From the outside, the 1920s villa in the seaside community of Newport, Rhode Island, appears as any other stately historic home in the neighborhood. But inside the 15,000-square-foot house, the heating system is state-of-the-art — complete with Wi-Fi and remote programming capabilities —powered by a Bell & Gossett (B&G) pump system. The old cast-iron steam Read more
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From the outside, the 1920s villa in the seaside community of Newport, Rhode Island, appears as any other stately historic home in the neighborhood. But inside the 15,000-square-foot house, the heating system is state-of-the-art — complete with Wi-Fi and remote programming capabilities —powered by a Bell & Gossett (B&G) pump system.
The old cast-iron steam boiler was obsolete and expensive to run, costing the homeowners $20,000 a year in oil alone. Property caretaker Jeff Ward started investigating options to convert the system from steam to hot water, downloading manufacturers’ manuals to compare and contrast pumps for the system. He set up a beta test in the house to find the most effective and energy-efficient model by measuring output through an amp meter.
B&G’s ecocirc vario circulator pump met Ward’s criteria, most notably because of its electronically commutated permanent magnet motor designed specifically for hydronic systems. In Ward’s test, the ecocirc heated the room while operating at just 1 / 4 of an amp and maintained consistent pressure.
Compared to its competitors in the field, the ecocirc has numerous advantages. First, it uses less wattage at maximum speed — 60 watts versus 85 watts — resulting in roughly a 30 percent savings in energy. In addition, its variable speed capabilities allow it to adjust to demand instead of running at maximum speed at all times, resulting in less energy use. 
While proper pressure within the system was a primary consideration, the ecocirc also proved it could handle the long heat runs in the 20-room house for just pennies a day in electricity costs, another priority for Ward.
Steve Graham of local B&G representative Fluid Industrial Associates Inc. (FIA), helped marry the new circulator technology with the home’s existing radiators — 67 in all. “It was a challenge to reuse the radiators and run new piping without it becoming a major construction project,” said FIA Vice President George Carey. “But aesthetically the radiators fit the look of the house and the homeowners wanted to keep them.”
The process of disassembling and cleaning all of the radiators took two years. Crews had to work around some of the complicated plumbing features of the house, such as two of the radiators being located behind built-in bookcases. Specialized tubing connects the radiators and the 25 ecocirc pumps, now in a centralized location in the house, to the new modulating gas boiler.
The ancient boiler was only part of the home’s heating problem. Previously, there were only two zones to control the temperature in the house. Installed by Steve Antoch of A&L Plumbing and Heating, the new system features 34 zones, and has Wi-Fi capability. Now, while the homeowners are out, they can send a text to Ward, who can program the system remotely so they arrive to comfortable temperatures inside the house.
Another key feature of the system is its outdoor reset, which takes into account the outdoor temperature when heating the water. For example, water is heated to 180 degrees on a 10-degree day but only needs to be heated to 110 degrees on a 50-degree day.
The new system is already paying dividends, with fuel costs plunging about 80 percent in just a few months. “This is the fastest payoff ever,” Ward said. “We don’t need oil anymore.”
Contrast that with the carriage house on the property, which is still fueled by an outdated system, costing about four times as much to heat than the main house now does.
Founded by the English Benedictine community in 1926, the Portsmouth Abbey School is a coeducational, 9 – 12 academy that sits on a bucolic 500-acre campus on the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Dedicated to the rigors of the Western intellectual tradition, the School is also a residence for its 360 students and Read more
Founded by the English Benedictine community in 1926, the Portsmouth Abbey School is a coeducational, 9 – 12 academy that sits on a bucolic 500-acre campus on the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Dedicated to the rigors of the Western intellectual tradition, the School is also a residence for its 360 students and to the monks who live at its monastery. For the Abbey’s director of operations, Paul Jestings, the institution represents both an extraordinary heritage and an extraordinarily complex heating and hot water challenge: sixty buildings served by a mix of individual units and central heating plants, fueled by oil, propane, solar and soon, natural gas.
“I can’t go into the red to go green.” When Jestings first arrived at the campus as an independent contractor in 1976, he confronted an array of steam boilers that had been in service since the mid-1960s. In 1990, when he assumed full-time responsibilities at the Abbey, Jestings was charged with a mission: save energy and money through appropriate upgrades. “The steam boilers didn’t modulate; they always ran at full blast,” says Jestings. “In the winter, that means a lot of short cycling. In the summer, when all we needed was hot water, we got a lot of overkill. Either way, it’s waste.” The administration, faced with aging boilers and high fuel costs, agreed that it was time for a change — but it had to be of the right kind. “We needed something that could manage an extremely diverse load, from a heavy use of showers in the morning to almost nothing the rest of the day.” The objective: match load to demand.
