The top two winners of Taco’s “Do Your Best Work” contest, chosen by their peers, areRobert C. O'Brien, president of Mount Sinai, N.Y.-based Technical Heating, andTim Reinhardtwith Burnsville, Minn.-based Genz-Ryan Co.
The contest garnered 107 submissions and 2,000 FloPro members evaluated the entries and cast their votes.
O’Brien’s entry - an oil-fired system installed in a new home - was built by a team of 12 installersfor a wounded veteran by the Long Island chapter of Oil Heat Cares, with components donated by Taco, Wales Darby and several other companies. The systems included an oil-fired boiler and indirect water heater. The oil tank also was donated and the oil was delivered free of charge.
The system that O’Brien helped with - to keep things simple - was a one-zone hydro-air installation with priority to an indirect tank for domestic water. The installation included a Taco air separator, two 007 circulators with IFC, isolation flanges, and a Taco 329 pressure reducer.
The 1,500-sq.-ft. “raised ranch” home was dedicated on Veteran’s Day, the day the soldier and his family moved in.
Reinhardt’s winning entry is a parallel primary/secondary system installed after a storage tank to serve both radiant floor heating and pool heating. The primary heat source is a geothermal water-to-water heat pump. For fossil-fuel backup, a 97% AFUE natural gas mod-con boiler was installed.
“I often find that the bigger the system, the smaller the space we get for mechanical systems,” said Reinhardt. “It just doesn’t add up. So with that comes the need for smart use of hydronic components, all sized to do a big job, yet with little space required to get it done.”
Reinhardt explained that the project included four Taco VDT circulators and several zone valves, 10 “00” series circulators, and three 2400 series pumps.
“Geothermal was chosen early-on as the primary heat source for the 13 radiant in-floor heating zones throughout the home,” said Reinhardt. “We also installed three zones of snow and ice melt and summer-time pool heating.”
Taco’s “Do Your Best Work” contest will return next year.
Source: Taco
