Mechanical Business January/February 2019

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T E C H N O L O G I E S FEBRUARY 2019

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Chris Dowsett

A FAMILY PATH FOR CAREER SUCCESS • • • RETHINKING PROPOSED • EFFICIENCY RULES

TROUBLESHOOTING: USING AND MAINTAINING YOUR SENSES

HOLOHAN: ASKING QUESTIONS TO FIND SOLUTIONS MAKING A CUSTOMER FOR LIFE

A sopping wet supplement of Mechanical Business

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62COVER FEATURE Andrew Molson, a seventh generation Molson who is successfully carrying on the family’s brand, attributes his family’s successful successions to the passing along of not only the ownership of the enterprise, but also key principles and values that influence the management and presence of the company in its community. Adam Freill

30QUATTRO’S CORNER Everyone loves clean pipes Andrew Quattrociocchi

58 VEHICLES Examining fleet options Simon Bowden

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T E C H N O L O G I E S

Cover Photo: John Packman

FEBURARY 2019

Plumbing CES 2019 for innovation Denise Deveau

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CONTENTS

F E A T U R E S

72PLUMBING

Busine ss

33WET HEAT SUPPLEMENT When the weather outside is frightful, it’s a great time to talk boilers, pumps, piping, rads, and more with your customers. To help you keep them warm, we present the first of our 2019 Wet Heat Applications & Technology supplements.

Turn to page 33 for the latest news, features and technology, all with a hydronic edge!

Chris Dowsett

A FAMILY PATH FOR CAREER SUCCESS TROUBLESHOOTING: USING AND MAINTAINING YOUR SENSES HOLOHAN: ASKING QUESTIONS TO FIND SOLUTIONS MAKING A CUSTOMER FOR LIFE RETHINKING PROPOSED EFFICIENCY RULES

• • • •

A sopping wet supplement of Mechanical Business

www.mechanicalbusiness.com

MB SPECIALISTS 18HVAC New Tools Gord Cooke

PRODUCTS 32,74Plumbing 54,56Hydronics

76PROJECT PROFILE Chic Alors! warms up to geothermal Denise Deveau

78HVAC Mid-winter sales strategies Mark Parliament and Alexandra Wennberg Parliament

20ASK ROGER The right insurance is essential Roger Grochmal

82HVAC/R 83Stuff You Need

26PLUMBING Submersible pumps Fred Bretzke 46HYDRONICS Maintaining your senses Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr

50HYDRONICS What can cause that?

Dan Holohan

64REFRIGERATION Parallel compressor systems - Part 1 Phil J. Boudreau

68MARKETING Inbound marketing Doug MacMillan

DEPARTMENTS 04From the Editor’s Desk 06News 16Profile: Peter Messenger 42Find the Fix 84The Info Page 85Calendar 86By the Numbers

On the cover: Andrew Molson wasn’t targeting the beer business as he embarked on a career path, but he has found that his time in law, communications and corporate governance has been beneficial to the family business.

FROM Content Media Group Inc. 19 – 1525 Cornwall Road Oakville, ON L6J 0B2 Canada Tel: 905.465.2919 Fax: 905.465.2913 www.mechanicalbusiness.com January/February 2019 Issue Published 6 times per year.

Editor: Adam Freill, ext. 224 adam.freill@mechanicalbusiness.com Associate Editor/Web Editor: Simon Bowden, ext. 225 simon.bowden@mechanicalbusiness.com National Sales Manager: Jeff Superle, ext. 221 jeff.superle@mechanicalbusiness.com Controller: Liz Mills liz.mills@mechanicalbusiness.com Operations Manager: Caroline Bexfield caroline.bexfield@mechanicalbusiness.com Art Direction: JJM Graphic Ltd. davem@jjmgraphic.com Circulation Manager: Shila Naik (905) 272-4175 shila.naik@mechanicalbusiness.com Publisher: Bruce Meacock, ext. 222 bruce.meacock@mechanicalbusiness.com PM:41536047 ISSN 1916-0674 MB (Print) ISSN 1906-0682 MB (Online) We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada.

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Canada is a nation that runs on its small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which are family-run companies. Even some of the larger firms started out as family-run businesses, growing and expanding because of owners and managers who could spot opportunity and were willing to take advantage of it. Be sure to check out our chat with Andrew Molson for a great example of that (page 62).

DESK

Coming soon, to Montreal As you read this, plans are well underway for the upcoming Mecanex/ Climatex/Électricité/Éclairage (MCEE) show in Montreal. Be sure to pick up the March/April edition of Mechanical Business for your guide to the largest mechanicals show in Canada this year.

The family-base from which to build is very present in our sector. A quick look at the parking lot at a construction jobsite, or an industry trade show, is all that is needed to see that. So many of the white vans sport family names, and not all are the first generation to have outfitted their truck in such a way.

I’ve always marvelled at how many of our Road Warriors or Reader Profilees are second and third-generation members of the trade.

In chatting with this edition’s profiled reader, Peter Messenger (see page 16), he remarked that it is a benefit to him to be able to talk shop with his father. This ability to share information from one generation to the next can be quite vital to ensuring that a company continues on a strong path.

Of course, this multigenerational sharing would benefit any enterprise, be it a family firm or not. It’s not unusual to hear how older family members can be too willing to lend their two cents to “the kids” who are running things now, but any company could benefit from finding a balance between what the “old guard” have experienced and what the younger set can envision.

Success often hin hinges on striking a right balance somewhere between two ccompeting ideals, and to steal a term pumps from the pum fr ump sector, that best efficiency point is not al always lwayss halfhalf-way f-wa in the middle, but it will be between tthee extremes. That’s something that our parents and th helped us navigate when each of us were kids, guardians help something that effective owners and managers and it’s some help their th team navigate each and every day.

From time to time, Content Media Group Inc. makes subscribers’ names available to reputable companies whose products or services may be of interest to readers. If you would like your name excluded from these mailings, please notify the publisher.

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Notice: Mechanical Business is published for owners, managers and decision makers with mechanical contracting firms and the sector’s supply chain partners in Canada. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information, Mechanical Business, Content Media Group Inc., its staff, directors, officers and shareholders (‘The Publisher’) assume no liability, obligation or responsibility for advertised claims, for errors and/or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. Manufacturers’ instructions take precedence over published editorial. The publisher reserves the right to publish a printed correction in a subsequent issue for editorial errors, omissions and oversights.

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News www.mechanicalbusiness.com

Exploring Toronto’s cool water Around 50 members of CIPH’s Industrial PVF Council and Canadian Water Systems Council took in a tour of the Enwave Deep Lake Cooling Pump Station and Toronto Water during a recent networking luncheon. “We are just using physics,” explained Alex Sotirov (centre in photo) Enwave’s vicepresident of engineering.

“We’re just moving energy.” The Deep Lake Cooling system takes water from Toronto’s water supply at 4°C, passes it through a set of heat exchangers, and returns it to the municipal supply at 12°C, using that energy to heat and cool buildings in the city’s downtown. The system, which went online in 2004, uses the John St. Pumping Station for its supply of energy. ciph.com

HRAI focuses on future of trades What will take the place of the Ontario College of Trades when it closes was the focus of much debate at a packed HRAI GTA Chapter forum in Woodbridge, Ont. Martin Luymes (pictured), HRAI’s vice-president of government and stakeholder relations, gave an outline of the proposals and also sought feedback from members.

“This government has put a strong emphasis on making decisions quickly,” Luymes said. “If we can put together a consensus it will have a lot of sway.”

Buildings Show continues to grow The design, architecture, construction, engineering and real estate sectors met under one roof at The Buildings Show in Toronto, which ran from November 28 to 30 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The show featured exhibitors from across North America as well as 14 other countries, with visitors able to check out all the latest industry trends as well as educational discussions, seminars and innovative product showcases, including the new Discovery District and live demonstration areas. This year’s show will be held from December 4 to 6. thebuildingsshow.com

Flir fighting to save rhinos Flir Systems and the World Wildlife Fund are expanding their efforts to halt illegal rhino poaching in Kenya. The company is donating almost $4 million in thermal imaging and support services for deployment across 10 parks and game reserves in the east African nation. Since joining forces in 2016, Flir equipment has helped apprehend more than 160 poachers at Maasai Mara National Park alone. flir.com

Canadians take home ASHRAE awards Canadians were among those honoured at the ASHRAE 2019 Winter Conference, held in conjunction with the AHR Expo in Atlanta, Georgia in January.

Engineers Dominic Desjardins, Maurice Landry and André-Benoît Allard took home an ASHRAE Technology Award for their work on upgrading the energy systems at Montreal’s Olympic Park, while Arthur A. Irwin of Halifax and Winnipeg’s Bert Phillips were elevated to Fellow ASHRAE membership grade.

hrai.ca

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Housing starts decline in 2018

Rohr knowledge draws Atlanta crowd Mechanical Business columnist Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr of Caleffi attracted a large audience to his talk about boilers and hydronic system fluids on opening day of the AHR Expo in Atlanta, Georgia. Rohr’s seminar was just one of dozens of free educational sessions offered during the three-day HVAC/R show staged at the Georgia World Congress Center. Tens of thousands of visitors descended on downtown Atlanta in January for a chance to get an early glimpse of some of the new products and technology the industry is planning to introduce this year. ahrexpo.com

Top tips for young executives The CIPH Young Executive Society (YES) enjoyed a lunch and learn networking session at the Four Points

by Sheraton hotel in Mississauga, Ont., recently. The guest speaker was Kim Cunningham, who passed on sage advice gained from her years as a top executive. Cunningham is currently vice-president of marketing, category and commercialization for Mother Parker’s Tea & Coffee, a Canadian company with $1 billion in revenue and more than 1,000 employees.

There were fewer housing starts in Canada last year than in 2017, when there was a record 221,000 units started. The starts trend hit 206,981 units in December, down from 212,338 units in November, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. This measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of starts, and while figures fell last year, 2018’s total remains high when compared to historical averages. cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Pair scoop cross connection prizes The Western Canada Section of the American Water Works Association (WCSAWWA) again came up with some unsightly winners of its National 2018 Bad and Ugly Cross Connection Control contest. The purpose of the contest is to raise awareness of the dangers of cross connections. Back flow tester Justin Bage spotted his bad connection in the field, while Tayte Sutherland discovered his (pictured) during a cross connection control inspection. Manufacturers Zurn, Watts and Conbraco provided the contest prizes. wcsawwa.net

ciph.com

Apprentices eligible for $6,000 grant Registered female apprentices who have successfully completed their first or second year/level of an apprenticeship program in a Red Seal trade are now eligible for a grant of up to $6,000. The new Apprenticeship Incentive Grant for Women provides $3,000 per year or level up to the maximum amount. Women currently account for nine per cent of apprentices in Red Seal trades, and only five per cent when “traditional” trades such as hairstylist are removed. red-seal.ca

New dates for CHC Conference The Canadian Hydronics Council has announced a date change for its 2019 Canadian Hydronics Conference in Ottawa. The event will now take place at the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre on September 24 and 25. The date change was made to avoid some recently identified local market conflicts. ciph.com

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News www.mechanicalbusiness.com

Missing an exit plan More than $1.5 trillion in business assets will be in play over the next decade, as nearly three-quarters of small business owners intend to exit their business. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found that while the vast majority of owners intend to sell or transfer their business to help fund their retirement, only eight per cent of them have a formal succession plan in place. cfib.ca

From left to right: Ed Carney, partner, Kilmer Environmental; Angelo Tassone, recreation supervisor of facilities operations for Guelph, Ont.; and Ian Dunbar, commercial and industrial account manager for Union Gas.

Guelph reaps benefits of energy recovery

Statistics Canada is experimenting with an innovative technique in an effort to more accurately measure cannabis use in Canada. The agency is exploring the use of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to produce statistics on cannabis use before and after the drug was made legal last October. When people consume THC, the main psycho-active constituent of cannabis, their bodies process it into metabolites that are later flushed into the municipal wastewater system. Through analysis of these metabolites, StatsCan can estimate the total mass of cannabis consumed.

The City of Guelph has received a $20,572 utility incentive cheque from Union Gas for specifying energy recovery HVAC dehumidification equipment in the indoor pool area of its renovated Victoria Road Recreation Centre. The facility is outfitted with a 50-ton HVAC dehumidifier that heats, cools and dehumidifies the 6,873-sq. m. natatorium area. The city will also reap an estimated 102,860 cu. m. in annual gas savings compared with the previous system.

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Always a step ahead

02.19

News www.mechanicalbusiness.com

Homebuilder taps Enercare Tech Enercare has announced a partnership with one of North America’s largest homebuilders, Empire Communities, to become its official smart home provider and installer. Enercare Smarter Home technology will be installed in over 1,300 new homes being constructed by Empire across Ontario in the next two years. Each of these homes will be equipped with Enercare’s Essentials package, which includes a comprehensive suite of smart home products. enercare.ca

Check out the latest news, every day of the week

mechanicalbusiness.com

National code available for free The National Research Council of Canada and Natural Resources Canada are providing free online access to the 2017 edition of the National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings. The pilot project marks the first time that a national building code has been made freely accessible and will provide the government an opportunity to evaluate the benefits of permanently moving toward such a model. Other countries, such as Australia, have found that providing tradespeople free access to codes has been linked to strong gains in productivity and the economy. nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

You need You provide provid ide answers to to customer ch challenges, hallllenges andd for more than 75 years the Little Giant® brand has provided the dependable, water-guzzling solutions. When you combine our passion with yours, together we help prevent unnecessary damage to their valuables by eliminating unwanted water collection before it starts.

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63%

energy saving potential in today’s buildings and industrial processes

is realizing a more energy efficient city infrastructure Canadian infrastructure investments are on the rise, and with ambitious climate and energy targets in place, Danfoss has been helping make Canadian cities more efficient and sustainable for 65 years. Heating and cooling consume as much as 40 percent of a building’s total energy use. Danfoss solutions like AC drives, variable speed compressors and hydronic control valves help cut energy consumption and improve comfort and control. City-wide, Danfoss’ innovative district heating solutions amplify efficiencies — cost-effectively boosting energy productivity, minimizing environmental impacts and helping cities plan for a sustainable future. With Danfoss, our cities can get more out of less without sacrificing performance or reliability.

Discover how we’re Engineering Tomorrow at danfoss.ca

02.19

Movers & Shakers www.mechanicalbusiness.com

Centrotherm adds Canadian reps Centrotherm Eco Systems has announced key additions to its North American network of manufacturers’ representatives.

Working in Canada under the leadership of regional sales manager Michael Dailey, Centrotherm has added Equipco to service the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, while Harris Atlantic will now handle sales in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. centrotherm.us.com

Marks Supply to stock First Co.

Palser to rep OS&B Plumbing products manufacturer and distributor OS&B has appointed Palser Enterprises to represent its brands across the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton, Ont., areas. Palser, which took on the lines at the start of the year, has 60 years of experience representing plumbing and heating manufacturers in the Canadian market. osb.ca palserent.com

Total HVAC Solutions and First Co. have announced that Marks Supply has taken over the stocking and distribution of all First Co. products in Ontario. Kitchener, Ont.-based Marks has nine Ontario distribution facilities stretching from Toronto to Windsor. markssupply.ca

New name for Westlake brands North American Pipe Corporation, a Westlake company, and Royal Pipe and Fittings will now be known under a new, single brand: NAPCO. The company’s North American business is being supported with a redesigned website that is available in English and French for Canadian customers. napcopipe.com

Rehau Group snaps up MB Barter The holding company of Rehau Group recently completed its acquisition of MB Barter & Trading, which operates in the highquality commodity polymers, PET and rubber markets.

