WE INTERRUPT normal programming for a special holiday message.
Six years ago, I wrote my first Hydronic Christmas Wish list. Some of my wishes came true, and some remain unfilled. Persistence is a virtue. Here is my updated wish list for the current holiday season.
- I wish that someone would come out with a sensor that has the ability to determine when the sky is cloudless at night, and a control logic that would "dampen" any calls for heat from south facing rooms with substantial solar gain potential. I have proven through my own research that such a sensor is technically viable.
This same sensor could be used in conjunction with snow/ice-melt systems and could "dampen" idle temperatures when there is a substantial potential for night sky re-radiation. Imagine the energy savings. - I wish that a controls manufacturer would come out with a low-cost spherical orb temperature sensor that could be hung in the center of the room. It would have the functional ability to read and interpret the mean radiant temperature for a given space, and a corresponding control logic that would have the intelligent ability to place the heat where it's needed based on real-time MRT readings. I know for a fact that they exist. Someone just needs to bring the price down to a reasonable level.
- I wish that someone would come out with a bulletproof pressure differential sensor that we could connect to all the wonderful new variable-speed technologies so that we could make sure that our pumps and circulators are running only at the speed necessary to do their proper job at that time and place. And, remember, it should be easily and safely purged and programmed, and it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.
- I wish that everyone involved in the "comfort business" would learn how to promote "comfort systems" instead of just selling "heat." If they would educate themselves and their customers, their jobs would be much easier, and they could charge what they're really worth instead of charging "what the market will bear."
- I'm still waiting for someone to bring out a small collapsible lift for picking up these wonderful cast-iron "comfort generators," a.k.a. boilers, and placing them on top of the horizontal DHW storage systems.
- I'm also still waiting for someone to come out with an adapter coupling to connect European Whitworth thread to the National Pipe Thread with the correct taper on the NPT side.
- Although numerous manufacturers have come out with a tubing uncoiler that has the ability to be placed in a vertical or horizontal axis (THANK YOU!!), I'm still waiting for the programmable attachment that monitors the pay out of the tubing in linear feet and will give an audible tone when there's "XXX" amount of feet of tubing left before the tubing should be back at the manifold,
- I'm still hopeful that our industry will realize its real value as it pertains to providing comfort and healthy systems to the public, and demand that we be compensated accordingly.
- I'm still wishing that every contractor, regardless of his trade, under-stood his true costs of doing business. It would be much easier for me to explain my position to them, and I would hope that they would understand why I don't work for them under the "market-will-bear" program. We are professionals and we should expect to be compensated accordingly.
- I wish that the American public would look beyond the price and see the value of our craft, and not compare our services to that of people working out of the trunk of their car.
Lastly, I wish for world peace and harmony in hopes that we as citizens of the world can come together and make all our environments as clean, efficient and comfortable as is humanly possible. Mother Nature will put up with our foolish waste of natural resources for only so long.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah to everyone. I hope you all enjoy a prosperous and healthy New Year. See you in 2006!
Mark Eatherton is a Denver-based hydronics contractor. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 303/778-7772.