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Waiting for Recovery: Dodge 2012 Construction Outlook

The recovery for the construction industry has struggled to take hold. After plunging 24 percent in 2009, new construction starts leveled off in 2010, raising hope that the stage was being set for 2011 to be the initial year of renewed expansion. However, new construction starts have bounced along the bottom during 2011, not able to achieve upward momentum in any sustained manner.

This year’s lackluster performance is the result of decreased activity for single family housing, public works, and institutional building. However, a few bright spots have also emerged in 2011, including improvement for multifamily housing and manufacturing plants, as well as a surge of new electric utility projects. Even commercial building has provided some positive news as warehouses and hotels picked up the pace after a very depressed 2010. Still, the pluses have not been enough to outweigh the minuses, and the result is yet another year of weaker construction activity. For 2011, new construction starts are estimated to come in at $410 billion, a 4 percent decline from 2010.

The backdrop for the construction industry is the fragile U.S. economy. Real GDP in the second quarter of 2011 grew just 1.3 percent, and for all of 2011 the GDP increase is estimated at 1.6 percent, down from 3.0 percent for full year 2010. The employment statistics also reflect this picture of a decelerating economy as job creation fell to a pace of 72,000 jobs per month during the May–September period, keeping the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent. The economic slowdown during the first half of 2011 was related to higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the earthquake in Japan. Adding to the rising anxiety about the U.S. economy has been the spreading European debt crisis and the protracted debt ceiling debate in Washington, D.C. Reflecting this uncertainty, the estimates that the United States would slide back into recession grew from less than 20 percent at the start of 2011 to about 40 percent in September.

While the risk of recession is now higher, there’s still a better than even chance that the U.S. economy will be able to avoid recession through the end of 2011 and during 2012. Job growth, while weak, is still taking place. Corporate profits have been generally strong, and firms are sitting on substantially more cash than back in 2008. The banking system is healthier than a couple of years ago, and the volume of commercial and industrial loans is rising once again. Interest rates are very low, and energy prices are now settling back. In addition, the European Central Bank has taken steps to contain the debt crisis, although it’s still unclear how effective these steps will be.

At the same time, the U.S. economy will be absorbing spending cuts for federal programs, as set forth when fiscal 2012 appropriations are finalized, and also will be affected by the mechanisms put into place by the Budget Control Act of 2011. Support from the 2009 federal stimulus act has mostly run its course, and state and local governments continue to deal with tight budget conditions. The current level of uncertainty about the U.S. economy remains quite high and at best will only ease gradually over the next few quarters, which will restrain private investment. The result is a U.S. economy that grows at a tepid 2 percent in 2012 as the period of stronger expansion (3 percent or more) gets pushed back at least another year.

In this environment, it’s forecast that new construction starts for 2012 will be $412 billion, essentially flat with 2011. While the top-line numbers are not expected to show much change, there will be some variation within the major construction sectors during 2012. Single family housing and commercial building are expected to see moderate gains from current low amounts, although the levels of activity will remain depressed compared to a few years ago. The upward trend for multifamily housing should continue, along with improvement for manufacturing plants. The tough fiscal climate will lead to further declines for public works and the institutional building sector, and new electric utility starts will retreat from the exceptional pace reported in 2011.

The 2012 Dodge Construction Outlook is now available as a PDF in McGraw-Hill’s Analytics Store. A mainstay in construction industry forecasting and business planning, this comprehensive 32-page report includes more than 60 charts, tables, and graphs. To learn more, visit http://analyticsstore.construction.com/dodge-2012-construction-outlook.html.

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NIA Sites > Insulation Outlook Magazine > Global

Updated MICA Manual Available

The Midwest Insulation Contractors Association (MICA) is pleased to announce the release of The Industrial and Commercial Mechanical Insulation Standards Manual, Edition 7. The revision process began in October 2009 with Committee Chair Ray Stuckenschmidt from Systems Undercover and members Rob English from Pittsburgh Corning, Ricardo Gamboa from IIG, Pete Gauchel from L & C Insulation, Gary White from Iowa-Illinois Taylor Insulation, Jim Pfister from Ludeman Insulation & Supply, Alec Rexroat from M & O Insulation, and Tom Shimerda, Executive Director of MICA.

The committee decided, with the approval of the Board of Directors, to make some significant changes to the previous manual versions. Previous committees worked tirelessly to create this document that has become the standard of the insulation industry. New technology, along with new methods of communication, enabled the 7th Edition committee to improve the existing work.

Some of the changes in Edition 7 are:

  • 11 New Plates
  • for mechanical pipe systems
  • for high-temperature flat work
  • for trapeze and clamp type hanger systems
  • showing vapor dams on below-ambient systems
  • Many plates now show location of vapor dams, which are critical in below-ambient systems, on pipe and equipment systems.
  • New formatting of all existing and new plates. Plates are easier to read and include more information.
  • Text has been formatted to reflect textbook style verbiage.
  • The plates have been numbered to keep specific systems in the same group. This will allow for future plate additions to the systems, keeping them in the same category.
  • The Materials Property Section has been udpated, including tables. (Tables conform to ASTM Standards.)
  • The 7th Edition uses the English measuring system instead of the metric and has included temperature ranges consistent with ASTM, NIA, MIDG, and other major mechanical insulation data.
  • The Glossary of Terms has been reviewed and revised to include the newest ideas and materials.
  • The Specification Writing Section has been simplified to reflect the needs of the installers, contractors, and end users.
  • Reinsertion of Key Items—Importance of Clearances, Scope of Work
  • The importance of proper clearance so mechanical insulation can be installed has been highlighted. The importance of clearly identified scope of work has also been highlighted.

One of the key provisions of the new manual is that it can be updated quickly because it is a complete digital document. The committee can add or delete plates, materials, and systems quickly.

The Manual is available in book form along with an interactive online version. For more information or to order, visit www.micainsulation.org.

NIA Sites > Insulation Outlook Magazine > Global

Saving Energy by Insulating Pipe Components on Steam and Hot Water Distribution Systems

In most mechanical and boiler rooms, pipes and fittings such as elbows and tees are insulated with conventional pipe insulation. However, in the author’s experience, the components (valves, strainers, pressure regulators, etc.) are either only partially insulated or totally uninsulated (bare). This lack of proper insulation wastes energy, creates a health and safety issue (i.e., hot components can cause burns), and produces unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions, and, in unventilated mechanical rooms, the resulting high air temperatures create a stressful work environment.

In this article, we’ll explore simple solutions to improper insulation and a means of estimating the energy savings.

Energy Savings by Insulating

The National Mechanical Insulation Committee has recently developed a simple calculator for the Mechanical Insulation Design Guide (MIDG) that is available at insulation.org/training-tools/systemdesign. The MIDG is part of the National Institute of Building Sciences’ Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG).

This web-based calculator enables users to calculate energy savings from bare and insulated pipes and flat surfaces. It is based on Standard ASTM C680 and has been validated for accuracy.

To demonstrate how this calculator can be used for evaluating the impact of insulating a pipe component, let’s run an example problem. Consider a 6 in. NPS pipe carrying 350°F (177°C) steam, operating full time, in a 90°F (32°C) room with 0 mph wind, and evaluating it with fiberglass pipe insulation with all-service jacket and a cost multiplier of 1.0 (this term refers to a multiplier for the calculator’s default value of the installed cost per lineal foot of the insulation material, which is the sum of the insulation material and labor to install costs. These values must be assumed or obtained from an insulation contractor). We obtain the following results from the calculator (Figure 1).

The screenshot shows that for natural gas costing $10 per MMBtu, with only 1 in. (25.4 mm) of insulation, we obtain a predicted payback of about 3 months for an annual return of 462 percent. In fact, the cost of fuel saved per lineal foot (LF) is the cost per LF with 0 in. of insulation minus the cost per LF with 1 in. (25.4 mm) of insulation = $136/LF – $16.25/LF = $119.75/LF. This represents an 88 percent heat loss reduction, a significant savings under any circumstance. Likewise, the last column shows CO2 emissions are predicted to be reduced by 0.74 – 0.09 = 0.65 metric tons annually per LF of pipe.

What does this mean for a 6 in. NPS gate valve with an ANSI rating of 300 (i.e., rated for 300 psi)? ASTM C1129-89 (2008), Standard Practice for Estimation of Heat Savings by Adding Thermal Insulation to Bare Valves and Flanges, includes Table 1, which gives bare valve surface area values for a range of pipe sizes and ANSI pressure ratings.