A joint market launch under a new name is planned for the first half of this year. Rehau-branded products will not be affected by the name change. rehau.com

DiversiTech finds tools for growth

PB Heat aquired by Noritz Noritz has acquired PB Heat, a provider of Peerless brand highefficiency cast iron and stainless steel boilers and Peerless Partner indirectfired water heaters. Both companies will continue to operate separately and independently. noritz.com peerlessboilers.com

DiversiTech has acquired Stride Tool, a manufacturer of specialty hand tools which includes flagship brand Imperial. The acquisition enables DiversiTech to expand its HVAC/R tool product offering, which were previously bolstered with its purchase of the Hilmor tool brand last year. diversitech.ca

New look for SharkBite Reliance Worldwide Corp., a manufacturer of push-to-connect plumbing and heating products, valves and fluid control technologies, has revamped its visual identity to harmonize the look and feel of its stable of brands, which includes SharkBite, HoldRite, John Guest, Cash Acme and StreamLabs, among others. SharkBite was the first of the brands to receive the update, with the rollout being gradually extended to RWC’s other brands over the next 12 months. sharkbite.com

Desco makes the move Desco Plumbing and Heating Supply has completed its move to a new head office and distribution centre in Mississauga, Ont. The plumbing and HVAC distributor-wholesaler’s new facility at 7550 Tranmere Drive has enabled an expansion of the trade counter service area and includes a Water Closet luxury showroom. desco.ca

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Stop Battling Volatile Prices and Corrosion Pricing for steel mechanical piping systems is rising significantly. Lightweight, stably priced Aquatherm polypropylene-random (PP-R) piping is connected by quick, reliable heat fusion. Plus, PP-R doesn’t rust, scale, or corrode and it has a 60-year projected lifespan and many other benefits.

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02.19

People in the news www.mechanicalbusiness.com

Manufacturer and distributor RECTORSEAL has named HVAC industry veteran Jeff Underwood as its vice-president of sales and marketing, a position that includes responsibility for Canada.

Underwood also assumes the same position for RectorSeal’s parent company, CSW Industrials, in Dallas.

FRICO AB (Sweden), a Systemair company, has appointed Scott Ferguson as country manager for Canada and the United States.

Ferguson, who will be based in Toronto, has more than 25 years of senior management experience in the air movement and building products sectors.

TRIANGLE TUBE has appointed Tom Tonkins to the role of director of sales and business development.

Tom has more than 30 years of experience in the test, measurement and instruments business and will be working with the company’s divisions in both Canada and the U.S. He has more than 30 years of sales and marketing experience, 20 of these in sales management in various industries, including the electrical industry.

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REHAU has made a number of changes to its Americas leadership team, including the transfer of current regional CEO Christian Fabian (1) to head a newly formed Technology and Performance global services division. The regional executive board of Rehau Americas now includes Theo Haast (2), serving as president and CFO; chief marketing officer Thomas Troeger (3); and Terry Barnaby (4), head of operations.

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TACO has appointed Cheryl Merchant as president of Taco Family of Companies, North America. Merchant has spent the past 19 years as the president and CEO of Hope Global Industries, based in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Also at Taco, Luca Bolcati, formerly vice-president of Taco International, has been named president of Taco International.

FUJITSU GENERAL AMERICA has announced the appointment of David Trautman as national accounts sales manager.

Trautman is focused on supporting unitary sales with large national distributors as well as other unitary sales activities.

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M. A. STEWART & SONS has appointed Franco Gallese to the position of Ontario/ Atlantic regional manager.

Gallese, who will be based at the company’s Ajax, Ont., distribution centre, succeeds Gary Horvath, who will assist with the transition before retiring from the company at the end of July.

Gallese will be responsible for all branch operations and administration, HR and the sales and marketing functions of the Ontario and Atlantic regions.

A. O. SMITH has named Eric Alain as district sales manager for southwest Ontario.

Alain began his new role in January, and brings several years of experience in the parts industry as both a sales manager and business development manager.

Skip Diamond has joined MESTEK as the new technical resources manager for the Sterling HVAC, SpacePak and Koldwave brands. Diamond, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the HVAC industry, will manage and support the technical resources team and the product management and sales teams.

ONTOR LIMITED, a national distributor of HVAC products, has appointed JeanSebastien Loriot to the position of technical sales representative. He will be responsible for business development in the regions of Montreal West, East Ontario and Ottawa. Loriot brings more than 17 years of HVAC sales experience to his new role.

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Reader Profile Peter Messenger: Carrying on the family tradition

A third-generation owner of A1 Air Conditioning & Heating in Oakville, Ont., Peter Messenger grew up in the trade, earning a G2 gas technician licence while he was still in high school. Since then, he’s added a number of additional trade tickets to his resume, and advanced from the tools to the operational hot seat at his company.

Peter and his wife Jennifer.

“I’m definitely a mechanic, but an MBA would be more beneficial to what I do now,” he said during a recent interview at his office. “There’s a discipline of running a business that’s not covered in trade school.”

The medium-sized HVAC firm located just west of Toronto was started by Messenger’s grandfather, Walter, who was trained as a Royal Engineer in the British army and parlayed his refrigeration knowledge and mechanical skills into a family business back in 1967.

And the family feel of the enterprise has not left the company as its leadership progressed through Peter’s father, Paul, and now onto Peter.

Q A Q A Q A

Q A 16

You’re the third generation of owner at your company.

Was there an obligation to get into the business?

No, but doing it as a job through high school, I just got to really liking it. It just evolved. When you are a kid, doing what your dad is doing isn’t really cool, but as you get older you start to think with your brain.

What’s the best part of the job?

I like that you have tangible results to your work. You can go to someone’s house because they are uncomfortable, and you leave when they are comfortable because you’ve installed a furnace or air conditioner. You get instant gratification from your work. My favourite part of my job is still the technical side.

What’s the biggest challenge when running a business?

I think, for any business, it is finding good people and treating them well. Owners are not customer facing the way that everyone else is, so it is very important to have “A players.” Finding good people is difficult. You can make someone a mechanic, but you can’t make someone have an excellent attitude. Certain things, you can’t learn.

Is there a guiding principle at A1?

Whatever we do, it has to be good for the customer, good for the employee, good for the company. If any one of those is not satisfied, it’s not healthy and not sustainable.

M e c h a n i c a l

BIO Name: Peter Messenger Title: Owner Company: A1 Air Conditioning & Heating Location: Oakville, Ont. Age: 48

FAST FACTS ABOUT PETER

1. He enjoys travelling with his family. “I love Europe for the history, and Mexico for the sun.”

2. If he’s not at work, or driving his kids around, you might find him engaged in woodworking and home improvement projects.

3. If he’s watching sports, it’s highlights or F1 racing. “I don’t really follow sports.

I’m a huge Formula 1 fan, and I like Canadian things and hockey, but I don’t know any of the players. I like the highlights.”

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC

New Tools

New Opportunities BECOMING AN IR EXPERT We are now at a point where the cost of an IR camera may be eclipsed by the cost and time associated with training to become a qualified thermographer. And there are benefits to formal training on the use of the gear, understanding of concepts such as emissivity, as well as on how to interpret findings.

The first time I tried using my camera, I pointed it at my home’s brick façade just after dark on a cold winter’s day.

The brick lit up like a Christmas tree leading me to think I had significant energy loss. Of course, I was pointing it at the south-facing wall that had been warming up all day by the sun.

After cooling down for a couple of hours, I found the entire brick to be at a very even, consistent temperature.

M

any of you know that I am an ardent advocate for testing the performance of the mechanical systems you service and install. We were taking inventory at our office over the holidays and I ended up having to open some very old cases containing what were, at one time, very expensive and yet now nearly obsolete testing tools.

Perhaps the most dramatic example was the infrared camera that we bought for about $12,000 over a decade ago that even at that price was heavy, slow, had a rather fuzzy resolution and a short battery life. We now have a camera that you attach to a smart phone that has similar capabilities for less than $500.

It can be argued that as recently as 15 years ago, many testing tools were too complex and cumbersome to use in the field or too expensive to purchase, maintain and calibrate. That excuse, in my opinion, is simply no longer valid.

Seeing the INVISIBLE Infrared cameras present some nice opportunities.

They provide a quick, simple way to measure surface temperatures remotely, and commercial and industrial contractors can quickly scan equipment, pipes or ductwork from afar looking for telltale hot or cold spots.

I recall using my IR camera to help find the actual source of a condensation drip coming down from near the roof in a printing plant. While you couldn’t see it with the naked eye, the IR camera picked up on a large cold spot on the air conditioning duct more than 15 feet above the presses.

The tape had failed on the vapour barrier lining of the duct insulation so warm, moist air was able to

Gord Cooke

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contact the cold duct when the AC was running.

The resulting condensate soaked the insulation, reducing its insulation value resulting in the cold spot the IR camera detected. The condensate was landing in a pool on the floor.

While the initial focus had been looking for roof leaks, the culprit was improperly sealed duct insulation.

While a $12,000 camera would be a very expensive leak detector, the new $500 tool is a very costeffective option to find the source of an annoying, intermittent drip, not to mention all of the other uses you can find for it on jobsites.

Gord Cooke is a professional engineer who has spent 20 years helping builders and HVAC contractors implement innovative technologies into high-performance homes.

He has particular expertise in IAQ and airflow management in houses, and can be contacted at gcooke@airsolutions.ca.

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Measuring

One of the most helpful tools we use to diagnose comfort and moisture issues are temperature and humidity data loggers. These small, costeffective units can record data for days at a time.

OVER TIME

We use them regularly in houses, deploying them in different rooms or spaces to take temperature and humidity measurements every 10 to 15 minutes. The resulting data, which can be downloaded in seconds and graphed out, is very powerful as we help homeowners understand their comfort concerns.

A little while back, we had a client who was complaining of excessive window condensation each morning. We placed a sensor on the sill of a window behind the wooden shutters that were closed each night. We placed another sensor on the wall near the space thermostat. We had the homeowner maintain their typical daily routine, which included a night setback of 5°C and fully closing the shutters each night.

homeowner was able to change their routine slightly for a few nights to find a sweet spot of energy efficiency, comfort but no “sweat” on the windows.

With ever increasing expectations of homeowners, I find these kinds of data loggers very powerful at taking out much of the emotion associated with comfort complaints. You and your client get to focus on the data of long-term results rather than one-time measurements than can be misleading and easily dismissed.

They are very powerful in commercial spaces as well, although you will want a few of them deployed in areas where there are comfort or air quality ty complaints as well as in areas where there are no complaints.

The monitor showed that the temperature behind the shutters dropped very quickly as the relative humidity quickly rose.

Based on this information, the

CAN’T GET ENOUGH GORD?

GOING DIGITAL The tool that I feel we need to see more of in Canada are the new digital manifold gauge sets for verifying the performance of air conditioning and heat pump systems.

Variable speed air handler and furnace fan motors, dual stage compressors, and high SEER air conditioning systems provide wonderful opportunities for better efficiency and comfort, however, there is a responsibility with these premium products to commission and verify performance.

As all residential furnaces and air handlers in North America will be required to meet new fan energy ratings (FER) by July of 2019, the move to all electronically commutated fan motors is imminent.

This provides opportunities to fine tune air conditioning and heat pump operation for optimized energy performance and moisture control.

When examining poor humidity control in summer applications, it is not uncommon to find that the air conditioning system was never set up to ensure appropriate airflow over the coil.

The use of modern digital tools like these helps to ensure that the system is setup and operates to the manufacturer’s specifications.

Why not catch Gord Cooke and his partners Mark LaLiberte and Justin Wilson live, at the Construction Instruction learning centre in Phoenix, Arizona?

Construction Instruction offers two-day, small group, hands-on training events throughout the year. Workshops are customized for content, climate zone and building codes to ensure it is relevant in your market. For more information, check out:

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We recently used this device in our new learning centre in Phoenix to diagnose a low airflow issue across the indoor coil that was leading to lower than expected air conditioning capacity of a brand new, variable speed air conditioning system.

The system was to deliver two tons of cooling, but the actual performance was under 1.5. The low capacity was masked by the seemingly low air discharge temperature off the coil. We were able to make adjustments based on the different real-time data points it had collected.

M e c h a n i c a l

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19

with Roger Grochmal

The right insurance is an essential investment I

nsurance can be a boring subject, but it is one that we business owners avoid at our peril. It is easy to have too much coverage, or too little on the right things, but after more than 40 years in the business, I’ve learned a few things along the way.

Roger Grochmal is the CEO of AtlasCare in Oakville, Ont. To submit a question about your company, business practices, or the industry in general, send an email to Mechanical Business Magazine’s editor, Adam Freill, adam.freill@ mechanicalbusiness.com.

Don’t forget yourself Personal insurance is

As contractors, we are exposed to risks of all kinds, every day. Liability comes in many forms and one of our key responsibilities is to manage these risks. Insurance is an important step in mitigating our exposure to liabilities, but the insurance industry is constantly changing as it analyzes claims patterns, so it is important to do a thorough review of your insurance every year with your broker.

This review should not just be about going to market to get a cheaper price. Spend time looking at your claim history and discussing the real risks in your business while looking for ways to mitigate these risks.

To help minimize your premium expense without sacrificing areas of coverage, have a look at managing your deductible every year. Have as large a deductible as you can handle, if it will reduce your premium expense.

PROTECT WHAT YOU’VE TOUCHED water damage to the home, then we are going to be on the hook.

important for owners.

If you were unavailable

Some years ago, after a rash of claims in one very humid summer, we required our customers take steps to put in secondary drain pans and shut off switches when moisture was detected. If they chose not to, we declined to provide service.

to do your job, how would your family get looked after?

Who would run the

We lost a few customers but most accepted that it was in their best interest to prevent damage and all the disruption to their lives as a result.

company, and where would the money come from to compensate that person? Personal disability and “key man” insurance coverages are worth looking at.

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M e c h a n i c a l

Liability is a high risk in our business. We work with dangerous fuels, and people rely on us for an essential service. There are so many ways that we can be held liable. One principle that seems to hold up is that the last person who touches a piece of equipment is now liable for its operation or failure to operate.

A good example of this is water damage. We work on a lot of systems installed in attics, sometimes in conditioned spaces but mostly not.

If a system leaks for whatever reason and causes B u s i n e s s

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When working with other firms, be sure to confirm that they are properly, and adequately, insured.

We once subcontracted a small job to a roofer to make some roof penetrations for us. His worker created some undetected sparks when his saw hit roofing nails. The sparks fell into the insulation and after everyone went home for the day, the house caught fire and there was significant damage.

OH S#@% SUDDENLY GOT THE FEELING ITโ S TIME FOR A CHANGE? m 0ย vbm;vvฤท ฤพv|ย @ฤฟ _-rr;mvฤบ bv|-h;vฤท 7;ัด-ย vฤท 0uoh;m ruolbv;vฤท -m7 lou;ฤบ ย | b= ย oย u 1ย uu;m| ( l-mย =-1|ย u;u v;;lv |o 0; 1omvbv|;m|ัดย 7;ัดbย ;ubm] lou; ;ย 1ย v;v |_-m voัดย เฆ omvฤท r;u_-rv b|ฤฝv เฆ l; ย oย |-ัดh |o ย fb|vย ;m;u-ัดฤบ ย u -ย -u7ล ย bmmbm] vย rrou| ruo]u-lvฤท bm7ย v|uย ล ัด;-7bm] |u-bmbm] -m7 =ย ัดัด ัดbm; o= bmmoย -เฆ ย ; ruo7ย 1|v 1-m l-h; -ัดัด |_; 7b@;u;m1;ฤบ ย fb|vย ฤป- 0u;-|_ o= =u;v_ฤท bmCmb|;ัดย 1ol=ou|-0ัด; -buฤบ

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The right insurance is an essential investment, with Roger Grochmal

ON THE ROAD If we can’t get to our customers, we won’t have customers. Our people spend time on the road every day. Of course, vehicles can be a major area of risk, so insure your vehicles and drivers well.

