Turning Geothermal Energy into a Hot HVAC Technology
One way to ensure that your facility remains up and running is to invest in the most up-to-date HVAC equipment and technologies. And one of the hottest HVAC technologies this year is geothermal technology.
Geothermal heat pump systems, for example, use 25%-50% less electricity than conventional heating or cooling systems. And they can reduce energy consumption – and corresponding emissions – up to 44% compared to air-source heat pumps and up to 72% compared to electric resistance heating with standard air-conditioning equipment, according to the EPA.
But while more companies are engaged in developing geothermal resources, it still seems to be “that enticing but forever elusive next big technological thing,” sustainability author Chris Turner says in this article.
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Recap of the 2012 AHR Show in Chicago
Green isn’t just for the eco-conscious consumer anymore – it’s become an industry standard as was quite apparent at the 2012 International Air Conditioning Heating Refrigerating (AHR) Expo in Chicago last week.
The event featured more than 60,000 professionals from all over the world. It also featured experts from 35 countries presenting truly unique wares with a common thread – good for the environment.
The words to describe the products showcased at more than 6,000 booths have become more than buzzwords – efficiency, smart technology, green tech are where the HVAC industry is moving. We want better technology and better choices for our customers. Well, the industry delivered.
With record attendance and three days to meander more than 428,000 square feet of HVAC tech, the AHR 2012 was the largest show yet and delivered what we promised in our preview blog – more ideas for saving our customers (and ourselves) money.
InfoMill (@infomill), a data management company focused on the HVAC and materials handling industries, made a wise summation of the show in a recent Tweet – Impression from @ahrexpo is that business [is in a] slightly better state than 2 years ago but need to be lean, smart and flexible to win business.”
New products from Goodway focused on indoor air quality
Our new RamPro portable chiller tube cleaner won an honorable mention in the 2012 AHR Expo Innovation Awards
Goodway presented new products at AHR 2012 including the RamPro Portable Chiller Tube Cleaner. This award-winning tool makes fast work of creating better indoor quality and is specifically designed to handle the demanding environment of commercial tube cleaning. In addition, we presented a mold deterrent for coils, grills, duct work and more with our CoilShine-BC. This new solution keeps mold from coming back and going with our green focus for AHR – it’s EPA-registered and essentially nontoxic. You can apply it when the building is occupied. How’s that for better air?
Innovation awards and entry fees for a better community
This ought to make you feel all warm and cozy. Several companies including Goodway were recognized at the AHR Expo Innovation Awards for their commitment to improving the industry in 10 categories. Our RamPro Chiller Tube Cleaner made the cut in the Instruments category. But the most rewarding part of this competition is what the organizers do with the entry fees – they make a donation to a charity in the host city. This year, the competition generated more than $12,000 for Metropolitan Family Services, a nonprofit that serves thousands of families on the southwest side of Chicago.
The funds will help the organization save money on heating and cooling costs at its Head Start pre-kindergarten facility. The donation was used to purchase HVAC controls upgrades, which will help the two rooftop units serving the Midway Head Start Center run more efficiently. Currently, the Metropolitan Family Services spends more than $50,000 to operate all utilities at the facility.
Cool tech from the Expo
Some of the coolest new tools were featured at the Expo with the coolest going to Emerson Climate Technologies. They won an innovation award in the software category for their HVACR Mobile Toolbox for Contractors. This software features a set of six mobile apps designed to help contractors do their jobs more quickly and more efficiently.
Melink’s Intelli-Hood kitchen ventilation control really measured up to the efficiency and environmentally conscious theme of this year’s AHR Expo. According to the company, this smart vent control reduces exhaust (green!) and helps companies save up to 50 percent on air conditioning costs (efficient!). It won the overall Innovation Award and sealed the deal on where our industry is heading – in a good, clean direction.
Next steps:
The expo photos were not live on the Expo website at the time of this post, but you can still visit the virtual show and find insights from attendees and exhibitors on Twitter. Be sure to share your thoughts on the show in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our events page to see where we’ll be next.
- Sign up to receive a preview of the next AHR show just prior to the event.
- Check out Goodway’s great products at the show.
- Check out our learning center on Industrial Maintenance Cleaning Equipment.
