complex were found significantly oversized.

By Bruce Nagy

System commissioning

in the age of

Subject to additional terms and conditions found at saveonenergy.ca. Subject to change without notice.OMOfficial Mark of the Ontario Power Authority.

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or another, is absolutely essential for preventing grief and for saving money, to the point where it is now included for many building projects of all kinds and sizes.

“In the last few years the owners have been driving fees down for architects and engineers,” says Bill McCartney of Isotherm Engineering Ltd. in Mississauga, Ontario. “So who shows up on site for the handover? Nobody. The contractors are not paid to stick around, so third-party commissioning is a real necessity.”

Pursuing efficiency goalsBoth ASHRAE and LEED requirements are also having an impact on the need for commissioning. And with building operating costs increasing, savings of 10 to 30 percent created by many commissioning assignments simply can’t be ignored.

“Sometimes you don’t have to do much to achieve decent results,” said Mike Beauchesne, senior commissioning technician at Inland Technical Services in Kamloops, B.C. “You might go through and find all

the filters have collapsed in the air handling units or a heat wheel that should last 25 years, but not if it’s all dirty. And any building that has a new generation DDC (Direct Digital Control System) offers a lot of potential for saving energy, just by making a checklist from the database.”

“The first thing we look for are low-cost, no-cost implementations,” says engineering and project manager Marti Foura of Renteknik Group. “After that we get into more detailed analysis.”

There are, of course, differences between commissioning a new HVAC system and “re-commissioning” (if it was ever done in the first place) an older building. Still, in both cases the fundamentals are the same. The goal is to ensure the system is providing comfort and performing as designed, as expected, and therefore optimally.

A secondary goal with re-commissioning is to determine if times and technologies have changed enough to justify significant upgrades to the original system and then, if these are implemented, to ensure the upgraded system is operating efficiently.

“When we deal with the older buildings, we find that most of the chillers are oversized,” says McCartney. “Everything today is more precise with BAS (building automation systems) and all the envelopes are getting tighter. And the BAS is a tremendous tool for troubleshooting too.

“In the old days they had fewer choices for sizing. They were deadly afraid of callbacks and concerned about liability insurance, so they oversized everything. Now the challenge is energy efficiency.”

Grant programs availableBecause third part commissioning can result in significant energy savings, some governments and utilities are offering programs to help building


Engineered Systems

A critical second lookContinued from page 47

Please see ‘Grant’ page 51

A chiller system test setup may look something like this.

Sensors are attached throughout the mechanical system.

The energy use meter tracks operation over a period of time.

Before and after test results may look something like this.

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owners with the cost.For example, Renteknik is helping owners with

re-commissioning using a couple of grant programs offered through Ontario Power Authority. The Existing Building Chilled Water program is designed to reduce peak demand and provides up to 80 percent of total re-commissioning costs, including 100 percent of the first diagnosis. A second program helps owners with the cost of equipment replacement.

The company uses a commissioning package called ClimaCheck that was developed in Sweden. First they install a power meter and some temperature and pressure sensors, collect data for 60 days, then run analytics. “We are able to achieve a full thermal dynamic model. We can look at when compressors come on or off, overcharge issues, flow issues,” says Four. “At City Hall, instead of Module A compressor 1, then Module A compressor 2; we activated Module A compressor 1, then Module B Compressor 1, and so on…

“The sequencing changes helped them save more than 10 percent on energy consumption and helped avoid too much wear on compressors; and potential catastrophic failure,” says Collette Cooper, company principal. “At the Appleby Recreation Centre (arena) we helped them save 18 percent initially and anticipate this will be even more, because we’re doing continuing online commissioning.”

“In the commissioning game there are four seasons,” says McCartney “The construction guy pulls his trailers and gets his money, but we’re still here for three more seasons; to make sure the system works under all conditions.” Even after a year of analysis, reports, owner meetings, staff meetings and training are done, Isotherm and the other commissioning firms we talked with leave behind full documentation to ensure systems continue to operate properly.

“Extensive training plus operations and maintenance manuals are a big part of what we do,” noted Beauchesne.

Green fever gone awryMcCartney says that for the last 17 years (of his 48-year career) he and Isotherm have been doing a lot of LEED commissioning and they sometimes find examples of green fever gone awry. “In one building we couldn’t find the original LEED commissioning documentation, but we did find that they were

running humidifying and cooling at the same time. In another project in Montreal they had installed an old HRV and were false loading the chiller to make heat they didn’t need…

“One of my worst horror stories happened in a chemical plant in Sarnia. They had a chiller, a big storage tank and a lot of steel piping. They were losing so much refrigerant that they had big regular

deliveries of R-11 because everything they put in was leaking out!

“It shows you how important it is to have someone take a second look,” he added. “Commissioning started with public buildings like schools and then healthcare facilities, but I think now everyone has caught on. They used to see commissioning only as an expense; then they realized that they weren’t budgeting properly for big preventable problems, so now they see commissioning as an investment. And they see me as someone who is saving them money. And I am. You know, someone has to put together the big picture.”


Engineered Systems

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When we deal with the

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Engineered Systems

I spent some time last year working as a contract employee for a large consulting company and it was an eye-opening experience, quite different from the design/build mechanical business in which I was involved from the early 1980’s.

The people within the firm impressed me. They are talented, hard-working and dedicated to excellence. Their drawings were done to a degree of accuracy so that contractors could use them, scaled off, as a basis for forming in place floor openings for pipes and ducts.

What surprised me most of all, though, was finding out about the very low fees that major consulting firms can command for such major projects as condominium towers and large public works.