But Jestings had another consideration in mind. Every significant capital purchase requires approval from the school’s board of directors. With each purchase, Jesting’s reputation and credibility is on the line. “This school can’t afford to buy equipment that lasts only eight or ten years,” he says. “We have to get at least 20 or more years from our units — and the financial numbers have to work: I can’t go into the red to go green.” He was tired of replacing boilers that failed prematurely, tired of hearing the same very first thing out of the boiler rep’s mouth, “you know the warranty has passed.” No concern of why it failed prematurely because it did what it was designed to do…last past the warranty!
Efficiency has rolled out at Portsmouth Abbey in waves, beginning almost two decades ago by replacing approximately 20 steam and hot water boilers with more efficient Viessmann hot-water boilers. By coupling the units to outdoor reset controls, the boilers modulate supply water temperature output based on outside temperatures, increasing fuel savings by 20% on top of the highest efficiencies available for oil boilers – 87% to 89%.
In the second wave, Portsmouth Abbey incorporated solar panels to provide domestic hot water (DHW). Through an enhanced hybrid design that integrates with the boiler system, the solar panels provide supplemental space heating in warmer weather; in the coldest months, the boilers offer the necessary boost for hot water.
Today, Portsmouth is anticipating access to natural gas by installing Viessmann boilers that can accommodate any gas source without requiring any burner modifications; these will run on propane until natural gas becomes available. With natural gas or propane , the condensing boilers can gain an additional 10% increase in efficiency over oil, reaching efficiencies of 97% – 98%.
Some of the retrofits have saved 20% – 25% in fuel costs; others have achieved as much as 45% improvement in fuel efficiency. “We always outperform the estimates we give to the board,” Jestings says. “We love our boilers. Our guys wax them! Who does that? It shows pride of ownership.”
Fuel efficiency, and the elimination of the need to re-invest in its equipment every eight to ten years, are not the only ways the Abbey saves money. “Back in the old days, we went through a lot of growing pains,” Jestings says. “This is a boarding school, open 365 days a year. We can’t have boilers go down. We used to do a lot of night calls — and that means wear and tear on my staff. Now my crew never comes out at night, at least not for a boiler failure. I tell the new guys, you don’t know how lucky you are!”
Low maintenance is not just a boon to Jesting’s crew; it is one of the keys to fiscal responsibility. “This stuff just doesn’t break,” says Jesting. “With Viessmann, we haven’t had a service contract in 18 years. The money we save is put towards other upgrades in the physical plant — it’s all self-funded.”
Portsmouth Abbey has become a model for other institutions struggling to control costs and achieve a greener environmental profile. Other facilities managers turn to Jestings for advice. “I tell them they have to get past that initial increase in investment. The difference between the best equipment and the rest is in the fuel savings and in the reduced service,” says Jestings. “Some people say they can’t afford to go with Viessmann. I say you can’t afford not to.”
Founded by the English Benedictine community in 1926, the Portsmouth Abbey School is a coeducational, 9 – 12 academy that sits on a bucolic 500-acre campus on the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Dedicated to the rigors of the Western intellectual tradition, the School is also a residence for its 360 students and Read more
Founded by the English Benedictine community in 1926, the Portsmouth Abbey School is a coeducational, 9 – 12 academy that sits on a bucolic 500-acre campus on the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Dedicated to the rigors of the Western intellectual tradition, the School is also a residence for its 360 students and to the monks who live at its monastery. For the Abbey’s director of operations, Paul Jestings, the institution represents both an extraordinary heritage and an extraordinarily complex heating and hot water challenge: sixty buildings served by a mix of individual units and central heating plants, fueled by oil, propane, solar and soon, natural gas.
“I can’t go into the red to go green.” When Jestings first arrived at the campus as an independent contractor in 1976, he confronted an array of steam boilers that had been in service since the mid-1960s. In 1990, when he assumed full-time responsibilities at the Abbey, Jestings was charged with a mission: save energy and money through appropriate upgrades. “The steam boilers didn’t modulate; they always ran at full blast,” says Jestings. “In the winter, that means a lot of short cycling. In the summer, when all we needed was hot water, we got a lot of overkill. Either way, it’s waste.” The administration, faced with aging boilers and high fuel costs, agreed that it was time for a change — but it had to be of the right kind. “We needed something that could manage an extremely diverse load, from a heavy use of showers in the morning to almost nothing the rest of the day.” The objective: match load to demand.
