PUMPS & PIPES ISSUE

SMARTER
Pumping
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Using today’s technologies

to boost efficiency

INSIDE
■ Loophole boosts R-22 equipment
■ New residential HVAC sizing standard
■ Industry urges renovation tax credit rebirth
■ Business planning for the long-term

OCTOBER 2011 WWW.PLUMBINGANDHVAC.CA

■ Contents Pumps & Pipes Issue
Departments
Hot Seat .........................................5

Industry News ..............................7

Loophole in AC regulations

Training Page ..............................43

Alberta apprentice wins Skills

People & Places ...........................44

Code development volunteer honoured

Coming Events.............................45
All trades show back in Toronto

Shop Management......................46
Planning for the long-term

Products &
Technologies
Pumps & Pipes .............................12
R-22 systems return HRAI delegates face issues at wine country meeting

Heating ........................................25

Hot Water Heating ......................29

Features
Refrigeration ...............................35

Faucets & Fixtures .......................39

Tools & Instruments ....................41

Green retrofit 22
The economic argument for new technologies

Cover photo:
Pumping and piping technologies Smarter pumping 12 High-rise challenge 17
have come a long way. Or what exactly is a smart pump anyway? Aggressive schedule requires innovative piping

www.plumbingandhvac.ca October 2011 – Plumbing & HVAC 3

■ Pumps and Pipes
Eighteen-inch condenser water supply
and return piping used Advanced Groove
System couplings to ensure rigidity.
www.plumbingandhvac.ca
High-rise
piping challenge
Aggressive construction schedule requires
innovative piping solution
I
f you happen to visit Calgary this summer, experience from heating piping movement, the
one building in particular will capture your engineers calculated the amount of thermal
attention. Eighth Avenue Place now stands 50 movement that would occur within a given run of
stories high—the second-tallest structure in the piping. Needing to consider how the system would be
city. Located in the former Penny Lane Shopping brought online, the Delta T was piped at an ambient
Centre, the new 1.1 million square foot temperature of 70°F being heated (and expanding)
commercial office building has quickly become up to an operating temperature of 190°F. Once
a landmark in the Calgary skyline. operational, the heating system would range from a
low of 130°F to a design limit of 190°F.
Challenges and obstacles
As with many construction projects, the assembly of Pipe movement
Eighth Avenue Place faced its own set of challenges. To accommodate this movement the engineers
Doug MacDonald, construction manager for designed the riser piping as a floating design with
Modern Niagara Alberta, the mechanical contractor, springs on every fourth floor and anchored in the
reported that the biggest challenge was the aggressive middle of the building. In order to direct the piping
construction schedule: “We had to complete movement into the springs, the riser piping would
construction on an accelerated schedule in order to
make up for time lost during the beginning stages of Please see ‘Making’ on page 19
the project.”
The demanding schedule of the project did not
allow for any lapses in the building timeline. Heat
needed to be installed before Calgary’s cold winter
months set in, and there was no alternative plan in
place if the project fell behind schedule.
Critical to the schedule was the installation of the
piping systems. MacDonald was well aware that the
speed at which mechanical pipe joining products are
installed could save time, and with such a tight
timeframe to build the tower, every precaution to
conserve the schedule needed to be utilized.
However, due to the height of the structure, there
were significant loads to consider in the piping
design. Taking into account the maximum Delta T
(change in temperature) that the piping would
October 2011 – Plumbing & HVAC 17
■ Pumps and Pipes
Making it rigid
Continued from page 39 would perform to the project specifications
need to be completely rigid and there was concern
that a grooved system could not provide this type
surrounding high movement, Victaulic engineers
were enlisted to ensure the installation would be
“rigid” as claimed by the company. The findings
of rigidity. concluded that the couplings would meet the
In addition to the heating system, the base performance requirements.
building piping systems also included domestic
water, glycol heating, chilled and condenser Eliminating downtime, waste
water. For all these systems, engineers selected MacDonald also made pipe preparation more