Our insurer was able to subrogate the claim against the subcontractor’s insurer and it did not appear on our record. We were protected.

Remember that you are responsible for everyone in your “chain of service�.

Subcontractors are frequently overlooked, and to our peril. Make sure they provide proof of adequate insurance to you before they do any work.

Proper management means setting some expectations for your team. At AtlasCare, we have a policy that requires drivers to have good records. If an insurance company needs to charge a surcharge for a particular driver, that employee is responsible to pay it.

A WORD OF CAUTION Be careful about paying off an accident claim without putting it through insurance. Always tell your insurance company.

Should there be a subsequent claim after the fact, your insurer may deny the claim if they weren’t given adequate notice or the opportunity to do a timely investigation. Always file accident reports and get the name of an eyewitness if possible.

I once had an incident where our driver was in a left turn lane at a light. The driver in front had pulled into the intersection and then backed up. When the light turned green, they stepped on the gas. Since the vehicle was still in reverse, it drove into our truck.

There was no damage to the truck but lots to the car. Our driver never filed a report and when the other driver then made a claim that our truck had rear-ended their car, we had no way to dispute it. Not only did we lose the claim but it also made us look very bad for not reporting an accident.

Try to get ahead of expensive auto claims, and moreover, reduce the risk of anyone being hurt by being in an accident.

Driving a fully loaded service van is not the same as driving a sedan, so training should be done regularly to mitigate the risk of accidents. The best time is usually before the first snowfall in the winter – every driver forgets that they don’t stop as well when it gets slick and icy.

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The right insurance is an essential investment, with Roger Grochmal

PROTECTING PRIVACY

ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL

An emerging risk that concerns me is customer data loss to hackers. Most hackers don’t seem to target small companies, but that could change and we want to stay ahead of this risk and potential PR nightmare.

Use best practices to protect valuable customer information. Don’t keep paper records, and don’t capture banking or credit information by email, or even online, unless you have a security certificate on your website.

Don’t hesitate to take creative approaches for situations that are unique to your company.

For example, I find tool floater insurance doesn’t work for us. There just isn’t enough value in any one tool to create a major insurable loss. Instead, we set up a self-insured pool to cover the loss of our employees’ tools. This way they don’t have to have their own insurance.

With our new service management system, we now do everything in the cloud with servers that are far more secure than we could ever afford on our own.

We charged them a small monthly fee to set up the fund.

Once the fund was maxed out we stopped collecting. After a loss, we would charge everyone again to top up the fund.

Over 30 years we have had only a handful of claims. It has worked well for us.

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PLUMBING

IMMERSED IN

PUMPS Submersible It was hot out, and I mean really hot. Not just hot, but humid hot.

Every drop of sweat counted as each bucket of mud was slowly lifted out of that deep hole by my dad and his brother.

PUTTING MY BACK INTO IT When installing a submersible pump, a pitless adapter is put in at the tee going to the house. This adapter allows you pull out the series 160 PE pipe complete with the submersible pump from deep in the earth.

Back in the day, when I was around 21 years old, I recall being told to go and pull a submersible pump by my journeyman plumber.

It took me at least an hour to pull the pump and all the piping. It was full of water, so that was a back breaking job. Of course, my journeyman had a good laugh.

Most plumbers usually use a winch or a tow truck to pull a pump nowadays.

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M e c h a n i c a l

As I sat by our farmhouse window, I thought about the hard labour they were putting in.

This is what my dad was used to, hard work and a hard life.

I don’t know if his ability to do what was necessary helped during his escape from Greifenberg, Germany, during the Second World War, or if it was forged as a result of what he and his family endured while trying to survive without water and food.

Regardless, my uncle Klaus and my dad grew into stubborn, thick-skinned German men, and when I say thick skinned, I literally mean it. These two brothers had callused hands that could manually handle pretty much anything, included a stubby beer.

I recall my uncle yelling out expletives for almost every bucket of mud he pulled out of that deep well, all while my dad smoked a thick cigar, laughing at each other’s jokes.

Back then, in the Sixties, there was no such thing as using machinery to dig out a water casing, well there was, but there’s no way that they could afford that luxury.

But it was a labour of love. They were constructing a new water well for their dad, so he wouldn’t have to use the hand pump anymore.

Now I was only seven at the time and had no idea what kind of well they were digging, but from what I know now, it was probably what we call a shallow well or a well around 25-feet deep with a foot valve and a pipe leading into a jet pump in the house.

Having modern plumbing in our grandparents’ farm house was certainly a luxury. No more throwing water in the toilet to flush it: that was awesome!

Water is definitely a convenience most people take for granted, but as a plumber, I know the importance of water.

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PLUMBING

Escape from Greifenberg

I

’ve posted a longer story of my family’s war experience in a series of videos on Youtube, but here’s a short excerpt from an interview with my dad that I used to create the videos.

Out of necessity, we would sleep in ditches by the roads because houses were burned down and in ruins. They had no window panes, no heat, no roofs.

We would push away some snow and lay our raincoats on the ground, covering them with a blanket, then feather bag type comforters, then another blanket, two more raincoats and a pile of snow.

The four of us, my mother, brother Klaus, my sister Ilse and I sandwiched ourselves between the feather bags and comforters.

We would melt snow for water to moisten our dry lips during the night. You couldn’t drink just any water and much of it was contaminated from the war.

Meanwhile the artillery barrage could be heard overhead, this is how we survived the winter. Many refugees simply froze to death, I’m glad that my mother made sure that we loaded our feather bags and raincoats on to the handcart.

Options FOR THE WELL The shallow well jet pump my dad and uncle installed worked for many years, but you could always hear it pumping away, refilling up the storage tank in the lean-to beside the house.

A better pump for especially deep wells – those more than 100-feet deep – is a submersible pump.

A submersible pump is quieter than its shallow cousin, since it is an underground pump installed in the aquifer deep underground.

I would find out more about his hard, post-war days as I grew into my teens and my dad was teaching my brother and I the value of hard physical labour.

CHECK YOUR WIRING

QUICK TIPS I’ve found that it is better to install a 220-volt pump, since that will draw less amperage than a small pump. And if the pump continues to run, check the diaphragm on the storage tank to ensure that it is not waterlogged.

To put one in, we install a casing into the water cavern. We call this the drawdown line. If you find a deep enough aquifer of water that can draw water for several hours and not deplete, well, then you are good to go.

Back when I spent most of my time as a service plumber, the more common calls from a farmhouse with a submersible pump were either not enough pressure or that the pump would just quit.

The submersible pump is topped with an inline check valve in order to keep the static water pressure from turning the impellors backwards when the pump is not pumping.

Sometimes the pump wires that were supposed to be clipped or clamped to the polyethylene piping would rub against the 4” steel casing and wear out.

Wiring is attached to the pump and it is dropped slowly down the 4” casing.

This could be as much as a 200-foot distance.

Due to deep frost levels that can reach eight to 10 feet in Canada, we dig a trench at that depth to the house from the well.

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You could troubleshoot this by using a multimeter and testing for OHMs. If you got a reading at about 0.02 Megohms, that would tell you that your wiring was toast, and that you would have to pull the pump and fix the wiring.

Its important to note that torque arrestors should be installed every 20 feet to ensure that the series 160 polyethylene pipe and wiring are centred correctly and will not rub against the casing wall.

If your meter gives a reading of about 0.5 to 2.0 Megohms then your pump motor is likely in good shape.

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Canada turns to Anvil for mechanical pipe connections.

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We have the broadest range of products available to complete your project. From steel and cast iron fittings, pipe nipples, forged steel, high pressure oil & gas fittings to pipe hangers and supports, grooved fittings and couplings. Make Anvil your trusted one-stop shop.

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QUATTRO’S CORNER

By A ndr e w Qu a t t r o c i o c c h i

Andrew Quattrociocchi, C.B.C.O., is the deputy chief building official for the Township of Oro-Medonte, and a director with the Ontario Plumbing Inspectors Association. If you have any questions or a funny photo you would like to possibly see in an upcoming edition of Quattro’s Corner, feel free to send an email to Andrew at quattroscorner@hotmail.com.

Everyone loves clean pipes E

ver seen something like this in your neighbourhood, or that of one of your customers? If you have, that’s actually a good thing, since it means clean potable water for you and the neighbours.

Building codes can be somewhat limited in the information given for installation practices of new water mains but in the region where I am an inspector, we turn to the Ontario Building Code to find information about the cleaning of new water services. If you are elsewhere in the country, check with your local building department to find out what’s required in your jurisdiction.

By the code The OBC states that a newly installed part of a potable water system shall be cleaned and then flushed with potable water before the system is put into operation.

Of course, larger water service pipes, those 100 mm in size and larger, require a bit more attention. These pipes shall be flushed and disinfected.

After flushing is completed, water from the existing distribution system is introduced into the new piping at a controlled rate. Liquid chlorine solution is distributed throughout the section being disinfected and is applied so that the chlorine concentration is at least 50 mg/L throughout the section.

The system is left charged with 50 mg/L chlorine solution for 24 hours and then tested. If the tests indicate a chlorine residual of at least 25 mg/L, the section is flushed completely and recharged with water normal to the operation of the system. If the test does not meet the requirements, the chlorination procedure needs to be repeated until satisfactory results are obtained.

After the system has been recharged, samples are taken for bacteriological tests. If there is indication of contamination, the disinfection procedure shall be repeated.

Prior to disinfection, the system is cleaned out by a device known as a swab. The plug-like device travels through the pipe, clearing any debris. The picture above shows a water distribution system being flushed to remove the swab.

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B u s i n e s s

Fill it right The backfilling of new pipes is just as important as disinfection, and building codes set out specific requirements about the amount of backfill required and the actual material.

Here in Ontario, the code states that backfill for underground pipe needs to be free of stones, boulders, cinders and frozen earth, and carefully placed and tamped to a height of 300 mm over the top of the pipe in the pipe trench.

Stronger pipes may be required in deep fill or under driveways and parking lots, and compaction for the full depth of the trench may be necessary.

A compacted depth of 100 mm to 150 mm is generally sufficient bedding thickness. Ledge or sharp rocks and clods that could damage the pipe cannot be used. Bedding needs to provide uniform and adequate longitudinal support under the pipe, and all drainage pipe must be supported so that it does not sag and to maintain its alignment. Blocking alone is not enough to maintain pipe grading.

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PLUMBING

Products

Kitchen faucet Delta Faucet’s Pivotal single-handle exposed hose kitchen faucet incorporates the company’s Touch 2.O technology that allows users to turn the water on or off with a tap anywhere on the spout and handle. Exposed hose swivels at the spray wand and hub prevent kinking. It has an integrated valve, finished hot-cold indicators and a 2-1/2” max deck thickness mounting capability. Available finishes include chrome, arctic stainless, polished nickel and black stainless.

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ECM recirculation unit HotLinkPlus-e by Taco is designed for retrofits and tight spaces. It combines the company’s ECM hot water circulator, HotLink Valve and smart plug instant hot water control, which learns usage patterns to deliver hot water when it’s needed. The system uses a home’s existing plumbing with a tank water heater, so no dedicated hot water return line is needed.

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Video pipe inspection system The Gen-Eye X-Pod from General Pipe Cleaners comes in two sizes and combines camera, reel and monitor in one package. It has a 7” LCD colour monitor, one-touch recording via USB, 4x digital zoom and comes with a threefoot probe rod with camera for use in tight spaces. The full-sized unit has 200 feet of Gel-Rod for inspecting 3” to 10” lines, while the Mini-Reels come with either 100 or 200 feet of Gel-Rod for use in 2” and 3” lines.

Lead-free press adapters Uponor’s ProPEX copper press adapters come in 1/2" to 3" sizes and are a flameless solution designed to make secure hybrid PEX-to-copper connections, eliminating the need for a stainless-steel ring. They are manufactured from lead-free brass to meet potable-plumbing requirements.

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Universal bath tub drain Watco’s Universal NuFit bathtub drain cover fits over all bathtub drains without requiring the removal of the strainer body. It resists corrosion, is available in nine finishes and features a high flow grid strainer that designed to prevent hair clogs from forming.

www. watcomfg.com

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B u s i n e s s

Floor-mount bath filler The Fitzgerald collection by DXV, part of Lixil, includes a floor-mount filler that features a hand shower with a five-foot hose, a maximum flow rate of 1.8 gpm, and a 6” centre-to-centre floor spread installation. It measures 25-3/8” to the centre of the handle.

Finishes include polished chrome, brushed nickel and platinum nickel.

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A P P L I C A T I O N S

|

T E C H N O L O G I E S FEBRUARY 2019

Chris Dowsett

A FAMILY PATH FOR CAREER SUCCESS • HOLOHAN: ASKING QUESTIONS TO FIND SOLUTIONS • MAKING A CUSTOMER FOR LIFE • RETHINKING PROPOSED • EFFICIENCY RULES TROUBLESHOOTING: USING AND MAINTAINING YOUR SENSES

A sopping wet supplement of Mechanical Business

www.mechanicalbusiness.com

A P P L I C A T I O N S

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Winning the race

44 FEATURES

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NEWS: INDUSTRY CALLS FOR AMENDMENT 15 RETHINK Industry representative bodies have called on the Canadian government to rethink its proposed energy efficiency rules for gas- and oil-fired boilers. Simon Bowden

OTHER

FEATURES

38GUEST COMMENTARY Making a customer for life Paul D. McRoberts

46TROUBLESHOOTING

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ROAD WARRIOR: A FAMILY PATH TO SUCCESS Watching his father, Matthew, at work inspired Chris Dowsett’s own journey into the trades. A keen interest in science at school and a fascination with mechanics may have been the starting point for his future career, but shadowing his dad as a boy sealed the deal for Chris. Simon Bowden

Using and maintaining your senses Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr

DE P AR TME NTS

36From the Editor’s Desk

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TROUBLESHOOTING: WHAT CAN CAUSE THAT? When it comes to finding solutions to problems, cluster diagrams that answer the key question: “What can cause that particular problem?” are one of the best tools a troubleshooter can have. Dan Holohan

Cover Photo: John Packman

42Find the Fix 54,56Products

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T E C H N O L O G I E S

Content Media Group Inc. 19 – 1525 Cornwall Road Oakville, ON L6J 0B2 Canada Tel: 905.465.2919 Fax: 905.465.2913 www.mechanicalbusiness.com January/February 2019 Issue Editor: Adam Freill, ext. 224 adam.freill@mechanicalbusiness.com Associate Editor/Web Editor: Simon Bowden, ext. 225 simon.bowden@mechanicalbusiness.com National Sales Manager: Jeff Superle, ext. 221 jeff.superle@mechanicalbusiness.com Controller: Liz Mills liz.mills@mechanicalbusiness.com Operations Manager: Caroline Bexfield, ext. 227 \Zkhebg^'[^qÛ^e]9f^\aZgb\Ze[nlbg^ll'\hf Art Direction: JJM Graphic Ltd. davem@jjmgraphic.com Circulation Manager: Shila Naik (905) 272-4175 shila.naik@mechanicalbusiness.com Publisher: Bruce Meacock, ext. 222 bruce.meacock@mechanicalbusiness.com

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Notice: Mechanical Business is published for owners, managers and decision makers with mechanical contracting firms and the sector’s supply chain partners in Canada. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information, Mechanical Business, Content Media Group Inc., its staff, directors, officers and shareholders (‘The Publisher’) assume no liability, obligation or responsibility for advertised claims, for errors and/or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. Manufacturers’ instructions take precedence over published editorial. The publisher reserves the right to publish a printed correction in a subsequent issue for editorial errors, omissions and oversights.

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Showcasing work and expertise Back when I started writing about mechanical systems, contracting companies who wanted to strut their stuff in front of potential customers would often send out their sales staff armed with binders of polaroid pictures of boiler rooms and nice letters from past clients.

Other companies would rely on word of mouth from past clients, or would send potential customers to talk with former and current customers.

