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FieldReport
Integration controls key to high efficiency of Colorado home
BY KIM BLISS Special to ThEWholESalEr
W
hen Tim McTavish set out to remodel his Parker, Colo., home, his plans
called for added square feet for living space, radiant floor heating throughout the entire structure, snow melting for exterior surfaces and an in-ground swimming pool. McTavish, a self-pro- claimed techno-junkie and aficionado of sustainable, energy-efficient build- ing concepts, was looking for excep- tional means to heat and cool his newly updated residence. “It all started because I wanted an
energy-efficient way to keep the pool warm,” McTavish recalled. “I ex- plored all the different options avail- able, and I settled on solar.” However, solar was just the begin-
ning. After a meeting with Al Wallace, president of Energy Environmental Corporation — a Centennial, Colo.- based company specializing in design, installation and consulting of inte- grated renewable energy systems — McTavish’s home was completely overhauled with an elaborate, energy- efficient design. Wallace was responsible for in-
stalling the following: • 64 solar panels, generating 2.5- million Btu per day
• Four 125-gallon solar tanks • A 5-ton, water-to-water ground-
source heat pump (GSHP) for hot or chilled water • A 4-ton water-to-air and a 3-ton
water-to-air GSHP (which both use the pool as a virtual ground loop); two boilers • A pool and hot tub mechanical
room • Energy recovery ventilators on
the main house • Ventilation on the pool house • Radiant floor heating • Snow melting • Four heat exchangers • A 120-gallon domestic hot water
tank • Two 50-gallon tanks for the radi-
ant system • A heat-extraction system under
the pool pavers that directly feeds the ground loop or the pool • A control system to integrate it all. According to Wallace, you can have
all the energy-efficient systems built into a house you can imagine, but if they’re not controlled properly, you won’t get the maximum efficiency of the complete system. The real energy efficiency comes from integrated con- trol of all the individual systems. “The overall energy efficiency of a
house is in the controls — controls are king,” said Wallace. “For example, if
Tim McTavish at his Parker, Colo., home, which incorporates solar, water-to-air, water-to-water heat pumps and a boiler as heat sources, depending upon need.
Uponor headquarters in Apple Valley, Minn., in the spring of 2009. There he was introduced to the Climate Con- trol™ Network System. “I was attending a class on radiant
wireless zoning,” he recalled, “and I was talking to the instructor about in- tegrated controls for energy-efficient systems. He told me about the Climate Control Network System, and I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I’m looking for!’” Wallace sat down with Ray Blum,
heating manager with local distributor Dahl of Denver, to see just what he could do with the system. “We started with just the heat pumps and the solar,” Wallace explained. “Then we started adding more and more to the system. It was incredible what we could do with it.” Wallace said that when he initially
Shown in the McTavish mechanical room are (from left) Water Furnace Envision 3-ton split unit, ground source heat pump (two-stage compressor); Water Furnace Envision 4-ton, water-to-air, ground source heat pump; Water Furnace EW060 5-ton, single-stage, water-to-water, ground source heat pump (runs from ground loop in pond, or from PEX tubing under pavers used for heat extraction from the swimming pool); SuperStor 119-gallon dual-coil domestic hot water tank; Hon- eywell TrueSteam humidifier with reverse osmosis filters; two State 80-gallon electric hot water tanks (for radiant floor heating storage); Lochinvar Knight modulating boiler (150,000 Btuh); Uponor pump control relays; Uponor 3-way valve control relay module; and CCN zone valves, CCN digital zone control mod- ule and CCN control panel.
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proposed his design to McTavish, the Network System was the only option he recommended for controlling all the systems in the elaborate setup ef- ficiently: “I would never have pro- posed a design like this one if I didn’t have the Network System.”
Total control for maximum efficiency When it came to controlling the sys-
tems in and around his home, Mc- Tavish wanted more than just simple temperature set point change control
input of any other device.” For example, all the thermostats in
the house have up to nine different possible set points, based on the cur- rent heat sources — solar, water-to-air or water-to-water heat pumps or a boiler. Here is how the system works: • Solar — In the winter, the solar
array’s primary purpose is to heat the four solar storage tanks. The water in the tanks directly heats the main house (via radiant floor heating) and indi- rectly heats the main-house DHW. Even after the solar array is no longer active (because the sun is beyond a useful angle), the system continues to pull heat out of the four storage tanks for radiant floor heat and DHW. • Water-to-air heat pumps —Once
the temperatures in the four tanks drop to where they are no longer useful for radiant and DHW, the system auto- matically changes the heat source, now heating the house with the water- to-air heat pumps that continue to pull heat from the four solar storage tanks until their temperature is down to 42°. • Condensing boiler or water-to-
water heat pump —“At that point,” said Blum, “we revert to our third and final pair of heat sources for the radi- ant floor heating system, a gas-fired modulating-condensing boiler or an (Turn to Convenience ... page 166.)
you’re putting in a high-end geother- mal system but using controls from the 1950s, you’re losing a lot of the ef- ficiency of the geo.” Wallace said he found his “King of Controls” while at a training class at
•THE WHOLESALER® — MARCH 2011
— he wanted total control for maxi- mum efficiency. “Because we had so many parts, I
wanted to make standard rules about the temperatures at which certain things occur,” he said. “Given the solar resources and geo and natural- gas boiler, I wanted to determine when certain components go on and off to make the system the most energy-ef- ficient. Because the Network System is object-oriented, we can make a change to any device based on the
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