Cool Things About....
There’s a lot more to HVACR than you might think!
HVACR is full of stories about the development and application of technology and cool projects that you might never have considered as part of this industry. A sampling of some of these is presented here. Read the summary and click on the link for the full story.
Cooling With Heat
Solar as a cooling source
Lars Sjoberg is still smiling. The former Volvo engineer hopes that solar chiller technology will one day capture as much business in North America as it has around the world: but he has been through a bit of an adventure with a solar AC project in suburban Toronto during the past few years. And this project is a metaphor for the struggles facing the Canadian solar thermal cooling and heating industry as a whole.
By Bruce Nagy
The Strange World of Temporary HVAC
HVAC rental business an expanding enterprise
Eeek! If you've gotten spooks call the Ghostbusters, but for emergency or temporary heating, cooling, humidity control, or power; there's a whole industry to help panic-stricken customers with technology and personnel in a hurry.
The HVAC rental business is quickly expanding; a crazy world of movie studios, sports organizations, wildlife, or ordinary building contractors; who could need added equipment at any hour of any day.
By Bruce Nagy
In the house with Don Plett, the politican's plumber
The Politician's Plumber
Don Plett was introduced to the plumbing trade in 1957 at the age of seven when his father, Archie Plett, bought a small plumbing company and founded Landmark Mechanical. Don began learning the trade from his father and took up an apprenticeship in his youth. He worked on the tools for his dad at the company until later 1970's when his father asked him to learn the management side of the business. Don eventually took over the running of the family business in 1987.
By Andrew Snook
Solar hydronics keeping Ontario chickens warm
Solar Hydronics in Ontario
The thought of a nice warm floor on bare feet in the morning is a great way to sell hydronics, but the concept is not limited to the human species.
Bruce Lindner, owner of Lindner Farms Ltd. in Perth East, Ont., has turned to hydronic heating for his chicken barn. And he’s taken the concept even further, opting for a solarbased in-floor system for his birds.
By Adam Freill
Architectural Wonder – Mechanical Nightmare?
Ontario College of Art and Design
The unique structure of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto’s downtown core forced designers, engineers and mechanical contractors to think “outside the box.”
The avante-garde “box floating in space” design meant that an extra surface area was exposed on the underside, presenting a challenge for heating, ventilation and cooling systems to accommodate the radical design.
By Bruce Nagy
Hockey Shrine Hosts Games
In the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at the University of British Columbia, LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environment Design) practices were used wherever possible, and construction was to LEED Silver equivalency.
For example, an integrated HVAC and refrigeration system recycles waste energy used to maintain the ice to heat the building.
HPAC Magazine
Saving homeowners from themselves - Renovation talk with Disaster DIY rescue guru Bryan Baeumler
Renovation Talk with Bryan Baeumler
As a kid, Bryan Baeumler was forever taking things apart to see how they worked. Sometimes he even figured out how to put the items back together. “I learned early on that if you don’t know how to do something, you can learn through research, trial and error,” he says.
It’s a lesson that stuck with the young man from Oakville, Ont., and it helped him forge his own business, Baeumler Quality Construction, a company that uses the motto: Design, Destroy, Rebuild. The lesson also gets put to good use on his television show, Disaster DIY.
By Adam Freill
The 21st Century Workplace
Corus Entertainment Building
With today’s large office buildings, HVACR designers, engineers and mechanical contractors are called upon to participate in the creation of a healthy environment, a good corporate citizen, a planet-friendly organism, and a place to work that is simultaneously high-tech, comfortable and fun.
Welcome to the Corus Entertainment building that will also serve as the head office for the Toronto, 2015 Pan Am Games. The facility embraces green technologies including a living wall HVAC system, green roof, heat recovery ventilators and the use of sophisticated software and building automation systems to reach projected energy savings of 39 percent.
By Bruce Nagy
Kaillie Humphries: On the RIGHT TRACK
Olympian Kaillie Humphries
Olympic gold medal winning bobsleigh pilot Kaillie Humphries missed out on the chance to compete at the Torino Olympics in 2006 as a brakeman so she switched up to the pilot’s seat.
The 24-year-old Olympian has been in the driver’s seat ever since. And while her average trip down the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre took less than a minute, the ice she carved beneath her was nearly five months in the making.
By Dave Bowden
Plumbers by day, Ghost Hunters by night
Ghost Hunter Plumbers
How did two plumbers, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, become the world’s most famous ghost hunters? By having their own close encounters. Though the two friends have never divulged the nature of their “experiences” to the public, it was enough to prompt them to found Rhode Island Paranormal, which became The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) in 1990.
Their television show, Ghost Hunters, is carried on OLN in Canada. The show has aired more than100 episodes, and has spawned two spin-offs, Ghost Hunters International and Ghost Hunters Academy.
By Dave Bowden
Making the Ideal Ice
Vancouver Olympic Centre / Vancouver Paralympic Centre
The Vancouver Olympic Centre / Vancouver Paralympic Centre replaces an again, existing community complex located at Hillcrest / Nat Bailey Stadium Park.
A highly efficient HVAC system utilizes a state-of-the-art air management system to control humidity and temperature levels while the ice is being installed and during competitions to create ideal curling ice. Two specialized ice technicians oversee installation and maintenance of the four ice sheets.
HPAC Magazine
