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Solar thermal water heating
Wintertime is right around the corner and as Cache Valley residents we can count on at least two things; freezing cold weather and the inversion that keeps a layer of smog hanging over the valley.
I grew up in Cache Valley and didn’t notice the smog problem. Like most people I don’t pay attention to a problem until it starts to affect the way I live. Now that we’re to the point of having red and yellow air days we need to come up with more creative ways to travel and heat our homes. This brings me to my topic that will hopefully spark some interest for those who would like to be “green” and also for the ones who live in Cache Valley and want to have better air quality.
I am a plumber by trade and am frequently in and out of homes in Cache Valley and surrounding areas. I am constantly in mechanical rooms and basements so I get a first hand look at what is heating your water and homes. I began to realize that maybe the car emissions aren’t responsible for the whole air quality problem.
I regularly see water heaters and furnaces in homes that are not energy efficient. Water heaters give us the hot water to shower and clean, but that isn’t the problem. The problem is with the water heater. These heaters keep anywhere from 5 or 10 gallons to hundreds of gallons of hot water so it’s there when we need it, but is also there when we don’t need it.
With that in mind let’s talk about why regular hot water heaters aren’t very efficient.
All day most of us are at work or play. Most of us shower at one point during the day, but all day our water heater is doing its job heating water we aren’t using. There are advertisements that say, “You wouldn’t let your car run 24/7, why heat your water 24/7?” Why do we waste our money on a water heating system that heats water during the times we don’t use or need it? This problem is also compounded by hard water.
As hard water builds up in your water heater it sits over the burner or around the electric elements causing the heat transfer to heat through “rock,” which is what those mineral deposits are. There is more heat loss while the unit is not being used because the burner kicks on and off more often than needed because it’s heating through those deposits. This wastes energy, causes more smog, gives you less and less hot water, and you get to pay more money every month because the older your water heater is, the more hard water deposits are piling up in it. Now those of you with water softeners are laughing to yourselves, saying “We aren’t the problem it’s those guys who don’t have a water softener!” BUT you’re still heating water you’re not using and some of us have 1 or 2 water heaters in our homes. How often are you actually using those 100+ gallons of water to justify having them there?
It’s time we start looking at a greener solution. Although I’m a plumber and selling hot water heaters is part of how I make my living, I am also concerned about the environment, especially when it comes to my home. We want to keep Cache Valley green, in more ways than one, for our children, our neighbors, and our friends. Some “green” solutions may depend on your pocketbook. The one with the most rebates available right now is the solar hot water system. You may have seen our truck with the “75% off on a total Solar Thermal System after the rebates” sign on the back. Solar hot water has been around since the beginning of time. Some of you may remember the rise of solar in the 1970’s followed by the decline in the late 1980’s and 90’s.
Solar hot water is simple to explain and understand. There is solar hot water panel that’s mounted on your roof which heats up. We put these on the south facing roof since that direction collects the most heat from the sun. The panels have water tubes with black metal attached, as the water passes through the tubes in the panel, it heats up from the sun. Here is a diagram to help illustrate what I am describing.
The water enters the panel at a slow rate of speed so the heat from the sun is transferred into the water. This water goes into a specially designed tank to hold heat and to withstand high temperatures. These tanks usually have coils inside to transfer the heat into the water that you use to bathe and clean with. The controls on the solar system are simple. There is a temperature sensor inside the solar panel and a sensor inside the tank. When the panels are at a warmer temperature than
the water in the tank, it turns on a pump and the heat is transferred. When the panels cool down the pump turns off stopping the water to heat transfer.
Some of you hear the word “solar” and think one thing, “How much?” The system is expensive, but you get what you pay for; most solar hot water systems last 30-40 years with very little maintenance. If you factor in the cost of the solar hot water system, the longevity of the equipment, the feel good factor of helping the environment, AND the money you save every month, combined with the rebates, you really aren’t paying as much as you think.
The federal and state governments have been very generous in giving back our tax dollars to allow us to upgrade our current water heating devices for more energy efficient models. Questar, with the Thermwise program, has allowed natural gas customers to receive cash rebates. Also, the State of Utah still has cash rebates left in their program for upgrading your water heating appliances. These rebates start around 30% up to almost covering the entire cost of the system. The more you spend, the more you get back, which allows homeowners to choose a system that fits their budget and their green initiative.
