by Guy Van Meulebrouck PE (Lakeland, Florida)

 The 2010 Florida Building Code came into effect last March. Each new building code has more and more energy conservation measures. It is not uncommon now to see new buildings and additions having 30% less energy bills than buildings of 5 or 10 years ago. Where is it going to end? Believe it or not, the American Society of Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) rolled out a master plan that dares to discuss progressively more and more energy conserving buildings right up to the seeming impossible-zero energy buildings! Clearly, we won’t be seeing too many zero energy buildings in the next years, but I hear 10 such buildings do exist right now. As technology marches on (maybe 15 years down the road) more and more buildings will achieving this zero energy goal (or close to it). For now let’s look at this year’s energy code.

Just how does one come up with a net zero energy building? Well, to start with the building cannot afford to waste too much energy, but that only takes things so far. The building has to actually produce some energy somewhere (or harvest energy that otherwise goes to waste). Sometimes, one has to consider a collection of buildings together to get more chances to trade off energy benefits. For example, a building that make’s it’s own electricity with co-generation winds up having a lot of extra heat produced by the generator. A neighboring building might be able to use that heat for domestic hot water load. Other examples of buildings generating their own energy include photovoltaics, solar water heaters, geothermal, solid waste converters, and windmills.

 Getting back to what the new Florida Energy Code means to facilities engineers and building owners is that the days of paying energy conservation consultants to whittle down energy bills are changing. Now, buildings are coming right out of the ground now as highly energy efficient. Like energy savings plans of old, this comes at a cost. The construction costs for new buildings and additions will reflect more insulation and shading. I was surprised though when I looked into the cost impact from the windows. There are a lot of costs involved in windows. First and foremost is the cost to have impact rated windows. The cost of the window frames and installation appears to carry more weight than the cost of the glass. This means that improving the quality of the window tint doesn’t necessarily effect the overall cost of the window itself. I spoke with Randy Kah, owner of Carrolwood Window and Door (in Tampa), regarding the impact of the new energy codes on glass costs. I was surprised to learn that what used to amount to a 30% to 40% jump is window costs due to upgrading to high efficiency glass (like Low-E or reflective glass) is now more like a 10% cost increase. Randy’s explanation for this had to do with the higher demand for high performance windows. If you figure in a 10% increase in window cost with buying less windows in new buildings and additions-you never know-the new codes may be less expensive in some aspects. When you figure in the savings in heating and air conditioning costs and the increase in comfort that comes from Low-E or reflective glass, the subject gets more interesting yet.

Whatever changes we will all see in the first cost of building in Florida, is not all bad since many of the older buildings came with far more lighting than they needed (and the air conditioning systems were larger because of it). Clearly, the cost of putting better energy and lighting systems into the building during construction is going to be less than the cost to rip out the old and install new.

Below are excerpts from the 2010 Florida Energy Code, as they apply to commercial buildings

 For new construction here are the values in Table 502.1.1.1:

Roof insulation-R-40

Walls: R-30 (quite a jump from before!) Walls are required to have an absorptance of 0.3 or less.

Floors above grade: R-30

Windows: U- value of 0.45 or better (the lower the U value, the better). This means quality double pane windows.

Window Tinting (SHGC):

0.25 or less for 1% to 40% window/wall ratio (that is a high level of tint)

0.19 or better for 40% to 50% window to wall ration (examples of 0.19 tint would be dark tint or reflective tints)

window to wall ratios above 50% are not allowed without specialized modeling to prove the overall building is still energy conserving despite the increased glazing.

Doors: U-value of 0.70 or less if swinging doors; (U-1.45 for non-swinging doors).

Floor Slabs on Grade: R-7.5 for 12 inches below the top of the slab or to the top of the footing, whichever is less, or downward to at least the bottom of the slab and then horizontally to the exterior or the interior for the total distance (502.2.3.1.2).

 All openings in the building must be sealed with caulk or gaskets.

 As before, lay-in ceilings are not acceptable air barriers below ventilated attics. All openings in hard ceilings below ventilated attics must be sealed. This includes recess lights, holes for wires and pipes, the openings cut out for supply air registers and grilles.

Renovations have slightly less stringent energy requirements.

The Florida Building Code is 100% accessible on line, for free. Here is the link:

 http://www.ecodes.biz/ecodes_support/free_resources/2010Florida/Building/PDFs/

Florida has taken a more aggressive stance on energy conservation codes compared to other states (with the exception of Oregon). A building official mentioned to me once that the reason for this was concern and emphasis form our former governor imparted to the code writing teams about the environment.

