John Siegenthaler attracted a standing room crowd for two days in a row at Eden Energy Equipment in Guelph,ON.
Eden Energy Equipment hosted Contemporary Approaches to Hydronic Heating and Cooling in Guelph, ON on September 13 and 14. Presented by John Siegenthaler, topics in the session included hydraulic separation; distribution efficiency and low power pumping; combining hydronics and geothermal heat pumps; thermal storage; low temperature heat emitter applications; and small scale chilled-water cooling applications.
Originally scheduled as a one-day event, organizers quickly added a second day when registration surpassed 150.
Siegenthaler, who is an HPAC columnist and founder of Appropriate Designs, spoke at length about distribution efficiency. “We’ve done a lot of work on the equipment-we have largely ignored the distribution system,” said Siegenthaler. “For decades our industry has focused on incremental improvements in the thermal efficiency of systems.”
Using system examples, he demonstrated the efficiencies and savings that could be achieved with smarter design strategies. “Distribution efficiency is the untold story,” said Siegenthaler. “With good design it is possible to achieve significant distribution efficiencies.
“This will become increasingly important in low energy and Net Zero. Right now the mini split heat pump is capturing that market. They are not looking at comfort, it is about energy use,” added Siegenthaler.
He suggested that contractors look at pairing geothermal with hydronics, particularly since “geothermal is the darling of the HVAC industry. Let’s marry that up with the hydronic distribution system.”
The consistent theme was to simplify systems and install the most efficient equipment. Siegenthaler had several slides of excessive, over pumped and over zoned systems. “It is the wrong concept, it is the wrong message about hydronics. We are shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Siegenthaler. “Consumers [look at that and] see expense, complexity, and wonder who is going to fix it.”
Eden Energy plans to host another educational day with Robert Bean this coming winter.