I can only attribute that to the fact that in Ontario, and most other provinces in Canada, you don’t have to be a professional engineer (P.Eng.) to own and operate a company that you can, by law, call an “engineering company.”

Questionable qualificationsAs things stand, your local corner variety store owner can call his business an “engineering company” if he or she: a) fills out a form that indicates that a licensed professional engineer is an employee; b) gets that P.Eng. to apply, in the company’s name, for a Certificate of Authorization to offer engineering services to the public and c) though not strictly necessary, takes out errors and omissions insurance in that company’s name.

Now, would you expect anyone but a licensed medical doctor to own a clinic? Or a lawyer to own a law firm? Or a dentist to own a dental clinic? Of course not! Yet due to what I consider to be a loophole in the Professional Engineers’ Act, anyone can hire a P. Eng. to fill out some forms and he and his pals can then hang up a shingle.

I have had some experience interfacing with such firms and most of it was negative in the extreme. My biggest gripe has been that, devoid of the requirement to follow the engineers’ code of ethics, they routinely cut corners, issuing drawings and specifications that are laughable in quality. They

have devalued the status of bona fide engineering firms, all in the name of money.

Complicated processEngineering a building’s mechanical systems is a complicated process. It starts with liaising with the architects and clients to determine the purpose of the structure and therefore the client’s needs. Complex energy usage studies have to be carried out in order to determine the best possible solution to keeping a building’s fluids flowing and the occupants satisfied. Once a consensus has been arrived at as to the type of equipment to be used (and I’m referring mainly to HVAC systems), then the final design work is undertaken. It’s a costly, time consuming and labour intensive process.

Post-tender, the engineers have to implement the project, starting with initial site meetings followed by monthly meetings and reportage, plus, and here it gets crucial, inspections of the installations for the sake of maintaining quality as per the intent of the project’s specifications.

Without continual, daily inspections of the work in progress taking place, there is no way to guarantee that the workmanship on site will pass muster, yet because of the tight constraints put upon them by the extremely low fee structure many engineering

companies now have to conduct their inspections on a “random sampling” basis.

Ongoing monitoringAs I outlined in a previous article in P&HVAC, serious issues have arisen in many modern buildings, post- turnover, due to shoddy installation practices. My article dealt mainly with the improper installation of bellows- type expansion devices installed in the risers serving heating and air conditioning equipment in high rise condominiums. Some insurance claims have topped the half-million mark and, in at least one complex, they are ongoing.

This is an issue that can only be overcome by thorough training of the pipefitters on site as well as effective, ongoing monitoring by the engineers. To be really thorough, a field superintendent from the consultant’s office should be taking the time to visit a site on a daily basis. However this is not happening save for in very few circumstances, for example, in very rare cost-plus projects.

The companies that have chiseled down engineering fee structures have made it difficult for the “majors” to carry out these crucial site inspections and make enough money to cover wages and overhead costs. As a result, the quality of some mechanical installations has deteriorated to the point where, as in the case of some condominium residences, insurance companies are becoming wary of issuing water damage coverage policies except with higher premiums and reduced coverage.

We need to make it mandatory that in order for a company to call itself an “engineering firm” that firm’s ownership must rest with a P. Eng. or a partnership of professional engineers and NOT with someone who lacks those qualifications.

Only if this is made into law will companies owned by less competent, unscrupulous designers whose ideas of professional ethics can best be described as Victorian be closed.

The incremental cost increase to a project if a consulting engineering company can command a realistic fee, of the order of fifteen percent or more of the project cost, is minimal. The increase in job quality will be substantial, and when one looks at the issues likely to occur due to random site visits, or poor training of the trades involved, the higher fees will be well justified compared to the costs of needless repairs through the years.

The Professional Engineering Act needs to have its teeth sharpened! (Oh brother, we’re going to get letters – Ed)

Michael (Mike) McCartney is now working as an independent design engineer through M. E McCartney Engineering Ltd., a company he founded in 1992.

He can be reached at [email protected].

Because of the tight

constraints put upon

them by the extremely low fee structure many engineering

companies now have to conduct

their inspections on a

“random sampling” basis.

engineeringLoose eligibility criteria results in poor project oversight By Michael McCartney

Better rulesneeded for

firms

One problem most homeowners face is the waiting for hot water to come out of their faucets. Not only is this annoying to most, but it also runs up the water bill while that initially cold water is usually just allowed to drain away.

One way to eliminate this waste is to install a recirculation system. A domestic hot water circulation system consists of piping and valves installed to make hot water available almost instantly at any faucet in the building, regardless of how far the faucet is from the domestic hot water or storage tank(s).

Both the National and Ontario plumbing codes state: “In a hot water distribution system of a developed length of more than 30 metres or supplying more than four storeys, the water temperature shall be maintained by:(a) re-circulation, or(b) a self-regulating heat tracing system.”

There are two types of systems. The simplest is the gravity type. The other is a pumped system.

Recirculation by gravityDue to a difference in temperature within a system, a difference in weight will result in cooler water to fall and hotter water to rise causing a natural convection current. As water is heated it becomes less dense, (lighter molecules move away from each other). When installing a gravity type system it is important to grade the supply piping up and the return piping down. Level pipe will not allow for proper circulation of water.

Water at 16ºC weighs 62.33 pounds per cubic foot. Water at 60ºC weighs 61.38 pounds per cubic foot; this is almost one pound lighter. This lighter water creates a downward pressure of 0.4331 pounds per inch while the hotter water creates a downward pressure of 0.4265 pounds per inch of water column (1”x1”x12” LxWxH).