While some of this still happens, more and more of today’s customers want to check you out before you even know they are interested in what you are selling. And a company website isn’t enough.

CHC hitting the Capital The Canadian Hydronics Council is bringing its 2019 conference to the nation’s capital this fall. Be sure to

This page isn’t enough space to probe into the psychology behind a consumer’s willingness to put their faith into the review of a complete stranger, but the reality is that we hop online as soon as we need a contractor.

subscribe to our eNewsletter and check out our daily online news stream so that we can bring you details as information is released.

www.mechanicalbusiness.com When we are in the market for a replacement boiler, or to add some infloor heat to our homes, we want to hear about companies offering these products and services to see if there’s anything we should know about them, including if they are reputable and do good work. And social media outlets are where we are doing this.

In my neighbourhood, we have a few local Facebook groups where all kinds of homerelated questions are posed, and sometimes answered. It’s not unusual for someone out my way to be asking about a plumbing, heating or electrical issue they are experiencing, often with a plea for a pro to help them out.

And we have a number of professional tradespeople in my area who are consistently receiving referrals from these groups. These pros are the ones who were enough to provide a bit of advice in a time of need neighbourly eno process, they have earned excellent word of mouth, and, in the pro not to mention a number of new customers – simply by doing what any good neighbour would do.

LinkedIn and look for groups where you can So, hop onto L share photos pho and videos of your finest work. Connect with neighbourhood groups on Facebook and Instagram. Build neighb a reputation of trust and expertise by offering nonrep sales-driven advice where your potential customers sa hang out. You might be pleasantly surprised with how much word of mouth is happening – it just happens on our smartphones nowadays.

Proud members of:

Until next time,

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Paul D. McRoberts President/Founder iFH Designs & Installations Inc.

GUEST COMMENTARY

Gaining customers for life

O

ne of the most important contributors to a company’s success is being able to serve customers and earn their respect. Their trust and confidence in you are what will result in a faithful customer.

At iFH Designs, we know the three most important things to keeping customers are: service, service and service. This is why our employees have extensive knowledge of the products we install and service.

They are all licensed plumbers or apprentices, and all are well versed in the proper provincial codes and installation techniques for the products used in our customers’ projects, be that a plumbing job or our specialty of hydronic floor heating and boiler installations – our name, iFH Designs and Installations, refers to in-floor heating.

How do we convey to our customers that we care about their business and that they are important to us?

Often, the first contact is a phone call, so a friendly sounding voice on the other end of the phone sets the stage for a happy start.

Always identify yourself and make sure you note and remember their name.

People like to be called by their own name and this helps establish the relationship from the initial contact. First impressions, whether on the phone or in person, are lasting impressions.

In person, people often judge a book by its cover, so we put our best foot forward when meeting potential customers at events like local home shows. A friendly smile and being calm, polite and courteous are always important as we have a casual, but business-like conversation to embark on a relationship.

Make sure you know what the customer wants. Find out the details. Have face-to-face meetings to review plans and costs before a project begins. For service, find a time convenient for both you and your customer.

For large projects, go over the work orders at the end of the day or week if possible, explain what has been done and review what still has to be completed and have the work order signed. This is a great opportunity to answer any questions the homeowner may have and to make sure things are going as they expect.

Photo: David Charlesworth

Neat and Tidy

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Taking pride in our work and striving for neat and tidy work and jobsites show professionalism and care. When the customer sees that the work area is left clean, they know that they are a valued customer, no matter how small or large the job is.

At iFH, we record specific information about the work we do. As a picture speaks a thousand words, we take photos of all of our in-floor heating projects, whether a small bathroom renovation or a total house project with snowmelt. These pictures have proven valuable for both customer satisfaction and our records.

After the project is completed, ask for customer feedback and listen to what they have to say. They often tell wonderful little stories about how pleased they are with the work. Relaying this to employees is important for employee morale.

Above all, make sure your customer knows it is a privilege to serve them and that you value them as a person first and a customer second. And thank them for letting you work with them.

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WET HEAT NEWS Industry y calls for Amendment 15 rethink

A possible path?

The associations have proposed that regulations for gas boilers match those already put forward for commercial water heaters, namely a dual level MEPS that would require a 90% efficiency only for new installations, which would allow for the use of non-condensing boilers in retrofits and existing installations.

Industry representative bodies have called on the Canadian government to rethink its proposed energy efficiency rules for gas- and oil-fired boilers.

“We asked them why they aren’t doing the same thing for boilers,” says Waters.

In a joint submission made to Natural Resources Canada regarding the proposed Amendment 15 to the Energy Efficiency Regulations (EER) 2016, the Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating (CIPH); the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI); and the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) outline why they believe the new regulations could end up doing more harm than good.

“Relating to gas boilers, they’re proposing a MEPS (minimum energy performance standard) that is above 90% efficiency, so basically condensing boilers only,” said Robert Waters, CIPH technical consultant, codes and standards.

“The objection of the industry is that yes, we know that condensing technology has come on strong, however, to force it on every installation everywhere is going to Robert Waters cause some issues because there are some applications where a condensing boiler makes no sense from an economic point of view.

“The reality is that in a lot of older buildings you may have really complicated venting systems that have to be replaced. There could be situations where the cost of the venting is just extravagant because if you have an old building with a category one venting system and you have to replace it with all stainless steel or all CPVC venting (to accommodate) condensing appliances, the costs could be huge.

“We are saying (to the government) that we don’t agree that 90%plus (efficiency) should be applied to all installations.”

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”The response was that the economics are different for boilers, the loads are different and they feel the economics show that condensing for retrofits still makes sense.”

However, the industry groups involved believe the cost benefit analysis (CBA) the regulators have relied upon is flawed.

“We believe the CBA contains errors and inconsistencies,” says Waters. “We think they’re using a really long life-expectancy (for condensing boilers) and we think they’re underestimating the cost, so that leads us to feel that there is still justification for non-condensing (boilers).”

Tracking the changes Amendment 15 is expected to be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II this spring and come into effect in January 2021 (residential) and January 2023 (commercial).

For additional information, visit the energy efficiency regulation page on NRCan’s website: www.nrcan.gc.ca.

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Jeff House is an experienced industry professional and hydronics trainer. He handles the sales territory from the Niagara region to the Greater Toronto Area for Jess-Don Dunford, a manufacturers’ rep in Ontario. He can be reached at jhouse@jessdondunford.com.

RESTRUCTURING THE SYSTEM So here we are, still staring at that old manufacturer’s drawing that we started looking at last issue. If you recall, your customer has a pair of boilers in a 10-storey apartment building with a total of 76 suites. Using an outdoor design temperature of 0°F, let’s see if we can sort out a few things to get the system running a bit better.

1. If you use fixed-speed pumps on the boilers, how do you control water temperature when outside conditions are 35°F?

3. What hydronic device could you install and make this system run/work better?

a) Use a size-appropriate mixing valve on the system piping that reacts to outside temperature. b) Use an aggressive outdoor design reset curve. c) Use low-water-temperature boiler protection. d) Use fully modulating condensing boilers instead of 85% efficient boilers. e) All of the above.

a) Stop overthinking. Just install it as it’s shown in the manufacturer’s schematic. b) Use external boiler and system controls. c) Use a hydraulic separator and create a boiler heat engine on one side and a building system on the other side. d) Use a building mixing valve with outdoor reset.

2. How can you tell if the building outdoor reset is not working? a) Fuel consumption seems high. b) You drive by and notice multiple double-hung zone valves (windows) open on the top floors. c) There is no way to tell. d) A & B

Email your answers to adam.freill@mechanicalbusiness.com.

Please include your name and daytime phone number.

Looking for the November/December answers?

If you need the answers to last edition’s quiz, you’ll find them on our home on the web, mechanicalbusiness.com. Just click the “Looking for Answers?” button on our homepage.

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4. Assuming a system design temperature of 20°F, what should the boiler temperature design be? a) 10°F each, if both boilers are firing. b) 20°F, just like the install manual calls for. c) This is all too complicated. I just install what the engineer calls for. d) 15°F.

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ROAD WARRIOR Chris Dowsett

Name: Christopher Dowsett Company: Quickfast Heating and Air Conditioning Born in: Hamilton, Ont. Lives in: Toronto, Ont. Title: Journeyman plumber Age: 36 Family: Wife Erin, Children Owen (7) and Emma (6) Current Work Ride: Ford E350 Service Area: Extended Greater Toronto Area

Christopher Dowsett

A family path to success

C

hris loves a challenge. Being able to think his way through a problem on site is one of the many satisfying things about the job that keeps him hooked.

The service/installation supervisor at Quickfast Heating and Air Conditioning in Mississauga, Ont., has been in the trade since 2000, but finds plenty of new projects that keep life interesting.

“The favourite part of my job is that every install is unique,” he says. “Being presented with challenges helps me gain knowledge and experience that I can apply to other jobs in my field, which helps me get my customers the most efficient and appropriate applications for them.”

Photo: John Packman

It’s no surprise that Dowsett’s most memorable job was also one of his most complicated.

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He says, “The coolest project I’ve worked on was installing a combi boiler system that was designed for a driveway ice melt system, in-floor heating, a pool and forced air heating system at a residential home. It was a very complex system involving many zone controls and required different temperatures off the boiler.

Building on a strong foundation Watching his father, Matthew, at work inspired Chris Dowsett’s own journey into the trades. A keen interest in science at school and a fascination with mechanics may have been the starting point for his future career, but shadowing his dad as a boy sealed the deal for Chris.

He says, “I was always interested in how things worked and having a father working and teaching in the trades always kept me involved from a young age. Seeing how revered and respected my father was inspired me to do the same.”

Dowsett’s dad also gave him the words of advice he still recalls every day: “Always work like you’re working on your own house.”

“It was a very challenging project to figure out, but accomplishing the job to fully meet expectations was gratifying and taught me a lot.”

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By Simon Bowden Favourite neighbourhood to service: Toronto Island – for the sights.

Favourite tool: Bosch hammer drill.

Tool that you wish you had? A tool to see through walls.

Best thing about working in a Canadian winter: How grateful Canadians are when you get their heat back up and running.

Average time spent on the internet each day: 1 to 2 hours.

Favourite website: Facebook.

By Adam Freill

Toddler plays a round T A service technician never knows what they may find once they enter a customer’s home. But golf fan Chris Dowsett th at least had a head start in trying to work out how one homeowner had lost their hot water supply.

“It didn’t take too long to find the problem,” says Dowsett.

“I just followed the noise and found half a doze dozen golf balls in the hot water heater’s exhaust venting.”

It also didn’t take long to unmask the culprit.

“It was the customer’s toddler who had been shoving s the balls in there. The customer was in hysterics! He H was just relieved to know where his golf balls were going goin and that there wasn’t any issue with the heater.”

Favourite app: Waze navigation app.

Favourite technology used for work: UEI combustion analyzer.

Favourite band: Tool.

Where would you go using a time machine? m Prehistoric times tim to see dinosaurs.

Best concert ever attended? OzFest.

Favourite TV character: Modern Family’s Phil Dunphy. He’s such a good guy. No matter what happens, it always works out for him in the end.

Favourite movie: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Best sporting event ever attended in person: Toronto FC 3, San Jose 0 in 2017.

Pet peeve: Rework.

One place in the world you would like to visit: Australia.

Favourite car: De Tomaso.

Lunch, is it drive-thru or brown bag? Both.

One thing most people don’t know about you: That I am great with different languages.

Last book read: Game of Thrones.

One item associated with you: My beard.

3 albums that you’d take with you to your desert island: 1. AEnima – Tool 2. Turn the Radio Off – Reel Big Fish 3. Smash – The Offspring

One word that best describes you: Hardworking.

If you could meet anyone, alive or dead, who would it be? Science fiction writer and scientist Isaac Asimov.

Ever played an instrument? Acoustic guitar – alternative.

If you could be an animal, what would you be and why? A dog because everyone respects loyalty.

One piece of advice you would give to a 16-yearold you: The harder it is the more experience you gain.

If I had a super power it would be: Time travel (no mistakes for me).

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By Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr

TROUBLESHOOTING

Using & maintaining your

SENSES T

here is a common thread that I have noticed with professionals who troubleshoot mechanical devices. Mechanics of all stripes have an ability to use all their senses to diagnosis a problem or condition.

With our senses being some of our best jobsite tools, it only makes sense to treat them well and protect them for long-term use. Thankfully, it seems to me that “kids today” are more tech and equipment savvy than I was at that age.

Here’s to using good sense…and to protecting your senses.

THE OTHER SENSES Your sense of touch is definitely helpful on a jobsite.

THE NOSE KNOWS

A drop of blended glycol will feel slippery on your fingers or hand, and it is especially noticeable on your tools. Should you dare, a drop on your tongue will indicate a glycol mix from plain tap water. Certainly, healthy glycol will have a colorful appearance.

A trained nose can detect an over-heated electrical component, even telling the difference between burned wire insulation and an arcing contactor, which is a very slightly different smell to an experienced troubleshooter working on electronics.

As a hydronics pro, you’ll learn the smell of a glycol leak. It tends to be a sweet, syrupy type of smell, with a harsh edge if the glycol has been cooked or overheated. Solar thermal arrays can be a place to smell overheated glycol. With the sense of smell you will track down a glycol leak even in a dimly lit mechanical room.

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Touch also allows you to determine temperature difference, which is helpful for heat transfer diagnostics. A trained HVAC hand can determine even a subtle difference in temperature between pipes, tanks or metal ducting. Like a carnival barker guessing weight, an experienced tradesperson can detect even a small degree difference in temperature.

Feel can also be helpful for locating vibrations from an out of balance pump or fan impeller, or a failing bearing. And how often have you been able to feel a draft or source of infiltration in a building or room?

Good eyesight is also a plus in our industry.

The ability to detect grade, or slope of a pipe or subgrade is an important skill. Before I started wearing glasses, I could easily detect objects that were out of plumb or level.

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“Plumb, level, and square,” is what I learned from a sage old carpenter when I framed homes early in my high school days. Good sight is helpful for identifying components and accurately recording numbers. Old timers often adjusted burners with just eyesight, dialing in the mixture to get the best and most efficient flame.

Your sense of hearing is a critical gift. A good ear can help pinpoint all sorts of problematic conditions.

Pump troubleshooting begins with a good “listen”. Motor bearings are often first diagnosed by sound. Even a good flame condition on a burner or your torch tip can be heard.

My dad could troubleshoot engine problems with an earphone connected to a metal rod.

He claimed to be able to detect the difference between a lifter tick as opposed to a failing wrist pin sound. He could detect, in the exhaust sound, if a cylinder was missing, or if there was a vacuum leak at a failed hose connection.

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TROUBLESHOOTING

PROTECT YOUR SENSES There is a lot more “gear” available to protect workers these days, and it has also gotten more stylish, which may help more folks to embrace it.

I have failed to adequately protect most all my senses over the years in the trades.

Jobsite noise, dirt and debris in my eyes, gloves to protect against burn and cuts.

Wearing appropriate respirators when working with paints, pipe solvents, and solder or grinding emissions. Old timers warned me about those hazards, and now it is my turn to warn the next generations.

Everything from safety glasses to gloves has improved with high tech materials. It’s rare to see a mechanic these days without an assortment of gloves – from latex, to padded gloves for impact tool use, to “ugly” gloves for sewer cleaning.

There are so many good work gloves available it is hard to pick a favourite, but I like the fit and feel of

Mechanix Wear brand, but I also have a custom-made pair I obtained when visiting Anderson Pump House in North Battleford, Sask. They trace your hand and have a local craftsman sew gloves out of goatskin or deerskin. Seeing as I am missing part of an index finger, the custom fit was a pleasant surprise.

wherever you remembered leaving them.