For this particular valve, the bare surface area is given as 9.71 ft2 (0.90 m2), a significant surface area of bare, hot steel. Put into terms of equivalent LF of bare 6 in. NPS pipe, that works out to 5.6 LF. If we assume that the insulated gate valve has the same 5.6 LF of insulation surface area of 1 in. (25.4 mm) thick insulation on a 6 in. NPS pipe, then the annual value of our energy savings for this gate valve can be estimated:

  • Predicted annual energy savings = 5.6 LF × $119.75/LF = $670.60
  • Predicted annual emissions savings = 5.6 LF × 0.65 MT/year/LF = 3.64 metric tons.

That’s $670.60 in annual energy savings for a single 6 in. NPS gate valve. And, if we assume that the installed cost of custom removable/replaceable (R/R) insulation blankets is twice as much as 5.6 LF of preformed pipe insulation on this 6 in. NPS pipe, the payback is still 6 months. If we were to use an insulation kit to make the R/R blanket, on site, based on experience, I estimate that the installed cost would only be about 20 percent greater than that for conventional pipe insulation. Therefore, the predicted payback would only be about 3.6 months. Regardless of the exact assumed installed cost value, the payback would only be several months.

A more conservative case would be for heat distribution piping system carrying hot water, at 180°F (82°C), from a furnace that operates only half of the year, or 4,380 hours per year (Figure 2).

Going to ASTM C1129, Table 1, for a 6 in. NPS, ANSI 150 rated valve, we find a surface area of 7.03 ft2 (0.65 m2); this is equivalent to 4.05 LF of bare 6 in. NPS pipe. Using Figure 2 for values of energy use for bare pipe and pipe insulated with 1 in. (25.4 mm) of fiberglass insulation, we can estimate the value of the annual energy savings:

  • Predicted annual energy savings = 4.05 LF × ($17.43/LF – $2.35/LF) = $61 per year.
  • Predicted annual emissions reduction = 4.05 LF × (0.10 – 0.01) MT/yr · LF = 0.36 metric tons.

While not nearly as impressive as that for the hotter valve that carries 350°F (177°C) steam year-round, the savings from insulating just one 6 in. NPS gate valve carrying 180°F (82°C) hot water is still compelling. If we again assume the installed cost of custom made R/R insulation is twice that of preformed fiberglass pipe insulation, the payback would be about 42 months. If using a modular insulation kit to make R/R blankets, the installed cost would be about 20 percent greater than that for pipe insulation. Therefore, the payback would be about 2 years.

Are these energy savings a significant portion of all the space heating needs?

In a recent article,1 Chris Crall and Ron King reported on their mechanical insulation survey for the State of Montana. They surveyed mechanical rooms in 25 buildings that are part of the state capital system in Helena, Montana, representing about 1.3 million ft2 (121,000 m2) of buildings. The authors focused on identifying pipe components and equipment, located in mechanical rooms and boiler rooms, that were either bare or had severely deteriorated thermal insulation. They came up with a total of about 3,500 items. They calculated the total annual savings from insulating these components would be about 6 billion Btu, or about 8 percent of the total natural gas used to heat these 25 buildings annually.

Insulating Pipe Components

Pipe components are often uninsulated for two reasons:

  1. They have convoluted shapes, which are more expensive to insulate, and
  2. They require periodic maintenance that involves removing existing insulation for access.

Figures 4 and 5 show bare pipe components in several buildings’ mechanical rooms. To insulate these difficult shapes, one option is for the insulation contractor to craft insulation pieces using preformed pipe insulation and then install these over, for example, a gate valve; Figure 3 shows how this can be done.

A second option is to use R/R insulation blankets. These usually are custom made and require the fabricator to send someone to the site to measure the surfaces, then design the R/R blankets, fabricate the blankets in a shop, bring the blankets to the job site, and install the blankets. Figure 6 shows a custom R/R insulation blanket on a gate valve. The photo shows that these blankets require a certain amount of skill and training to design, fabricate, and install correctly. When done well, and in such a way that all the bare surfaces are insulated, this option results in insulation that can be removed for maintenance or inspection and then reinstalled fairly quickly. The fabrication of these blankets can be done following either a project-specific specification, prepared by the architect or engineer, or following the indoor requirements section of industry standard ASTM C1695-10, Standard Specification for Fabrication of Flexible Removable and Reusable Blanket Insulation for Hot Service.

Another option is to use a modular thermal insulation blanket kit that meets ASTM C1695. This allows the contractor to fabricate and install R/R blankets on the job site using standardized materials. In addition, using a kit avoids the delay required of custom-made R/R blankets.

While a kit has a fixed thickness, the first inch of insulation reduces heat loss by at least 88 percent and provides the shortest payback (as the reader can see from reviewing payback values from Figure 1 and Figure 2. Overall, a modular kit allows pipe components to be insulated easily and quickly. Modular insulation kits for R/R blankets, which meet the indoor requirements section of ASTM C1695-10, are commercially available. Figures 7 and 9 show how a modular insulation kit can be used to do this.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Many opportunities exist for energy savings in institutional buildings that use district heating systems, with a mechanical room for each building, or a boiler room where steam or hot water is generated for heating each individual building. Typically, there are many heat distribution pipe components left either uninsulated or partially insulated. If you can walk into a mechanical or boiler room and see bare steel on operational heat distribution pipe and equipment components, then thermal energy is being wasted. And, this thermal energy waste can be corrected simply by insulating those bare components.

In one study, insulating these components has been predicted to comprise 8 percent of buildings’ total fuel use for heating. Payback periods of less than 1 year, and even as short as several months, are common when insulating these previously bare components.

Estimates of the energy saved, payback, and reductions of emissions can be made using the Mechanical Insulation Design Guide’s heat loss calculator. This is part of the Whole Building Design Guide and was developed with assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy.

It is recommended that mechanical designers and facility owners/operators learn to survey their mechanical rooms and boiler rooms for bare pipe components and equipment. Although conventional, permanent types of insulation work well, they do not normally provide easy accessibility for maintenance personnel. The author recommends using removable/reusable insulation blankets for these components. The blankets can be either custom-made or site-made using modular thermal insulation kits designed for this purpose.

Reference

1. Crall, C.P., R.L. King. 2011. “Montana mechanical insulation energy appraisal.” Insulation Outlook (5). http://tinyurl.com/3zzt6yg.

©2011 ASHRAE. Reprinted by permission from ASHRAE Journal (October 2011), www.ashrae.org.

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Safety Issues Affecting Contractors and Distributors: Roundtable Highlights

At the NIA Committee Days on November 9, 2011, the National Insulation Association (NIA) Health and Safety Committee hosted a 4-hour Health and Safety Roundtable, which attracted quite a few representatives from both the contractor and distributor sides of the insulation industry. The Safety Roundtable brings contractors and distributors together to discuss issues and problems related to safety and health or workers’ compensation that confront them in their businesses. It was hosted by the Chair of the Health and Safety Committee, Chris Handley, and NIA’s General Counsel, Gary Auman. Below are highlights of the Roundtable.

Fiberglass Classification Changes

The first discussion concerned the relatively recent reclassification of fiberglass as a possible carcinogen. The attendees discussed the fact that this same action was taken by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) almost 15 years ago. At that time, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) approached the NIA, North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA), and the Insulation Contractors Association of America (ICAA) about the possibility of agreed rulemaking for exposure to fiberglass.

OSHA wanted to apply the same exposure limits to fiberglass that existed (and still do) for asbestos. This exposure limit is a time weighted average of 0.1 f/cc of air over an 8-hour time weighted average. NIA objected to this proposal and maintained its position through the negotiations process with OSHA, NAIMA, and the ICAA. At the end of the discussions, both NAIMA and the ICAA agreed to a health and safety partnership program (HSPP) with OSHA, while NIA reached a separate agreement with OSHA for a much more realistic partnership program, which became known as the Contractor Health and Safety Partnership Program (CHSPP). The CHSPP required no actual changes to the way contractors protected employees who might be exposed to fiberglass fibers.

Shortly after the programs were put in place, IARC reclassified fiberglass back to a non-carcinogen. The attendees discussed the appearance that the considerations for the regulation of fiberglass have now come full circle and IARC is back to where it was almost 15 years ago. At this point, the attendees all agreed no real action can be undertaken by either individual contractors or NIA until a definitive position is taken by IARC and OSHA.

Workers’ Compensation Claims

Controlling workers’ compensation claims costs are discussed at every Safety Roundtable. A large part of a small contractor’s manpower costs are frequently eaten up by workers’ compensation premiums. While workers’ compensation costs can tie directly into the effectiveness of a contractor’s health and safety program or injury reduction program, the attendees agreed that the insurance carrier the contractor uses and the contractor’s relationship with that carrier, as well as its policy language, can contribute significantly to the overall costs of its workers’ compensation insurance.

