Industry News

Shelly Palmer, a well known strategic advisor and media specialist, visited KBIS in Las Vegas and provided his view of the show and the Toto Neorest, a $10,00 toilet.

He came away fascinated by the show and gave his opinion on six Kitchen & Bath products that captured his attention.

• Toto Neorest 750H
• 3D-Printed Faucets from DXV by American Standard
• Kalamazoo Hybrid Fire Grill
• Monogram Indoor Pizza Oven
• MoistureShield® Composite Decking
• Boral Versetta Stone®

Read the Shelly’s full article and review

Jack Johnston to remain as CEO

Winsupply Inc., a leading supplier of residential and commercial construction and industrial supplies and materials, announced Roland Gordon has been named president of the company. Gordon retains his title of chief financial officer until the Board of Directors names a successor. Jack Johnston, who was named chief executive officer in September 2015, turns over the daily management of operations at Winsupply and the Win Family of Companies to Gordon.

“I decided I would like to spend more of my time on the strategic direction of the company and ways in which we can strengthen the organization,” Johnston said. “Roland has a strong financial background and brings a broad array of experiences and success in leadership. He’s part of a great team of leaders within the Winsupply organization, each of whom brings their respective area of expertise to help lead us forward. I’ll also continue to work with the chairman, Rick Schwartz.”

“I’m very excited for this opportunity to lead our daily operations,” said Gordon. “Jack has been president for the past five years and really set the example for the kind of leadership that inspires others to work as a team and to support each other. Winsupply has great employees and we’re on a path for future growth and success. I’m very proud to play a key role.”

Gordon joined Winsupply in 1999 as a manager with Dapsco Inc. (now Winsupply Group Services) in Reno, Nevada. The Reno office provided complete business services for Win local companies in its geographical area. From Reno, Gordon took a position as the risk manager with Dapsco Inc. in Dayton, Ohio.

Following Winsupply’s acquisition of Noland Company in 2005, Gordon was appointed its chief financial officer and liaison to the subsidiary. He was appointed chief financial officer for Winsupply in August 2011.

Before joining Winsupply, Roland was employed by the New York Life Insurance Company in Reno and provided case consultant services.

Gordon received a bachelor of business administration degree with an accounting major from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, and a master’s degree in industrial distribution from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He also earned a master’s certificate in the emerging leader program at the University of Dayton. He holds a number of professional certifications and designations, including certified public accountant, certified management accountant, certified internal auditor and certified fraud examiner.

Bell & Gossett (B&G), a Xylem brand, celebrates 100 years of engineering industry-leading commercial HVAC and plumbing products. Key highlights include highly efficient pumps and energy-saving system solutions, as well as an additional educational offering through B&G’s Online Little Red Schoolhouse.

“For 100 years, Bell & Gossett has been a leader in efficiency, education and system expertise,” said Mark Handzel, Vice President, Product Regulatory Affairs, and Director, HVAC Commercial Buildings. “While the industry’s landscape has changed over the years, Bell & Gossett continues to focus on helping our customers achieve higher energy efficiency and decrease costs. As we look ahead to the next century, we will continue providing high-quality products, offering world-class training and serving as a thought leader on industry trends.”

In line with its focus on greater efficiency, the Xylem booth will feature B&G’s POWER OF e product portfolio, including the newly launched Series e-80 inline pump and the award-winning ecocirc® XL large wet rotor circulator pump. Xylem’s expansive product range and advanced technologies provides customers with high-performance and reliability.

The POWER OF e platform emphasizes the dedication B&G places on reducing building energy consumption. The Efficiency Island concept is a critical element of the POWER OF e, highlighting Xylem’s superior design for improved overall system energy savings over a broader range of operating conditions.

New virtual training course

The Little Red Schoolhouse, located in Morton Grove, Illinois, has been educating the industry for more than 60 years with its hands-on hydronic system training. The newest course, offered through B&G’s Online Little Red Schoolhouse, features four modules about waterside economization, adding depth to the industry-leading program and its 22 modules on centrifugal pumps and piping system basics.

The free, interactive, self-paced program enables engineers, wholesalers and contractors in the HVAC industry to access the training from a computer, tablet or any mobile device via a dedicated learning app. The online courses reach a global audience and qualify for continuing education credits. To learn more about the Online Little Red Schoolhouse, visit http://bellgossett.com/training-education.