Basically Cache Valley, as a community, needs to do something about the air quality problem. If we can decide to “go green” as a community then we can watch our valley become a cleaner, healthier place to live. Take advantage of these great rebates to save money, save the environment, and feel good about it!
If you’re interested in getting a FREE quote on a system please call or visit our website at www.bridgeplumbing.net.
Tankless water heating savings
We had a customer send us an email the other day about how cheap his gas bill has gotten since he installed his tankless water heater. Here is a copy of what he sent to us.
Dear Scott,
I hope you and your company are staying busy in this slow economy. I just got
my latest gas bill from Questar Gas.We set a new record low for the monthly
fuel bill. You know already that we conserve a lot in our home, but there is
always room for improvement. And the tankless water heater you put in last
spring is great. Our fuel bill for August of this year was $10.01, and $5.00 of
that was for the service charge. I enclosed a copy of our new low bill for you
to look at, and you can use it for advertising for your company if you want to.
Sincerely
R.A
tankless bill <---- link to bill
Pretty crazy that you can only spend 5 bucks a month on endless hot water and
still save money! If you want in on the savings give us a call to
set up an appointment to have us come over and talk to you about tankless
water heating. Contact us on our contact page
www.bridgeplumbing.net/contact or give us a call at (435) 750-0880
Geothermal Heating and cooling
Has heating or cooling burned a hole in your pocket? Or are you tired of paying loads of money to the propane man every year to get less and less heating out of your system?
We have a solution for you! GEOTHERMAL!
I am going to cover a few points about geothermal. First i want to give a simple explanation on how it works, Then i want to compare it to a forced air system.
HOW IT WORKS
A lot of people look at geothermal and their heads spin around at how complex the system can get. Geothermal is a simple system with complex ways of installing it. Meaning that if you do not know what your doing you can really create a head ache for yourself and whoever is living with the system. Geothermal has two main parts: 1- The heat pump loop and 2- The ground loop. Basically what geothermal is set up to do is to take heat from the earth in the winter and put that heat into your home. Then in the summer it takes that heat from your home and puts it into the ground. Many ask how can that work because the ground is only 40-50 degrees year round. This part of the system is achieved by the heat pump. It uses refrigerant much like a refrigerator uses refrigerant to pull heat out of the inside chamber and displaces that heat to the outside air via the coils in the back. The difference between the heat pump in a geothermal system is that the compressor in the geothermal system is reversible. This would be like a refrigerator being able to heat and cool food by flipping a switch. Geothermal heat pumps take the refrigerant cycle and reverse it from heat to cooling mode thus creating a “heating” or “cooling mode”. It take the heat out of the ground and transfers that heat into the refrigerant in the heat pump loop in the winter and does the opposite in the summer by taking the heat out of the system and put the heat into the ground. Here is a few pictures of the cycle to help illustrate the cycles.
Click on the picture to make it larger.
Here are a few of the ways we can install the ground loops on the geothermal system. We use two of the loop types to most. Those are the horizontal and the vertical loop designs. We can drill the vertical loops almost anywhere. They are usually drilled around 200 feet per ton of cooling. The vertical loops are trenched out 8 feet deep and around 150-200 feet long. Here are a few pictures of what they look like.
The horizontal loop
The vertical loop
The forced air comparison
So if we compare geothermal to forced air is when you can really see how geothermal just “makes sense” If we look at how a heat pump transfers heat through the refridgerant to the ground and vice versa. Geothermal’s heat transfer is not rated by % efficiencies because its is greater then 100% efficient. They way the describe the energy transfer is by using the coefficient of performance. This is pretty simple to have a COP of 2 that means that for every one unit of energy you put in you get 2 units out. So this would mean that the heat pump is 200% efficient. So you look at different heat pump manufacturers and quickly you will realize there aren’t a lot of heat pumps that operate lower then 2.5 if they are installed correctly. There are units that in some modes that can reach COP’s of 8 being 800% efficient. So already having a unit that has a COP of 4 in heating or cooling mode is already more then 4 times more efficient then the best 95% furnace around. This means a few things one you can have longer run times with the heat pumps variable speed blower and have more comfortable heat or cooling in your house instead of having heat swings. (meaning your house gets cold , the furnace turns on and then it gets really hot, it cools and you freeze then you sweat) having a more consistent low speed forced air is able to transfer a more even heat longer allowing you to be more comfortable in the summer and winter. This lets you have longer run times and it costs 4 times less money to operate. I will acknowledge that 95% furnaces do offer variable speed blowers and they can provide comfortable living but at the expense of your pocket. Especially in electric or propane markets locally. If your interested in looking to see how much you could save by installing a Geothermal heating and cooling system in your home here is a link to Hydron Module’s website that will allow you to enter your current system or a similar system and your local utilities and you can see how much you can save.