Many of the contractor attendees agreed there is no substitute for vigilance when it comes to workers’ compensation coverage. First, several contractors agreed that negotiating with your insurance carrier for workers’ compensation coverage can often have a significant impact. You need to establish:

  • How is the insurer going to follow up on any workers’ compensation claim that may be filed?
  • What rights and contributions can the contractor or distributor make toward any workers’ compensation claim settlement?
  • If it is to the economic benefit of the insured (contractor), can the insured contribute out-of-pocket funds to any workers’ comp claim settlement in an effort to keep its premium costs down?

How much attention do you pay to your experience modification rate (EMR)? One of the attendees reported that there are now computer programs available to calculate EMR. Such a computer program can pay for itself if it helps the contractor understand what has gone into the calculation of its EMR and whether the EMR calculated by the insurance carrier is correct. Several attendees reported incidents where they were able to determine that the EMR was, in fact, too high and that the insurance carrier was misapplying claims information to their EMR calculation.

All contractors attending this session agreed that EMR is important not only because it determines the potential costs of your workers’ compensation coverage, but also because many general contractors and owners are looking at the EMR on pre-qualifications for bid work. Several attendees reported that an EMR above 1 could put you out of the competition for lucrative contracts.

In addition to paying attention to how your insurance carrier is calculating your premiums, the attendees suggested other things a contractor can do to help control the costs of workers’ compensation claims:

  • Always investigate any industrial accident.
  • Have a management employee accompany any injured worker to the urgent care facility, emergency room, or wherever they are sent for treatment. Contractors should always know and have spoken to any emergency care provider so the provider understands the type of work the contractor does, what the various limitations are on its employees, and the work that they do.
  • Contractors need to follow up with injured workers on disability. The contractor needs to make sure the employee really is injured and is following the doctor’s restrictions and treatment recommendations. The contractor also needs to visit the employee at home and pay attention to communications with the employee, as well as conversations of other employees concerning the injured worker’s recovery and his/her ability to return to work.

Another comment was made that when working on an Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) job, the contractor needs to be sure all the hours worked by its employees are reported to the contractor’s insurance company, as well as used on the particular project to calculate rates.

As a result of this discussion, the committee is going to assemble a list of questions for member contractors to ask their insurers when shopping for insurance.

Hazard Awareness and Training

Chris Handley and other attendees emphasized the importance of site-specific hazard analysis and training whenever beginning a new job. They emphasized that this analysis and training should continue while working on any job.

Mr. Handley pointed out that while you can identify hazards, it is the unsafe acts by employees that typically cause injuries. While hazard assessment and identification of hazards are extremely important, these steps are only part of the solution. Employees must be trained on how to perform their work safely in light of the identified hazards.

Vigilance by safety and supervisory personnel on every job is extremely important. One contractor reports using electronic tablets with its safety checklist. After the checklist is completed each day on each job, it is sent to the master file for daily safety audits of the job site. These electronic reports are also copied with company officials and safety personnel within the company.

It is important that when a safety audit is performed, the person performing it takes it seriously. Gary Auman reported that many times when he sees safety checklists that he needs to defend an OSHA citation, the list has one line that runs through all the blocks from the top of the page to the bottom. The only conclusion an Administrative Law Judge or an OSHA official is going to draw from that type of a safety checklist is that the individual completing it is not serious about safety or his responsibilities to help ensure a safe workplace for employees.

The attendees at the Roundtable requested the Health and Safety Committee pull together the best practices from applicants for the Theodore H. Brodie Distinguished Safety Award. The attendees requested this information be distributed as an NIA member benefit so everyone can see what the best of the best are doing to provide a safe workplace. The committee will take up this request at its next meeting at the NIA Annual Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona, April 18–21, 2012.

OSHA Rules and Citations

From the discussion regarding safety hazard awareness, the group moved into discussing the proposed OSHA standard called I2P2 or Injury and Illness Prevention Programs. The I2P2 standard will require employers to have an injury and illness prevention program specifically designed for each job site with a goal of reducing or eliminating injuries and illnesses on each job site. This proposed rule is in the initial rulemaking stages at OSHA.

Another rule that was discussed is the proposal to require employers to report any overnight hospitalization of any one employee to OSHA within 8 hours of the time that injury or illness would qualify for reporting. Again, this proposal is in its infant stages in the regulatory rulemaking process. A concern voiced by many of the attendees is that this sort of reporting would expose employers who have never had an OSHA inspection to scrutiny merely because an employee was hospitalized overnight following an industrial accident.

As the Roundtable was winding down, attendees discussed OSHA citations and settlements of OSHA cases, fall protection issues, and aerial work platform issues. Gary Auman, NIA General Counsel, discussed his recent experiences with OSHA settlements and the handling of OSHA citations. Mr. Auman pointed out that many, but not all, OSHA Area Directors are refusing to negotiate much more than the penalty at informal conferences and are limiting their penalty discussions to about a 30 percent reduction of the proposed fine. He reported that many of his clients, after being made aware of this, are determining that the informal conference is a waste of their time and effort and are going right to filing a notice of contest. The most important thing in the settlement is to get an audience with someone at OSHA with whom the contractor or its representative can openly discuss the citations, the defenses that the contractor feels it might have, and the fines and penalties in an effort to reach a fair resolution prior to having to go into litigation.

The aerial platform discussion centered on the propensity of OSHA to draw various ANSI standards into the enforcement of the work platforms–specific standards. In a non-mandatory appendix to the aerial platform construction standard, ANSI standards concerning the use of aerial platforms is drawn into consideration. One of the key areas being addressed concerns the difference between familiarization training and hands-on operator training.

Contractors need to be aware that the OSHA standard does not necessarily require any specific training. The standard itself, 1926.453, requires that only authorized personnel be permitted to operate aerial work platforms. The ANSI standard, which is referenced by the OSHA standard in a non-mandatory appendix, indicates that before a person can operate a lift, they have to receive familiarization training with lift. Familiarization training is nothing close to operator training. Familiarization training merely requires that the employee be familiar with where the various manuals are kept, where the different controls are, and what the controls are for.

There is also a requirement in the ANSI standard (again referenced by the OSHA standard in a non-mandatory appendix) for a pre-shift inspection of the aerial work platform. There is no requirement that a record be made of this inspection; however, whenever an inspection is performed on a regular basis by a contractor or a distributor, it is a good idea for a written record of that inspection to be made for the protection of the employer.

Future Topics

At the conclusion of the Roundtable, the attendees voted to incorporate the Health and Safety Roundtable into the Health and Safety Committee’s agenda and extend the committee meeting time, since topics discussed in recent Roundtables fit into the committee’s agenda. Some potential topics for next year’s committee meeting and roundtable concern insurance and what to pay attention to when looking at insurance coverage. Another suggested topic is a platinum-level safety program checklist and a workers’ compensation checklist. Finally, the attendees suggested a discussion on any technological advances related to health and safety.

The committee will look at all these topics when it begins to assemble the agenda for the November 2012 Health and Safety Committee meeting. We hope to see you there. If you do plan to attend and/or have a topic you feel should be discussed, please e-mail either Gary Auman, NIA General Counsel (gwa@dmfdayton.com), or the NIA staff (events@insulation.org).

NIA Sites > Insulation Outlook Magazine > Global

Don’t Be Insulated from Green Building

As NIA members, we should be walking the talk. It’s a phrase we’ve all heard and one that provides a no-bones-about-it proof point. In Knauf Insulation’s case, walking the talk provided the organization with a comprehensive, better-educated green building vantage point—and proof point—when it came time to take a big step in sustainable development.

In 2007, after fire destroyed an office building on the Knauf Insulation corporate campus in Shelbyville, Indiana, Knauf targeted and in 2010 earned U.S. Green Building Council LEED-NC Gold certification for a new 24,860 ft2 corporate engineering office building. This provided the company with both a challenge and a tremendous opportunity. We became a more active player because of this experience due to the fact that LEED buildings are now pervasive.

Here are two proof points for the growth in green building: 1) more than 40,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising more than 8.3 billion ft2 of construction space across the United States and in 120 countries, and 2) green building is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009 to 2013.

In walking the talk, Knauf experienced the trends and desires that sustainable-minded end-users are after: increased energy cost savings, enhanced indoor environmental quality, and social benefits with responsible resource use and manufacturing. Now, we have a building that is 38 percent more energy efficient than a typical building and also uses much less water. While we continue to be proud of the ways the company’s products and processes touch the industrial, commercial, and residential markets to create enhanced sustainability, it’s important to note that everything in our sustainable development has been extremely cost-effective. We haven’t had to spend a lot of green to be green.

Sustainability benchmarks like LEED certification are becoming a real target for users of commercial and industrial insulation products—and may even be the right aspiration for your organization.