- Stay up to date on facility maintenance tools such as chiller tube cleaners,boiler tube cleaners andhose/pipe cleaners,descaler systems,test instruments,industrial vacuums,commercial pressure washers, and drain cleaners.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
It’s Superbowl Monday as AHR Expo Tackles Chicago Today
The New England Patriots and New York Giants have been crowned NFL conference champions and are now preparing for the Superbowl. The next two weeks will be filled with team meetings, breaking down of game tapes, practices, traveling, and much more. Yup, that’s alot of work that needs to be done prior to the big game.
Now consider the amount of time and resources needed to design, construct, manage and pull off our industries Superbowl, the 2012 AHR Expo. Starting today, McCormick Place will be packed with tens of thousands of professionals looking to boost their knowledge and push the HVAC industry past the goal line and on to new heights.
This show is predicted to be the largest and most impressive trade show in history. There is a reason why the show is three-days long—I’m quite certain it is impossible to absorb what the show has to offer, especially with thousands of exhibits from all around the world.
Sunday night it was lights out early, as I prepare for this historical couple of days. My free time has been filled with plans for the journey that will start Monday, January 23. To some, this may be just another day out of the office. To me and the rest of the HVAC enthusiasts, this is our championship game. Instead of rooting for our football team, we’re rooting for our peers. Day after day we have had to endure the ups, the downs, and the heartaches of the business. And that has brought us this year to Chicago in hopes that the new products soon available will make us champions of the industry.
Going green has proven to be not just another fad. Most of the show seems to be heading in the direction of green energy. Leaders in geothermal, solar heat, and zoning will most likely take the spotlight. On my drive to the show, I have one question that needs to be answered. How can I save myself as well as my customers money? In fact, that same question will be replaying itself in my mind as I walk from exhibit to exhibit. I’m sure that same question will be on the minds of most visitors throughout the show. I’m hoping Wednesday night I will have many answers to this question.
The expectations have been set. Will they live up to all the hype? Having attended the shows in years past I would say they will. AHR has never let me down and hopefully never will. As my knowledge and passion grows for the industry so does everyone else’s, which should be reflected this week. The day is finally here and nothing will stop me and thousands of others from attending but don’t expect any wardrobe malfunctions from Janet Jackson during the halftime show.
Next Steps:
- Sign up to receive a review of the show in your inbox later this week.
- Check out Goodway’s great products at the show.
- Check out our learning center on Industrial Maintenance Cleaning Equipment.
- Stay up to date on facility maintenance tools such as chiller tube cleaners,boiler tube cleaners andhose/pipe cleaners,descaler systems,test instruments,industrial vacuums,commercial pressure washers, and drain cleaners.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
USGBC Leader Takes Building Improvement To The World Stage at Davos
What would you say if we told you that you could be an important part of world economic recovery? Rick Fedrizzi thinks you are. And he should know, since he is the president, CEO and founding chairman of the U.S Green Building Council, creators of the LEED program.
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Even Green Gear Needs To Be Clean Gear
A company in Memphis, Tennessee is spending in excess of $1 million to install new cooling towers and upgrade the HVAC system in an office building it recently bought. Owners of a building in Knoxville, Tennessee just spent more than $250,000 to replace a cooling tower and make other improvements to earn Energy Star status for the building.
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New Technologies Will Require Old Maintenance
The media have been reporting a great deal about new clean, green and sustainable means of power generation. Whether it is solar, wind, geothermal or biomass, there is a tremendous amount of effort, time and money being poured into those technologies.
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California Passes Nation’s Strictest Green Building Code
Even if you don’t live in California, you’re going to want to pay attention to a law that just passed there. It seems that whatever happens in California eventually makes its way to the rest of the country — and in this case, probably everywhere else as well.
The law in this case is the the new green building code, California Code of Regulations Title 24, Section 11, which has already been affectionately dubbed “CalGreen” by locals and the media. Beyond such requirements as a 20% reduction in water usage, recycling of 50% of construction waste and the use of low-emissions paint, carpets, etc., the law will require the inspection of all heating, air conditioning and other mechanical systems in all non-residential buildings over 10,000 square feet, to make sure they are performing to expected levels.
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ASHRAE President Sees A Busy Year Ahead For The Industry, Part 2
And now, part 2 of our interview with Gordon Holness, 2009-2010 President of ASHRAE, (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers). To recap Part 1, 2009 was a challenging year, to say the least. In the spirit of closing the door on the less-than-ideal year we all experienced, we’re proactively moving forward to the coming year. What does 2010 hold in store? What trends and issues will shape how we do business this year, in five years and even further into the future?
To get a broad overview of what is to come, we spoke with Gordon Holness, and in a wide-ranging discussion, he addressed the trends and events that will affect the industry for years to come.
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Is LEED Working?
Remember LEED? The U.S. Green Building Council’s “Leadership in Energy and Environmental and Design” program? Of course you do. So do we. We write about LEED frequently. We urge our readers to learn about it, qualify for it, and practice it. We hope to help you in that endeavor, since LEED seems to be the green building program of the future, and we’re all for that.
But it always pays to keep your eyes and ears open, not to mention your mind, and that’s why we’re calling your attention to this: “The Green Façade.” It’s a November 25 article in The Atlantic, America’s venerable magazine of literature, ideas, politics, and culture. If you’re high on LEED, you might want to read this article for its nuanced analysis of what LEED is actually accomplishing and how the program might best move forward. Because, to put it starkly, LEED in its current form may not be doing what it’s most prominently supposed to do: saving energy.
The article’s author, Atlantic senior editor Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, starts by noting the green movement’s epochal trajectory toward center stage in American culture and politics. But then she sounds the note that signals it’s time to rein in our enthusiasm and pay attention to hard facts: two studies released in fall 2009 question the overall effectiveness of LEED as it’s currently being deployed and practiced. And these studies come from within the official LEED community itself.
One of them comes from Rob Watson, who, in addition to editing GreenerBuildings.com, from which we ourselves have quoted numerous times, is the man who actually developed the LEED rating system. Watson’s November report, says Gritz,
included impressive data on market trends, land impact, and water efficiency for LEED projects. When it came to energy savings, though, the numbers were discouraging. “Some LEED buildings are not performing as expected given their design and technology elements,” Watson stated bluntly. “This is an area of controversy and a source of great attention by the U.S. Green Building Council.”
The other study came out in late October and was issued by the Chicago chapter of the USGBC and its partners, and its findings were nothing short of shocking. Again, Gritz summarizes:
The study looked at the median efficiency of LEED-certified buildings in Illinois and found that they were performing only 5 percent better than their non-LEED counterparts throughout the region. Fewer than 30 percent of the buildings were eligible for the government’s ENERGY STAR label. And the Platinum and Gold LEED buildings were no more efficient than those that had Silver or basic LEED certifications (emphasis added).
Does the expression “Whoops?” seem out of order here?
So, in light of these findings, what’s to do? Gritz points out several salient facts, including the way the current LEED system may need a retooling, since it lets people in search of credits “reach for low-hanging fruit” in the form of modifications that don’t directly affect energy use or carbon emissions, and including the increasingly recognized truth that LEED for existing buildings, or LEED-EB, actually produces the best energy results. (We ourselves recently noted the attention being paid to existing buildings as credible sources for energy savings, in “Not So Fast: Old Buildings — Not Just New Ones — Contribute Vitally to Clean Energy Economy.”) This, ladies and gentlemen, shows promise.
We scour industry headlines and the news in general as we go about our task of bringing you this blog, and so we see the patterns that are currently lining up. Right now, for instance, a story has just come across the transom from San Diego Business Journal that talks about new state standards in California for achieving LEED silver. Oh, and here comes another one, this time from Automated Buildings. It’s an interview with Nathan Rothman, founder and CEO of Optimum Energy LLC, in which he shares his experiences and overall impressions of this year’s Greenbuild show in Phoenix in November. The title? “Increasing Acceptance of LEED.” Stories like this appear every day, sometimes by the dozens, and they are indeed important. And yet here’s that Atlantic article and the two reports it talks about, telling us to hold on, get a grip, and be smart, because all may not be as it seems.
We’re listening, and we hope you are, too.
Matt Cardin
Goodway Blogging Team
Image Credit: PhotoXpress
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New System Uses Internet To Tweak Thermostat, Cut Costs
Using communications to save energy costs seems to be a key strategy for a host of new green building products and technologies. In another post we talked about a new communications protocol being developed just for HVAC gear. Now Cleantech – one of the world’s largest competition for clean technologies – has picked a winner that uses communications as a means of reducing HVAC costs.
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