Gravity flow will occur as there is a pressure differential – water will flow from the area of high


Plumbing

Today’s homeowners, who can choose from an incredible array of faucets, as evidenced by this “faucet wall” at the WaterFlo Kitchen and Bath Gallery in Vaughan, Ont., are less likely to put up with shortcomings in their DHW systems.

Bigger homes, higher expectations create demand for better residential DHW systems

By Sam Steele

Domestichot water recirculation

pressure to an area of low pressure. The water follows the path of least resistance. This is the principle of natural convection currents. Lighter hot water rises to the top floor and heavier cooler water falls.

However, this old system of recirculation may have been adequate for bungalows, but will not meet the demands of multiple storey buildings nor the requirements of today’s building or home owner.

Recirculation by pumpPump circulated systems are the norm. When a circulation pump is installed in the domestic hot water distribution system, it will be installed in the return line pushing water back into and through the domestic hot water tank. Pumps are usually made up of stainless steel, bronze and plastics, which will not contaminate the water. One item that is commonly overlooked is a pump bypass. In the event of pump failure the circulation pump could be removed and the system will not be affected by a shut down.

When the circulation line connects to the incoming cold supply, a check valve must be installed in the cold water supply to prevent the warm water that is returning in the circulation line from circulating back into the cold water distribution piping.

If it did circulate back in, this unwanted circulation could result in warm or hot water being delivered from cold outlets. In essence, you are creating a cross connection between the hot and cold water.

Controlling the flowMost residential recirculation systems may only have two or three risers (a water distribution pipe that extends through at least one full storey), so flow controls are not typically installed. However, larger systems require them.

To control the rate of flow in the circulation

piping system, a globe or balancing valve is installed in the circulation return piping. The globe valve is partially opened and throttles the flow of hot water in the circulation line. The circulating line should be hooked-up as high as possible on the riser it serves, which is normally the showers, and tied back to the hot water tank or cold water inlet with backflow protection with a grade to the lowest point of connection.

If circulating lines are insulated, the temperature drop inside the lines will not decrease

as much; therefore there is less flow. The greater the flow, the more expensive it is to reheat the water.

Larger buildingsIn buildings where numerous risers are located at different distances away from the hot water tank, the return flow velocity will differ as the temperature changes within the risers and mains. The furthest and highest connection on the risers will show an increase of flow within the re-circulating lines. The closest

riser to the hot water tank will read less re-circulation flow (specific heat of water) therefore, recording a different lower temperature at the return connection to the re-circulating main.

In order to resolve the problem, all re-circulating lines should have the same return temperature. Balancing valves should be installed to calibrate equal velocity of gallons per minute (GPM) and temperature of each individual riser before they return to the boiler.

Balancing valves are designed with a lock shield set point. They have a positive memory feature so that they will reopen to the exact balance set point after being closed in order to service equipment in the system. The soft seat provides positive, no-drip shutoff. Some balancing valves are designed with built-in check valves.

It should be noted that these pumps are not meant to build pressure; they are installed just to move water

around. The code states “where the static pressure at any fixture may exceed 550 kPa, a pressure reducing valve shall be installed to limit the maximum static pressure at the fixture to 550 kPa (79.8 pounds per square inch, psi).

Keep in mind also that code also states “the maximum temperature of hot water supplied by fittings to fixtures in a residential occupancy shall not exceed 49 degrees Celsius.” This is to help prevent scalding, while the temperature at the tank is maintained at 60ºC to prevent the growth of bacteria, which may lead to Legionella’s disease. So provision has to be made to ensure the water coming out of the faucet isn’t too hot.


Sam Steele is a Red Seal li-censed plumber with 30 years experience and a program coordi-nator at Humber College, Trades and Technology, in Etobicoke, Ont. He can be reached at [email protected].

Phasing pumpsIncorrectly installed pumps resulted in an emergency call to the plumber.

A while back the crew at Turbo Plumbing in Whistler, B.C. were called in to take a look at a new installation where the pumps were unable to keep up with the required flow.

“After inspection, we found the pumps running backwards,” reported company president Robert Szachury. “Did you know that a pump will flow 10 percent in reverse. Under heavy flow the system would not keep up. A phase rotation tool should have been used (during commissioning) and this problem would have been found by the installer instead of us.”

One item that is commonly overlooked is a pump bypass.

Every year Milwaukee Tools brings trade journalists from around the world to its hometown to see its latest offerings and to provide hands on experience. And every year the company demonstrates that it is

getting every closer to its goal of a totally cordless – battery powered – job site.

For a company that has been making professional corded tools since the 1920s, it’s a major shift. That shift began seven years ago, remarked company president Steve Richmond.

“It’s no longer just about power tools. It’s about solving (jobsite) problems.” That approach has seen the company branch into everything from heated clothing to hand tools to test instruments.

Milwaukee officials refer to their approach as “disruptive innovation,” which basically means staying ahead of the competition by introducing tools and other products to fill particular needs on the job site that are not currently being addressed.

This ranges from simply adding a loop to the thumbscrew on locking pliers – tradesmen have been welding on a washer for years to get more torque – to heated clothing to the creation of cordless tools that outperform the corded versions of some of the

professional tools that Milwaukee is known for – such as the Hole Hawg and the Sawzall.

“The cordless Sawzall was used in certain situations before. Now contractors will use it for day long demolition projects,” remarked Paul Fry, vice president of product management.

Evolving battery technologyEvolving battery technology has played a key role. The company introduced lithium ion battery packs in 2005 and then launched its “Fuel” technology – a combination of battery, brushless motor and the electronics that control them – in 2012.