LEED-ing by Example

Our LEED example illustrates that simply the everyday products you use can make a significant green difference to building owners, operators, and occupants. We have R-40 walls in our building, much more than in a typical building. Using an extraordinary amount of insulation in the walls helped meet our daylighting targets.

The insulation uses 55.7 percent post-consumer recycled content, which can count toward LEED credit. That in itself is a huge social benefit, but that figure also generates a critical result with manufacturing savings—it allows Knauf to use 15 percent less energy in manufacturing insulation products. This is because using recycled glass requires less melting energy than using virgin resources. The fusion losses associated with making glass with virgin resources is avoided. There is perhaps no more noble sustainability story than using post-consumer content to save energy during manufacturing and in buildings.

The manufacturing energy example also speaks directly to pipe insulation regarding embodied energy recovery. When you really examine it, it’s miraculous how much energy you can save per lineal foot of pipe insulation. In about 1 day, a lineal foot of pipe insulation recovers the energy it took to manufacture that foot of insulation. And the energy savings are similar with cold pipes: in a day or two, the embodied manufacturing energy is recovered. Insulation is essentially perpetual in what it does. Once the embodied energy is paid back, insulation just keeps saving energy, reducing carbon emissions, and saving water via reduced demand on power plants.

Smarter technologies also played a role in the office building’s design. An example is the maximization of daylighting and the minimization of electric lighting. Motion sensors shut off lights when there’s no movement in a room. In the auditorium event/training space, heat and ventilation do not turn on unless carbon dioxide sensors register the respiration of people using the room. Sustainable features also include water-saving plumbing fixtures and a white membrane roof that minimizes the heat island effect.

Asking the Right Questions

Sustainable building is the result of the desire and patience to ask the right questions and find the right answers. It makes sense to simulate a building hundreds of times on a computer before it’s built to really have a good idea of how it’s going to perform. On the other end of the spectrum, there are still people insulating industrial processes to deliver functionality but not energy efficiency. They’re not designing it to optimum techno-economic performance; there could be a better economic thickness that would use less fuel and deliver fast payback.

More owners and operators of green structures and facilities here and abroad are getting terrific buildings that simply perform better. However, it is naïve to think there isn’t skepticism around potentially adding cost to building construction. This skepticism can be countered by considering the building’s long-term operating costs. If building a smarter building adds 5 or 10 percent more cost, and cost is the primary motivator, the analysis should include the possible costs of not being able to buy fossil fuels any longer—e.g., what if a geopolitical event halts the availability of fossil fuel for the U.S. economy? Renewable energy may then be too expensive if your building isn’t designed to perform as well as it possibly can. You would be paying for wasted energy.

Energy efficiency is critical when you start thinking about renewable energy sources and the probability of their success. This is one current difference between the United States and Europe, where infrastructure is more rapidly becoming as energy-efficient as possible. In Europe, there’s a built-in incentive to insulate and make a building perform as well as it possibly can. Savings are that much greater and give renewable energy sources a better chance to succeed.

Additional Advantages

The chief results of sustainable building are resource efficiency and energy efficiency—long-term reducers of cost. However, there are additional advantages that may not be so straightforwardly tangible to some, such as comfort. A pleasant work environment is a productive one. In our LEED building, individuals have a three-degree control over their individual offices. Compare this to a building that both performs poorly and offers no adjustability for individual spaces, where you might see a haphazard array of space heaters or fans—symptoms of poor-performing buildings.

Like many other LEED-certified buildings, we also have an exercise facility. When health-care expenses are considered, promoting wellness is good for both employees and employers.

Productivity and comfort may also be enhanced through acoustics. Since we took insulation up all the way through the ceiling, there’s no crosstalk or disruptive noise between offices. Acoustics is one way you can use insulation as an advanced strategy to earn innovation points via LEED certification.

The Triple Bottom Line

When I think about my grandchildren and future generations, I know sustainable choices are the right choices. And they’re often easy ones to make for practical economic, environmental, health, and community reasons.

Here’s how simple sustainability really is. We take curbside recycling transported by train to our facility, so we can decrease landfilling and the use of virgin resources and also use energy-efficient transportation. We then turn that recycled content into insulation that helps save energy. It’s not any harder than how you’d strategize through a different business operation, but it is the right thing to do—and it’s financially viable.

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The Hidden Path to Sales Success

In my 20-plus years of educating sales people, I have encountered tens of thousands of sales people. The vast majority of them want to do better. They want the benefits of greater success: Increased income, greater respect from their peers and managers, and increased self-confidence.

Yet, the vast majority of them remain at a level best described as “ordinary.” They never make the transition to being a true master of their craft. In spite of their desire to excel, few do.

The reason, for the overwhelming majority of sales people, is that they take the wrong path to sales success. Only a few discover the hidden path to sales success.

Let me illustrate. I have had these kinds of conversations in almost every training session that I have done: A sales person is concerned about an issue in one of his accounts. It could be that he can’t unseat the competition, or that he’s at risk of losing the business, or that he can’t gain an audience with the right people, or that he’s constantly asked to reduce his price, etc. The list is without limit. There are as many variations on the theme as there are sales people.

But, while the specifics vary, they almost always revolve around the same themes.

There is a problem in an account. Someone won’t do what the sales person wants them to do. The question, in one form or another, is always, “How do I get them to do what I want them to do?” The focus is always on the account, the other people, the things outside of the sales person that he/she wants to influence.

I don’t think I have ever had a sales person ask me in these encounters, “How can I change myself in such a way as to impact this situation?” And therein lies the problem.

As sales people, we almost exclusively focus on those things that exist outside of ourselves—the prospects, the customers, the politics, the products, the price, etc. We focus on the externals. And as long as we do that, we will be forever stymied in our desire to become exceptional performers.

We will never reach our potential until we begin to focus inside—on changing and improving ourselves. The hidden path to sales success is the “path less traveled,” the path that traverses the bumpy geography of self-growth and self-improvement—the inward path.

When we focus on self-growth and self-improvement, those changes that we make in ourselves naturally ooze out of us and impact the people and the world around us. To improve your results, improve yourself.

Here’s an example. A sales person recently shared this scenario. He has been trying to penetrate an account in which he had some business, but was a minor player. One or two other competitors dominated the account. He had difficulty even getting an opportunity to present his solutions. He saw his problem as external—the politics, processes and personalities in this account.

I talked with him about his ability to nurture professional business relationships, to uncover hidden concerns and obstacles via effective questioning, to empathize with the key decision makers. In other words, my conversation was about his competencies (internal) instead of the account’s specifics (externals). If he could improve himself to the point where he was more competent at these sales fundamentals, he would be more effective in that account, and the problems he expressed would gradually decrease.

He saw the problem as existing outside of himself (external). I saw the solution coming as a result of improving himself (internal).

As I reflect on the thousands of these kinds of conversations that I have had with sales people and sales leaders, I have concluded that the conversations almost always follow that pattern. They present an external problem, and I reply with an internal solution.

The obvious question pops to the surface. Kahle, is it you? Am I so far outside of the mainstream of reality that I am misleading the people

I?m supposed to be helping?

Honestly, I don’t think so. The concept of reaching your fullest potential, of making your greatest mark on this world, by focusing internally instead of externally is a position that all of the world’s greatest thinkers, from King Solomon thousands of years ago, to Mahatma Gandhi in more modern times, have espoused. That concept lies at the heart of the world’s greatest religions, a key part of the worldview of Jesus Christ and Buddha.

I’ll often share this quote from James Allen in my seminars:

“Men are often interested in improving their circumstance, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.”

Clearly, unequivocally, the path to achievement and fulfillment is an internal, not an external one. What is true for our lives is true for our professions, and is true for our jobs as sales people.

Yet so few sales people understand that. I’ve often shared this observation: In any randomly selected group of 20 sales people, only one has spent $25 of his own money on his own improvement in the last 12 months. Not coincidently, the same ratio is used to define the superstars of the profession. Five percent (one of twenty) of the sales force produce approximately 50 percent of the sales.

In a world of externally focused colleagues and competitors, it is the one in twenty sales person who chooses the hidden path to excellence. These are the people who understand this principle, and who consistently and willfully act on it. They are the ones who buy the books, go to the seminars, listen to the audios, and watch the videos—all in a relentless quest to improve themselves, understanding that the only lasting path to excellence is the hidden path of internally focused self improvement. And these are the people who inevitably rise to the top of the profession.

The same can be said of organizations. Very few sales organizations understand that. They expect their sales people to learn on the job, and look at investing in their development and improvement as a discretionary cost, rather than a fundamental strategic initiative.
Study the leading companies in any industry and you’ll find that those who lead the industry are always those who most consistently invest in developing the skills and competencies of their people.