 For those facilities managers in Florida’s hospitality industry, the residential code incurred some significant changes as well. One significant impact was the amount of glass allowed and the quality of glass tint required. Windows in new residential occupancies also need the high tint, shading, and limited square footage.

 Here are my notes from reviewing the new 2010 Florida Energy Code. Just like the new residential energy code, the commercial energy code for 2010 calls for significantly more energy efficient buildings. This trend will likely continue in subsequent codes as well.

 For new construction here are the values in Table 502.1.1.1:

Roof insulation-R-40

Walls: R-30 (quite a jump from before!!!) Walls are required to have an absorptance of 0.3 or less.

Floors above grade: R-30

Windows: U- value of 0.45 or better (the lower the U value, the better). This means quality double pane windows.

Window Tinting (SHGC):

0.25 or less for 1% to 40% window/wall ratio (that is a high level of tint)

0.19 or better for 40% to 50% window to wall ration (examples of 0.19 tint would be dark tint or reflective tints)

window to wall ratios above 50% are not allowed without specialized modeling to prove the overall building is still energy conserving despite the increased glazing.

Doors: U-value of 0.70 or less if swinging doors; (U-1.45 for non-swinging doors).

Floor Slabs on Grade: R-7.5 for 12 inches below the top of the slab or to the top of the footing, whichever is less, or downward to at least the bottom of the slab and then horizontally to the exterior or the interior for the total distance (502.2.3.1.2).

 All openings in the building must be sealed with caulk or gaskets.

 As before, lay-in ceilings are not acceptable air barriers below ventilated attics. All openings in hard ceilings below ventilated attics must be sealed. This includes recess lights, holes for wires and pipes, the openings cut out for supply air registers and grilles.

an energy star partner

Renovations have slightly less stringent energy requirements.

Of course, with all these increased energy conservation measures, the first cost of buildings tends to go up. Not just for the architectural portion, but the mechanical and electrical portions of the building’s first cost can go up too. I was surprised however when I checked into the glass prices. I called a local vendor and found out the increase in glass prices was not all that great due to energy conservation (the hurricane rating changes was a different story). If you consider a small increase in glass and a net decrease in the amount of glass one is allowed, some buildings might actually see a decrease in first costs due to glass. After factoring in the reduced air conditioning loads and resulting electrical loads-the bottom line net cost impact due to the new energy codes will depend on each building’s unique aspects. Considering the overall life cycle costs, the energy savings will come back to building owners for the life of the building. I would have to say that indoor comfort is likely to increase with these new buildings.

You can access Florida’s 2010 Building Codes online at:

www.ecodes.biz/ecodes_support/free_resources/2010Florida/Energy/10FL_Energy.html

 Guy Van Meulebrouck PE

consulting engineer

Lakeland, Florida

copyright April, 2012.  Please contact me for permission to reprint/link (see tab “Contact Us”).

You can access the new Florida Energy Code at: www.ecodes.biz/ecodes_support/free_resources/2010Florida/Energy/10FL_Energy.html

The general intent of the new code is to require Florida residential buildings to be 20% more energy efficient than previous dwellings. I suspect future codes will push for even more energy efficient homes from here on out until we can’t possibly offer better buildings (zero energy buildings are actually getting built in the US now and technology will likely make such things more affordable in the coming years).

Once again, air handlers are not allowed in attics (402.1.2.2). If you look at the definition of attic, spray foam ” attics” are not counted as attics since they are within the air barrier and thermal barrier of the building.

While there are exceptions, the basics for residences are:
• 20% glass area, max.
• Double pane windows with 0.30 SHGC. This means a substantial tint. The exceptions mention that the degree of tinting can be lessened to SHGC 0.50 or higher if the windows are shaded by effective overhangs. I didn’t find much detail about how to determine how much the tinting can be raised for how much overhang. I suspect the new software will automatically address that.
• R30 roof insulation.
• Roof reflectance of .25 (or better).
• R13 walls (for wood walls)/R7.8 for solid walls.
• Exposed floors above grade: R13 insulation.
• All openings in the air barrier must be sealed (Section 402.4.1) This includes sealing between windows/doors and their openings. It also includes all openings into the air barrier-whether for recessed lighting, wires and pipes, etc. It also includes where walls join slabs and where walls join floor systems and roof structure.
• Recessed lights into vented attic spaces must be IC rated for this duty (sealed air tight).

www.ecodes.biz/ecodes_support/free_resources/2010Florida/Energy/10FL_Energy.html has the full version of the code for your reference.

Just because we have building codes regarding protecting buildings from catching on fire from lighting strikes does not mean that sensitive electronics are protected from lighting.    Data loss, if you are really unlucky, can really add up dollar wise.  No doubt, having computers damaged by lighting is a serious setback to business.  Come to think of it, what some people spend on large screen entertainment systems can make lighting a home and a business tragedy.  Florida has more than it’s share of lighting.  I recall watching one lighting storm that lit the sky horizon to horizon for 12 minutes straight.  It makes sense that practical technology on anticipating lighting would be common in Florida.  Through the years, I have been able to talk with various Floridian electrical engineers, electricians and building owners about problems with lighting.  I have even incurred some strikes myself.  I personally am not an expert in electrical engineering, but someone has to spread the word a little faster (it took me 8 years to accumulate

all of this article).  So, here is a summary of what I have learned living in Florida about lightning protection.  And folks if you have your own experience to add to this -by all means email me.

It’s no secret that lightning can harm computers and electronics.  But practical advice for protecting computers from lightning is actually obscured by myths.  So, I thought I would shed some myths regarding lighting protection.  Once done, the door opens up for large scale handlings for lighting that don’t necessarily cost that much.

MYTH:  I CAN TELL IF LIGHTING HAS DAMAGED MY ELECTRONICS IF THERE ARE HUGE SPARKS AND FIRES.   Clearly, that would be a good indicator of lighting, but electronics can be damaged by much smaller current surges.  You may not have any clue your

electronics have been struck other than strange behavior.  In a world where viruses and software conflicts pop up unexpectedly, it can take a while to discover that some of your electronics strange behavior is actually damaged components.

MYTH: IF MY BUILDING HAS A GROUND, THAT COVERS THE SUBJECT OF LIGHTING PROTECTION.  Actually, it’s a start.  Ben Franklin was the one who discovered that grounding wooden sailing ships kept them from being destroyed at sea from lighting.  But there are many ways lighting has to get at computers and grounding is only a part of the protection needed.  Worse yet, while building codes require a substantial ground on the main electrical power system;  Codes do not require adequate grounding on telephone and cable systems.  I was troubled to find the internet installation team grounding the internet satellite dish to the hose bibb.  When I pointed out that the hose bibb was attached to plastic pipe in typical Florida buildings, the technic

ian shrugged and said he has not materials or knowledge to do anything else.  Another technician tried to dismiss the subject by saying building departments forbid satellite installers from installing proper grounding rods (???).  To get adequate lighting protection, add 8 foot copper grounding rods and thick grounding wire to where your telephone and cable enter the building.  Ground rods offer a quick,safe, and convenient path for electricity surges to follow but electricity is opportunistic.  If the ground wire is 10o times easier a path to follow that the rest of the electrical system, most of the electricity will follow that and a small fraction (say 1/10o) will follow the more restricted path.  Also, it is not a bad idea to have multiple grounds, as long as they are all bonded together (by bonded I mean interconnected with an oversized wire-typically braided underneath the ground).

MYTH:  IF I HAVE A SURGE ARRESTOR THAT I PLUG MY COMPUTER INTO, THAT COVERS MY COMPUTER.  First of all, electrical power is onl

y one path into the computer.  Internet is the other.  Unless the internet modem is protected by the power strip, consider the back door wide open.  Secondly, a surge arrestor is designed to blow when a sufficiently large current tries to pass through it.  If you break that action down into tiny steps-step one is a large overdose of electricity passing through the surge arrestor and heating  it up (typically melting fuses). Step two is the arrestor breaks the continuity of the electrical path.  So, even when a surge arrestor works, a short blast can pass through.

MYTH: IF I RENT; THERE ISN’T ANYTHING I CAN DO ABOUT PROTECTING THE MAIN ENTRANCES FOR POWER AND COMMUNICATIONS.    It is worth checking into how your rented building is protected centrally.  If you don’t like what you see, it is a mutual interest of the landlord to protect the building.  Most utility companies will gladly install surge arrestors on the power side.  It

doesn’t cost too much ($500 tops) and I hear some utility companies install them for you for free.  Others will wrap the cost into the utility bills for a few months for you.  This is chump change compared to replacing your electronics.