Eyewear comes in lots of shades, styles, and materials unavailable even 10 years ago. I don’t have a specific brand to which I am loyal and usually make a point of purchase decision at the wholesaler counter. Like most anything, you get what you pay for. Inexpensive glasses tend to break at the earpiece or hinge. If you wear eyeglasses with a prescription, check with your optometrist.

When I started doing more air travel, I bought a nice set of Sony active ear buds. A small battery gets you maybe eight-hours’ worth of use. They seem to cut down the scream of the jet engines, mowers and power tools well, but they are somewhat inconvenient with their dangling wires.

I have begrudgingly gotten use to wearing glasses. I dislike the distortion, and needing to clean them multiple times a day, or hour. They tend to wander from

SHARE YOUR TIPS If you are an old timer like me, you likely have a few safety tips of your own.

Feel free to email your advice to hotrodradiant@me.com.

I might share a few of them down the road.

Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr has been a plumbing, radiant heat and solar contractor and installer for 30 years. A long-time columnist and trainer, he is manager of training and education with Caleffi North America. You can reach Hot Rod at bob.rohr@caleffi.com.

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The sense that is slipping away, and bothers me most, is my hearing.

I started much too late wearing adequate noise protection. I’ve been using mainly expanding foam earplugs, and have gone through thousands.

I recently got a few versions of the Etymotic brand earplugs and earphones. They are cleanable and reusable and they come with a selection of replaceable ear tips. So far, they are my favorite ear protection.

I like that they are able to be used over and over instead of discarding the foam plugs after a few uses. I also learned to push them in tightly to get amazing sound blocking performance. They have a small tab attached to make for easy removal. If you want quality and performance give them a try.

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TROUBLESHOOTING

By Dan Holohan

WHAT CAN CAUSE

Y

ears ago, I wrote a little book called A Pocketful of Steam Problems (with solutions!). My reader was to

be a person in the field looking at steamheating problems and not sure what

BASEBOARD

to do next.

At the time I wrote the book, I listed everything I could think of that might go wrong with residential or commercial steam systems. I made the list by working with cluster diagrams, which is a great tool to have when you’re trying to dump everything you know about a subject onto

I think it’s possessed by evil spirits,” he said.

“I keep expecting Linda Blair from The Exorcist to show up with her head spinning.”

paper.

Cluster diagrams are nonlinear and that really helps when you’re brainstorming.

After I defined each problem, I made more cluster diagrams that answered

“That’s a nice image,” I said. “Very cinematic.”

the key question: What can cause that

“You think so?”

particular problem? This simple question is

“Sure, why not?” I said.

the best tool a troubleshooter can have.

Begin by stating the problem. For instance, there is no heat in that bedroom.

That’s a fact. You can’t deny it. Next, just ask what can cause that?

Go about this in a methodical way. Don’t skip any possibility. The solution, of course, will always be the last possibility you consider. Be patient as you ask that key question again and again.

And if you run out of possibilities and still don’t have the solution ask others to help you. Often, all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes or an experience remembered to find the

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“Where’s the bedroom?” I asked.

“That’s the crazy part,” he said. “It’s right in the middle. The pipe leaves the boiler and goes into the living room, which is just fine. From there, it goes into the first bedroom, also fine. And then it gets to the problem bedroom, which is the one with Linda Blair spewing pea soup.”

“And the rest of the house is fine?” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “Toasty and fine. It’s just that one room.”

“So what can cause that?” I said.

“That’s what I want to know,” he said.

answer you are looking for.

50

“Seriously, Dan. It’s a one-zone, baseboard loop system. The house has three bedrooms and no basement. There’s a single pipe running around the perimeter of the house. It just goes in and out of the baseboard in each room. It’s as simple as it gets, so how can one bedroom be freezing when the rest of the house is up to temperature?”

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GOING THATAWAY? The thermostatic radiator valves on the baseboard in this apartment building were banging like kids on a cheap drum kit.

What can cause that? An oversized pump? Sure.

The valves are in backwards? Sure again, but the superintendent insisted that these valves were installed the proper way.

To prove it, he took me downstairs and showed me the arrows on the supplyand return pipes. We shut off the system and let it cool. Then I had him hold the supply side of the baseboard while I held the return side. A third guy turned the system back on. My end got hot first.

backwards.

All the pipes in the building were flowing

It’s true. Read the instructions.

“What can cause that?”

“If I knew that would I be talking to you?” he said.

“No, seriously,” I laughed. “Let’s make a list of all the things that could cause one room in the middle of a simple baseboard loop system to be cold when every other room is fine. That’s the best way to troubleshoot. Let’s make a list of possibilities.”

“Okay.”

“Yes,” he said.

“Is there anything on the top of the element? I ask this because I once looked at a job where the kid who slept in the room dropped a deck of playing cards into the baseboard. He lined them up from wall to wall and that stopped the air from moving across the element. It was cold in that bedroom, and that system was also a loop.”

“Oh.”

“Is it open?”

“What else can cause this problem to happen?” I said.

“No.”

“Is water flowing through the baseboard?”

on the insides of the pipes.”

“Because he was an evil monster,” I said.

“Yes.”

“Yes,” he said.

do,” I said, “you have to install the arrows

“Why would the kid do that?” he said.

“Is there a window in the room?”

“So this is its first winter?”

“If you want the water to know what to

“But it’s still cold.”

“Yes.”

“It must be,” he said. “The house is new.”

superintendent protested.

“No,” he said. “It’s clear. Air can get at the element. There’s plenty of room.”

“We need to ask that question,” I said.

“Is the room insulated?” I said.

“But what about the arrows?” the

Being patient as you ask that key question again and again.

“Yes. If water wasn’t flowing then the rooms after the problem bedroom wouldn’t be hot. Nothing would be hot.”

“The furniture could be pushed up against the baseboard, but I checked that,” he said.

“Good. Furniture can stop the air from moving, too. I remember this sectional couch that was once the culprit.”

“I’m running out of things,” he said.

“The solution will be the last thing we come up with,” I said.

“That’s true,” he said. “Why do you think that is?”

“Because once we find the solution, we stop looking for it,” I said.

“Is the pipe hot?”

“Oh,” he said. “That’s deep, Dan.”

“Of course,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said. “Did you pop the cover of the baseboard?”

“I know that’s a silly question but I’ve seen blocked fittings. It happens.”

“I didn’t. It’s baseboard. It all looks the same.”

“It does,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s it. If a fitting was blocked there would be no heat at all.”

“Go back and pop it,” I said. “I’ll bet the installer turned the element 90 degrees. That would stop the air flow for sure and it’s the only other thing I can think of right now.”

“True,” I said. “Is the damper on the baseboard open?”

“I didn’t think of that,” he said. “Why would an installer do that?”

“Yes.”

“Because he was in a hurry?” I said.

“So air can get at the hot element. That’s good.”

“Or because he’s an idiot?” he said.

“So why is it cold in just that one room?” he said.

“Well, yes,” I said. “There’s that.”

“We don’t know yet,” I said. “Let’s keep making our list. How about this? Can air get in through the bottom of the baseboard? Is there a thick rug in that bedroom? Anything blocking the air flow?”

So he went back to the job and guess what? The element was turned 90 degrees. It was an easy fix after that.

Why would the installer turn the baseboard element 90 degrees?

Because he could. Remember that.

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TROUBLESHOOTING

INSTRUCTIONS? Air was banging around the pipes like buckshot. The customer was complaining about the annoying noises and the radiators that weren’t heating well.

The installer was telling the air-separator manufacturer that his product was no good so the manufacturer asked the installer to take a photo of the installed air separator and email it to them.

The manufacturer shared it with me and smiled. Instead of being on the main pipe leaving the boiler, the air separator was on the cold-water fill line for the system.

“I guess he figured he’d catch the air on its way in,” the manufacturer remarked.

WHAT CAN CAUSE A CHIMNEY NOT TO DRAFT? I grew up in a suburban neighborhood where the builders turned out thousands of identical houses during the days following World War II. An old-timer who worked as an oil-heat technician back then told me a story that still makes me smile. He said the builder would contract with a bricklayer and give him hundreds of houses to do. The heating contractor followed that guy.

“Makes sense,” I said.

“But here’s the fun part of the story,” he said. Once the chimneys went up, the builders often decided to let the bricklayers wait for their money.”

“That stinks,” I said.

“It does, but it’s not like the guy can take back his chimneys?”

“So what did he do?” I asked.

“This is the good part,” he said as a grin came to his face. “He waited for the oil man to start-up the burner, and that’s when the house filled with smoke. None of those chimneys would draft. The builder would call the bricklayer and demand that he come back and fix them, and that’s when the bricklayer would say, ‘Pay me!’”

“And did he?” I inquired.

“Yes, he had no choice. And as soon as the bricklayer got his money he would climb up on the roof and drop a brick down each chimney. The brick crashed through the pane of glass the bricklayer had installed in the centre of each chimney and that solved the problem. The best part was you could look up that chimney with an inspection mirror and see the blue sky. It was brilliant.”

Dan Holohan is an author, speaker, steam heating expert, and founder of heatinghelp.com, a highly regarded industry site that shares information about heating systems old and new.

He can be reached at dan@heatinghelp.com.

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™

Stainless Steel Water Heater

The VTech is designed to perform at the highest levels of efficiency using modern condensing technology with the lowest emissions of any Water Heater in the industry.

Because it’s manufactured using an all stainless steel construction, the fully modulating VTech is impervious to corrosion. And the advanced combustion and multiple layers of advanced controls systems have simplified the operation of this state of the art water heater. Pair all this with a 10 year manufacturer’s warranty and you’re left with the peace of mind knowing that you’ve protected your investment.

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HYDRONIC PRODUCTS Firetube boiler Cleaver-Brooks’ ClearFire-CE compact, highmass condensing firetube boiler features an AluFer fire tube heat exchanger and true counter-flow heat exchanger arrangement designed to function at maximum efficiency in all conditions. Available in 500,000 to 2,000,000 BTUH capacities, its self-regulating fuel-air ratio control and ECM variable-speed combustion air blower help lower noise levels and energy use and keeps NOx emissions to less than 20 ppm.

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Micro CHP systems Lochinvar, available through Aqua-Tech, has partnered with EC Power to offer micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems that can operate as a stand-alone engine, or in a larger connected group with a central control system. Overall efficiencies reach 96% (thermal and electrical) when operating at full capacity.

Units can be tied into existing boiler loops and operate on a “first on and last off” approach.

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Caleffi’s Conteca is designed to measure asure and record thermal energy use in residensidential and commercial buildings. It features tures an eight-digit LCD that displays the energy consumed as well as a range of technical hnical data. It has RS485 two-wire communiunication for daily/monthly log data, via a local user or remote, for domestic cold and hot water meters and two universal pulse inputs for gas or electric measurement.

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Energy efficient valves Belimo pressure independent control valves are designed to stabilize variable flow hydronic systems, with the valve performing the function of a balancing valve and control valve in one unit.

Available in 1/2” and 3/4” sizes and equipped with a space saving electronic rotary actuator, it has an installation height of 4” and a two-way flow rate of 9 gpm.

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Residential condensing boilers The Rinnai M-Series residential condensing gas boiler line offers a heating input range of 60,000 to 160,000 BTUH and an AFUE of 95%. The boilers have a proprietary self-cleaning stainless steel heat exchanger, a built-in fully modulating pump and offer multiple venting options. The units include an outdoor reset sensor and plug-and-play wiring.

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Commercial condensing boilers Aerco AM Series boilers, designed for condos, offices, schools and nursing homes, can have between two and four individual modules, each with its own combustion chamber, burner, gas valve, and combustion controls and safeguards tied to common water connections. Available in four sizes from 399,000 to 1 million BTUH, units have a turndown of up to 20:1.

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HYDRONIC PRODUCTS Low ambient heat pump SpacePak’s low ambient heat pump uses enhanced vapour injection to provide primary heating and cooling. It is designed to provide up to 3.3 tons of cooling at 95°F ambient temperature, delivering 66,480 BTUH at 47°F. The hydronic-based indoor fan coils keep refrigerant out of occupied zones. The unit is equipped with an outdoor reset and low ambient freeze protection.

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Hydraulic separator

UFH auto balancing actuator The Salus Auto Balancing Actuator is designed to balance the flow of water through underfloor heating systems even when pipe length is unknown, performing the function of both thermal actuator and supply regulator. Sensors on the supply and return from the manifold constantly monitor water temperature and will adjust the flow rate to maintain a delta T of 7°C.

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PHP’s Allcan hydraulic separator with built-in air separator can be configured with end-suction flanges. The top two pumps can swivel up and the bottom two down to aid in piping to secondary-loop heating zones. It includes wall mounting bracket, fill valve, expansion tank, internal air separator, and primary and secondary pumps.

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Panel radiator

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Magnetic filter The Adey MagnaClean DRX magnetic dirt filter is designed to remove debris and iron oxide sludge from commercial hydronic heating systems. It can be installed in-line or side-stream, and in either a vertical or horizontal orientation. Magnets remain outside the flow, so there are no internal sleeves or components that have to be removed and cleaned. The filter is available in 2” (with 48 magnets), 3” (64) and 4” (80) pipe dimensions.

www. adey.com

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Cast iron condensing boiler er The KN-Series Plus cast iron condensing boiler from Advanced Thermal Hydronics uses a hydrophobic-coated finned stainless steel heat exchanger that works in concert with the castiron heat exchanger to increase the heat transfer area to maximize efficiency. The variable-flow water-side condensing boiler comes in sizes from 600,000 to 3,000,000 BTUH.

www. knseries.com H E A T

Beacon Morris panel radiators are engineered to perform in a variety of applications, including low temperature systems. The radiators combine both radiant and convection heating in a single unit. Models range in size from 1,472 to 18,355 BTUH. Six connection points provide installation flexibility.

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FLEET MANAGEMENT

B y S im o n B o wden HOW IT

Driving

COSTS down

T

ime is money in the trades, and few things are costlier to a business than having a truck off the road due to mechanical failure.

Not only does the owner have to come up with the money to pay for repairs, but the cost of having an employee stranded between jobs and an unhappy customer on the telephone also has to be factored in.

WORKS

Outsourcing fleet management really starts to make financial sense once a company has more than 20 trucks on the road. It is then that these outside experts can analyze how a company finances its trucks, how long it is holding onto them, and what the maintenance and fuel costs are per year.

That makes it possible to calculate how much the fleet is costing to find potential savings.

“We act as a bolt-on fleet department to your business but we don’t take up any room in your office,” says Trott.

A key cost-saving measure is to identify any older vehicles in a fleet that have passed the point in their lifecycle where it is cheaper to replace them with a new vehicle than chasing maintenance bills.

Trott says, “We do what makes the most financial sense for our partner. Sometimes that means replacing several vehicles on day one.”

It is in situations like that when a business with outsourced fleet management can really feel the benefit. From towing, to repair, to sourcing a replacement vehicle, a good fleet management company can take the strain out of the day-to-day hassles associated with managing hard-charging service trucks.

An added benefit, he says, is that the replacement of the older models in a fleet helps bring the safety technology in the vehicle up to more current standards.

A fleet managed by outside professionals will not only free up staff to do the job they are best at, but it can also deliver a significant boost to a company’s bottom line.

“Stability control, blind-spot awareness, backup cameras – all that stuff is standard equipment on trucks now,” he says. “Not only does your fleet become newer and you get all these benefits, but from a safety standpoint it decreases a lot of risk and liability there as well.”

“The stakes have never really been higher for fleet managers today,” says David Trott, area sales manager for Enterprise Fleet Management in Toronto. “We’re in an era of rising costs and tighter budgets and managing one of the most expensive assets for a company can be pretty daunting.

“A fleet of vehicles is typically a top-three expense for a lot of partners who are mechanical contractors and, unfortunately, the way a lot of them view it is as a necessary evil. In general, our partners are focusing on managing a business, so managing a fleet of vehicles becomes pretty reactive – and that’s where we step in.”

BUYING

Benefits when

The sheer size of large fleet management companies can create a distinct advantage when it comes time to purchase new trucks. A good fleet manager will know in advance when a truck will need to be replaced and will be able to choose the optimum time to buy – usually at the start of each new model year in the fall.

Fleet management firm Jim Pattison has been in business since 1961 and says buying and selling vehicles at the optimum time is the key to keeping a client’s costs down.

“A professional fleet management company has the expertise and

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resources to find the best fit units at wholesale rates, saving you money and saving you time by doing the shopping for you,” said Ryan D’Souza, regional director, Prairies.

“While you may be able to get a discount with a dealer occasionally, it does not measure up to the value you can get by partnering with a fleet management company that ensures you are getting the discounts to which you are entitled.”

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FLEET MANAGEMENT

GOING another ROUTE?

with unused trucks that have to be paid for is a key attraction of renting, along with being able to add extras such as racks, shelving or heavy duty tires and rolling those costs into the monthly payment.

Ross says, “We help companies control costs, increase employee productivity in terms of being in newer vehicles, and manage cash flow where they don’t have to go out and get additional vehicles at the last moment when there is an increase in their business all of a sudden. There is no commitment in terms of how long they need to keep those (extra trucks).�

While not every business runs a fleet big enough to justify engaging outside fleet management, truck rental provides an opportunity for smaller companies, as well as companies requiring trucks for shorterterm needs to get in on the money-saving action.

Matt Ross, group truck rental manager for Enterprise Truck Rental in Ottawa, keeps a careful eye on how a partner company is using its vehicles. “We are really able to help wherever companies have a peak season or a project that comes up that they won and now they need some help with their fleet,� he says.

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Jeff Long is the director of finance of Mattina Mechanical Ltd., a Hamilton, Ont., mechanical contractor with a fleet of 25 trucks. His company has been working with Enterprise Fleet Management for nearly two years.

He believes the main benefit of having fleet management handled outside the company is in the time it has saved.

“We had an individual who probably spent 25 to 30 per cent of his time managing the fleet and now that individual spends virtually none of his time doing that. I have a senior person who is able to spend more of his energy on driving the business. It helps us look at other opportunities.”

Having his trucks looked after by trusted experts is also a boon, says Long, whose contract includes all routine maintenance.

“I had a call last week with a fairly major repair that I turned down because the Enterprise team said it was probably too early and wasn’t an expense I had to incur today.”

It all means that Long wouldn’t return to the days of looking after the company’s fleet in-house.

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“The truck prices are good, the delivery dates are good and the after-market is fantastic. On top of that the customer service is first class.”

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COVER STORY

By Adam Freill

A BUSINESS, O

ne of the biggest challenges that faces a family business is the passing of ownership and management from one generation to the next. Some companies are able to navigate to a second generation, far fewer to a third, but Canada’s second oldest company has been a family-owned enterprise since 1786.

Andrew Molson, a seventh generation Molson who is successfully carrying on the family’s brand, attributes his family’s successful successions to the passing along of not only the ownership of the enterprise, but also key principles and values that influence the management and presence of the company in its community.

“Ownership principles are passed on from generation to generation; not necessarily management principles,” he explained during a recent interview. “From generation to generation, certain principles and values have been passed on with respect to the way that our family has decided to be an owner of whatever enterprise we are involved in.”

One such value, that of service to one’s community, can readily be seen throughout the country, and especially in Montreal, where the company started.

“I think it goes back to the founder of the business, who came to Canada at the age of 18 and started up a beer business,” said

OWNERSHIP VS. MANAGEMENT As a company gets transferred from one generation to the next, the structure has an opportunity to evolve to match the skills, abilities and desires of the incoming owner, and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it often holds the key to corporate growth.

“There is a difference between ownership and management. That’s the interesting part to me,” explained Molson, who holds a masters degree in corporate governance and ethics.

Some companies may choose to have the family own and manage the business. Others, he says, will aim to find trusted managers to work with the owner as the business continues to grow. Both are viable routes, but the choice of structure will depend on how the owner envisions their involvement in the company.

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1786 Molson. “He understood, when he was building a beer business, how important his community was going to be to his business, and how important his business was for the community.”

That relationship between community and business continues to this day, and continues to grow through such organizations as the Deschênes|Molson|Lesage Family Business Centre that operates at HEC Montreal. The centre offers courses and advice for family businesses, helping with succession planning and other management concerns.

It’s all about

The Cup In addition to the beer business, the Molsons are synonymous with hockey in Montreal, so it should come as no secret that Andrew cherishes his memories of the Montreal Canadiens’ most recent Stanley Cup. “One of the happiest moments of my life was to be at the game when we won the Stanley Cup in 1993,” he exclaimed. “I was there. It was fantastic.”

No pressure, but a good fit Andrew wasn’t targeting the beer business as he embarked on a path into the business world, even though he did spend a summer working on a Molson delivery truck in his younger days. A lawyer and communications professional, he says that there was no family pressure put on him when he graduated from school.

“The last thing that you want when you plan your succession is to have a son or daughter who feels forced to go into the family business,” he said.

“To have a family business progress from generation to generation is an opportunity, but if it is perceived as a limitation in career choices for the next generation, then they shouldn’t go into that opportunity.”

He appreciates how his parents allowed he and his brothers to plot out their own futures.

“My parents were very much into education,” he stated. “There really was no intention, on my part, to be in the beer business, per se. I went and found different kinds of jobs.

“As I went along, I discovered during my professional career as a lawyer, and then in communications and studying corporate governance, that I could play a role with respect to the family business, but more at the board level and less at the beer-sales level.”

Did you know?

In addition to being Canada’s second-oldest company, the Molson Brewery is the oldest brewery in North America, getting its start in 1786.

It helps to laugh When guiding a company, it is inevitable that, at some point, not everyone will share the same opinions at the board or management level. For a family firm, this can present a challenge that non-related executives don’t have to navigate: keeping office discussions out of family dinners and events.

The ability to separate business and family life can be a tough tightrope walk for some, but the Molsons have a few strategies that help.

“One very important feature in our family when it comes to business and family, and when it appears to be mixing into different situations, is a very good sense of humour,” says Molson. “A self-deprecating sense of humour and an ability to laugh at oneself.”

A focus on humility and modesty also helps.

“The ability to manage your ego; to manage your emotions in different situations; this is extremely important when you are in complex family relationships where business and family are intermingled.”

FINDING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES Managing a company is not an easy task, and sometimes owners or managers can be too close to the action to be able to get a full picture when long- and mid-range planning is required, and that’s where having a board of advisors or directors can help, says Molson.

“I think it is really great for a management team to have a board of advisors or directors who can hover around the enterprise to help management make some of the tough decisions that they have to make,” he says. “Strong management that’s focused on the dayto-day, but that has a board of trusted advisors around thinking about the enterprise for the long term, that’s a winning formula.”

And those advisors don’t have to be from the same generation as the owners.

“Sometimes it is good to have advisors that are a little bit older than the next generation, and possibly a little bit younger than the older generation,” says Molson. “Sort of a mediator between generations, but not a family member.”

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REFRIGERATION

Optimizing the performance of parallel compressor systems – Part 1

T

he rising competitive nature of businesses, along with rising energy costs, has provided many opportunities for system performance to be improved. Not only that, but there are incentive programs to help fund the cost of many energy related retrofits, so let’s discuss some of these opportunities that are available with parallel compressor refrigeration systems.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE SYSTEM

The benefit of more steps

In a parallel system, the refrigeration plant uses at least two compressors to provide refrigeration. The idea is that the additional steps allow the system to adjust its capacity according to the load. Since most parallel systems use an outdoor air-cooled condenser, having multiple compressors also helps adjust the compressor capacity as the ambient temperature varies.

Typically, the higher the number of capacity steps, the more stable the system pressures will be. This is a very important point because stable suction and discharge pressures result in better control of the various regulators and metering devices within a system.

The more compressors that are present on the rack, the more steps of capacity present, but compressor selection will influence just how many steps are possible.

When all compressors are of the same size and do not have any form of unloading, the total number of steps is equal to the number of compressors. When the compressors have different capacities, the total number of steps is equal to 2n -1, where n is the number of compressors.

For example, if the system has five compressors that all have the same capacity, the number of capacity steps is also equal to five. However, if these compressors all have varying capacities, then the number of steps is equal to 25 -1, or 31 steps.

Phil Boudreau

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When refrigerant expansion valves are constantly adjusting their position, their superheat needs to be set high enough to prevent overfeeding and subsequent flood-back to the compressor rack.

A larger number of capacity steps also reduces compressor cycling. Excessive compressor cycling is not good for the compressor.

The maximum cycling rates published by the compressor manufacturer must always be observed.

This can be difficult to achieve in some cases, however, particularly when the system has fewer compressors.

One method that can be used to reduce cycling is to increase the suction pressure cut-in and cut-out differential.

Phil is the Ontario sales manager for Bitzer Canada Inc. and provides training and technical support for Bitzer’s clientele. He can be contacted at: pboudreau@bitzer.ca.

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REFRIGERATION UNLOADING FOR STEPS When the number of reciprocating compressors on a parallel system are few (two or three), a form of unloading can be used.

When fixed-step unloading is used, four-cylinder compressors can theoretically be unloaded to 50 per cent and six-cylinder compressors can be theoretically unloaded to 33.3 per cent.

For example, if the system has two four-cylinder compressors and both compressors have one bank of unloading, there will be a total of eight capacity steps.

If a system has two sixcylinder compressors and both compressors have two banks of unloading, there will be a total of 16 capacity steps.

With the variable unloading method, it is possible to increase the number of capacity control steps to the point where the steps are very small. In this case, the steps are not just a function of the number of unloaders, but also the variable unloaders on/off times as determined by the algorithm used by the controller.

The amount of unloading depends on the compressor, the type of refrigerant, the pressures and the pressure ratio.

As an alternative to the fixed-step unloading method, a form of variable unloading can be used. With variable unloading, it is possible to unload all the cylinder heads.

Just always ensure that the compressor operates within its intended envelope. Also, remember that as a compressor unloads, the discharge temperature will increase. In some cases, unloading cannot take place without the use of auxiliary cooling such as a head cooling fan.

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www.NexstarNetwork.com

ADDING VFD TECHNOLOGY An approach that provides even more linear control of the suction pressure is the use of a variable frequency drive, or VFD. In this case, one compressor would be designated the lead compressor, with the remaining compressors either being fixed-step or even unloadable models.

Once you can get past the price point of a VFD, there are a few nice benefits that come with its application to a system. For example, the VFD is programmed to monitor the upper motor limits of a compressor. By programming a maximum amperage and power level, the drive will ensure that the motor is not pushed beyond its limits.

Also, some reciprocating compressors can operate at higher frequencies. This allows the compressor to provide additional capacity when needed.

Inside the VFD, the incoming AC voltage is converted to DC voltage and then stored in capacitors. The output of the VFD consists of the inverter section of the drive which typically uses Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors or IGBTs.

There are usually six or 12 IGBTs. The number of IGBTs will determine the number of output pulses and determines how smooth the reproduced sine waves will be.

Since the lead compressor is controlled in such a way as to hold the suction pressure very constant, this tends to reduce the internal movement within the various refrigerant control valves in the system. It is generally understood that if the suction and discharge pressures can remain very stable, that it is also possible to reduce the overall compression ratio of the system.

Take, for example, a system where the suction setpoint of an R404A suction group is increased from 16 psig (-20°F SST) to 17 psig (-18.6°F SST), the capacity, power input and EER of the compressor will increase by approximately 4.8 per cent, 2.6 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively.

The EER is a ratio of compressor capacity to compressor power input. Note that even though the power input has increased, the EER has also increased. This indicates that the compressor is providing more capacity per kW input. Since the capacity is also higher, the overall required demand for compressors will reduce.

NEXT TIME: In the next issue of Mechanical Business, we will continue this discussion by identifying other opportunities to improve the performance of parallel compressor systems.

Re-Think Refrigeration.

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Marketing How often should my business blog?

A few years ago, HubSpot did a study to determine the ideal blog frequency based on inbound traffic and leads.

It found that, predictably, having more blog posts tends to correlate with higher traffic to your page. This effect is compounded in business-toconsumer companies and for smaller organizations with 25 or less employees.

Blogs and social media accounts need to be maintained or you will lose the attention of your readers and followers.

It is usually best to create a content schedule well in advance, so that you don’t get caught by surprise with nothing prepared during a busy season.

Map out your topics, when they’ll be posted, and who will write each one.

Aim to always stay at least a couple months ahead to give yourself some buffer time.

And remember, while you want frequency, quality is key. It is far better to publish well thought-out articles and blogs than rush to reach a specific monthly quota. Your readers are smart, and will know when you haven’t spent as much time on a post as you should have.

The good news is that archived or old blog posts continue to draw traffic without you having to do anything at all. HubSpot also noted that small companies who had published over 300 total posts got almost 3.5 times as much traffic as those that had less than 50 posts. So, if you stick to what you can handle at first, you will still see positive results for your efforts over time.

The importance of inbound marketing O

ver the past decade, the world of digital marketing has evolved from simple boxes and banners on a website to fully integrated programs that can involve content, social media apps, search engine optimized content, and so much more.

In its most basic definition, digital marketing refers to any marketing that involves electronic devices or the internet. The two major classifications of digital marketing are outbound, or push, marketing and inbound, or pull, marketing.

Outbound marketing seeks to attract the attention of customers by casting a wide net across the internet. In a digital context, this can include paid Google search and display ads, email marketing, and advertisements in online magazines or newspapers.

On the other hand, inbound digital marketing seeks to draw customers in organically through search engine optimization, content marketing, social media, and more.

The advantage to inbound marketing is that the customers being attracted will already be interested in what you have to say or offer, making it easier to convert to a lead.

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Why is inbound so important?

Inbound marketing is a crucial part of building your business. Consumers are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of outbound advertisements every day and our eyes are becoming trained in skipping over a lot of what we see. We aren’t impressed by flashy videos or extravagant promises – we want to know our companies are trustworthy, knowledgeable members of the community.

Blogs and social media are great channels to connect with your audience and potential customers to build that trust. Consistent, high-quality posts can establish your credibility, boost your reputation, and will last longer than an online advertisement which would need a constant budget.

What about social media?

Believe it or not, but your business probably doesn’t need an account on every social media platform. Examine your audience and your resources to determine what works best for you.

Facebook: On average, aim to post on your Facebook business page between F two t and five times per week. Don’t overwhelm your audience by posting more than t once a day or you will dilute their attention. Due to the nature of Facebook’s algorithm, a the more you post, the fewer clicks per post you may receive. It’s better to t be selective about what you’re sharing and saying.

Start with once a month and go from there.

Doug MacMillan is president of The Letter M Marketing in Guelph, Ont. To reach him, email doug@thelettermmarketing.com.

with DOUG MACMILLAN

Twitter: Since Twitter is chronological in nature and based on rapid communication, more posts means more visibility. If possible, aim for at least one post a day. This could include retweets of relevant links or articles. In addition,

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Thinking differently often creates a new technology that provides a better solution.

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Marketing with DOUG MACMILLAN

we recommend interacting with your industry/network and audience members through likes or comments to demonstrate your responsiveness.

LinkedIn: Post between two and five times a week for best results. Avoid posting more than once a day.

Instagram: Post a maximum of once per day.

What should I write about?

At first, you may not know what will resonate best with your audience. We recommend starting with a variety of topics and formats; eventually, you can narrow your focus.

It’s best practice not to make your content too selfpromoting. Focus instead on being informative and useful, while maintaining the feel and tone of your brand.

BLOG

SOCIAL MEDIA

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I have created my content calendar and have started posting. Now what?