At this year’s event the company introduced a five amp/hour battery pack, which essentially allows a tradesman to use a cordless tool continuously all day with one battery change – typically at lunchtime.

Longer battery life and more power has been achieved by getting more out of each individual battery cell in the pack. However, noted Fry, these batteries are a standard


Tools & Instruments

CORDLESS JOBSITETool maker continues to push power tool boundaries

By Simon Blake

Paige Bovard demonstrates a new press/connect system for black iron pipe.

It’s no longer just about power tools. It’s

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size and it may be difficult to get much more out of them.“As we move forward, this remains the weak link.”Considerable effort has also gone into making

battery packs water proof, remarked Andrew Lentz, product manager for hammer drills. Typically, water can get in through the terminals. Milwaukee has added channels that direct water out weep holes in the back of the battery pack, sealed off the latch and added a waterproof coating for electronics.

Growing product rangeLighting is one of the new areas that Milwaukee has entered as it moves to provide solutions for all aspects of the job site. Harsh lighting can often distort colours. Milwaukee has addressed that with a number of new workplace lights featuring the company’s “True View” technology – basically colour corrected lighting that makes colours appear natural.

“Having good colour rendering is important on the job site. The technician must be able to tell an orange wire from a red wire,” remarked Matt Zeilehofer, assistant product manager for lighting.

“People just work better under better lighting. Therefore, productivity improves,” he added.

New toolsOf course, the biggest news is always new power tools. The company introduced a number of products aimed

squarely at the mechanical industry.In November the company will introduce press

tools and crimp connections for black iron pipe, adding to its current systems for copper and stainless steel pipe.

A new M-18 (18-volt) cordless bandsaw will cut up to five inch pipe – and six inch by moving the tool around the pipe. The tool will be every bit as durable as the corded model, using as it does 90 percent of the same parts, remarked Milwaukee’ s Bill McCormick.

As mentioned earlier, Milwaukee’s heavy duty right angle ½-inch drill – the Hole Hawg – is now available in

a cordless version that is actually about two kilograms lighter and will drill about 150 7/8-inch holes on one charge. Milwaukee introduced the single speed (high speed) version used by electricians at the event. However, a two-speed version geared for plumbers – and capable of cutting up to 4-5/8” holes – will be available in 2015.

It’s an interesting time to work in the industry as research and development never stops. For Milwaukee, that means that the reality of a cordless jobsite is only a matter of time – likely a pretty short time.


A standardized cell size is the limiting factor in battery technolgy, says Paul Fry.

With its covers removed, the new M-18 bandsaw revels the same heavy duty internals as the corded version.

Lighter caseRidgid’s MegaPress Kits pipe pressing tool kits will now feature a new, blow-molded carrying case and are up to 21 pounds lighter than previous models, making them substantially easier to carry. The new kits no lon-ger include pipe end preparation tools, which are now available separately. Kits are available in ½” to one-inch and ½” to two-inch configurations.RIDGID www.ridgid.com

Easy handlingGeneral Pipe Cleaners redesigned Speedrooter 92 cable-feed drain cleaning

machine is designed for durability with ease of use. A new inner drum is molded to

surround and contain the Flexitube distributor tube to prevent cable tangling, while still allowing the operator to see how much cable is left in the drum. The Flexitube

spring distributor tube allows the cable to smoothly feed and retract, even if the frame has been damaged. A grease fitting was added to the hub to make it easier to maintain the machine. The machine is also designed for one-person loading with built-in stair climbers. It’s power cable feed drives and retracts 3/4, 5/8 and 1/2-inch cables at a rate of up to 20 feet per minute.General Pipe Cleaners www.drainbrain.com

Groove cutting machineThe Pace Model 1000 from MAG Tool is designed to cut specifica-tion quality grooves in two through eight-inch Schedule 40 pipe. It comes complete with eight collets, four high-speed grooving blades and a groove gauge. A one horsepower motor driving through a heavy-duty worm gear reducer rotates pipe at 22 RPM for most effective cut grooving. Optional 10” and 12” collets are available as well as collets for ductile iron and Schedule 80 pipe.MAG Tool www.magtool.com

Extra torqueFor years tradesmen have been welding a large washer on to the thumb screw on their locking pliers so that they could use a screw-driver to get more torque on it. During job site vis-its, Milwaukee Tool R&D

staff saw this and decided it would make a worthwhile modification to the company’s locking pliers. Thus, the “Torque Lock” series was born with a loop already at-tached at the factory.Milwaukee Tool www.milwaukeetool.com


Tools & Instruments

Condensate sludge suckerUniweld’s Sludge Sucker Maintenance Kit is designed to clean an air conditioning system’s condensate drain line. It includes the tools for cleaning a condensate drain line and cleaning coils without having to access the drain pan. With the use of nitrogen, CO2, or water, suction is created that pulls all the sludge and algae from the drain pan and drain line; then blows it onto the ground outside.Uniweld www.uniweld.com

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It’s early in the morning as Peter Steffes heads over to the business he runs with wife Brenda. The 56-year-old HVAC contractor likes to start his day at 5 a.m. so he can get a jump on the business of the day.

Like many small firms in Windsor, Ontario – the heart of Canada’s auto manufacturing industry – Ideal Heating & Cooling has been through many changes in its 50 years. The combination of free trade and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 – both of which caused U.S. manufacturers to reduce Canadian operations – have cost the city of 210,000 nine auto manufacturing plants in recent years.