But Jestings had another consideration in mind. Every significant capital purchase requires approval from the school’s board of directors. With each purchase, Jesting’s reputation and credibility is on the line. “This school can’t afford to buy equipment that lasts only eight or ten years,” he says. “We have to get at least 20 or more years from our units — and the financial numbers have to work: I can’t go into the red to go green.” He was tired of replacing boilers that failed prematurely, tired of hearing the same very first thing out of the boiler rep’s mouth, “you know the warranty has passed.” No concern of why it failed prematurely because it did what it was designed to do…last past the warranty!
Efficiency has rolled out at Portsmouth Abbey in waves, beginning almost two decades ago by replacing approximately 20 steam and hot water boilers with more efficient Viessmann hot-water boilers. By coupling the units to outdoor reset controls, the boilers modulate supply water temperature output based on outside temperatures, increasing fuel savings by 20% on top of the highest efficiencies available for oil boilers – 87% to 89%.
In the second wave, Portsmouth Abbey incorporated solar panels to provide domestic hot water (DHW). Through an enhanced hybrid design that integrates with the boiler system, the solar panels provide supplemental space heating in warmer weather; in the coldest months, the boilers offer the necessary boost for hot water.
Today, Portsmouth is anticipating access to natural gas by installing Viessmann boilers that can accommodate any gas source without requiring any burner modifications; these will run on propane until natural gas becomes available. With natural gas or propane , the condensing boilers can gain an additional 10% increase in efficiency over oil, reaching efficiencies of 97% – 98%.
Some of the retrofits have saved 20% – 25% in fuel costs; others have achieved as much as 45% improvement in fuel efficiency. “We always outperform the estimates we give to the board,” Jestings says. “We love our boilers. Our guys wax them! Who does that? It shows pride of ownership.”
Fuel efficiency, and the elimination of the need to re-invest in its equipment every eight to ten years, are not the only ways the Abbey saves money. “Back in the old days, we went through a lot of growing pains,” Jestings says. “This is a boarding school, open 365 days a year. We can’t have boilers go down. We used to do a lot of night calls — and that means wear and tear on my staff. Now my crew never comes out at night, at least not for a boiler failure. I tell the new guys, you don’t know how lucky you are!”
Low maintenance is not just a boon to Jesting’s crew; it is one of the keys to fiscal responsibility. “This stuff just doesn’t break,” says Jesting. “With Viessmann, we haven’t had a service contract in 18 years. The money we save is put towards other upgrades in the physical plant — it’s all self-funded.”
Portsmouth Abbey has become a model for other institutions struggling to control costs and achieve a greener environmental profile. Other facilities managers turn to Jestings for advice. “I tell them they have to get past that initial increase in investment. The difference between the best equipment and the rest is in the fuel savings and in the reduced service,” says Jestings. “Some people say they can’t afford to go with Viessmann. I say you can’t afford not to.”
Cranston, RI — At company employee meetings held December 11 at Taco facilities in Cranston and Fall River, Taco President & CEO John Hazen White, Jr. introduced Wil VandeWiel as the new president & COO of Taco. As the new president & COO of Taco, Mr. VandeWiel will oversee daily operations of Taco and work Read more
Cranston, RI — At company employee meetings held December 11 at Taco facilities in Cranston and Fall River, Taco President & CEO John Hazen White, Jr. introduced Wil VandeWiel as the new president & COO of Taco. As the new president & COO of Taco, Mr. VandeWiel will oversee daily operations of Taco and work with John White, Jr. and his board of directors in steering Taco’s growth forward in the years ahead.
John White, Jr., the third generation of the White family to lead Taco, will remain as company CEO but will refocus his responsibilities on building new partnerships and strategic acquisitions worldwide in pursuit of company growth and diversification.
Mr. VandeWiel, a native of the Netherlands who is also a U.S. citizen, is an experienced executive with a track record of building collaborative teams and achieving sustainable growth with a number of top-tier international companies. He served as president/CEO of DORMA Americas, a global access control company located in Pennsylvania, where he guided the company through a period of outstanding growth based on a strategy of customer and employee engagement and successful acquisitions, resulting in a leap in profitability and substantial market share expansion. Prior to his time at DORMA, he was Managing Director for U.S. based Robert Bosch LLC’s Security Systems division and served in senior leadership roles for Royal Philips N.V.
Married with four children, he received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Eindhoven Technical University in the Netherlands and an advanced degree from MIT. He holds a Master Black Belt in the application of Six-Sigma and Lean Enterprise techniques. He currently holds a board position at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and is a member of the Founders-Society, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
As Taco’s new President and COO, Mr. VandeWiel will lead a talented and experienced management team focused on ways to best serve Taco’s valued customers and employees. He will report directly to John White, Jr.
