June 2011 Newsletter
Attention! June Classes
An important development regarding the June 2011 classes scheduled for Mt. Kisco, NY….InterCounty Supply, (ICS), has purchased ALL the remaining seats for ALL four classes originally scheduled for the Holiday Inn in Mt. Kisco, NY and as a result we are moving the classes to the ICS, Port Chester, NY location and all seats are now NO CHARGE to you! This is a HUGE commitment from our friends at ICS and specifically ICS Vice President, Bryan Gettler. Please note the dates and the subjects have not changed but the location address is now:
InterCounty Supply, (ICS)
255 Regent St.
Port Chester, NY 10573
845-939-4351
Seating for the 6/21 and 6/28 “wiring” classes are limited to 20 per class. The 6/22 and 6/29 class have unlimited seating, (within reason). You can contact me directly to register for any of the June classes by calling 717-576-9122 or emailing me at Gerry@ESPCOtraining.com. Seats are available at no charge on a “first come, first served” basis and no food will be served at the classes so please eat before you come to the class.
A big THANKS to ICS for their generosity and commitment to the HVACR trades!
MIKE ROWE OF DIRTY JOBS TALKS TO CONGRESS
Check out the video of Mike Rowe of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” on the home page. Mike’s testimony is not only inspirational but eye opening as well. Mike Rowe is a true advocate for ALL the trades and a friend to all us in the trenches, boiler rooms, attics and crawlspaces. You can see the video at www.ESPCOtraining.com, scroll down the page…the video is in the right border.
GEOTHERMAL
Want to turn everybody on to a great software program called LoopLink from my new friends at Geo-Connections, Inc. Geo-Connections’ engineers literally wrote the book on residential and light commercial geothermal design. They then took their knowledge and over 50+ years of cumulative experience and poured it into the creation of LoopLink. The result isn’t just the first software designed around the new IGSHPA standards, it is the only software designed by the authors of those standards! You can check it out and take it for a trail run at this address:
More geothermal news from our ongoing project with my friends from Geotemp Geothermal Services and Malmark Construction in Montgomery, NY;
This month I wanted to look closer at the “slinky” closed ground loop that is being utilized. The house I have been documenting has three 65’ trenches. Each trench has 500’ of ¾” polyethylene slinky for a total of 1500’. Headers are 11/4” polyethylene straight lengths and average 20’ – 40’ in length. All this is predetermined based on soil composition, (finally putting the geological stuff you learned in grammar school to practical use), the structures heat gain / loss, the equipment chosen and other factors as well.
If you look at the pictures on my website in the “gallery” of this job you will see the “slinky” being installed. We had the extreme advantage of having Malmark’s excavating machine onsite so digging the 5’ deep trenches was a breeze! Look at the slinky in the pictures……the overlapping, (the distance between the circular coils), of the tubing is called the “pitch” and is also predetermined in the design process. Those of us who have done radiant floor heat designs can relate to the amount of tubing being relative to BTU’s required…here we are not only dealing with heat rejection, (cooling mode), but heat absorption as well, (heating mode). A 500’ roll of ¾” polyethylene pipe, 36” coil diameter with a 13” pitch will create 42 loops.
It should be noted that if you don’t have the advantage of heavy duty excavating equipment the slinky can be installed standing up, (vertical), utilizing a “ditch witch” type machine.
The polyethylene tubing is connected via socket / butt fusion. My sponsor, GeoThermal Tools, Inc. of Wayne, NJ has made a tool available for my August and September geothermal classes and we will actually demonstrate the process of socket / butt fusion in the classes. Simply, you are heating the ends of the pipe, (butt fusion), to about 450 degrees and “fusing” the two ends together…..no coupling! Of course there are fittings such as couplings, reducers, elbows, etc. and socket fusion is used in this process.
Back to the Montgomery, NY job…here are the numbers for the house:
Structure Sq / Ft ——2,420
Indoor Summer Design Condition——–72 degrees
Indoor Winter Design Condition———-70 degrees
Outdoor Summer Design Condition——88 degrees
Outdoor Winter Design Condition——–4 degrees
Total Heat Gain——23,755 BTU’s
Total Heat Loss——32,516 BTU’s
The ground source heat pump chosen for the house is a two stage 3 ton unit…more on that next month!
SOLAR
I hosted a group from Community Environmental Center of Long Island City, NY at my home last Friday so they could observe the thermal solar system I have installed at my home. The not-for-profit Community Environmental Center (CEC) was founded in 1994 to address the housing and energy efficiency needs of low and middle income communities. You can learn about the CEC at www.cecenter.org . They are researching thermal solar products that can be easily applied at low upfront cost and have high performance ratings for use in single and multi-family low income housing. I was glad to be of assistance in their research process and applaud the CEC for their good “community” based work!
MUSIC
One of my musical dreams has come true with the reunited 80’s new wave band “The Cars”. Ric Ocasek is back with all the original band members, (less Benjamin Orr who died), and has released a CD of all new material called “Move Like This”. Elliot Easton is one of the most underrated guitar players, (and a lefty no less)! Check out their website at this address: