This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Steam-and hot-water heating joined hands a long time ago to make up what we today call “hydronics.” Both systems run on water, and they’ve been around for hundreds of years. The Institute of Boiler and Radiation Manufacturers coined the term hydronics in 1946 to make the science of heating a building with water sound sexy — like “electronics.”
So this fella comes up to me after a hot-water seminar and tells me about a problem he's having with this copper-fintube baseboard loop he installed in this big hall with a bunch of offices. "I can't get the end hot," he said.
I asked a bunch of heating contractor friends what was missing from their wholesaler’s stock and how they felt about that. They had some interesting things to say and I thought you might want to listen in.
Ever been to Ocean City, Maryland? It’s a summertime wonderland, and I was lucky enough years ago to get hired to do a seminar on hydronic radiant heating for a group of contractors who were having a conference there.
Before I retired in 2016, I’d get a lot of calls from lawyers who wanted to hire me to be an expert witness at a trial. They were almost always representing a building owner. I always said “no thank you,” because I like to keep stress out of my life.
Gil Carlson, who was the first person to come up with many of the hydronic concepts we take
for granted today, was also my teacher. He would often say, “For a difference to be a difference, it has to make a difference.”
It’s that time of the year when we’re supposed to get ready to make a resolution or two that will last a few weeks until we slouch back into our usual routines. You know how it goes. The stationary bike sure makes for a great clothes hanger, doesn’t it?
If you’re lucky in life, you’ll occasionally have a conversation with someone that will stay with you forever. Maybe it was something your spouse said when you least expected it, or perhaps it was your child showing you a reflection of the sky in a puddle after a storm.