Let the rest of the world charge into the world intent on wreaking their will on people and circumstances, oblivious to the real path to success. The savvy professionals—both companies as well as individuals—focus on changing themselves. It’s the hidden path to sales success.

To connect with Dave Kahle, subscribe to his weekly Ezine, Thinking about Sales, and connect on LinkedIn. Visit The Sales Resource Center™, where Dave has assembled 450 learning units, delivered 24/7 over the internet for one low monthly fee. It’s the ultimate resource for those intent on improving themselves and their organizations.

NIA Sites > Insulation Outlook Magazine > Global

Keeping Outdoor Pipe Insulation Dry: Some New Ideas

In a perfect world, insulation on outdoor pipes would never get wet. But since we don’t live in a perfect world, above-ambient service pipe insulation often does become wet, even above ground. This can lead to major problems, such as:

  • Increased heat loss on above-ambient service
  • Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) of the pipe surfaces
  • Galvanic corrosion of metal jacketing
  • Deteriorated insulation.

Those familiar with pipe insulation at industrial and electric power facilities know that insulation all too often becomes wet, primarily from precipitation. Yet in most applications, the insulation is covered with a protective jacket, usually one that can withstand weather such as rain, wind, and sunlight. So, if the insulation is covered with weather-resistant jacket and installed per the specification by a competent insulation contractor, why does pipe insulation get wet?

On above-ambient pipe systems, water gets into the insulation at jacket penetrations and joints, particularly (although not exclusively) on horizontal lines. Water from precipitation can also penetrate the insulation jacket system at pipe hangers, butt joints, and even lap joints. Gored elbow covers, in particular, provide multiple lap joints where water can enter. Damage from foot traffic or tears to the jacket can aggravate the problem by opening gaps for water ingress. Figures 1, 2, and 3 show typical problem areas that allow water from precipitation to get into horizontal pipe insulation.

What can be done about this problem? The NACE International guide SP01981 provides a number of effective and practical ideas to keep pipe and equipment insulation dry. However, this article introduces some additional ideas not considered in that or other previously published documents.

Sealing Lap and Butt Joints

Lap and butt joints are normally designed to shed water by overlapping the jacket. Overlapping lap joints on horizontal pipes and butt joints on vertical pipes are effective so long as the jacket does not become torn or separated or otherwise damaged by some external force, such as foot traffic. Furthermore, on horizontal lines, butt joints can be a problem since water can flow along the jacket surface and get into the insulation.

Designers often specify caulk and contractors install it. Even if that is the case, caulk does not last very long, as pointed out in the NACE guide. Furthermore, an inspector cannot see the caulk to know whether 1) it was installed at all, 2) it was installed correctly, or 3) it has cracked. The caulking can crack for several reasons other than foot traffic, one being thermal movement of the pipe within the insulation system. Furthermore, if the insulation is walked on and compresses, causing the jacket to become dented and deformed, the caulked seams will leak anyway.

This author’s solution: Use a weather-resistant laminate tape with a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA), preferably 4 inches wide, to cover and seal both the lap and butt joints. When properly applied on cleaned jacket, such tape will seal these joints extremely tightly against water ingress. Furthermore, an inspector can see the tape so he can verify that it 1) was actually installed at all locations, 2) was installed correctly, and 3) is in acceptable condition. An inspector can do periodic inspections to look for tape failures and, if any are found, schedule them for repair. Figures 4 and 5 show an artist’s concept of how this might be done with standard aluminum jacket over horizontal pipe insulation. Figure 6 shows how the tape might be used to seal the multiple joints on a multi-gored aluminum elbow cover. This author recommends to overlap at least one butt joint, without using tape, every 20 lineal feet or so to allow for thermal movement of the jacket. This author also recommends that the metal bands be added after taping the joints has been completed so as not to disrupt the tape.

Taped lap and butt joints won’t make the jacket indestructible by foot traffic; however, the PSA tape will make it more leak resistant when it is walked on. Furthermore, if the designer specifies high compressive resistance insulation, the insulation system will be considerably more resistant to foot traffic damage.

Keeping Water Out of Pipe Hanger Penetrations

Pipe hangers, particularly on horizontal pipes, penetrate the jacket, providing an easy entrance point for rainwater. This may seem easy to fix: just put a lot of caulk in there. However, as with the jacket joints, the caulk becomes brittle over a few years—particularly with high pipe temperatures, which degrade the caulk even faster. When there is pipe movement, the leak-proof caulk seal simply breaks and then leaks. Pipe hangers are a major source of water entry into insulation, which can lead to the normal problems, including CUI.1

This author’s solution: Using standard aluminum jacket, make a conical rain shield as shown in Figures 7 and 8. First, to set the height of the shield above the hanger, a small rod clamp should be attached to the hanger rod at the appropriate distance above the hanger; the metal cone is then formed around the hanger rod; and finally the two edges are riveted together using a pop rivet gun. While Figure 8 shows some caulk applied to the small space between rod and the shield, and the caulk will crack over time,1 at least it is where an insulation maintenance person can see it, inspect it, and re-apply it as necessary.

The rain shield can be an effective solution. With strong winds, some rainwater may occasionally blow under the shield and get into the insulation, but it will be much better than having no rain shield at all. If shields become damaged, they are easy and inexpensive to repair or replace. Installed and maintained, rain shields should significantly reduce the quantity of rainwater entering the insulation through pipe hanger penetrations of the protective jacket. Note that if the pipe hangers are outside the insulation system, water leakage at the hangers is not a problem and rain shields are not needed.

Repairing Tears in the Jacket

The same laminate tape with PSA can also be used to repair tears in the jacket. Figure 9 shows such a tear in standard aluminum jacket on an outdoor insulated pipe. Figure 10 shows how this tear might be sealed with the laminate PSA tape using a very basic repair technique. An alternative repair technique, not pictured, would be to use a piece of laminate jacket that has either a PSA or sticky interior surface and has been cut to a size adequate to cover the tear in the jacket.

Conclusion

Pipe insulation in outdoor locations too often gets wet from precipitation, whether through lap and butt joints or pipe hangers that penetrate the jacket. Simple, inexpensive preventative measures are available, including using weatherproof laminate tape with a PSA on all joints. On existing hangers that penetrate the jacket, conical rain shields can be formed from standard aluminum jacket material and installed around the pipe hangers, a short distance above the hanger clamp, to effectively shed the rain.

The use of high compressive resistance insulation will make an insulation system more resistant to jacket damage from foot traffic. However, these ideas for keeping the insulation dry, combined with high compressive strength insulation, will result in a more durable system that will effectively keep most rainwater out of the insulation.

Reference

1. NACA International SP0198-10, “Standard Practice: Control of Corrosion Under Thermal Insulation and Fireproofing Materials—A Systems Approach.”

Figure 1

Horizontal pipe with aluminum jacketed pipe insulation. With some damage by foot traffic, it is apparent that water from precipitation gets into the insulation through opened lap joints on the straight pipe as well as the mitered elbow covering. There are also gaps around the hanger penetration that allow water to get into the insulation.

Figure 2

Close-up of a pipe hanger with deteriorated caulking, which is no longer effective in sealing this penetration from rainwater and melted snow. The corrosion also demonstrates one of the disadvantages of allowing this hanger to get wet.

Figure 3

Mitered elbow on a horizontal, insulated, and aluminum jacketed pipe. The gaps in the overlapping metal gores allow water from precipitation to get into the insulation.

Figure 4

Horizontal pipe with aluminum jacket that is ready to be taped. In this case, the jacket butt joint can be left separated, without overlapping, since that seam will be taped. Furthermore, this increases the jacket coverage by several inches.

Figure 5

Aluminum jacket being taped with laminate, PSA tape with a release liner on the adhesive. I recommend 4-inch wide tape instead of the standard 3-inch—the wider tape will hold better and provide greater coverage.

Figure 6

Sealing a gored aluminum elbow cover with laminate, PSA tape. While a gored elbow cover is beautiful when first installed, the individual gores can eventually open up, allowing rainwater to get into the insulation. Using this tape to seal the joints can increases the life of the insulation system.

Figure 7

Pipe hanger with an open-ended Head Rod Clamp on the hanger rod. This will be used to secure a conical rain shield shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8

Conical rain shield installed on the hanger rod. This can be fabricated from aluminum jacket material and closed using either rivets or even the laminate PSA tape. A small amount of rubberized caulk should be applied between it and the hanger rod to prevent rainwater from running down the hanger rod, bypassing the rain shield, and getting into the insulation.

Figure 9

A tear in the aluminum jacket over some pipe insulation. Left unrepaired, rainwater will get into the insulation. This can be repaired as shown in Figure 10 below.