Hydron Module’s calculator
http://www.hydronmodule.com/calculator
In Cache valley and surrounding areas on Rocky Mountain Power and Questar gas here are a few of the fuel costs.
Questar per therm will vary between $.48 -$.68
Rocky mt power is $.019 cents a KWH
Propane varies we have seen an average of the past 12 months at $1.75 per gallon
Looking at that it will pretty much blow your socks off at how much you can save using a heat pump and a geothermal heating and cooling system in your home. So if your looking at saving money on your heating and cooling bill geothermal heating and cooling is for you! Give us a call and set up an appointment and we can discuss different installation options for your home and area. Contact us on www.bridgeplumbing.net or call us at (435)750-0880
Aqua pure APRO 5500 Reverse osmosis drinking water system
Ever wonder what your drinking and if it was healthy or not? With a reverse osmosis system you can enjoy great tasting water and not have to worry about drinking any contaminates.
Here is a list of a few things that Reverse Osmosis removes.
• Sediment/Rust
• Chlorine Taste & Odor
• Reduction of:
Lead, Arsenic, TDS, Turbidity, Parasitic Pro- tozoan Cysts, Radium, Barium, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Fluoride & Selenium
and don’t forget it removes salt for those of you who do not want to drink soft water if you have a water softener on your home!
Here are the 4 stages of filtration that the water goes through before you drink it.
1. Five micron sediment & rust filtration
2. Activated carbon filtration
3. Reverse osmosis membrane
4. Final activated carbon polishing filtration
• High flux, thin film composite RO membrane that helps provide high quality water production rate, at 25 gallons
• Advanced automatic shut-off helps promote peak efficiency and water conservation
• Includes long reach faucet, 1.8 gallon tank
• Cartridges that are easy to change! No wrenches. 1/4 turn on and 1/4 turn off
• Pre/ Post cartridges last a year and the Reverse osmosis membrane lasts up to 3 years!
Why we choose to install Aqua Pure RO systems.
We have installed our share of Reverse osmosis systems in the years. They are great systems they work fine, But the problem is how many gallons of water are you actually getting and how long does your filters last for? So i look at it this way. Say you buy a R.O at a hardware store for $280.00 it had 2 pre/post filters that cost about $35.00 a piece and the R.O membrane that is $105.00. These pre/post filters last 3 to 6 months and the membrane lasts 1 year. So that takes our total yearly maintenance up to $245.00 so your Reverse osmosis system you bought just costed you $525.00 the first year if you change the filters every 6 months now look at if you have bad water and you have to change them every 3 months. That just took your balance up to $665.00. This same unit that i am talking about will produce 11 gallons of water a day.
Aqua Pure R.O system would cost you about $500.00 online. The pre/post filters last 1 year there are 2 of these filters. They cost $40.00 a piece. The R.O membrane only needs replacement every 3 years and cost about $130.00. This takes your yearly cost to a whopping $580.00 and thats not the best part! these R.O units produce at least 22 gallons per day. So you get double the water, double the filter life and it costs you almost $100.00 less. So then look at it down the road a few years lets say 3 years. By then your Aqua Pure R.O will need a new membrane.
Here are the Results
Hardware store brand is costing you $1,155.00 for 12,045 gallons of water if you use all 11 gallons produced every day. That is costing you .061 cents per gallon of water
(if you factor just filters not the cost of the unit) 4 pre/posts, 1 membrane per year
Aqua Pure brand is costing you $870.00 for 24,090 gallons of water if you use all 22 gallons produced every day. That is costing you .015 cents per gallon of water
(if you factor just filters not the cost of the unit) 2 pre/post yearly , 1 membrane every 3 years
So thats more then 4 times the amount for hopefully the same quality water. So what i have to say to everyone is you get what you pay for! Also it’s a good thing you probably saved that 120.00 bucks when you first bought it because its going to cost you a lot more then that to have it run for you.
