The USF is a public university with its main campus located in Tampa. About 10% of the school’s almost 40,000 undergraduate students live in one of the 44 on-campus dormitories. After temporarily shutting down during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, dorms reopened to students in the Fall of 2021.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Beacon Hall, the newest addition to the university’s on-campus dormitory buildings, opened in August of 2017. A coed, six-story construction, the dorm houses 378 residents in a mix of traditional and suite-style rooms.
Since opening, the 5th-floor gang shower, which is located in the center of the floor with student rooms lining the exterior of the building, had experienced a lot of hot water issues.
Mike Bishop, VP of Engineering at RGD Consulting Engineers stated: “Students used to turn on the showers, go to breakfast for 30 minutes, then come back to shower when the water was hot. Otherwise, they were taking a cold shower.”
A major inconvenience to students and a huge waste of water for the university, the system’s hot water demands needed to be re-evaluated.
THE INSTALLATION
After unsuccessful attempts to rectify the hot water supply and balancing issues, the developer contacted RGD Consulting Engineers.
Mike Bishop discovered that the manual balancing valves were a major roadblock in the DHW system functioning correctly due to its inability to adapt to changing system demands, and, with no question, recommended CircuitSolver thermostatic balancing valves.
Working with Spirit Group, a CircuitSolver representative in Florida, thirteen ½” CircuitSolver valves were installed at the end of each branch and one ½” CircuitSolver was placed on the return line to the water heater.
HOW THE CIRCUITSOLVER WORKS
The CircuitSolver® is a thermostatic balancing valve that automatically and continuously adjusts flow through a DHW system to maintain a specified temperature at the end of each hot water supply line. This keeps the system fully balanced with hot water available at all times and on all floors, even with variable and intermittent demands.
On startup, the system automatically balanced itself in under 3 hours, all without manual labor. “In the meantime, the plumber actually went out a did another job,” Bishop mentions, “Then they went and got breakfast, and when they came back [the DHW system] was balanced.”
THE RESULT
Since the installation of CircuitSolvers, all balancing issues in the Beacon Hall dormitory have been resolved. Students are able to take hot showers without 30-minute wait times, and complaints have ceased. Water usage has plummeted, and the extra recirculation pump was removed, effectively reducing utility usage.
As for Mike Bishop, in this balancing case study, he says that the contractor on the job reported a favorable experience. “He was ecstatic! This was his first CircuitSolver job, but he’s going to start using it everywhere.”
Residential CircuitSolver Installation Case Study – The Austonian in Austin, TX
Below is a CircuitSolver® success story brought to you from the Lone Star state:
Located in the heart of Austin, TX, The Austonian is a premier luxury residence boasting 360° views, unparalleled amenities, and a Four Star rating from Austin Energy Green Building. Towering over downtown at 683 feet tall, The Austonian is the tallest residential tower west of the Mississippi River.
Despite its laundry list of amenities, The Austonian’s managers were not satisfied with the hot water delivery time to the building’s units. In some cases, 2-3 minutes were needed for warm water to reach fixtures.
A team of engineers was assembled and tasked with finding a solution and improving hot water delivery times.
With more than 50 floors to retrofit, the CircuitSolver® was deemed the ideal and only solution to The Austonian’s domestic hot water system challenge.
Hot water distribution lines had originally been placed in corridor ceilings and branched into residential units during construction. Certified plumbers installed CircuitSolver® in each unit’s ceiling near the hot water return line. Located behind false air vents for easy access, shut-off valves were placed on either side of the CircuitSolver® for ease of maintenance in the future.
A majority of the work done was in corridors and access to private residences had to be scheduled. Fortunately construction time in residences was minimized due to CircuitSolver’s® simple installation and set-up.
The Austonian
Residents are reportedly pleased with improved hot water delivery times following CircuitSolver® installation. Units with wait times of multiple minutes saw a dramatic reduction, and fixtures now reach proper temperature in 20-30 seconds. A reduction of water waste and the implementation of lower horsepower pumps has also resulted in significant utility cost savings.
This success story is one among many, and thousands of installations around the country benefit from implementing the CircuitSolver®.
Should you have any questions about implementing the CircuitSolver®, please do not hesitate to contact our dedicated team of product experts.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare operates five facilities throughout Northern Kentucky, including St. Elizabeth Healthcare Edgewood, a state-of-the-art general medical and surgical facility.
As a healthcare facility serving the larger Cincinnati metro area, there is a constant flow of patients, visitors, and medical personnel through their halls. Unfortunately, the hot water was not flowing quite so quickly. For years the hospital had dealt with an unreliable and unbalanced hot water supply. The domestic hot water system’s (DHWS) return runs were operating inefficiently, leaving some of the hospital wings completely without hot water at times.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare
To address this problem, MarkCo Plumbing installed around 90 CircuitSolver® balancing valves in their DHWS. CircuitSolvers were installed at the end of each hot water branch in the system, replacing the manual balancing valves.
These self-actuating, thermostatic recirculation valves automatically and continuously adjusted the flow to maintain the specified temperature at the end of each domestic hot water supply line. No manual balancing was required.
After the successful CircuitSolver® installation, St. Elizabeth Healthcare Edgewood now has access to an on-demand hot water supply in all wings, on every floor, at every fixture. CircuitSolver® was able to balance the system when engineers could not.
Where manual balancing fails, CircuitSolver® delivers.
About CircuitSolver®:
The CircuitSolver® is a thermostatic, self-actuating balancing valve that continuously and automatically adjusts the flow through each branch of a domestic hot water recirculation system to maintain the specified temperature at the end of each branch, regardless of fluctuations in hot water demand. It is a direct replacement for manual balancing valves and eliminates balancing labor and callbacks.
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