MYTH: ONE SURGE ARRESTOR IS ALL I NEED ON EACH PATH (ONE FOR POWER, ONE FOR INTERNET).  One is good.  I would count a good ground as a second, but it doesn’t have to stop there, especially since surge arrestors are so inexpensive in the first place.   It is not difficult to increase to three or four levels of protection.  I bought surge arrestors for the internet and cable TV for 60$ each.  They simply screwed into the cables.  I bought a surge arrestor for the main electrical panel for $100 or so.  I had to pay a licensed electrician to install it, but while he was at it, $50 bought a surge arrestor for the meter. ( A modest cost increase).  It is not expensive to come out of your main surge protector (mine is an APC battery backup/power conditioner) and

then plug those cables into a cheap surge arrestor strip. Most companies have them lying around anyway.  Same for the internet. I just bought a surge strip with cable plug-ins for $40 and it has a guaranty on it’s surge arrestance.   The logic that I am following here  is that a huge strike can pass some electricity in the process of tripping the main surge arrestor.  A downstream surge arrestor can be smaller in capacity and take up the excess.  I have even heard that a large scale surge arrestors are sometimes designed to trip during large current surges, but small surges can pass through without tripping them.  Here is another benefit of the second arrestor.

MYTH: LIGHTING ONLY TRAVELS FROM THE SKY TO THE GROUND.  I have some first hand experience with this one.  Lighting can travel across the ground once it hits.  I have heard it can travel a mile or more.  I suppose if the ground is real wet, that would make the horizontal movement of lighting even easier.  In my case, I was mountain climbing in Colorado when an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in.  We were most of the way up a rock face when we realized that lighting might be coming at us.  By the time it was my turn to rappel down off of the rock, it was raining

look closely at bldg on right

and lighting was all around.  Knowing that a wet rope is a conductor and the rope was wrapped around my waist made the 2 minute rappel seem like an eternity until I was safely free from the rope.  Once done, we very quickly scrambled down the mountain through the trees while the lighting continued.  I had paused to look up at my climbing team mates coming down the mountain when I saw a log near me jiggle.  Next an electric bolt jumped out of the log,  split into 6 bolts of electricity, and went into the wet metal eyelets of my boots.  I wasn’t hurt by it, but I learned an important lesson none the less.  So, lighting traveling across the ground can actually enter the building through the ground wires and any other path that presents itself.  That is another reason why I was saying earlier that a ground is a good start but I would not rely on just a ground for lighting protection.  I recently attended a lighting protection lecture  by Eritech (a lighting protection manufacturer) which explained that the surge downward from a lighting strike can be met with an upward smaller surge from the nearby ground to the sky.  If you look closely at the photograph, there is an obvious lighting strike on the building on the left, and a more subtle lighting discharge on the building next to it.  I believe this represents the upcurrent Eritech was talking about.

MYTH: THE MODEM HAS BUILT IT LIGHTING PROTECTION.  Wishful thinking.  These devices have to be cost competitive in a brisk market place.  Not every  part of this huge country of ours  is concerned that much about lighting so why price your device out of the market place by adding things that the other modems don’t have?

MYTH: THE CABLE AND TELEPHONE COMPANY NECESSARILY TAKE CARE OF LIGHTING PROTECTION SO I DON’T NEED TO.  Maybe some do, but I do not recommend assuming this is the case.  Imagine a large commercial building with $250,000 worth of HVAC controls running the air conditioning system. Now imagine the phone modem being an entrance point for lighting and wrecking all of the digital controllers in the building.   A 100$ surge arrestor can save a huge amount of grief later on.  Imagine an office with 20 computers having to replace them all, and the data on them….versus a couple of hundred dollars spent in the right place at the right time.

Thanks for tuning in again.  Until Later!

These booklets are part of a long term commitment by ASHRAE to help create a world where buildings use dramatically less energy.  The first stage was to release booklets that describe step by step information on how to save 30% on energy buildings being designed.  I had mentioned these booklets on my home page.

The new stage is 50% energy reductions.  So far one free  booklet is available in this category (for small offices).  By the time you read this, there will probably more types of buildings available.

In the future, expect guidelines for even higher energy targets.  By the time 100% energy savings is a reality-buildings will likely need to be linked together with surrounding buildings in terms of energy features (like co-generation, waste heat recovery etc).

ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers) is in the process of releasing booklets free to all interested people with practical step by step information that makes a building save a projected 50% of the energy bills of conventional buildings being designed.  To keep things simple, ASHRAE dedicates each booklet to a specific type of building: small offices/retail/warehouses/motels/educational/smaller healthcare facilities.

These booklets are part of a long term commitment by ASHRAE to help create a world where buildings use dramatically less energy.  The first stage was to release booklets that describe step by step information on how to save 30% on energy buildings being designed.  I had mentioned these booklets on my home page.

The new stage is 50% energy reductions.  So far one booklet is available in this category (for small offices).

In the future, expect guidelines for even higher energy targets.  By the time 100% energy savings is a reality-buildings will likely need to be linked together with surrounding buildings in terms of energy features (like cogeneration, solid waste converters, geothermal,waste heat recovery etc).  By surrounding buildings cooperating with each other two new possibilities open up. For example-  expensive power generation options become more affordable when they are shared by 3 buildings.  Another example is to have possibilities open up for sending otherwise wasted energies to surrounding buildings that have the ability to use it.  Let’s say one building can generate more rainwater than it can use and another building can generate solar photovoltaic on weekends but needs none on the weekends.
http://www.ashrae.org/publications/page/aedg50pct
http://aedg.ashrae.org/Default.aspxhttp://aedg.ashrae.org/Default.aspx

If you would like a PDF copy of one of these energy guideline documents with the architectural or electrical items of interest highlighted-contact me through the “contact us” page on this website!

2. What influenced your decision to hire them?

3. How do you feel about engineers?

4.  Are there any services you wish engineers offered?

5.  Are you a building owner?

6.  Are you an architect?

7.  Are you a contractor?

Thank you for participating in this survey.  This survey has been a worthwhile experience so far.   I was fascinated how the survey results I have gotten so far were different that I would have guessed.

Energy Transfer at earth's surface (from NASA)

This illustration was produced to help explain global warming.  Notice anything strange?  As a mechanical engineer,  we were taught in engineering school to define boundaries of whatever we are studying and include all energy within the boundary and crossing the boundary.  So I am calling attention to energy transfer from the center of the earth the the earth’s crust. It is not represented in the above illustration.  I have not found any information on this subject that a non-astro-geophysicist type like me could understand, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. If any readers out there can enlighten us on the core of the earth’s exact contribution to soil temperatures, please do.

Anyway, the core of the earth is molten hot-it must be cooling through time.  This means the earth’s crust transfers it’s energy somehow into outer space.    Once again, exactly how this ties in with global warming is beyond me but I hope that some of the readers can enlighten me on this a little bit- for the sake of global warming and geothermal engineering.

From the graph below, it is easy to see that the ground in Florida takes in a lot of heat during the summer.  If the Gulf of Mexico water warms up to above 85F in the summer, it is simple to see that the ground in Florida also heats up seasonally too.  For geothermal in Florida, this means that the heat pump heating system is fighting against nature to pull heat out of the ground in winter and fighting nature all summer long to push off it’s heat from the already warmed up soil.

So the point in Florida is– why fight nature when Florida is blessed with an enormous aquifer below it that keeps a stable temperature in the mid/lower 70F’s all year long?  If you could ask an air conditioner if it would rather reject heat to 76 degree water, 95 degree air, or say 82 degree soil-it will tell you 76 degree water every time!

If you ask a geothermal heat pump if it would rather suck heat from 76 degree water, 45 degree air, or say 66 degree soil- it would tell you 76 degree water every time!

Florida is so fortunate to have this unique geological asset-the huge aquifers.   I believe that despite all the poorly designed and poorly installed geothermal systems out there in Florida-geothermal has a brilliant future.  The future is particularly bright for buildings which get used 24/7 and/or for buildings with larger or steady heating demands associated with them.

The colored map below shows the size and extent of the Florida aquifer.   If you look closely, you will see the outline of Florida in the large blue area.

want to reprint or link to this article?  please include my name and contact info and let me know what/where this blog will be re-appearing.  Thanks!

Guy Van Meulebrouck PE

FIRE ANTS IN FLORIDA

Florida has an abundance of pests.  Fire ants are a nuisance around buildings.  Actually, I got bit by fire ants a few times in my bed, sleeping at night!   The ants had gotten inside the house and considered the area below the carpet as a freeway system all around the house.  At any given time, I can find about a dozen fire ant nests around my house and inside my garden.  One has to admire their persistence.