Victaulic couplings in sizes from 1 ½” up to 18”. The efficient by employing a nearby warehouse as a
heating, chilled and condenser water system all run prefabrication shop. Employees there cut, grooved
top to bottom of the and shipped the pipe to
building without a the job site. Preparing the
pressure break. pipe offsite meant the pipe
A triplex booster pump MacDonald also could be grouped for
package was used on the delivery, making it easier
stainless steel domestic made pipe preparation more for the construction crew
water system to boost the to handle the pipe once it
pressure to 370 psi in order efficient by employing a was on site.
to service the penthouse. “Straight grooved pipe
In addition, a pressure
nearby warehouse as a is much easier to handle
reducing station (using prefabrication shop. than pipe that is already
valves) was included on joined, so the ease of
every sixth floor to step the movement throughout the
pressure back down to a site was also improved,”
useable 55 psi. While constructed similarly, the added MacDonald. This became especially
chilled water and condenser water did not have the important because the floors above the two
high movement associated with the heating water mechanical rooms needed to be enclosed before the
system due to the low operating variables. first anticipated snowfall. By preparing and
Not entirely convinced that a grooved system organizing the pipe off site, the construction crew
was able to bring the pipes into the building in a
specific order, assemble them and move the pipe
within the building.
Staying on schedule
Once the frame for each floor was built, the
construction schedule called for laying one
20,000-square-foot block of concrete per week.
This is an unusual approach to floor plan
installation; however, it allowed the crew to work
quickly and on a per-floor basis. For this portion
of the project, engineers selected Victaulic
Advanced Grooved System (AGS) products.
These couplings feature enhanced pressure ratings
along with a two-piece housing design, which
eases assembly.
“(Mechanical couplings) decreased installation
time tremendously,” said MacDonald. “A standard
18-inch weld would have taken anywhere between
three to four hours to complete, while the
installation of one mechanical coupling took about
10 minutes.”
The most time consuming portion of the piping
system installation was positioning the pipe into its
proper place, he added. However, once in place,
Eight-inch chilled and condenser water piping aligning and joining the pipe was relatively simple
system in the third floor mechanical room. because the couplings allowed 360 degrees of
www.plumbingandhvac.ca
mechanical
The
system
The Eighth Avenue Place boiler plant,
situated on the 50th floor, uses six high-
efficiency condensing boilers of five
million Btu/h each piped in a
primary/secondary configuration. The
heating design requires a maximum of
four boilers with two boilers sitting in
reserve for redundancy.
Four chillers sitting in the third floor
mechanical room, on the other hand,
provide chilled water-cooling to various
cooling coils in the air-handling units, as
well as the cooling coils on each floor in
the compartment units. The chillers heat
rejection is accomplished using four
cooling tower cells situated on the roof of
the tower. The condenser piping rises
from the third floor all the way to roof and
back again.
The ventilation system uses four primary
air handling units and secondary
compartment units. It has a supply air unit
on the third floor and a sister unit on the
50th floor with both units ducted into a
common shaft and pressurized by these units
working in unison. The compartment units
draw fresh tempered air from this shaft to
circulate the air on the floors.
These main supply units use a glycol-
heating coil along with a glycol runaround
loop as part of heat reclaim system
connected to the exhaust air handlers. Two
similar exhaust units are also situated on the
third and 50th floors. These units are on
dedicated shafts and handle both general
and washroom exhaust.
rotation. Had the piping system been welded, larger
pipe spools with fewer welded joints would have
made it impossible to lift the pipe into position
without a crane. With the cranes operating six days
a week for 12 hours a day, the mechanical crews were
unable to utilize them.
The grooved pipe system not only helped make
up for lost time and helped maintain a timely
schedule, but also provided economical solutions,
and eliminated downtime and material waste on the
construction site, reported MacDonald.
“Overall, by using (a mechanical joining system),
building Eighth Avenue Place required considerably
less labor that would have been used if we had
welded the piping systems.” ✚
October 2011 – Plumbing & HVAC 19