Heating Systems

Given the fact that energy prices will continue to consume a significant portion of their operating costs, not the time arrived to start to create some new ways of designing and controlling heating and cooling in a condominium building going? A good starting point to begin to design a common system that will serve the entire building, rather than individual plants for each residential unit. Clearly, the study of capital reserves for the condominium association should pay a new concept.

Townhouse configuration provides a good example. Here is a design approach is to consider each item as a small house - five units, five home heating system. You might say that, given our preference for independence, every homeowner should have an inalienable right to control the destiny of his or her individual comfort level. But if the future owner of the unit was under construction to design and put them to jointly engineered heating system feeding all units can provide this level of comfort to reduce future energy costs and retail prices without increasing the cost, I think we know in which direction will go vote.

It is generally understood that the boilers operate most efficiently when running at full capacity. Suppose we had a single, high efficiency, condensing boiler type properly maintained to run about ninety-five percent efficiency. We will allow the common boiler room to work on their rated capacity, supplying hot water to each unit of radiation for ninety times when he is able to fulfill a common requirement. We will gauge the amount of hot water is supplied to each unit for billing purposes. Each unit will also have a small boiler riding on the common system. It will lay off up to modulate the temperature in individual units only when we have extreme cold snap, which satisfies different opinions inalienable comfort of different owners.

An alternative may be another common boiler that fires up to meet the increasing demands periodic. The result would be to reduce energy costs for heating for our newly defined client - development, and at the end of each unit owner. Astute programmer can take into account all this marketing plus. But, of course, he or she should deliberately steer the design in that direction. But before people are motivated to even start thinking along these lines that they need some information that raises at least some general parameters of profitability.

What are the comparative costs of individual heating systems compared to conventional systems in certain configurations of buildings? What reduction in operating costs can be expected that the rate of return on investment be? How much is the reconstruction of existing buildings? Can the latter costs will be factored into the capital reserve fund plan as an improvement? The hardware is on the shelf. Some work needs to be done in system design, and (here comes the hard part) sales management.

Robert J. Burns is a principal with Burns Associates-Engineers. The company offers a capital reserve fund studies and development studies for condominium associations and transitional Hoa. Engineering consultancy services for building and web services offered. Mr. Burns is a licensed professional engineer and CAI credentialed reservist.