Figure 10

Damaged aluminum jacket can easily be repaired using laminate PSA tape, preventing the intrusion of rainwater until the facility owner can replace this section.

NIA Sites > Insulation Outlook Magazine > Global

Hot Water Distribution Research

The California Energy Commission funded a project to study the performance of hot water distribution piping. That research was conducted by Dr. Carl Hiller, P.E., president of Applied Energy Technology.1

The purpose of the research was to compare the performance of hot water flowing through insulated and uninsulated pipes of various diameters. Before we began the tests, we developed a matrix of test conditions that was quite large. We decided to start with ½- and ¾-inch nominal diameter piping, since our observation was that these two sizes were the most commonly used in single-family residences, both in California and around the country. These pipe diameters are also commonly found in multi-family, commercial, and industrial applications, and what we learned is applicable to these situations, too. The tests were to be conducted in air, with the temperature surrounding the pipes in the 65-70°F range.

We also decided to test copper and PEXAluminum-PEX (PEX-Al-PEX): copper because of its historically widespread use and PEX-Al-PEX because it was in common use in California at the time we began the tests. Since that time, we have seen a rapid shift to PEX piping that does not have an aluminum layer. The reasons for the change in plumbing practice appear to be due to a shortage of PEX-Al-PEX piping beginning in early 2004 and widespread use of manifold (home run) plumbing systems in single-family homes. Looking back, it would probably have made better sense to test PEX instead of PEX-Al-PEX; so much for 20/20 hindsight!

What Is a Hot Water Event?

A hot water event is shown in Figure 1. Each hot water event has three phases: delivery, use, and cool down. When a fixture is opened, hot water leaves the water heater and heads through the hot water piping toward the fixture. Ideally, this delivery time should be as short as possible. In practice there are probably two parts to the delivery phase. The first part is technical or structural and depends on the plumbing system configuration; the location of the pipes; the volume of the water in the pipes between the water heater and the fixture; whether the piping is insulated; the fixture flow rate; the temperature of the water in the pipes compared to the temperature in the water heater, etc.

The second part is behavioral and depends on when the occupant decides the water is hot enough to use and “get in.” The behavioral waste can be significantly greater than the structural waste. The delivery phase may be short at some fixtures and long at others. It may be short or long at the same fixture, depending on when hot water was last needed somewhere else on the same line that serves the fixture. Some people hover near the fixture, checking to see when the water is hot enough, while others know from experience that it takes a long time, so they leave, returning when they are good and ready! From the occupant’s point of view, this may appear to be totally random and hard to “learn,” in which case I suspect their behavior defaults to the worst case condition at all fixtures.

In articles that appeared in Official magazine in 2005, we showed how it is possible to deliver hot water, wasting no more than 1 cup. At flow rates between 0.5 and 2.5 gpm, this means the water will be delivered in 7.5 down to 1.5 seconds, which is pretty darned fast.

The use phase needs to be whatever length it takes to perform the task for which hot water is desired. The cool down phase begins the moment the fixture is turned off. If the time until the next hot water event is short enough, the water in the pipes all the way back to the water heater will be hot enough to use. If it is too long, water coming from the water heater will be run down the drain until water hot enough to use arrives at the fixture.

At the fixture, hot water is generally mixed with cold water to reach the desired useful hot water temperature. The thermostat on the water heater needs to be set high enough to overcome the heat losses in the piping system and still provide water that is hot enough to be mixed at the farthest fixture with the highest desired useful hot water temperature. For purposes of our experiments, we selected 105°F as the nominal useful hot water temperature.

From our research, we have learned about all three phases of this process.

The Test Rig

The test rig to measure the performance is shown schematically in Figure 2.

Calculations and observations helped us decide to test roughly 120-foot-long sections of pipe. Since our lab was only 40 feet long, we needed to create a serpentine piping layout. When we used hard copper pipe, the long legs were nominally 20 feet long (the pipe is actually a bit longer) and the short legs were roughly 18 inches long. Temperature sensors were located at the beginning and end of the serpentine shape and at the center of each short leg.

We thought these two layouts, one for hard pipe and one for flexible pipe, were essentially identical. It turns out that they weren’t identical, and we learned a great deal from this mistake.

The Delivery Phase

We learned three things from our research about the delivery phase:

  1. During the delivery phase, hot water acts differently than cold water.
  2. Low flow rates (< 1 gpm) waste much more water than high flow rates (> 4 gpm).
  3. At typical fixture flow rates (1-3 gpm), sharp (standard) 90-degree elbows increase turbulence, heat loss, and water waste.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things that we learned is that it is possible for significantly more water to come out of the pipe before hot water gets from the water heater to the fixture than is actually in the pipe. During the tests, our researcher found that the temperature sensor on the first turn was getting hot sooner than was theoretically possible assuming perfect plug flow. The difference in time was significant—otherwise he probably wouldn’t have noticed it. To figure out what was going on, he used his hands to feel the pipe and found that there was a thin stream of hot water riding on top of the cold water that was running many feet ahead of the plug of hot water coming from the water heater. After some time, mixing would occur, but until that happened, there was a much greater surface area of hot water touching both the cold water and the relatively cold pipe than would normally have been expected.

This is depicted in the top portion of Figure 3. At the beginning of a hot water event, the cold water is much more viscous than the hot water. The length of the thin stream of hot water could be more than 20 feet long and would go around the elbows. The volume of water that would come out of the pipe (or past a given temperature sensor) before hot water arrived could be twice the volume that was in the pipe.

We found this condition most prevalent at flow rates less than 1 gpm. These flow rates are typical of commercial lavatory sinks, low flow showers, and the hot water portion of the flow in a single lever sink when the valve is opened halfway between hot and cold.

As the flow rate increased into the range typical of many sinks and showers (1-3 gpm), the thin stream gave way to a more normal mixing front, which we have depicted as a long bullet. The length of the bullet was several feet ahead of the hot water plug. The extra volume of water that came out of the pipe before hot water arrived was generally 10 to 50 percent more than the volume of water in the pipe. The waste was larger for a given flow rate in the hard-piped test rig that had standard elbows than it was in the flexible pipe test rig that used wide-radius bends in the pipe itself to make the 180-degree turns.

At higher flow rates, typical of those found in garden or Jacuzzi tubs, some laundry sinks, washing machines, and dishwashers, we saw what looked like plug flow—the idealized type of flow I heard described in engineering school. In these cases, the length of the much shorter bullet was only a very short distance ahead of the hot water plug. The extra volume of water that came out of the pipe before hot water arrived was generally much less than 10 percent more than the volume of water in the pipe. We found this condition some of the time at high flow rates in the hard-pipe test rig with hard elbows. We found it much more often and at lower flow rates in the flexible test rig with wide-radius bends.

I had delivery problems when I measured my house. Looking back, I had installed a low flow showerhead (1 gpm) specifically to save water. However, both the low flow rate and the elbows in the copper piping created conditions that wasted a significant amount of water before the hot water arrived (more than twice what was in the pipe). This was certainly an unintended consequence of my attempt to save water! The extra water that came out had to be heated by the water heater and so my energy consumption was increased during the delivery phase. As we will see in the next section, the low flow rate fixture also frustrated my attempt to save energy during the use phase, too.

The Use Phase

We learned four things about the use phase:

  1. Uninsulated PEX-Al-PEX piping has a greater temperature drop at a given flow rate than does copper piping of the same nominal diameter. Insulating the pipes minimized the difference.
  2. The temperature drop at a given flow rate is less in ½-inch piping than in ¾-inch piping.
  3. The temperature drop over a given distance is greater at low flow rates than at high flow rates. There is a significant difference in the rate of change of the temperature drop at flow rates below 1 gpm.
  4. Insulation decreases the temperature drop at a given flow rate.

Figure 4 shows the comparison between nominal ¾-inch PEX-Al-PEX and ¾-inch copper piping over a length of 100 feet. The figure is based on steady state flow rates with the hot water entering the pipe at 135°F and the ambient air temperature surrounding the pipe at 67.5°F. The water in the uninsulated PEX-Al-PEX pipe lost more temperature at the same flow rate than did the water in the copper pipe. We suspect that this additional heat loss is due to a combination of two effects: the nominal ¾-inch PEX-Al-PEX pipe has a larger surface area than the nominal ¾-inch copper pipe—once it is hot there is more surface area to lose heat; and because the PEX-Al-PEX has a larger internal diameter than the copper piping, the face velocity of the water in the PEX-Al-PEX is slower and the rate of heat loss is greater than it is in copper. Once the pipes were insulated, the difference in temperature drop essentially disappeared.

We did not have enough funding to run tests on ½-inch PEX-Al-PEX. Based on the fact that uninsulated copper performed better than PEX-Al-PEX and, with insulation, the performance was very similar, we think we can use the performance of copper pipe at ½- and ¾-inch, with and without insulation, as a reasonable first order proxy to better understand what generally happens in hot water piping.

