L.J. Wing News Feed

Mestex YouTube Channel

Fri, 9 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Mestex, the Dallas division of Mestek has created a YouTube channel, MestexHVAC (http://www.youtube.com/MestexHVAC?feature=guide). Mestex will start using this format website to post informational and promotional videos. Current videos include information about the LJ Wing MV coil, the Applied Air Dedicated Outdoor Air System, and the Adaptaire DDC control system.

Instant Online Document Lookup Using Microsoft Tags

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EST

Over the next weeks units shipped from Mestex Dallas will begin to include a small feature that we believe will provide large benefits to our contractor customers.

A common problem in the field with installation, operation & maintenance (IOM) documents is that they are misplaced, lost, or left in the weather and become unusable. Over the last few years we have taken steps to make replacing those documents a bit easier by posting them on our Sales Assistant website for downloading. While this is a big improvement over calling Dallas during business hours and ordering a document, it still requires the user to contact us and then log in to Sales Assistant for the download.

Starting July 1, equipment shipped from Dallas will continue to contain a printed copy of the IOM but it will also have a new label that includes a “Microsoft Tag” image. Microsoft Tags are basically customized, square, barcodes that can be read by cell phones, and some tablet devices, using the free “tag reader” software from Microsoft at http://gettag.mobi.

After downloading the free reader app, if the service contractor has a cell phone with a camera he will be able to aim the camera at the tag and the software will automatically launch the phone’s web browser to open a PDF copy of the proper IOM. IOM documents will then be available to a contractor or service technician 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And since the IOMs are stored in the Mestek corporate “cloud”, any updates will be automatic and it will not be necessary to keep up with revisions in the field.

Of course, once the file is opened on the phone most devices will allow the document to be saved and transferred to a computer for printing if desired. We hope this new feature will make life a bit easier for our customers.

Planning for Volatility

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EST

This post is a little different than most of my entries but is something that anyone in the construction related industries should pay attention to. We all feel the results of the Middle East unrest when we fill up our personal vehicles but what else does this impact? The cost of everything you specify or purchase for a construction project will go up as a result of that situation on the other side of the world.

The chart says it all. Delivered prices for components used to make your equipment and delivered prices for the equipment to the job site will all go up to cover the large "fuel surcharges" that are now being added to diesel fuel. As the chart shows, the surcharge for diesel in class 371...a common class for HVAC equipment... is now 55.6%. When added to other costs for delivery the end result could be a 15% increase in total delivery costs.

Delivery costs are factored into the cost of producing products and you need to remember to include them in the costs of receiving products on your project jobsite.

ASHRAE Report

Fri, 4 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

The annual ASHRAE/AHRI convention has just completed its run in Las Vegas. The show was surprisingly well attended for an "off year" show with the aisles consistently packed for the first two days. The unusual weather across most of the United States had an impact on attendance the last day of the show as those who could get of town did so.

The AHRI show has changed over the years with most of the major manufacturers dropping out or scaling back their participation. This year, McQuay had a strong presence as part of the Daikin display and Carrier had a display as well. Mestek was also represented as shown in these pictures with an emphasis on our distributor products group and our machinery group. In fact, Mestek had one of the larger displays and it was well attended.

The AHRI show has become the destination, though, for companies to introduce their new technology. Unfortunately, many of the people who actually need to see these innovations rarely attend. Building owners and their architects, consulting engineers, and leading design/build contractors are difficult to find in the audience. As a result, important new products such as the Mestek Hydrotherm KN condensing boiler take longer to reach the market than they should. As the United States continues to emphasize improvements to building operating efficiency products such as the KN need to be specified and installed much more quickly.

Finally, one of the other interesting products that was seen in the show was the natural gas engine packaged heat pump unit (the "Nextaire GHP") from Intellichoice Energy. This rooftop unit uses a natural gas engine to drive its compressors and produces approximately 11 tons of capacity with an equivalent EER of over 18. The electrical demand for this unit consists only of the supply fan motor and two condensing fan motors...so very little electrical demand and consumption. Although this technology might seem exotic to users in the United States it has actually been used in Asia for many years and is a well proven way to significantly reduce the consumption of source energy in the United States. The Nextaire GHP has been in field trial on US DOD sites for over 3 years with constant real-time monitoring and has proven to be both reliable and extremely energy efficient.