Installation
We have 2 types of installations one is right under the sink with all of the equipment the second is away from the sink so you can keep your under the sink space. Here are a few pictures of both installations so you can get an idea of what we can do for you!
Equipment under the sink (before pictures)
After pictures
In mechanical room installation
We don’t have any before pictures because we actually removed the old sink here.
They were able to keep all of their space under the sink by installing down stairs in the mechanical room.
Interested in Reverse Osmosis now? Give us a call at (435) 750-0880 or contact us on our contact page www.bridgeplumbing.net/contact or check out more information on our page at http://www.bridgeplumbing.net/water_filtration
Good bye bad water! Aqua pure APPM 200M and CWS 200 ME Iron filtration and water softening
Are you tired of your house water staining your toilets, shower walls, sinks faucets and other plumbing products? Or have you ever though your water smelt funny or unplesant? Maybe your worried about hard water and the effects of it on your plumbing system and your body. We have the answers for you! I am going to share a story about a home we just wrapped up.
We went out to this home a few months ago to talk about a repipe and some filtration. I showed up it seemed pretty in and out till we started looking at water quality. They were on a well and did not have any filtration attached to their system. We went to the kitchen sink took a water sample and it looked like i took it out of a pond even after letting the water run for a few mins. We tested the water and found the following:
1. The water hardness was 23 GPM ( grains per gallon ) On a national level 1 is soft water and 10 is extremely hard. So what do you call 23?
2. The Iron in the water was pretty thick. 2.5 PPM (parts per million)
3. The seidment in the water was so thick you probably would have had to chew through it to drink the water.
So we did some sizing and found out that the larger iron reduction unit Aqua Pure makes APPM 200M would be the best bang for their buck. Not only does it filter iron but it also filters down to 25 micron of sediment so we killed 2 birds with one stone there. We Then took it through a Aqua Pure CWS 150 ME water softener to take out the other minerals in the water that were causing problems in other areas. If you are having similar problems with your water and would like to have us come and take a sample and test it and get you set up with some filtration give us a call (435) 750-0880 or contact us on our contact page. www.Bridgeplumbing.net/contact
Here is a picture of the finished product
This is the old whole house filter. Can you imagine having to deal with that?
Trenchless sewer replacement
We had a fun one here! First it was in a crawl space, second the person who origionally installed the pipe put it right in the way of getting down there. Then if that wasn’t good enough they back pitched the pipe so all the pipe was full of all kinds of fun goodies to get out of there! We started by cutting out all of the back pitched pipe then we opted to use the pipe burster to pull the line from the crawl space to the clean out outside the house to save digging under the foundation. As the video shows the pipe burster made quick work of the cast iron down there. I thought everyone might enjoy this one to see that this machine can really pull that hard and that fast. We had one a few weeks ago that we burst 80 feet of sewer in less then an hour. If you need a sewer replaced this is the way to do it! Call us at (435)750-0880 for a quote or visit our website at www.bridgeplumbing.net
Here is a link to the video
Trench-less Sewer and water line replacement
It’s official as of yesterday we have received our new pipe bursting equipment! We are able to pipe burst 3-4 inch sewer mains 130 feet at a time. For those of you who have no idea what trench-less line replacement is i will explain it for you. If you have a home where the sewer line needs cleaning frequently and had problems with roots and breakage and needs to be replaced or a water line from your house to the water meter that needs replacement or you would rather have the line replaced then deal with a possible leak or future problems then looking into Trench-less replacement is a great way to replace those lines.
I will give a brief description of how the pipe burster or Trench-less replacement works.