Figure 5 compares the performance of nominal ½- and ¾-inch diameter copper piping, both insulated and uninsulated. As in the prior figure, the graph is based on steady state flow rates with the hot water entering the pipe at 135°F and the ambient air temperature surrounding the pipe at 67.5°F over a length of 100 feet.

At a given flow rate, the temperature drop in ½-inch nominal piping is less than in ¾-inch nominal piping. This is due to the increased face velocity of the water, which reduces the heat loss rate. While from a thermal perspective it is beneficial to use the smallest pipe diameter possible, frictional losses increase exponentially with increased face velocity and result in increased pressure drop over a given length. We did not measure pressure drop during the tests. Future tests should do this so as to better understand its impacts.

The temperature drop over a given distance is greater at low flow rates than at high flow rates. At 2.5 gpm, the highest flow rate allowed for showerheads, the temperature drop in uninsulated copper piping is between 2°F and 2.5°F. At 1 gpm, the temperature drop in uninsulated pipe climbs to between 4.5°F and 5.5°F. At 5 gpm, the temperature drop goes down to roughly 1°F, and the difference between ½- and ¾-inch diameter goes away.

There is a significant difference in the rate of change of the temperature drop at flow rates below 1 gpm. At 0.5 gpm, the temperature drop almost doubles. The curve will get even steeper if the flow rate is reduced still further and, for a given length at some low flow rate, hot water will never reach the fixture. The same thing would happen if length was increased while flow rate was held constant, or if the piping was located in a higher heat loss environment, say in damp soil under a slab or between buildings in a campus situation.

Insulation reduces the heat loss overall and, for a given flow rate, the temperature drop is cut roughly in half. Insulation also reduces the difference in temperature drop between ½- and ¾-inch diameter piping.

The Cool Down Phase

We learned three things about the cool down phase:

  1. If the time between hot water events is long enough, the pipes cool down to below the useful hot water temperature for the next hot water event.
  2. Larger diameter pipes cool down more slowly than smaller diameter pipes.
  3. Insulation extends the time it takes for the pipes to cool down to a given temperature.

The first point seems obvious, since if you wait long enough, the temperature of the water in the pipes will eventually reach equilibrium with the ambient temperature surrounding the pipes. The real question is: how long does it take to cool down to a non-useful hot water temperature? This depends upon the starting temperature of the water in the pipes, the diameter of the pipes, the amount of pipe insulation, the environmental conditions in which the pipes are located, and the temperature of water needed for the next hot water event.

Figure 6 compares how long it took for the water in ¾-inch diameter copper pipes to cool down from a given starting temperature to 105°F. The ambient temperature surrounding the pipes was between 65°F and 70°F and the pipes were located in air. Without insulation, it took between 5 and 22 minutes for the temperature to reach 105°F. The hotter the water began, the longer it took.

When ½-inch wall thickness and ¾-inch wall thickness insulation were added, it took significantly longer for the water to cool down to 105°F. Use of the ¾-inch thick insulation (>R-4) roughly tripled the cool down time. The ½-inch wall thickness insulation did almost as well.

Figure 7 compares how long it took for the water in ½-inch diameter copper pipes to cool down from a given starting temperature to 105°F. As with the tests on ¾-inch diameter pipe, the ambient temperature surrounding the pipes was between 65°F and 70°F and the pipes were located in air. Without insulation, it took between 5 and 20 minutes for the temperature to reach 105°F, almost exactly the same as for the uninsulated ¾-inch piping. Use of the ¾-inch thick insulation (>R-4) roughly doubled the cool down time. The ½-inch wall thickness insulation did almost as well.

Although the time it took the water in the uninsulated pipes to cool down was very similar for the ½-inch and ¾-inch diameter pipes, when insulation was added, the water in the ¾-inch pipes took roughly 1.5 times as long to reach the same temperature as the ½-inch pipes.

If the pipes were located in a colder environment, such as in a crawl space or an attic, used at night or early in the morning, or throughout much of the winter, they would have cooled down much more quickly. If the pipes were in a high heat loss environment, such as in the damp soil under a concrete slab, they would cool off even faster. If the ambient temperature were higher, such as in an attic in the middle of a summer afternoon, the pipes would take much longer to cool down. (On the other hand, the water in the cold water pipes might be too hot to use!)

Note

1. Hiller, Dr. Carl, P.E., 2005. Hot Water Distribution System Research?Phase 1, California Energy Commission, Sacramento, California, November 2005, CEC 5002005-161. The full report can be found at: www.energy.ca.gov/pier/final_project_reports/CEC-500-2005-161.html.

Reprinted courtesy of The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO)—www.iapmo.org/OFFICIAL Magazine—www.eofficial.org.

Figure 1

Hot water event schematic

Figure 2

Serpentine test rig schematic

Figure 3

Delivery phase schematics (not to scale)

Figure 4

Comparison of nominal 3/4-inch PEX-Al-PEX and 3/4-inch copper piping

Figure 5

Comparison of nominal 1/2- and 3/4-inch copper piping

Figure 6

Time required for 3/4-inch diameter pipes to cool down to 105°F with and without pipe insulation

Figure 7

Time required for 1/2-inch diameter pipes to cool down to 105°F with and without pipe insulation

NIA Sites > Insulation Outlook Magazine > Global

Disaster Preparedness and Recovery—How Ready Is Your Organization?

From earthquakes to tornadoes to heavy floods, there has been a seemingly constant run of news about natural disasters this year. In these types of unfortunate situations, the first concern is clearly loss of life, destroyed homes, and cities and towns left in shambles—natural disasters obviously take a tremendous human and personal toll on all affected. Businesses also suffer after a natural disaster—not only due to physical damage, but many times because of the disaster’s effect on companies’ valuable data systems.

Data disaster recovery has always been a concern for CIOs, but the 9/11 terrorist attacks made data vulnerability even more real. One of the most profound examples of data loss from that time was a well-known data backup services company, which had 100 customers that lost major data repositories because of the 9/11 disaster. The company dispatched 650 employees to restore massive volumes of information and luckily was able to recover 100 percent of the data that had been backed up—but that’s a story with a happy ending, and unfortunately that’s not always the case.

Certainly many of the data disaster recovery lessons learned after 9/11 were technical in nature. For example, post-9/11, it became a “best practice” to ensure back-up facilities are physically “hubbed” in very separate locations—most times in completely different cities or states. Several businesses located in or around the World Trade Center learned that lesson the hard way, because they had back-up centers just a few blocks away and the events of that day crippled both locations. Yet, one of the most important data lessons from 9/11 was that data disaster preparedness and recovery isn’t just about intentions or plans—it requires a serious investment.

It would appear as though IT executives understand and are heeding these lessons. ABI Research predicts the global business continuity and data disaster recovery market will exceed $39 billion by 2015. Still, many IT executives are not completely satisfied with their current disaster recovery plans. According to a survey of 1,600 data center managers and directors by Symantec, 32 percent describe their current disaster recovery plan as “average” and more than a third (36 percent) of those who have a plan deem it “inadequate.” In fact, only 11 percent identified their plan as “excellent.”

It’s clear that companies need to think more seriously about their data recovery plans, and not only from a financial perspective. While 9/11 happened more than a decade ago, for many companies, data recovery is still treated as a “worst-case scenario” investment, with little careful thought given as to what would, or could, really happen in that scenario. Making sure your company is prepared from both a technical and process standpoint is critical. Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Establish a data loss threshold. Before even creating a disaster recovery plan, IT executives need to determine the level of data loss they can realistically withstand in the event of a disaster—their “recovery point objective.” The exercise of establishing this threshold forces companies to examine and weigh the financial ramifications of possible data loss against the cost of taking the extra measures to ensure a lower level of loss. Once a company has determined its threshold, the next step is to determine the amount of time the company can afford to spend on data recovery in the event of a disaster. This too can help determine the level of investment needed for a disaster recovery plan.
  • Be comprehensive. When creating a disaster data recovery plan, it is important to get feedback from the heads of all of the functions within the company, not just IT. This will help to establish an overall understanding of each group’s data needs and expectations.
  • Communicate. As with other disaster plans, company leadership must communicate the details of a data disaster recovery plan to employees in every function so they can take additional, simple (and personal) steps to ensure business continuity and a minimal level of data loss should a disaster occur. For example, many employees have the habit of saving documents to their desktop. Companies should use preparedness planning as another opportunity to remind employees to always save on a central drive so that data can more easily be recovered in the event of a disaster.
  • Make sure the basics work. It isn’t just about recovery from a disaster. Normal backup procedures and, more importantly, recovery procedures should be tested and validated regularly. Bad or lost tapes, corrupt or inaccurate backup indexes, bad failover procedures, and other examples of Murphy’s Law are a fact of IT life. Backup infrastructures are often “forgotten” and don’t age well. Don’t wait for a disaster recovery test to make sure basic backup, recovery, and failover procedures work.
  • Practice. Like any other preparedness plan, data recovery should be tested and refreshed, as needed. Whether that means every 6 months or every 2 years is up to the individual company, but regardless of how often it’s tested or updated, plan refresh and practice is something that is necessary. Regular practice also helps to keep the plan fresh in everyone’s minds and takes into account any new staff on the IT team who may not have been involved in creating the original plan.
  • Disaster and data recovery does not equal business continuity. Disaster recovery is only part of the equation. Do you know where people will work in case of a disaster that affects your location? Do you understand how the month-end close procedure must change if the data is not available, or access takes longer than usual? What absolutely MUST get done, and what can be deferred? Having access to data means little if business processes are compromised. For every disaster recovery plan, there should be a business continuity plan that covers the non-IT people and processes.