TOPICS

FORMATS

• Technical advice (e.g. How to take care of your furnace/air conditioner when the season turns) • Personal testimonials or stories from previous customers • Case studies on a certain type of equipment, installation, etc.

• Interesting facts about the industry, equipment, or your company • Spotlights on key members of the company, industry partners, experts • History/story of the company • Common customer problems and solutions

• Long-form articles • Lists (e.g. Top 10 things you need to know about…)

• Videos • Infographics • Written interviews

• • • •

• Memes • Images • Videos

Fun facts Company updates Links to your new blogs Links to interesting news or industry articles that may be of interest to general readers

M e c h a n i c a l

B u s i n e s s

1

Track your progress

Monitor the number of visitors, shares, likes, comments, and other interactions on your posts. Over time, this will give you a better picture of what topics and formats are most preferred. Tailor your work towards what will be more effective.

2

5ěRTě XOTR SěTėĀ

Tell people about your new blog! Send out a message to your existing audience and industry partners. Link to your social media channels from your website and in staff email signatures. Tweet out each new blog post with a consistent image, format or even unique hashtag so that your audience knows what to expect.

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Completely new blogs and social media accounts will take time to build a strong audience and online presence. But if you stick to it, your business will be sure to see the benefits.

April 24 & 25, 2019

Place Bonaventure, Montréal

Canada’s largest plumbing, HVACR, hydronics, electrical and lighting expo

ř Attend free seminars, many of which will offer continuing education credits

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FREE REGISTRATION UP TO APRIL 23, 2019 mcee.ca Produced by :

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TECHNOLOGY B y D e ni se D e v e a u

PLUMBING

CES 2019 FOR INNOVATION

W

hen looking for the latest plumbing innovations, your first go-to place might not be the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. But if you want to check out the future of the industry, it’s not such a bad idea.

Sure, the autonomous vehicles, intelligent appliances, and robots tend to be the main attractions for the consumer crowd. But with advancements in smart sensors, Bluetooth, voice activation and the Internet of Things (IoT), even faucets, toilets and baths are carving out more space in the CES spotlight.

These advancements enable more technology to be incorporated into products that can communicate with other devices, Wi-Fi, and cloud-enabled solutions, says Bill Strang, president of operations and e-commerce for Toto, adding that the company has been displaying products at CES for five years.

“You can see over the years the continued evolution and improvement in enabling technology like IoT and sensors,” he says.

Interest in these advancements in plumbing fixtures increases every year, he notes. “This time we actually had people lined up to do interviews. They all wanted to hear and understand how these technologies are making the lives of consumers better.”

Garry Scott, vice-president of marketing and e-commerce for Moen Canada, confirms that consumers continue to gravitate towards innovations that make their lives easier, including products that integrate with voice assistants to enhance daily routines.

“At CES, attendees are not only looking for best-in-class innovation, they’re seeking products that use smart technology in useful and impactful ways,” he says.

With all that’s going on in tech and plumbing, it might not be a bad idea to add CES 2020 to your travel plans for next year. (For the record, it will be running January 7 to 10.)

TALKING TOILETS AND SUCH A CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree, Toto’s Neorest NX2 intelligent toilet’s hightech sensors will automatically flush, or open and close the lid. There’s also an integrated cleansing system that uses warm water, air drying, seat heating and a bowl deodorizer.

An added feature is Actilight technology that mists the bowl with electrolyzed water to remove waste.

Over at LIXIL, American Standard was introducing bidet seats, complete with features like heating, self-cleaning spray nozzles, deodorizers, and more. There was also the latest edition DXV electronic bidet smart toilet, again featuring sensor technology, automated flushing, and automatic seat opening and closing.

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“Toilets are gaining traction, becoming more and more tech-integrated with options such as sound, interactive lighting and voice commands,” says Maria Bosco, director of product marketing with LIXIL Canada.

SENSORS FOR MAINTENANCE AND PROTECTION

Not to be left out, Kohler brought out its Numi 2.0 intelligent toilet that features built-in Alexa integration. Complete with high-quality speakers, users can select and play their music of choice, as well as adjust mood lighting. The price tag for this added entertainment value?

A mere US$7,000.

A little easier on the wallet was an intelligent bidet seat designed from South Korea-based Coway. It is designed to replace a standard toilet seat and has a control panel that lets you change the temperatures of both the seat and the water, in addition to adjusting the spray, position nozzles and dryer. Cost is around US$500.

Numi 2.0

KIT CHEN T ECH , T O O Kohler’s Sensate Touchless Kitchen Faucet allows users to turn water on or off and dispense measured amounts (e.g. 8-ounce cup of water) through simple voice commands or motion-based interactions. A sensor also monitors usage which can be displayed on the company’s Konnect app. It will also send alerts if it detects unusual usage.

AROUND THE TUB AND SHOWER Toilets are not the only area of the bathroom where technology is taking hold. Moen put a spotlight on its updated U by Moen, next-generation Wi-Fi enabled digital shower system with enhanced voice assistant integration. It’s the first to market a cloud-based showering system that is compatible with Amazon Alexa Smart Home Skill, Apple HomeKit and Siri, and Google Home and Google Assistant.

For those who prefer to soak, Toto’s Flotation Tub with Zero Dimension is designed to simulate the body’s posture at zero gravity.

The futuristic style tub

While apps for consumers can give one an edge in bragging about one-upping the Joneses, there can be a practical, business case for a number of the plumbing-related digital technologies at this year’s show.

For example, Toto announced a partnership with GP Pro, a division of Georgia Pacific, to develop IoT solutions for commercial restrooms called Life Anew Next.

“This allows toilets, faucets and urinals to communicate to a simple system that tracks consumption and frequency of usage and sends alerts,” Strang says. “When you put that into a large commercial space like an airport, you can add incredible value.”

But it is not just commercial applications where technology can make a financial impact. A number of companies are targeting the risks of water damage, introducing technologies aimed at reducing or possibly eliminating the damage that could be sustained from leaks and floods.

Grohe’s Sense Guard is an automated system that detects micro leaks and frost risk. The company’s AquaBlock technology reacts immediately when it detects a pipe breaking, closing the valve and shutting off the water supply while sending out an alert.

offers bathers a weightless, deep relaxation experience that eliminates the mechanical energy load on their joints. The innovation is the culmination of 10 years of research.

When connected to Kohler’s Konnect app, that company’s new DTV+ shower system allows consumers to create presets for sound, water, steam and lighting, while users of its PerfectFill bath filler technology can draw a bath to their preferred temperature and desired depth with a simple voice command or through the app.

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Flo by Moen is a smart home water supply monitoring and leak detection system that enables users to control their home’s water from their smartphones. It calculates water pressure, flow rate and temperature within the home’s water supply system while using AI to differentiate normal water use from abnormal use. Homeowners can also turn off the home’s water from their phone should a leak be detected.

Parisian start-up, Blue Whale Company, introduced its Spy Can Compact Smart Valve IoT based leak detection and alert system that can analyze consumption, and features automatic shut off capabilities.

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Products

Smart shower system

Ultrasonic flow meter

Grohe’s Euphoria SmartControl Shower system includes a thermostat, head shower and hand shower and features push button technology, enabling users to turn the shower on and off and adjust water volume. There are also intuitive icons for direct selection of spray, outlet and flow. The system features Grohe’s CoolTouch technology, which removes the risk of scalding while touching the thermostat chassis body.

The U1000MKII by Hoskin is a fixed, clampon, pipe mounted ultrasonic flow meter that is fully adjustable for pipe sizes from 2” to 6”.

This meter is available as a standard volumetric flow meter or as a heat/energy meter. It has a flow velocity range of 0.1 to 10 m/s. Benefits include a simplified guide rail and sensor assembly and a backlit LCD display.

www. hoskin.ca

www. grohe.com

Under Sink HDPE interceptor Mifab’s one-piece HDPE wet waste interceptor for commercial kitchens has two removable ABS plastic strainer trays, a removable filter, 2” PVC inlet, 2” HDPE outlet connection and four adjustable support legs. Installed directly under the sink, grease and food debris is trapped prior to entering the P-trap and grease interceptor, thereby eliminating back-ups.

www. mifab.com

Outdoor anti-burst faucet The Woodford Model 19 freezeless, anti-burst residential wall faucet is designed to prevent pipes from bursting, even when the hose is left on, due to a pressure relief valve that protects up to 125 psi of backpressure. It also eliminates the need for an add-on vacuum breaker.

It has a 3/4” male hose thread nozzle, stainless steel seat and standard O size washer.

CUTS CLEANER

LASTS LONGER

www. woodfordmfg.com

CLEAN REAM PLUS™ PLASTIC PIPE FITTING REAMERS • Quickly and easily remove pipe and solventt cement residue to salvage fittings for reuse. e.

• Reliable Clean Ream PlusTM engineered for 250 or more reams — far more than the competition.

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Victaulic’s PGS-300 groove profile couplings, fittings and grooving tool is designed for use on Schedules 40 and 80 CPVC and PVC pipe in sizes from 2” to 12”/DN50–DN300. In a maintenance or retrofit situation, the couplings and fittings can be removed and reinstalled as needed, without having to cut into the CPVC pipe. The grooved solution is also unaffected by temperature, humidity and other environmental conditions.

• Designed to ream out 1-1/2" or 2" Schedule 40 PVC, CPVC and ABS fittings.

Reed Manufacturing Company Erie, PA USA • www.reedmfgco.com

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Grooved CPVC pipe joining

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3 TYPES OF VALVE 1 -WAY X X 7 1 • Type P (pressure balance) ½’’ • Double action: flow and temperature control • Service valves • Maximum 22 L/min.

5.8 gpm (US) 60psi

1

2 -WAY R I OW I S E X X 9 3 • Coaxial Type T/P (thermostatic/pressure balance) ½’’ • 2 outlets • 4 positions (off, 1, 1 and 2, 2) 1

2

• Service valves • Maximum 24 L/min.

6.3 gpm (US) 60psi

3 -WAY R I OW I S E X X 9 5

RIOWISE VALVES SYSTEM Riobel’s valves have built-in diverters so you don’t have to plumb in a separate shut-off or diverter valve, allowing for more streamlined faucet design that takes up less space on the wall. Furthermore, our thermostatic/pressure balance valves offer the best of both worlds: they stabilize water pressure for steady temperature performance even in the event of a 50% drop in pressure. No wonder this system is known as the RioWise Valves System. Riobel owns the patent for this revolutionary invention in the world of plumbing!

• Coaxial Type T/P (thermostatic/pressure balance) ½’’ • 3 outlets

1

2

• 6 positions (off, 1, 1 and 2, 2, 2 and 3, 3) • Service valves

3

• Maximum 24 L/min.

6.3 gpm (US) 60psi

DESIGNED FOR PLUMBERS, LOVED BY DESIGNERS!

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PROJECT PROFILE

By De ni se D e v e a u

Chic Alors!

WARMS UP TO GEOTHERMAL

W

hen Quebec City-based Chic Alors! owner Hugues Philippin had the chance to build a new restaurant, he decided a geothermal system would be the perfect choice. A mechanical engineer by education, the pizza restaurant owner says he was determined to build the most environmentally sustainable operation he could.

“My old restaurant was in a strip mall where the HVAC system was really deficient and not adapted for heavy restaurant use,” he says. “When it came time to build a new one, I thought, let’s go all out and crazy and make it very efficient, from the building envelope to the lighting.”

While he had never actually worked on energy systems, “I certainly understood what I was looking at. I had geothermal at my house and loved it so it was a no brainer when it was proposed to me.”

Using a creative mix of pumps and piping, as well as some advanced air components, the system takes the energy generated inside the building and applies it elsewhere in the structure, an innovative approach that won the project an international sustainability award.

A responsive system Comprised of 6,700 square feet in a three-storey building, Chic Alors! has its prep kitchen and mechanical rooms in the basement, the dining room and kitchen on the main floor, and a private dining room and bar on the upper floor. Both upper levels also feature an outside patio.

The HVAC system uses seven geothermal wells connected to a hot and cold circuit, as well as a heat recovery system that captures the heat generated by the ovens. Thermal

Chic Alors! in Quebec City

Size: 6,700 sq. ft., 3 storeys Engineering contractors: LGT Inc. Installers: Balvent Inc. Control System: Regulvar Inc.

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pumps manage the heating and cooling in 14 different zones within the building.

“The thermal pumps can work forward or backward, taking heat in or out,” Philippin says.

“They can make or extract heat depending on the area’s need.”

Because the kitchen is always hot, the generated heat goes into the coolant circuit. The heat pump in the dining room on the other hand may use the heating circuit to warm the area near the windows during colder weather.

The best part, Philippin says, is that it’s all automated. “The computer controls it all.”

Recovering the heat The system uses a heat recovery air makeup unit with a rotating wheel that extracts heat from the hood over the four pizza ovens. Each oven generates 30,000 BTUs of heat when they are turned on. It then captures the vented air to preheat cool air coming from outside by 10°C. At this point only the oven hood is connected to the heat exchanger. While there are three additional hoods over the dishwasher, prep area and pasta areas, “We don’t need those for heat right now,” Philippin says.

The pumps are then programmed to give and take what they need from the extracted heat.

And for dessert…

Moïse Gagné, president of LGT, the firm that designed the system, notes that the mechanicals have a relatively small footprint.

“Overall, the system is really basic,” he says. “It has only two manifolds – one for supply and one return. Other than the pump between the two manifolds, thermal pumps are decentralized.”

Gagné says that the system was an unusual choice for the size of the business.

“It’s not common to see a geothermal and energy recovery system in a restaurant. As a mechanical engineer, the owner knew how to use the concept to its full potential.”

Ground control The entire mechanical system at Chic Alors! uses a sophisticated control system that controls the temperatures and functions of the heat pumps and other components within the building.

Among other functions, the system has a pressure differential probe that will adjust the fan speeds to balance the air pressure between the inside and outside of the building.

“When a range hood is on high, you have to make up for that differential or your doors won’t open,” Philippin explains.

The control system also manages the heat pumps and the circulation of the coolants through the loops. It will adjust usage depending on peak demand times of day and turn selected systems off to ensure that not all are working at the same time.

It can also adjust the temperatures in the pipes to avoid condensation.

The quest for energy efficiency never ends for Philippin. He’s been looking at adjustments to his glycol mix in the secondary circuit. “That would give us a 20% rise in efficiency. We’re looking into that now.”

Given the system is generating more heat than it can use, Philippin says the best option for now may be to vent the excess heat outside, but Gagné says a potential option is to use that excess energy to heat the water in the kitchen.

“When it was first installed, the energy calculation didn’t amount to enough so we didn’t recommend that at the time. If there is enough energy to heat fresh water, this would be an option.”

• 7 geothermal wells, 500 feet underground • 2 circuits using glycol/water mix • 1 principle circuit for interior pumps

The system:

• 1 secondary circuit between the wells and 2 heat pumps at the junction that balance the quantity of heat in the first circuit • 14 heat pumps in the dining rooms, takeout section, gelato area, dishwashing area, mechanical room, common areas, and break rooms • 4 liquid pumps – 2 on the loop inside the facility, 2 larger ones beside the wells (1 is used for redundancy) M e c h a n i c a l

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HVAC B y Ma r k Pa r l i a m e n t and Al e x a ndr a W e n n b e r g P a r l i a m en t

Mid-winter

sales strategies A

round this time each year, with early season installs and retrofits pretty much wrapped up, it’s not unusual for sales to seem to flatline for contractors, so the focus goes to sales strategies that will help keep the business profitable during the mid-winter season.

For some, winter home shows are the holy grail for gaining new leads.

Others may focus on data mining of their current customer base. Both are good options as part of a broader sales strategy.

Sadly, few contracting companies take advantage of the most productive sales tool in their arsenal, their own technicians.

Your customers look to your technicians to be subject matter experts and to offer solutions to maximize their overall energy efficiency and comfort.

