Oklahoma Sooners Play Ball With Heat Timer
OVERVIEW:
At Oklahoma University, they strive for excellence both in the classroom and on the playing field. When it came to a recent domestic hot water rehab project, the University continued the strive for excellence by selecting the Heat-Timer® ETS (Electronic Tempering Station) as its choice for a master mixing station. Heat-Timer®, which has over 85 years of experience in the HVAC and Plumbing industry, has a proven track record with the ETV Platinum Plus (Electronic Tempering Valve) which the ETS is built around.
PROBLEM
With over 30,000 students on campus, Oklahoma University has multiple
on-campus dorms including the twin 12 story buildings of Couch and
Walker Centers. These buildings are referred to as the Towers and are in
the center of campus, becoming a focal point of student housing. The
domestic hot water system of these buildings includes steam to water
exchangers and a master mixing valve. Over the years this system has
required costly maintenance and repairs while still not providing the
standard in hot water temperature delivery expected by the University.
The driving force behind this domestic hot water system rehab was the
lack of temperature control and temperature creep overnight under
low to no demand in the building. This overnight creep would result at
times early in the morning where the domestic water loop could be as
high as 160 degrees creating a potentially dangerous scald hazard to the
students. To combat this issue the University maintenance department
would have to continually rebuild and replace the thermostatic mixers,
resulting in huge maintenance expenses.
SOLUTION
In this domestic hot water system rehab, there were basically two main goals set by the University. The first was to replace the existing thermostatic mixers with newer digital mixing valves that provide the accuracy needed. The second goal was to limit the down time of the installation and have hot water service back to
the students as quickly as possible. With the guidance and technical support of Casey Yost (Federal Corporation—Oklahoma City), the University selected the Heat-Timer® ETS—Electronic Tempering Station. The ETS is a pre-piped and pre-wired assembly of the ETV Platinum Plus (Electronic Tempering Valve), which has a strong track record in multi-family apartment buildings, hotels, elderly living facilities and college dorm applications.
The Heat-Timer® ETS product introduced in 2020, has become a game changer
for commercial plumbers in domestic hot water applications. Essentially the ETS
encapsulates Heat-Timer’s industry standard Electronic Tempering Valve system which has been a class leading DHW solution for many years. The ETV control module uses proprietary algorithms to electronically control one of the industry’s most durable 3-way stainless mixing valves to deliver an adjustable domestic hot water temperature to the end user, under any condition.
The ETS assembly is a floor mounted unit that does not require valuable wall space that is difficult to find in most mechanical rooms. The ETS assembly provides the installer the near valve piping configuration, required fittings such as isolation valves, check valves and Victaulic couplings. The ETS assembly also includes a High Temp Limit valve that provides protection against delivery of extreme high temperature domestic hot water to the building in the event of a potential system failure. The ETV mixing valve actuator, control module and 3 temperatures sensors included in the ETS assembly are all pre-wired for the installer. The ETS assembly concept of drop in place installation is meant to reduce installation and down time of the existing system. On this project that concept was demonstrated by the personnel of the University’s plumbing department as they were able to remove the existing mixing valve and piping and install the ETS unit in a single day. The final goal of the project was achieved when the building management system which monitors the domestic hot water temperature going to the building showed the dramatic difference between the older system and how the ETS performed. The graphed data of the building’s domestic hot water temperature with the older system showed many dramatic peaks and valleys, whereas the graph data with the ETS unit showed a flat line. The University’s Maintenance Manager said it best, when he summed up the project by saying “I wouldn’t have believed how simple it was to install and how consistent our temperatures would be if I hadn’t seen it for myself.