With the educational sessions wrapping up on day 2 of AHR Expo, day 3 gave us plenty of time to explore the expo hall, catch up on our show daily reading and talk to the reps manning the Victaulic booth. We caught Rodney McWhirteryoung, National Hydronic Balancing Manager, between demos and asked him to give us a better idea of how hydronic balancing works and what products Victaulic offers.
Read on to hear what Rodney had to say.
Rodney McWhirteryoung has been an integral part of the Victaulic team for more than 15 years. With a passion for teaching and training contractors and engineers about the various HVAC and hydronic balancing products Victaulic offers, Rodney is a fixture at the AHR Expo, as well as our hydronic balancing seminars throughout the year (read more about that below). We asked him to give us an overview of balancing for beginners.
Why hydronic balancing?
The purpose of hydronic balancing is to balance the water flow through the building to optimize the pump energy, the building’s energy consumption, and to ensure a comfortable indoor environment. Without balancing, parts of the system can receive overflow while other parts will be starved. When that happens, certain rooms can become too warm or too cold, and occupants may be uncomfortable. Occupants can adjust the thermostat, but it costs more flow to adjust it manually, so this actually increases the cost of running the pumps. The same goes for the chiller, boiler and other things in the mechanical room. In addition, with the growing trend toward building automation, the HVAC system needs to be running efficiently and reporting the right data in order for the building automation system (BAS) to be effective. If the system is not properly balanced, the BAS will deliver incorrect or inefficient data, which could lead personnel to make potentially costly decisions based on inaccurate data.
What solutions does Victaulic offer?
Victaulic offers a variety of hydronic balancing products, including TA valves and our own KOIL-KIT™ Coil Packs. We also offer balancing devices such as the TA Scope, along with other required products such as strainers, unions, PT ports and so on.
In addition to our line of balancing products, we also organize and present hydronic balancing seminars in partnership with TA across the nation in different cities each year. At these sessions, attendees learn about the tools and resources they need to make informed decisions on hydronic balancing that will directly impact their business. Attendees receive professional development hours (PDHs) and a complimentary dinner. We’ll be posting 2012 dates to our website soon, so check back to find out if a hydronic balancing seminar will be coming to a city near you.
We hope this gives you a better idea about the basics of hydronic balancing. For a deeper, and much more technical look at the topic, we encourage you to attend a balancing seminar. As for AHR, check back for a wrap-up and overview of the sessions we attended as well as some neat stats about the show this year. As always, thanks for tuning in.