The company, celebrating 50 years in business this year, operates in a dramatically different business climate from when Brenda’s father, Steve Fodor, founded the business in 1964. At that time the auto industry was booming and Canadians were just beginning to demand air conditioning. A Lennox dealer for 45 years, the company’s reputation along with

the security of owning its building has allowed Ideal Heating & Cooling to prosper in the good times and survive the lean times.

The early yearsFodor had been a sheet metal worker for about 10 years, working for Harold’s Heating, before he decided to start his own business. He rented a small shop in downtown Windsor.

Business was brisk from the beginning and Fodor was able to employ a couple of technicians. A Hungarian immigrant, he was a perfectionist and not an easy man to work with, adds Brenda. “He liked to do things his own way.”

In 1966 Fodor built a new 6,000 sq. ft. shop in a rural area on North Talbot Road on the edge of town. In 1978 he built the current 3,800 sq. ft. location next door.

“When he built out here, there was nothing,” says Peter. By that time Ideal had become a large contractor with 60 employees. It was doing large residential subdivision projects and installing 200 rooftop units per year on commercial buildings. Both buildings are still owned by Ideal Heating & Cooling, with the larger one rented out.

Fodor butted heads with the sheet metal workers union over the years, but in the early 80s the union dropped the residential sector from its contract, allowing contractors in Windsor to operate a non-union shop for residential while maintaining a union shop for industrial and commercial work.

Brenda and her siblings were put to work from a very young age. She remembers assembling hundreds of dampers as a 12-year-old. She was promoted to making components on the metal shear until “I almost killed myself.” So it was back to the dampers.

Older brother Larry, who is now a mechanical engineer and the director of utilities and energy management at Wayne State University, just across the river in Detroit, was more heavily involved while younger brother Gary, who is still in the industry with a different company, was also on the damper line.


People & Places

HVAC/R contractor marksMOTOR CITY MILESTONE

Fifty years of ups and downs in the heartland of Canada’s auto industry

By Simon Blake

Peter, centre, and Brenda Steffes along with John Murphy navigate the company in today’s challenging HVAC/R marketplace.

New beginningsLike any family business, succession planning is difficult. In the normal scheme of things, the company would have gone to the oldest son. However, Fodor was a hard man and after son Gary left the company and came back a few times, that wasn’t going to happen.

Steffes married Brenda in 1982. Neither worked in the business at the time. Steffes was a serviceman for a furniture store and admits that he was a little scared of his new father-in-law. However, he decided he wanted to get into the trade and Fodor could see that he had mechanical aptitude, so Steffes learned to work with “the tough task master.”

There was only one other contractor in town that was tougher and that was J.E. Murphy, recalled Peter. He remembers seeing him “rip a guy apart at a Union Gas meeting” – the Union Gas rep was trying to defend his company over its encroachment into the HVAC contracting business and Murphy was having none of it.

However, that meeting led to a lifelong friendship between Peter and John Murphy, who eventually took over J.E. Murphy Heating & Cooling from his father. Although semi-retired, Murphy still works with Ideal Heating & Cooling from time to time, having sold his own shop several years ago.

Today’s realityInside the back shop, the first thing anyone notices is that it is very clean with everything in its place. The

sheet metal equipment that served Fodor and his employees so well back in the 60s is still very much in use and kept in immaculate condition.

Today the company numbers only eight employees, but the technicians are highly skilled and hold multiple licenses – sheet metal, refrigeration, gas fitter, for example. “When I send a guy, he’s well trained,” notes Peter. Some employees, like technicians Joe Figliomeni, Joe Rooney and Joel Myea, have been with Ideal for many years. Refrigeration tech Stephanie Cusmaik is one of the few female trades people in the industry.

With the auto industry no longer thriving, Ideal has to find its business where it can. Increasingly, it subcontracts for other companies like National Home Services. With lots of shop space, it also warehouses equipment for another company.

It’s a tough market. The close proximity to the U.S. means that Windsor residents are always comparing prices with those in the U.S. Today’s customer is more knowledgeable, but colder, adds Peter. “It used to be that they made us lunch; now they watch us on web cams.”

But at the same time, being in business 50 years has its advantages. The company is well known and much business continues to come by word of mouth.

Peter is a strong believer in the value of belonging to associations and networking with other contractors. He has been an active member of the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI) for 24 years. He has headed up his local chapter, served as a director on the national board and is in line to become national chairman. Peter also sits on the Ontario College of Trades for the sheet metal division.

A future in technologyWhile the day-to-day operation can be a struggle, ongoing changes in technology make HVAC/R an exciting business. Increasingly, Ideal technicians are installing systems with smart controls that can be monitored by the contractor, something that both home and business owners have been more than willing

to accept, notes Peter.When there’s a problem, it works well for both

parties. The customer saves the cost of the initial diagnostic service call while the contractor can order the parts he needs before heading to the job site. Peter sees a bright future for Ideal Heating & Cooling and other HVAC contractors that become experts in state-of-the-art control systems.

It’s just one more thing that helps a business in a tight-knit community with a unique set of challenges. “Windsor is a different market,” notes Brenda. “What works in London or Toronto won’t work here.”


While the day-to-day

operation can be a struggle, ongoing changes in technology make

HVAC/R an exciting business.

Son and daughter Gregory and Lisa Steffes grew up around the business, but both have pursued university and alternate careers.

Ideal has a full sheet metal shop. The equipment may be old, but it is used regularly and kept in immaculate condition.

In one corner of the shop, Peter keeps a little museum of all the HVAC brands that he has come across in his years in business.

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Wolseley Canada’s annual Special Olympics golf tournament held in Winnipeg June 4 raised a record $40,000 for Special Olympics.

Held at the Bel Acres Golf and Country Club, 160 golfers and 28 sponsors participated in the Ninth Annual Wolseley Classic, which topped last year’s amount raised for Special Olympics by more than $6,000.

On July 12, approximately 60 people consisting of six teams made up of Wolseley Canada employees stepped up to the plate to play in Wolseley Canada’s Second Annual Special Olympics baseball tournament held at Sherwood Forest Park in Burlington, Ont., raising $750 for Special Olympics Ontario.

People & Places

Flocor, Stoney Creek, Ont., has hired Pam Sovari as the company’s national purchas-ing manager.

T e c h n i c i a n T y l e r Radkowski of Applied Systems Technologies Inc., Woodbridge, Ont. has won gold

at the UA International Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Radkowski previ-ously won the Ontario Skills competition in both the secondary and post-secondary categories. On his way to UA gold, he won the UA Central Canada Competition and then went on to win the UA Canada (District 6) Competition in Edmonton.

Commercial HVAC representative HTS, Toronto, has named six new principals from its Ontario and Texas offices to lead the company’s growth. In Canada, Paul Povolo has been named senior sales engi-neer in the Toronto engineering department. James Breckenridge will head the automation and control department. Terry Arcese serves as a mentor for

junior sales engineers and will continue his role as engi-neering sales manager in London, Ont. Jason Kitchenis branch manager of Ottawa and Sudbury.

Fairview Fittings & Mfg. Ltd.,Toronto, announces the appointment of Roberto Verilli to the role of eastern regional sales manager, responsible for Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Scott Duncan has joined Desco Plumbing and

Heating Supply Inc. ,Etobicoke, Ont. as sales man-ager. A mechanical engineer, Duncan was previously with Honeywell. Desco has also appointed Diana Di Carlo as sales and operations manager for its Water Closet showroom business.

Mike Miller, left, Taco Canada, Milton, Ont., has been named chairman of the Canadian Hydronics Council, replacing Sean Giberson, also of Taco Canada, right.

Harald Prell, presi-dent, Canada, Viessmann Manufacturing Co.,Waterloo, Ont. was pre-sented with the Canadian

Hydronics Council Award of Merit for his contribu-tions to the industry during the CHC Luncheon in Kelowna, B.C. June 24.

Wolseley raises $40,000 for Special Olympics

Sixty Southern Ontario Wolseley employees participated in the Second Annual Special Olympics baseball tournament

The grand prize winning team at the Ninth Annual Wolseley Classic were, from left, Perry Neumann, Wolseley HVAC/R Winnipeg, and Justin Habing, Rusty Radley and Chris Radley, all from R&R Mechanical, Warren, Man.

T h e C a n a d i a n Advisory Council on Plumbing presented France Lemieux, head of the materials and treatment section for the Water and Air Quality Bureau at Health Canada, with the thirteenth Joseph K. Seidner Award at its annual meeting in Fredericton, N.B. Aug. 19. The award recognizes outstanding c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o Canadian plumbing codes and standards.

Lemieux has been an integral part of the standards development c o m m u n i t y , p a r t i c i p a t i n g o n

several committees, task groups and industry advisory bodies over the years. She has been the key voice of Health Canada within the standards community in both the U.S. and Canada. Her most notable recent accomplishments were her role in the Council of Public Health Consultants at NSF, and working with industry to smoothly integrate the Canadian Consumer Product Safety Act into this country’s regime of regulations, codes and standards.

Plumbing industry honours Health Canada official

Plumbing Industry Advisory Council chair-man Kevin Ernst of Oakville Stamping & Bending Ltd., Oakville, Ont. presented the award to France Lemieux.

PeopleThe

Paul Povolo

James Breckenridge

Terry Arcese

Jason Kitchen

Tyler Radkowski

Pam Sovari

Roberto Verilli

Diana Di Carlo

Scott Duncan

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As technologies change, so do trade shows. A new mobile app (application) will give tech savvy contractors and technicians attending CIPHEX West in Calgary Nov. 5-6 full access to the conference program and a way to quickly and easily plan their visit.

The interactive guide, available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, allows users to instantly find exhibitors, products and their locations on the show floor at the BMO Centre (formerly the Roundup Centre) in Stampede Park. It includes full information on seminars and workshops that the user can easily slot

into the calendar on their phone.In fact, the app allows visitors to quickly and easily

create an Expo Plan with the exhibitors they want to see, the seminars they want to attend and to make notes on products and seminars. It is available free on the show website at www.ciphexwest.ca.

New products on displayWhether the visitor is tech savvy or not, one thing that hasn’t changed is that an incredible array of mechanical industry products will be displayed and the contractor will have an opportunity to speak directly to the manufacturers.

Products categories at this edition of CIPHEX West, which last occurred in Calgary in 2010, will include plumbing, hydronic heating, forced air heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, solar, geothermal, water treatment, pipes, valves & fittings, fire protection, kitchen and bath, industrial, tools and equipment, trucks and software. Over 250 exhibitors are expected to participate.

Some of the industry’s most cutting edge technologies will be displayed in the New Product Gallery, which this year is expected to feature about 60 exhibits.

The Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating (CIPH), which organizes the show, has announced a competition for wholesaler staff where the individual that “recruits” the most contractors and technicians to attend CIPHEX West will win a tablet computer, reported show chairman Dustin Tamblyn of Emco. Visitors can also register online.

The show will be co-located at the Roundup Centre with Buildex Canada, so all CIPHEX visitors can also attend Buildex with the same registration, which is free prior to the show.