Disasters, by their very nature, are unpredictable, which is why companies have to prepare as best as possible for them. Investing in a solid data disaster recovery plan now, from both a financial and process perspective, can help companies preserve the past and prepare for the future.

This article originally appeared online at http://businessfinancemag.com/article/disaster-preparedness-and-data-recovery-how-ready-your-organization-1003. Copyrighted 2011. Penton Media, Inc.

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3 Steps to Turbo Charge Profits

Top financial managers have an opportunity to boost their companies’ profits to new heights. The key to success: become your company’s Chief Profitability Officer.

This may seem like a puzzling suggestion. After all, aren’t CFOs now centrally involved in maximizing profitability? The answer is yes and no.

Certainly, CFOs are the driving force behind developing and monitoring budgets. They relentlessly push their colleagues to increase revenues and reduce costs, and they carefully monitor the financial results, instituting midcourse corrections when needed.

Yet in my research and consultations with leading companies in more than a dozen industries, I’ve found virtually every company is 30 percent to 40 percent unprofitable by any measure, and 20 percent to 30 percent of the business is providing all the reported profits and subsidizing the losses. The potential profit improvement is often 30 percent or more within a year, with comparable improvements year after year.

The underlying problem is that our financial accounting systems aggregate revenues and costs into categories that work well for financial reporting but are not granular enough for effective profitability management. The lack of profitability information results in embedded unprofitability—a critical factor that, amazingly, is unseen, unmeasured, and unaddressed. In virtually every company, even if all managers beat their budget goals, the company still would have a huge profit improvement opportunity.

Moreover, in virtually all companies, the core incentives are misaligned: Top managers are compensated on a P&L basis, while sales reps are paid for revenues or gross profits. Because high gross margin business is often unprofitable on a net margin basis, to put it colloquially, top management’s steering wheel is not attached to the car.

How can a CPO reverse his or her company’s massive embedded unprofitability and generate new streams of profits? Three essential steps: develop a profit map; define priorities and serving models for your important account/product segments; and align compensation throughout your company, especially for the sales force, by basing it on directly on granular profitability.

1. Profit Mapping

A profit map, the core analytical tool of profitability management, displays the profitability and cost structure of every product in every customer in the company. Profit maps show exactly where profit is flowing and where it is lost.

A profit map is not especially difficult to develop, but it is completely different from the information developed for financial reporting. Many finance managers make the mistake of starting with their existing financial information and trying to allocate it into sectors of the business or product families. Instead, the essence of profit mapping is to create and analyze a database composed of the net profitability of every invoice/order line. An experienced manager and analyst can develop a profit map in a month or two.

The process of developing an “income statement” for every order line is relatively straightforward. Your sales file shows the customer, product, revenue, and cost of goods sold. Between each line’s gross margin and net margin is a set of sales costs, operations costs, and overhead costs. For the sales and operations costs, simply develop tables of costs for each cost element. For example, you can identify whether an account is served by a sales rep, by telesales, or simply by your website and assign an appropriate cost for each. Similarly, you can tell by the account location and product type the approximate cost of delivery. Overheads require more judgment.

The value of a profit map is that it quickly highlights your company’s islands of profit and sea of red ink. It also enables you to identify exactly which cost elements are most important in determining profit or loss for specific products in specific accounts. (I call these “profit levers.”) You can translate this picture into an extremely focused “to-do” list for your company?s sales reps. It also provides a powerful basis for aligning the incentives of all of your company’s managers with those of the top management team.

Here’s a critical tip: work at “70 percent accuracy.” Developing a profit map is like writing a paper. Start with a rough profit map using estimates and rules of thumb and then sharpen your pencil only where it will affect a decision. At the end of the process, your company’s operating managers only need to know what one or two things they have to change in each account, what the likely impact will be, and how this will improve their compensation.

Here are a set of questions that profit mapping will enable you to answer.

Profitable Customers

  • Where are we making money?
  • Within these profitable customers, how much of their business is unprofitable?
  • Is this business safe from competitive encroachment?
  • What are we doing to lock in and grow this business (our “sweet spot”)?
  • How can we focus our resources on obtaining more of this business?
  • What are we doing to increase these customers’ own profitability?

Marginal Customers

  • Which customers are marginally profitable?
  • Within these customers, what specific changes would make the biggest improvement?
  • Who should make the change?
  • How can we set up an ongoing, scalable organizational process that transforms the marginal business into profitability?
  • What is the likely gain vs. additional effort?

2. Focus on Priorities

A profit map yields very valuable information. Many managers wonder how to translate this into an action plan. The key is to focus on your priorities and serving models.

Priorities: Most managers instinctively start by trying to improve their marginal and unprofitable customers. This is a big mistake.

The right priorities in order of importance are: securing your most profitable, sweet spot customers (not necessarily your biggest ones); identifying the customers who should be in your sweet spot and focus your sales and operations resources on growing and securing them; identifying ways to turn around your marginal accounts using appropriate profit levers identified in your profit map; and explaining to your unprofitable customers what they need to do for you to continue serving them (often operational coordination rather than price increases).

The first two priorities are critical because the most important thing you can do is to lock in and grow your core of profitable business and cash flow. In most companies, these customers are overpriced and underserved, and smart competitors will aggressively target them. And if you lose these critical customers, it is very difficult to recover.

Serving Models: When you analyze your business, it is helpful to cluster it into customer/product market segments, each of which has similar business and profitability characteristics—and each of which requires an appropriate serving model (set of sales and operations activities). Your profit map will guide you in this process.

Think about a hypothetical company that manufactures products used by a variety of customers. Its large accounts are primarily manufacturers. Its profit map shows the manufacturer accounts are very profitable overall.

However, the profit map also shows a surprising fact: within the large manufacturer accounts, some low gross margin products are very profitable, while many products with high-gross margins are losers. This is concerning because the company’s sales reps are compensated on gross margin and are therefore incented to bring in business that often actually decreases profitability.

Why does this seemingly puzzling situation occur? The profitable products have a very low cost to serve because they are ordered repetitively with long lead times. The unprofitable products lose money because they are expensive and only ordered sporadically, so the supplier has to keep a lot of costly local safety stock.

The upshot is that the manufacturer accounts have two important but different account/product segments. Each segment has a specific profit lever, and each needs an appropriate serving model.

Because the profitable segment has a very low cost to serve, it is reasonable to price low to secure and grow the business. While the unprofitable product segment has a high cost to serve, the profit map implies that if the company gained a few days? visibility into an upcoming order, it could source the product from national inventory, removing the need for costly local safety stock. By focusing the sales reps on this sharply targeted profit lever, the company could convert the unprofitable product segment into strong profitability.

3. Effective Compensation

Compensation is the front-wheel drive that moves your company through the marketplace. In the absence of a profit map, managers have no choice but to compensate sales reps on revenues and/or gross margins. This is not only ineffective, but it actually causes the huge embedded unprofitability in most companies.

Profit maps are the key to reversing this problematic situation. Because they show the net margin of every product in every account, you can compensate your sales reps and other managers on the actual net margin profitability improvement of the elements directly under their control. This will enable you to align your company’s core incentives from top management to grass roots performers.

Chief Profitability Officer

The most critical success factor for a Chief Profitability Officer is to understand that profitability management requires a very different process from day-to-day financial management. Not harder, just different.

By building a program around profit mapping, priorities and serving models, and effective compensation, the CPO can tap into and reverse his or her company’s huge embedded unprofitability—turbocharging profits.

This article originally appeared at http://businessfinancemag.com/article/3-steps-turbo-charge-profits-0929. Copyrighted 2011. Penton Media, Inc.