“It’s critical for our industry to have a strong, practical knowledge of HVAC and plumbing systems and how all the various components work together to create the highest efficiencies. This is one reason we’ve invested so much in our one-of-a-kind, systems-based training approach. We are proud to continue that commitment by expanding the Online Little Red Schoolhouse offerings,” said Handzel. “The web-based training system meets the needs of our changing workforce demographic by providing flexibility and greater accessibility for those who are seeking continuing education opportunities.”

B&G product showcase

B&G’s POWER OF e of product portfolio for commercial building services applications has the largest Efficiency Islands compared to other similar pumps, enabling customers to maintain significantly higher levels of efficiency over a much wider range of operating conditions. Products highlighted at Xylem’s booth include:

• TechnoForce e-HV – Launching at AHR, the TechnoForce e-HV is a pre-engineered pressure booster package, offering highly efficient variable speed solutions for high-rise buildings, educational institutions, hospitals and industrial facilities when additional potable water pressure and flow is required.
• BPX 2’’ Double-Wall brazed plate heat exchanger– The new BPX 2” Double-Wall brazed plate heat exchanger delivers the highest level of leak protection, safety, thermal efficiency and durability in a compact, low-cost unit. The double wall provides complete peripheral braze for additional strength, four leak ports guarantee quick and easy leak detection, ensuring excellent performance for domestic water applications.
• e-1510 end suction centrifugal pump– Recognized as the 2014 Consulting-Specifying Engineer Product of the Year, the e-1510 was redesigned to offer the largest Efficiency Islands, enabling users to maintain higher levels of efficiency over a wider range of operating conditions, reducing energy consumption, improving system performance and lowering life cycle costs.
• e-80/e-80 ITSC– The newly launched series e-80 and e-80SC pumps are a comprehensive redesign of the B&G legacy Series 80 and 80SC pumps. Developed using state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamic (CFD) techniques, these pumps provide best-in-class hydraulic performance and optimized performance improvements while delivering a broad efficiency range for fixed or variable speed operation in an inline configuration.
• ecocirc XL large wet rotor circulator– Recognized with a 2015 AHR Expo Innovation Award Honorable Mention and a 2015 Consulting-Specifying Engineer Product of the Year silver award, the energy-efficient circulator leverages exceptional hydraulic performance, advanced motor design and smart communications capabilities to improve operations across a broad range of commercial HVAC and plumbing applications.

If you are an engineer, a mechanical contractor or a building maintenance manager you probably came across steam heating system. And you noticed that steam piping design as been done the same way for the last 100 years or so. The traditional way of design those steam network needs a lot of components like 2 (1/3-2/3) pressure reducing valve, 2 (1/3-2/3) control valve on the steam heat exchanger, steam safety relief valve pipe to the roof which need yearly maintenance and a dedicate condensate return pump with a vent pipe to the roof to eliminate all the flash in return condensate line in order to avoid any water hammer.

What if you can avoid all those components?

No more pressure reducing valve, no more condensate pump and no more safety relief valve.

Maxi-Therm base in Montreal Canada offer an innovative vertical flooded steam heat exchanger solution that not only avoid all those components but bring you energy savings up to 15%!

The concept consist of using a vertical heat exchanger with a small control valve install on the condensate return line. By doing so, they flood the heat exchanger. That allows them to extract not only the latent heat but also the sensible heat which you don’t do when you use a traditional horizontal heat exchanger system. And because they work on full pressure in the steam inlet, they don’t need a vacuum breaker, so they don’t inject oxygen in you return lines anymore.

Why they don’t need a safety valve?

Maxi-Therm provide an ASME (CRN for Canada) stamp for high pressure vessel on the heat exchanger and the complete package. This way the safety valve is not needed.

With over 400 installations around United States and Canada this unique concept is the new talk in town for steam user or designer.

And the big question is why we didn’t do this before?

Well if you take a look at the traditional manufacturer in the steam business, not only they offer heat exchanger concepts but also all the components needed to make this work, so by pushing this type of concept (flooded steam heat exchanger) they will lose a lot of return business in maintenance over years.

Maxi-Therm is surely becoming the new leader in the steam world, not only they provide building heat and domestic hot water system but also a clean steam generator and a condensate mixer that avoid multiple condensate return lines. The simply offer all the solutions to have a 100% close loop on steam. No one offers those type of solutions before.

To know more about Maxi-Therm visit www.maxi-therm.net. (514) 351-1001