As reported in the last issue of P&HVAC, there is an extensive seminar schedule covering topics such as hydronic heating, water treatment, codes, pipe sizing, mould remediation, LEED and social media. In fact this edition of CIPHEX West will include a full-blown hydronics conference with speakers such at Dan Holohan, Robert Bean and John Siegenthaler.

For more information, please visit www.ciphexwest.ca or call CIPH show manager Elizabeth McCullough at 1-800-639-2474.


Coming Events

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SEPT. 24-27: Mechanical Contractor’s Association of Canada 73rd National Conference, Delta St. John’s Hotel, St. John’s, Nfld. Call (613) 232-0492 or visit www.mcac.ca.

NOV. 5-6: CIPHEX West Trade Show and Conference, BMO Centre, Stampede Park, Calgary. Contact Elizabeth McCullough at 1-800-639-2474 or visit www.ciphexwest.ca.

NOV. 13-14: Ontario Geothermal Assoc. Annual Conference, Taboo Resort, Gravenhurst, Ont. Visit www.ontariogeothermal.ca for more information.

DEC. 3-5: Construct Canada, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building, Toronto. Visit www.constructcanada.com or call (416) 512-3815.

CalendarEvents

Mobile app launched for CIPHEX WestBut new products remain the biggest attraction

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John Wood Dedicated Contractor Line 1-866-208-8367 and our First Call, Final Resolution philosophy of

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mployee performance reviews are key to employee development and performance management. A regular discussion between employee and manager on performance provides an opportunity

to discuss job performance, set goals, establish objectives for contributing to the business and

discuss expectations and accomplishments.However, many small businesses are reluctant to

have a formal performance review process. While they understand there is a potential upside for the business, it can seem complex and overwhelming. As there is often no dedicated human resources manager, the task of establishing and organizing the process is left to individuals—often the owner or office manager—who are unsure on how to proceed with a performance review.

Some of the things that attract employees to small businesses are opportunities to have a clearer line of sight to the business, the potential for expanded roles, broader responsibilities, personal development opportunities, and the desire to be part of building the business. Goal setting and performance reviews provide a perfect opportunity to highlight the link between individual roles and the impact they can have on the business.

Simple processThe process doesn’t need to be complicated. A simple form with a checklist of an employee’s goals, responsibilities and performance measures is a good

starting point. Building in a few questions pertaining to how employees feel about their job and the company can also provide insight into levels of employee engagement and how it can be improved.

For a sample performance review form from Carswell Best Practices: Human Resources Forms Toolkit, please email [email protected] with “performance review” in the subject line.

The next step is for the manager to have a simple conversation with each employee to discuss what they are currently doing, what the business’s objectives are, and what needs to be modified to optimize success. These conversations should be documented as they then provide a roadmap and a tool to track progress over the agreed upon time.

Aligning goalsPerformance reviews should not be a dreaded annual event; rather, they should be part of an ongoing process. As business goals change over the year, individual goals and objectives should also be evaluated and updated to ensure alignment.

Regular, less formal conversations with employees should be held to discuss how they feel they are doing and to assist in identifying and removing obstacles. These conversations could happen monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, depending on what works for your organization. Following this process will alleviate some the stress of the more formal annual review as there will be fewer surprises with issues, challenges, and successes already documented throughout the year.

An effective performance management process enables effective goal setting that should ultimately contribute to both individual and corporate success. Regularly tracking progress against performance goals also provides the opportunity to recognize and reward employees for performance

and exceptional effort contributing to their job satisfaction and productivity.

Employees want to do well at their jobs and feel they are successfully contributing to the organization.


Shop Management

Gerlinde Herrmann is the founder and president of The Herrmann Group Limited, a human resources consulting firm based in Toronto. She can be reached at [email protected]. The Human Resources Professionals Association

(www.HRPA.ca) provided this article.

Performance reviewsDo they make sense for a small business?

By Gerlinde Herrmann

Performance reviews should not be a dreaded annual event; rather, they should be part of an ongoing process.

E

In 2012 the British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA) commissioned a succession survey that highlighted many concerns within the

construction industry in British Columbia.In all, 102 responses, being a cross section of trade

and size, were received from throughout the province.Key findings included:

• Sixty-nine percent of owners are at least 50 years of age.• Fifty-seven percent have been in business longer than

16 years.• Sixty-two percent have 10 or fewer employees.• Thirty-five percent want to exit within five years;

another 39 percent in the ensuing five years.• Twenty-three percent will sell to a family member, 67

percent to a non-family member and ten percent will stay on in business.

• Fourteen percent expect to get between $300,000 and $500,000 for their businesses.

• Fifty-six percent expect to get more than $500,000 for their businesses.

• Three percent have a formal written plan.• Forty-one percent have an informal unwritten plan.• Fifty-six percent have no plan.• Thirty-four percent of those with a plan (written and

unwritten) got advice from their accountants.• Seventy-two percent would like to be informed of

opportunities to assist with business transition.The survey results show that most of the businesses

have made no significant attempts at preparing

themselves for succession and are seeking further guidance in this regard. And a surprising number of the business owners appear to have very unrealistic expectations of the value of their businesses.

The majority of the businesses have 10 or fewer employees. In these cases the owners are very “hands-on” in their businesses and therefore are an integral part of the success of those businesses.

Seventy-four percent of the owners want to retire within the next ten years.

Overcoming the issues identified by the survey takes time and effort. The negative effects of these issues can be mitigated.

Fire yourselfThe first step in preparing your business for sale is to establish the right mindset. When the sale of the business is not one of your top priorities, it will keep getting pushed to the sidelines as many other more urgent matters take priority. I didn’t say more important, I said more urgent. We let other people make their priorities our priorities.

