Hows the cold weather

don_182

Is everybody busy now that the chill is coming in?

I know all you heatpumps guy are waitng to hear the customer call with complaints of high electric bills.
Is it not funny how some will go all winter without knowing they have a problem with the outdoor unit because, the secondary heater are keeping them warm.

We have a good week so far and today may the man above for give me and well my family they're used to it.I'm going out
to do a conversion burner on a old arco boiler.

Why I'm there will be addressing issue of scalding at the taps.Will be repiping the watts temp valve at the tankless
coil because now it way above the boiler.

And why I'm doing this I'm going to pass to her the cd from
watts and Mr Yates so I can go ahead and create another work
order after she gets finish watching the CD.

So hows it going for all of you? Professor school keeping you busy I see.

Happy holidays everyone.

ttekushan_3

Steaming along-but

Don-

Interested in your thoughts (and anyone else lurking here during the heating season) on a subject that links several forums here: heating, airconditioning, efficiency.

Dan sent a heatinghelp email newsletter on the topic of micro combined heat and power (microCHP).

There are a few out there including the honda that use a microturbine (like the Capstone turbine) running on natural gas but the waste heat from the electric generation is immediately converted to hot water for heating. So it remains heat and power only.

Which brings me to TriGeneration, which is CHP but with steam as the waste heat product for direct use or exchange. The key here is that the steam is hot enough to operate a vacuum Lithium Bromide cooling system. The only company I can find offering this option is Agni out of Malaysia-but they're also running fuel cell technology.

I'm aware that the COP of single effect systems is fairly lousy, but double effect systems are better butr either way each runs on the waste steam of power generation (in addition to the fact that less electricity needs generating you don't need to generate it for compression cooling). Seems LiBr could be feasible.

Do you see anyone developing microCHP in the "trigeneration" configuration for LiBr cooling and steam heating? Or has absorbtion cooling become foriegn to modern eyes?

Just curious about your perspective.

-Terry (usually a steam guy)

http://www.capstoneturbine.com/

http://www.agni-inc.com/agni.php (See lower left link for micro CHP)

Sbergerson

I can't wait for the cold

Aside from being an avid snowmobiler, the extreme cold temps in Minnesota (-30F) are good for the refrigeration service business. This time of year (Deer hunting season) is pretty slow due to the perfect weather (as far as the equipment is concerned), but when it gets really cold, we get lots of calls.

Outdoor condensing units, rooftop units, outdoor condensers that are not properly maintained tend to go belly up when the weather turns really cold.

Refrigerant leaks, crankcase heaters, and improper pumpdown systems tend to rear their ugly heads.

We've had snow flurries for the past 6 days.... Should make deer hunting fun this year.

don_182

Headed for obsolescence.

I dare say.And you are correct in terms of cop the compression chillers is by far way ahead of the game when it comes to absorption chillers.

I guess it would be a plus when it comes to reducing the gas company peak demand however with the cost of another boiler to drive it along with the knowledge to keep it up and running I'm sure no one going to jump on board anytime soon.

A big expense with little roi.Unless, the gas company would be willin to finance it.hmmmmmm.

don_182

Minnesota did you say?

I bet you were very happy yesterday. What are you guys using for head pressure controls in them parts?

I could only assume headmaster instead of fan cycling.

Empire_2

Head Master control

Did you ever read the directions on this control? They recommend it be used on ball bearing motors only, not sleeve bearing motors. I never understood as to why....

Mike T.

Techman

Head Press

Hello All! Head Master is in the refrig circuit, Motor Master (Carrier style ) is in the wiring . The drag on the bearings is what I was told is why the type of bearings are critical.

Empire_2

Techman....

Now it's clicking in....;-) I may have been mistaken.
I was talking about Motor Master.

Mike T.

coolboy

Yeah I bet it is alot different when it gets that cold up their. But ever your garbage must be meated up their. So of course heating bills will be higher. When you install parts or other things on a job you must make sure you account for the very cold below 0 temperatures it will have to endure every winter.

Techman

Cold temps

Hay Mike T.I just read the instructions for the TOTALINE # P251-0083H head press control(kind of like the Motormaster),and this control has a setting for sleeve bearings motors and another setting for ball bearing motors.

Empire_2

Techman

If you ever try it, you will find that the head pressure gets WAY TOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....;-) Is there a mention of Ball bearing motors in there?

Even with experimenting with different placement of the temp sensor, I was not happy with the performance when set at the Sleeve Bearing setting.

Peace out....;-)

Mike T.

Eugene Silberstein 3

Hi Don

Yeppers...

Things at the college have been keeping me busy as well as some other projects and cool things that have popped up.

I guess that a lot of the chill heads are getting ready to start shutting down some cooling equipment, if they haven't already started to do so...

Unlike you guys in Virginia and Georgia, where you keep chillin' all the time!

Glad to hear that everything is going well down by you.

Eugene Silberstein 3

You are Correct Terry

Right on Terry!

Sbergerson

Headmasters & Fan Cycling

Up here in Minnesota, Headmaster controls are very common on larger systems, but many of our customer's smaller systems use only a fan cycling control.

Back when R12 was more common, it was common for us to cut the receiver out of the outdoor condensing unit and mount it indoors in the heated space, as there are quite a few days where the outdoor ambient is so low that when the liquid line solenoid opens up, the pressure won't be high enough to close the low pressure control and start up the system.

Another old trick on old R12 low temp systems is to install a time delay relay in line with the thermostat. The relay would force the condensing unit to run for 2 minutes and then "hand off control" to the low pressure control. This allowed the system to build enough pressure to run during the -40F winter nights.

Interestingly, our health department will not allow us to use this -40F outdoor ambient air to cool walk in freezers. They will only allow it if the contents of the freezer are all sealed packages... orange juice, canned goods, etc.

We use outdoor air to cool walk in display coolers for beverages in the winter here. The customers who install these only pay for electricity to run two small fan motors.

don_182

its good

to hear you are staying busy.I dont know how it is for most
in Virginia or Georgia but here,as soon as fory at night came around they got switch.

Bring on the chill!!