We will first determine where the pipe is located and where the best entrance area would be. Then we Find where we want to exit at. That could be the street city connection or the curb or anywhere. We then excavate the exit hole and entrance hole. Find the pipe cut it and push a cable through the pipe. Once the cable is fished through the pipe we attach one end of the cable to what we call the bursting head. That head attaches to the pipe and is what breaks the old pipe pulls it apart and pulls the new pipe in behind it. We then set up the pulling equipment on the other end and start pulling the new line through. Once we are done pulling we make a few connections and wall-a we are done! I will attach a link to a short video of pipe bursting or you can watch a few clips on our you tube site.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider Trench-less or pipe bursting as others call it.
1. We are able to replace most residential lines with only 2 holes dug in your lawn. One as an entrance pit and the other where we want to stop as the exit pit. This saves time, money in landscape, having to dodge utilitiy lines, Driveways, side walks, asphalt, the list goes on and on.
2. We are able to pull one piece of solid 4” piping through with out joints or places that could cause problems in the future. We use what is called HDPE pipe. This stands for high density poly ethylene. This is a very close relative to PEX piping the same pipe you use in your home for water piping except this pipe is larger and has thicker walls. The life expectancy of this pipe is well over 100 years. So your house is likely to fall down before you will need to replace your sewer line again!
3. HDPE piping is 3 to 4 times thicker pipe then PVC sewer pipe or any other pipe on the market currently used for sewer pipe. This gives roots, rocks and other things that could cause problems a lot harder time at getting into the line. This give you a worry free sewer line. No more worrying about what the trees in your yard might do to the sewer line.
4. When replacing water service lines from your home to the city water meter. We are able to replace theses 99% of the time with one hole at the water meter. We are able to replace the whole line for a comparable cost to try and find the water leak you have on your line. This saves landscape and other things in your yard or driveway from getting torn to shreds by heavy machinery brought in to take care of the problem. We dig a 4′ by 4′ hole around the meter and we are done!
5. The new water services have a guarantee for 30 years against pipe rupture or leakage. Try and find a copper pipe manufacturer that will guarantee his pipe for 30 years buried in the ground!
6. 99% of our jobs are done the same day. This gives you the peace of mind that you will have your water back on by the evening if we start in the morning! No more praying that your contractor that is destroying your lawn will hopefully hook up a temporary water service or sewer service when he leaves that evening. We can pull up to 15 feet a min with our sewer machine and we are even faster with the water lines!
We have more pictures of jobs on our blog here look under the pipe bursting category and you will find a few. If you have any questions contact us at www.bridgeplumbing.net/contact or give us a call (435) 750-0880
Manufactures website video
http://www.trictrenchless.com/products/theMethod/
You Tube Bridge Plumbing videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zT5raIsjiU - Sewer line bursting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW36cQofVJg – Water line Bursting
Rheem 64 DVN tankless
Who said you have to deal with your water heater in the same place. This Tankless we installed we actually moved about 20 feet to an up stairs location and tucked it out of the way! The basement the tank type water heater was in didn’t have a floor drain so if the tank burst it would have flooded everything down there. So we moved it up stairs out of the way right next to a floor drain. Everything went smooth. We choose to put in the AP430 Scale stopper inline to keep the scale out of the unit. We still have a few more Rheem tankless units that we need to get rid of. They are awesome units and will heat your water nice and toasty hot for your long shower or for that nice bath you haven’t been getting because your tank heater takes too dang long to heat up the water! Call us to get a quote our check out our website and contact us www.bridgeplumbing.net
What the Cesspool!
So we went on quite the wild goose chase today! We were called out last week on a sewer problem. We responded to the call and found that the customer had pulled up their drive way and found a pit under it. So the decided to fill the pit with concrete. That was the demise of their cesspool. Cesspools are different from septic tanks because instead of being full of water all of the time the water is drained out of it through the bottom and the solid waste is left inside the tank. Cesspools only have a limited lifespan because they can fill up and most of the time you cannot clean them out. This one we were dealing with had a wooden cover so it would have been quite the surprise to drive our tractor over that and fall in.
This is where the story gets interesting. We called into the city and they told us that they showed a sewer lateral on the property and that it was right by the water service so we dig and dig and dig some more and ended up digging a 20 foot long trench 8 and a half feet deep and didn’t find squat! So we decided to run a lateral from the house to the curb and call it a day and get back out there to install a new service from the city main into the property. What a head ache looking for something you do not want to break and having no clue where it would be. It defiantly makes for an interesting day!