Imagine how the business would run without your everyday presence. Give yourself three months’ notice and fire yourself. Identify what you would do if you only had three months to make the business independent of you. Identify the tasks you do. Document how they are done and start training others to take on those tasks.

For example, if you are the company estimator, break down the estimating role into its relevant tasks. Instead of saying I need someone to do the estimating, maybe you can start delegating some of those tasks to a junior person within the company or bring on a junior. You don’t need to bring on someone with your expertise. You can save a lot of money by delegating this task by task. However, make sure you document each task before delegating it and also ensure that you have performance indicators that will alert you if the tasks


Shop Management

Step one of succession planning is to get everything ship shape at the shop

By Ron Coleman

Please see ‘Make’ on page 70

A surprising number of

the business owners appear to have

very unrealistic expectations of the

value of their businesses.

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are not being done in a timely and accurate manner.By taking this approach you will have a much greater

opportunity of staying in control and developing an infrastructure that suits you, your company and the people in the company.

The primary reason people fail to delegate is that they fear they will lose control when they delegate. If you take the attitude that “if you want something done right do it yourself” then you will never grow a successful business. The biggest stumbling block for most owner/managers is letting go; this is because they can’t seem to do so without losing control.

Another way of looking at your business is to think of it like a franchise – franchises are built around structure and systems.

Your role must be that of a teacher. You should go to work not to do the work of the business but to teach others to do so.

Stick to the planAsk yourself these three questions every day:

• Are the decisions I have made today been based on my three-month plan?

• Did everything I have done today move the process forward?

• What can I do better tomorrow?You should also be encouraging your managers to

do the same. As you monitor their progress you will be able to determine who your weaker team members are. I know it’s no fun, but they need to be replaced with more competent people. The buyer is buying your people, so make sure you have the right people with the right skills doing the right tasks.

Other strategies to follow include:• Drop your weak customers • Drop your unreliable suppliers• Identify and drop unprofitable work

• Increase your prices• Provide added value to your services• Expand the service side of your business where

possible• Involve your key employees in the performance of the

businessAll these activities will help enhance the value of the

goodwill in your business.Here’s how to find yourself a great job when you fire

yourself. Rehire yourself as the business development officer and stay out of the day-to-day operations and here’s your job description:• Increase your selling prices each year by two percent.• Increase your annual sales volume by three percent.• Your sales will grow by five percent annually• Reduce your job costs by two percent – improve

efficiency and buy better.• Your gross profit will be four percent higher – due

to two percent price increases and two percent lower job costs.

• Increase overhead by $150,000 to cover the increase in management costs.For every dollar in value before, your business is now

worth $2.44. This increases your nest egg from $600,000 to $1.4 million. In addition, and here is the fun part, your profits are increasing each year. Again in the above example you will likely make an additional half-million in profits over the five years. Thus your next egg will be close to $2 million. So, tell me, what’s stopping you?

Go ahead give yourself three months’ notice. Identify your role for those three months and make it happen. Then rehire yourself as Business Development Director and give yourself a salary increase.


ADVERTISERSINDEX to

Shop Management

A.O. Smith .................................................. 22AHR Expo ................................................... 69Allied Air ................................................... 25*Bibby Ste. Croix .......................................... 58Bosch Thermotechnology ............................ 20Bradford White ........................................... 13Brant Radiant .............................................. 43Bristol Sinks ................................................ 10Canada Post ............................................... 64Canadian Water Quality ............................. 45+

Cash Acme ................................................. 57CIPHEX West ............................................. 25+

Dettson ....................................................... 27Eco-King ..................................................... 33EnerCare ................................................... 28*Duravent ..................................................... 23 Fantech ....................................................... 41Fieldpiece .................................................... 15Ford ............................................................ 52Fujitsu ......................................................... 44General Pipe Cleaners ................................... 6Honeywell/Genetron Div. ........................... 46IBC Boilers .................................................... 4ICP Canada ................................................. 21IPEX ................................................ 16, 36, 37John Wood ................................................. 66Liberty Pumps ............................................. 59

MAG Tool ................................................... 43Mitsubishi Electric ....................................... 18Mobilio ......................................................... 5Napoleon .................................................... 12Navien .......................................................... 9Noritz ......................................................... 34NTI .............................................................. 38Ontario Power Authority ............................ 48*

P&HVAC .................................................... 28+

Raptor Cutting Tools ................................... 54RIDGID ........................................................ 72Robertshaw ................................................ 29Saniflo ........................................................ 50Security Chimneys ....................................... 65Smiths ........................................................ 32Taco ............................................................. 2Toronto Hydro ........................................... 45*

Uponor Ltd. ................................................ 40Victaulic ...................................................... 11Viega .......................................................... 71Viessmann ............................................ 30, 51Viqua .......................................................... 42Watco Mfg. ................................................ 17Williams Furnace Co. .................................. 24Woodford Mfg. .......................................... 62Zoeller ........................................................ 35

*Ontario only + Outside Ontario only

Ronald Coleman is a Vancouver-based accountant, management con sultant, author and educator spe cializing in the construction industry. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

Make the business run without youContinued from page 68

Now Five Years

Sales 2,900,000 3,701,217

Direct job costs 1,850,000 63.8% 2,213,327 59.8%

Gross profit 1,050,000 36.2% 1,487,889 40.2%

Overhead 850,000 29.3% 1,000,000 27.0%

Pre-tax profit 200,000 6.9% 487,889 13.2%

Valuation multiplier 3 3

Value of business 600,000 1,463,667

Increase in value 863,667

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September/October 2014

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