The great experiment with with my radiant driveway is continuing. First some background: At Reisssmann Plumbing, we have done many driveways and walkways over the years, all the way up to a 5-zone, 6,000-sq.-ft. driveway whose owner calls every year after a snowfall to tell me how appreciative he/she is for having it installed. The Read more
The great experiment with with my radiant driveway is continuing. First some background: At Reisssmann Plumbing, we have done many driveways and walkways over the years, all the way up to a 5-zone, 6,000-sq.-ft. driveway whose owner calls every year after a snowfall to tell me how appreciative he/she is for having it installed.
The problems I had with my 8,500-sq.-ft. parking lot and driveway are numerous. Plowing is a pain, as I have to move all of the trucks so I have somewhere to push the snow. If we get rain, it freezes at night when the temps drop. When the sun comes up—being so low at that time of the year—the trees shade parts of the driveway, leaving it slippery—salt is the only option.
The short part of the driveway that slopes down to the entrance to the office is particularly dangerous when everyone comes to work so, again, it’s the salt option that has to start at about 5 a.m. to do any good.
We decided to solve the problem with 14 zones. We had 13 initially but added a single loop at the end of the driveway—at the end of the road—to deal with snowplows. This gave us the opportunity to apply heat where it is needed without turning entire driveway on. The average cost—with the snowfall we had last year—was about $100 per snow. This is without controls, as I am still working on them, so I expect this number to come down.
Last year we had two snowfalls per week so I was able to do a lot of testing. For example, I tried waiting until there was 1″ of snow before turning on the system. It took one hour from a cold start to see where the tubing was and three hours to all black, which is totally acceptable.
One of the problems with heavy tubing—5/8″ and up—is that is does not bend well or fasten down easily. we used 1/2″ tubing—yes you read it correctly: 1/2″—with loops no longer than 200 feet. The system operates from three sheds outside. The main one has three Triangle Tube Prestige 399 boilers integrated in the cascade format. All air elimination an expansion happens there. The 2″ PEX lines go to each of the other sheds with a feed and return loop using primary/secondary supplying heat to each of the secondary – primary/secondary loops, one in each of the other sheds. They then send heat to each of the manifolds, which are located in sprinkler boxes along the side of the parking lot and driveway. There are no pumps outside; all are located in the sheds. All of the pumps and zone valves are Taco and all of the tubing is Uponor.
Note: The drawing is not final. There will be a sketch of the driveway and its zones eventually.
Reliability is key with snowmelt. It’s not a quick service call to fix a heat zone. When someone has paid a lot of money to put a snowmelt system in, there is no option for failure. I have use Taco and Uponor for many years without a problem. (Jeff Weidemann, the multi-talented genius from Uponor and John Barba from Taco were both a great help to me.
This was my first venture into Triangle Tube (TT) boilers. I reached out to friends in the business and got a “thumbs-up” on TT, especially from Bob Bona, who had put in a lot of them.
I was looking for something that would have no problem with a 50/50 propylene glycol mix, and be extremely reliable. Roger, my chief tech and right arm, and I visited the TT factory in South Jersey. I was impressed with what I saw. No corners were cut on using the best materials available. I bought the system with their solid manifold set up for the boilers, and I could not be more pleased. It assembled well and it is very sturdy. Once it was attached to the system, I got a crash course at setting it up, as we were due for snow that same night. I reached one of TT’s tech support people after 5 p.m. and he walked me through getting them going. After the initial information was entered, they literally set themselves up. Very nice.
Last summer, I added a pool kit from Energy Kinetics, who by the way, make a great boiler, too. This heat exchanger and controls allow me to take the heat from my driveway in the summer and use it to heat my pool. The driveway takes precedence for the heating, and if more heating is needed, the pool heater kicks in. I have an override if I have to heat the pool quickly for a party, and found that I could even kick in the TT boilers as an assist, reaching an amazing heat-up speed for the pool of multiple degrees per hour, and bringing the pool heat by 10 degrees in a very short time. Not bad for 50,000 gallons.
The controls are what I am working on now. The pool uses a Hayward Aquaconnect computer to give me iPhone access for control. I use salt water and it keeps the pool perfect at all times without chemicals. It paid for itself in a few years. I like the Web access and plan controls that I can control myself from anywhere.
As you know, it is difficult to do ANYTHING for yourself when you have a business; your clients take precedence. I only get to do this to try it out before I sell it.
We already put Internet access in all three sheds while we were laying the driveway. I am currently looking at ControlWeb.com, which has a nice array of controls. I will pass on my findings and get back to you with another report once I have it complete.