Not all technicians will like the idea of being part of the sales process, but any that you’d want on your team will help educate customers and direct them to HVAC options that will address the homeowner’s concerns.

As the owner or manager, you will have a better idea of the structure that will allow those recommendations to translate into sales for your team, but finding a pathway that both technicians and sales team members can buy into will only spell good things for your company’s bottom line.

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BROADENING THE VISION Ask an HVAC student or someone new to the trade what business we are in and common answers will be “heating” and “moving heat.” Both are good answers, but there’s much more to it than that.

Technicians need to understand their role as indoor comfort specialists. When there is a problem, homeowners will ask their technician what they would do if it were their house.

Customers rightfully view technicians as industry experts, and that trust and relationship offers the technician an opportunity to discuss equipment upgrades and service options without the sense of pressuring a sale, and that’s a good thing for business.

Even technicians and companies that do not believe field staff should take on any kind of sales role can still have techs discuss features and benefits of various equipment so that they can help the homeowner make the right choices when it comes to their comfort.

The trick is to have a process in place so that the information the technician has shared can be relayed to the sales team to close the sale. This allows the customer to deal with the technician with whom they have built a relationship rather than having to schedule a separate meeting to discuss the options with a member of the sales team, but any actual selling is done by a member of the sales team.

Any sales, direct or indirect, are contingent on getting technicians into the mindset of looking beyond the immediate problem they are called in to address. A tech that goes

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You are invited!

O n e P l a c e . O n e A u d i e n c e . O n e D ay.

The Wolseley ONE Tradeshow is our premier event in Ontario for Plumbing & HVAC/R contractors.

- Over 70 Vendors in attendance - Key JLY[PÄJH[PVU [YHPUPUN from manufacturers - Great ZOV^ ZWLJPHSZ ZLOO EH RσHUHG RQ WKH ñRRU - Great food, networking and information, contest and giveaways

- Convenient location with ample free parking - Check with your local branch for shuttle bus schedule

TORONTO MARCH 27, 2019 - 2pm - 7pm Universal Event Space, Vaughan

REGISTER TO ATTEND - wolseleyone.com

HVAC WHEN IN BUSINESS, EVERYONE IS IN SALES A company’s technicians truly are that firm’s strongest business weapons. These equipment installation and service experts are invited into a customer’s home to fix problems, and it’s the front-line experience with these technicians that will most influence a customer’s opinion of the company.

Some technicians may say things like, “I’m in service, not sales,” or, “I fix them, I don’t sell them.” To a customer, however, their interaction with a technician is part of the sales process. All interactions with your company start as a business transaction, so we need to do a better job of training techs on sales techniques and getting them to buy into the fact that they are members of the customer service and sales teams.

Cont’d

to a home to fix an issue without

Some will be comfortable with direct sales, others will not, but as long as you are in business, all members of a company influence sales at some level.

talking to the customer about their indoor comfort is potentially missing the low hanging fruit that can add

START WITH A CONVERSATION

comfort for the customer and

One of the first things almost every tech does when they enter a customer’s home is turn up the thermostat, but shouldn’t we check the thermostat settings before turning it up, and talk about them with the customer?

additional sales for their company.

And don’t assume that this will come naturally to all technicians. It can be a wise business investment to conduct specific training to help technicians look at a customer’s building from a different perspective. The customer, and your business, will be healthier when the building is looked at as a whole rather than as a series of piecemeal systems and projects.

If the thermostat is set higher than 21°C, ask the homeowner if it is set so high in order to be comfortable. If the answer is yes, the technician should begin looking at low indoor humidity levels in the home.

Increasing humidity levels could reduce temperatures and energy consumption, so the technician could discuss the benefits of a humidifier with the homeowner, informing them that it could reduce the energy bill.

The opposite can be true as well. Some homes have large water deposits on the windows, black mould growing in the basements and overall poor indoor air quality. Technicians trained to identify problem issues other than the system error they were called out for could sell an HRV or ERV.

DX3L SERIES

LOW INTENSITY INFRARED TUBE HEATER

Premier, Single-Stage, Low Voltage Low Intensity Tube Heater Optimal Fuel and Comfort Benefits with Unsurpassed Features

Product Features: • 100% aluminized steel tubes with .95 emissive coating • Pre- and post-purge controls • Self-diagnostic LED, microprocessor based circuitry • Independent control-air-gas compartments with tool-free access.

• 24 volt controls and power cord are standard.

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Call us to find a distributor near you.

34 Scott Ave. Paris, ON. N3L 3R1 www.brantradiant.com PH: 1-800-387-4778

SPOTLIGHTS PO T THE Marketplace

SET UP AN AGREEMENT Gaining new business when it is +35°C or -35°C outside is like shooting fish in a barrel, but what about the slow seasons? Maintenance agreements are a product that could easily be promoted by technicians while they are troubleshooting a problem.

It costs five times more to gain a customer than to retain one. Unfortunately, business owners looking to make the phone ring often focus all their efforts on attracting new customers all the while losing out on the guaranteed repeat business of the maintenance agreement customers.

Never forget: ?M KIV¼\ NWZKM \PM PWUMW_VMZ \W UISM \PM ZQOP\ LMKQ[QWV J]\ _M [PW]TL IT_Ia[ MV[]ZM \PI\ \PMa UISM IV QVNWZUML LMKQ[QWV NWZ ITT \PMQZ 0>)+ VMML[ Maintenance contracts guarantee to put your company in front of your customer at least twice per year and also keep technicians busy during times when business slows down, all of which is reflected in the company’s bottom line.

Scheduled maintenance calls during slower periods provide the perfect opportunity to increase sales as technicians are not running from one call to another putting out fires and can therefore spend more time with customers discussing their needs and potential solutions.

DUAL PORT MANOMETER AND PRESSURE SWITCH TESTER An industry exclusive – Fieldpiece Instruments introduces the SDMN6 Dual Port Manometer and Pressure Switch Tester. This dual-port manometer measures gas, static and differential pressure and also accurately tests pressure switches by simulating a draft with an internal pump. It also allows technicians to easily calibrate any adjustable pressure switch to the furnace manufacturer’s specifications.

fieldpiece.com TODAY’S ANSWER TO A BETTER TOMORROW The RS series of refrigerants is the most complete and easy-to-use line of drop-in replacement refrigerants on the market today. From RS-50 (R-442A), the ideal replacement for R404A, to RS-70 (R-453A), the lower GWP drop-in for R-22, we have solutions for today and tomorrow.

Visit our website for more information and to find a wholesaler near you.

Refrigerant Services Inc.

Mark Parliament is a senior training consultant with Lennox Learning Solutions. Alexandra Wennberg Parliament is the founder of Maven Marketing & Communications, an agency with specialized focus on the construction, real estate, HVAC/R and non-profit sectors. To reach the authors, email awennberg@mavencommunications.ca.

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HVAC/R Products P Light commercial heat pump Daikin’s VRV IV X Series light commercial/ residential heat recovery dual fuel, 3-phase VRV/VRF systems integrate with communicating gas furnaces to provide a choice of heat pump or gas heating with 208/230V, 460V, and 575V options.

It provides heat pump heating capacities down to -13°F with a heat pump heating operation range from -13°F to 60°F and a cooling operation range from -4°F to 122°F.

www.

Outdoor condensing unit The Optyma Slim condensing unit for rooftops is available from Danfoss. It uses R-134a, R-404a, R-448a or R449a refrigerants and is offered in sizes ranging from 1-1/2 to 10 hp in low or medium temperatures.

It includes a microchannel heat exchanger, scroll compressor and a fan speed controller. Rotalock valves provide service access.

www.

daikincomfort.com

danfoss.ca

Combustion analyzer The Testo 320 combustion analyzer is designed for basic testing and tuning of all types of commercial and residential boilers, heaters or furnaces, and to set up and commission more complex heating systems. The flue gas matrix displays combustion characteristics and efficiency via an HD colour display. Programmed for 20 fuels (CO up to 4,000 ppm) it has user changeable, pre-calibrated sensors.

Duct insulation

www.

testo.com

Covertech rFOIL Big6 duct insulation, available through Ontor, is designed to reduce radiant heat gain/loss. It comes in 48”x75’ rolls and has a reflective 5/16” layer of polyethylene bubble bonded to and sandwiched between two radiant barrier sheets.

It will not harbour mould or mildew and comes with four strips of pre-attached spacers that provide the airspace necessary for an R-6.0 insulation rating.

www.

rfoil.com

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Condenser cleaner

Vertical stack fan coil

Speedclean’s CoilShot condenser cleaner tool and tablet system is designed for use on residential and commercial single pass condenser coils, single pass evaporator coils and refrigeration coils. The 1-pound unit connects directly to a garden hose with an optimal flow rate of 2 to 2-1/2 gpm. A single, pre-measured tablet is used to generate a foaming cleaner that can be applied directly to coils.

The Whalen Company’s Inteli-line vertical stack fan coil unit features a dual-path slide-out chassis that can be installed after construction and allows access to internal components. It provides on-demand ventilation or constant outside air conditioning without additional field-installed ductwork and/or equipment in applications such as hotels and nursing homes. It has a heating capacity of 8,500-49,500 BTUH and cooling capacity of 10,300 to 36,700 BTUH.

www.

www.

speedclean.com

whalencompany.com

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STUFF YOU NEED Connected refrigerant recovery unit

Cordless pipe threader The M18 Fuel Pipe Threader with One-Key is designed to thread up to 2” black iron pipe, stainless steel or rigid metal conduit. It features an autostop safety system that automatically senses severe kickback and shuts the tool off. Also included are a dedicated support arm and an integrated die head lock that enables side-grip thread starts. One-Key technology allows the 25.6 lb. tool to be wirelessly tracked, managed and secured.

The Pro-Set TR650W refrigerant igerant recovery machine weighs 19 lb. and is designed to work with th all common refrigerants. Its variable ariable tem speed motor adjusts to system loads and job site temperatures. tures.

It is equipped with a 1 hp DC motor and can be connected ed to a smartphone app that validates dates completed work.

www. cpsproducts.com

www. milwaukeetool.ca

Thermal imager The Flir One Pro LT connects to a smartphone and uses VividIR image processing technology that enhances resolution and accuracy with a thermal sensitivity of 100 mK. It can capture video, o, still and time lapse images. An adjustable connector extends by up to 4 mm so that es the camera can be used with mobile devices still in their protective cases. It weighs 36.5 g and is designed to withstand a 1.8 m drop.

Water-resistant tool box The DeWalt ToughSystem Waterseal Drawers unit is IP54 dust and water resistant, allowing for safe storage of tools in any of the drawers.

Ball-bearing slides provide convenient opening and side latches enable connections to other ToughSystem tool boxes.

www. flir.ca

www. dewalt.com

Low-differential pressure gauge Dwyer Instruments’ Series 2000 Magnehelic low-differential pressure gauge has an accuracy of 1% for most ranges, can be panel or surface mounted and can be configured to operate at any angle. It does not require a power supply and has over 80 ranges and more than 25 options to choose from. The IP67-rated product is weatherproof and protected against dust and immersion.

Industrial vacuum The Ridgid 1650RV professional wet dry vac is a 16-gallon industrial vacuum with 6.5 peak hp, two-piece polypropylene drum construction and motor-on-bottom design that gives access to the filter and drum. The 32 lb. unit comes with a cart, push handle and large rear wheels. A quick-access door allows larger debris to be dumped directly into the drum.

www. ridgid.com

www. dwyer-inst.com

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CALENDAR

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EVENTS

ISH Frankfurt March 11-15, 2019 Frankfurt, Germany ish.messefrankfurt.com

ICR 2019 August 24-30, 2019 Montreal, Que. www.icr2019.org

Wolseley One Tradeshow March 27, 2019 Vaughan, Ont. www.wolseleyone.com

HRAI Annual Conference August 25-27, 2019 Niagara Falls, Ont. www.hrai.ca

MCA Canada Innovation Conference April 15-16, 2019 Toronto, Ont. www.mcac.ca

CHES National Conference September 22-24, 2019 Saskatoon, Sask. www.ches.org

MCEE April 24-25, 2019 Montreal, Que. www.mcee.ca

Canadian Hydronics Conference September 24-25, 2019 Ottawa, Ont. www.ciph.com

Solar Canada May 8-9, 2019 Calgary, Alta. www.cansia.ca

MCA Canada’s 88th Annual National Conference October 2-5, 2019 Nashville, Tenn. www.mcac.ca

ASHRAE Annual Conference June 22-26, 2019 Kansas City, Missouri www.ashrae.org

www.wolseleyexpress.com

www.viessmann.ca

www.riobel.ca

CIPH ABC June 16-18, 2019 Charlottetown, PEI www.ciph.com

www.webstonevalves.com

ASPE Technical Symposium October 24-27, 2019 Pittsburgh, Penn. www.aspe.org

The Buildings Show December 4-6, 2019 Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ont. www.thebuildingsshow.com

AHR Expo February 3-5, 2020 Orlando, Fla. www.ahrexpo.com CMPX March 25-27, 2020 Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ont. www.cmpxshow.ca

GreenBuild November 20-22, 2019 Atlanta, Ga. www.greenbuildexpo.com

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BTN

Compiled by Mechanical Business

BY THE NUMBERS

GETTING CONNECTED More Canadian homeowners than ever are hanging up on the landline completely in favour of their cell phones.

36% Households that have only a cell phone and no landline.

90% Households that own at least one cell phone.

93.6% Cell phone ownership is highest in Alberta.

84.4% Quebec reported the lowest rate of cell phone ownership in

AN UNTIED KNOT More Canadians than ever insist that getting hitched is not in their future.

17% Young people aged 18-34 who say they’re not particularly inclined to ever marry.

53% Canadians who believe marriage is simply not necessary.

59% People who say legally married people should not receive extra tax benefits.

the country.

MAPLE TAKES A DIVE A cold, harsh winter and a short spring saw the 2018 maple harvest decline 21.7% from 2017. That scarcity may prove costly to lovers of the sweet sap. The price of a gallon of syrup hit $39.24 this past year.

Canada: 9.8 million gallons produced. p

17% Say it’s very important that unmarried couples who have kids tie the knot.

8.9 million gallons.

Ontario: 465,000 gallons.

Nova Scotia: 55,000 gallons.

Quebec:

IOT FACES INVISIBLE THREAT The number of internet-connected building control systems worldwide is already in the tens of millions and growing. Very few are secure - and the hackers have noticed.

95% Building control systems that have insecure internet connections.

65% Systems that allow access to outside vendors, such as HVAC service companies.

40% Building systems that have a potential back door to the corporate network.

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Having spent years building up their ir businesses, owners approaching retirement irement should have a plan for what comes next for themselves and for their companies but only a fraction have formalized plans.

81% Small business owners who intend to fund their retirement by selling their business.

46% Plan to pass their business on to a relative.

56% Owners who say finding a suitable buyer or successor is the

22% Large Canadian businesses that reported a cyberattack in the past 12 months.

250 GALLONS

A LIFE AFTER WORK

biggest impediment to selling.

8% Have a formal, written succession plan in place.

The amount of water that can leak out from a 1/8” crack in a pipe in a single day.

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and

A winning combination! www.osb.ca

Upgrade to a Smarter Solution Introducing a smarter, safer digital mixing valve

New to the IntelliStation® family, the IntelliStation® Jr. is the smart mixing valve that keeps you covered and connected through the native BACnet and Modbus protocols.

Features: • Programmable set point range 60°F to 180°F • Control water temperature +/- 2°F in accordance with ASSE 1017 • High temperature sanitization mode mitigates the risk of waterborne bacteria • In case of power failure, flows full cold for enhanced safety • Manual override in the event of prolonged power loss • Large, intuitive, touch screen display allows valve configuration in minutes. Does not require factory pre-programming, lap top or special software.

• Wi-Fi enabled for software upgrades

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