Can you spot at least six design or installation details that are going to create problems?

In 1885, when you could still buy a milk cow for $29.70, Albert Butz, a Swiss immigrant living in St. Paul, Minnesota, invented what he called the damper-flapper. He patented it the following year. The flapper opened a damper that allowed outside air to enter a coal-fired home furnace. This increased the oxygen in the furnace and made the fire burn hotter. When the temperature rose to a desired point, the damper closed.

More and more hydronic heating and cooling systems are being designed around air-to-water and water-to-water (geothermal) heat pumps. When the heating distribution system is extensively zoned, a buffer tank is typically installed between the heat pump and that distribution system.

Are you an ace troubleshooter? We pose a question to you, our readers, to review a system’s schematic layout and discover its faults, flaws and defects.

Many hydronic installers look for ways to differentiate their work, to craft a specific look — maybe even a “brand” — that resonates with customers. For Fernando Lobo, owner of Fairfield, Connecticut-based 1 Call Services, that unique look begins with the raw material list he builds when sizing a boiler replacement, or new boiler install.

People who knew Capt. Montgomery C. Meigs said he was occasionally pompous, but when the job was done to his satisfaction, he said, “This was the most difficult piece of engineering and construction that I have yet to undertake.”

Government planners, taking their queues from politicians and advocacy organizations, have steered the future of energy supply away from fossil fuels and toward renewably-sourced electricity. It’s happening on every level from the feds right down to local city councils.

Hughes is the ninth recipient of the award.   

In 2007, Siegenthaler authored the first edition of idronics, Hydraulic Separation.

A recent inquiry involved a heating system for a school in which two electric boilers were being added to supplement the output of a gas-fired cast-iron boiler, and take advantage of low “off-peak” electrical rates.