LJ Wing Knowledge in a Flash

Tue, 7 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

L J Wing is pleased to report that we are entering the electronic era for our Engineering Binder with the availability of the new L J Wing USB Flash Catalog. This new catalog includes the traditional information such as Technical Guides, IOM’s, and Case Studies but also includes some new non-traditional catalog information. The non-traditional information includes PowerPoint based training materials, brief results videos from CFD studies, and downloadable BIM files.

It is not sustainable if it is not maintainable?or if it breaks down

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

The first cost of HVAC equipment is usually a tiny fraction of the life cycle cost of the equipment from an operations and maintenance perspective. True sustainable design should also imply that the original performance of the equipment can also be sustained over the life of the equipment. The only ways to do that is start with quality and then take the steps necessary to keep the equipment running properly.

Products designed and built in the Dallas Mestek facility have a history of quality that is difficult to match in the industry. Warranty costs across all of the products built here have consistently been less than 00.75% of sales. The reasons are many:

3D integrated design and the specification of components that may not be the least expensive but are the least likely to fail in the field
Laser alignment of shafts and bearings
Laser alignment of sheaves
Balancing of rotating assemblies…not just individual components
Pressure testing of every coil at up to 5 times its rated operating pressure
Use of high-silver-content solder for brazed joints
Run testing of every unit prior to shipping with up to 150 test points performed and logged by unit serial number…and signed by the tester

After the equipment leaves Dallas owners will find a nationwide network of service contractors who have been factory trained on Dallas products. Simple things like hinged access to all critical components is standard to simplify maintenance because the Dallas technical service team is part of the product design team. In most cases the equipment will also be equipped with an industry standard Direct Digital Control system that can communicate with the Building Automation System and is constantly monitoring key unit operating characteristics. The DDC software is factory loaded with dozens of messages that inform the facility staff of alarms, maintenance items, or operating parameters…combined with an extensive Owners Manual that ships with each unit the equipment is designed to make it easy to sustain proper operation of the equipment long after the original contractor leaves the job.

Mestek Dallas can even take sustainability a step further by performing Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis during the building design stage in order to help the owner find the equipment layout that will best sustain the temperature conditions for the intended building use.

Accounting Change Might Impact HVAC

Thu, 4 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

There is a proposed change to accounting rules that could impact the HVAC industry. FASB 13 is now in final draft form and is scheduled for implementation 1/1/2012. The significant change to the accounting rules is that corporations would be required to capitalize their lease agreements as opposed to expense their lease payments. According to the Domestic Real Estate Leader for Genworth Financial this will drive companies to only accept very short lease terms (3 years at most) and triple net leases. Sarah Bagby commented that capitalizing the energy cost component of a full service lease will make no sense. She would be equally reluctant to sign long term leases that would show up on the books as a capital expense. She also questioned why Genworth should lease at all under this scenario versus purchasing a building. One implication of this thought might be to all but eliminate speculative development for larger corporate clients.

LJ Wing Solutions for Waste Water Treatment Plants

Wed, 6 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EST

Billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds have been allocated toward upgrading and constructing municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP’s).

Ventilation is required in many plant areas because of the gaseous contaminants, including poisonous hydrogen sulfide, and fumes from chemicals used in the wastewater treatment. Some plant areas are rated as Class I, Division 2 hazardous locations.

The best opportunities for Wing are in those WWTP’s that use digester gas to fuel boilers. Opportunities include IFB and VIFB coils, FAS for combustion air preheat, SAS make-up air units, and unit heaters. A recent project involved sixteen special indoor SAS units. These units were furnished with type 304 stainless steel cabinets and linings, epoxy-coated aluminum fan wheels, and pneumatic actuators. In lieu of the standard IFB coils, VIFB coils were provided with stainless steel casings along with baked epoxy coating on the tubes and fins.

Wastewater treatment plants use a combination of physical, chemical and biological processes to remove contaminants from wastewater. These contaminants include organic matter, solids, nutrients, disease-causing organisms and other pollutants. The plant’s objective is to produce a wastewater stream and solid waste sludge suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment.

The first step, pretreatment, involves screening out, grinding up or separating debris from the wastewater stream. Primary treatment is the second step and separates suspended solids and grease from wastewater. Secondary treatment removes dissolved and suspended biological matter. Microorganisms that absorb the organic matter as their food supply are added to the wastewater. The digestion process reduces the volume and odors of the sludge, while creating significant volumes of digester gas containing 65 to70% methane. Caustic chemicals can be added to sludge or it may be heat-treated to kill disease-causing organisms. The combination of methane gas and caustic chemicals make it important to flush portions of the plant with fresh air and that is where LJ Wing can help with rugged, stainless steel products as described above.