Did you know fire ants can communicate during the defense of their nests in such a way that all the ants bite at the same time?  I found this out the hard way when I was brand new to Florida and didn’t know what fire ants were.

Out of curiosity,  I have torn apart fire ant nests and found as many as 10 queen ants in the nest.  I dug one nest out and found it was about 28″ deep.  I have never been able to eliminate fire ants for any length of time, but I have learned ways to keep them in check.

I have heard a variety of natural remedies for the pesty fire ants in Florida.  Here is a discussion of folk remedies I have heard about and my degrees of success with them.  By all means, please feel free to communicate your remedies and experiences!

GETTING RID OF FIRE ANTS

1.  Soda Water. Actually worked!  I’d say about 65% of the time- the carbon dioxide gassed the little buggers and took out the nest.   As soon as one dumps the soda water on the nest, put something over the nest to trap the CO2 gas around the nest-like the top from a pizza box, a wet page of newpaper, etc.

2.  Quick Grits.  It took me a few years to try this one out.  It sounded crazy.   Turns out it worked about 35% of the time. One leaves traces of quick grits on the ground about 8″ away from the nest.  The ants take the grits into the nest as food.  They feed the grits to the queens.  The grits are dry and expand in their stomachs and rip their little bellies open.  Bon appetit and good riddance!

3.  Gasoline.  Of course this works.  Gasoline is hardly good for your lawn or garden. In fact it is a human poison as well.  If you have a water well, gasoline is nothing you want percolating into the well either.  BUT, if you light it on fire, it leaves behind carbon and dead ants.  Obvious warning, if you try this and do something stupid (like lighting the gas while there is spilled gas on your hand, or keeping the gas can next to the burn area)–then you will be among the casualties.  I found that the fumes from the gas were actually more destructive to the ants  than the heat- so I recommend letting the gas sit for a  minute before lighting it.  I only found about an 80% success rate with this one.

4.  Flooding:  this won’t kill the ants but it sure puts the idea of moving the nest into their busy little minds.  I have had about a 65% success with this one.

5.  Harrasment:  smashing the pile with sticks really gets ‘em going.  It turns out ants ( like humans) appreciate peace, quiet and security in their home.  Getting disturbed can convince them to move.  This treatment won’t kill the nest, only convince them to move somewhere else.  I see about a 60% success with this.  I reserve this treatment to get them out of the garden (near edible plants) to somewhere where I can get at them with more powerful measures.

6.  Third party technique.  This method is interesting.  One takes a small shovel full of one ant nest and walks it over to the some other nest.  Dump the ants onto the foreign nest and viola!  The two nests are now are war with each other.  Just for the heck of it, I then take a small shovel full of that nest and walk it over to the yet another nest and dump it there.  There is something satisfying about seeing the two nest going to war with each other and finally having something useful to bite instead of me and my dogs.  I would guess about a 60% success rate with this one.  The larger the nest the lower the success rate. The larger ant piles didn’t seem to mind the commotion too much since they had so many reserves of ants on board to fight future battles.  I would never advocate using this technique on humans though.  To the contrary-any time one sees two people (or two countries) fighting I recommend looking around for some one in the background who might have something to gain from creating antagonism.

7.  Boiling water.  I heard this one when I first moved to Florida.  I tried it out on sugar ants and it worked.  The heat causes expansion and that is one thing that exoskeletons cannot handle.  It forces the ant’s hard outside shell to crack open.  Judging by the size of some of the fire ant nest I dug up once I would say plan on a lot of hot water for a large established colony.

DEALING WITH ANT BITES

Naturally, anyone who lives around fire ants gets bit.  I learned  a great natural remedy for the sting of the fire ant bites.  I put Castor Oil on the bite.  Castor Oil seems to draw all types of toxins out of skin.  As soon as you feel some releif, that means the toxins have worked out through the skin and should get washed off with soap and water.  I have had good luck with this for spider bites too.  In extreme cases (like brown recluse) I put wool and heat over the Castor Oil to help it draw out better.

Anyway, hope this helps other Floridians keep their fire ants under control without having to use poisons all the time.

Once again, let me know about your insect control experiences!  I wouldn’t have learned any of these techniques without neighbors offering their experiences.

Sometimes well pumps get selected because the same exact pump got used successfully on another project. It would be a coincidence if the same pump conditions existed on two different projects. Since flow measurement is not always provided for on systems that aren’t engineered, it is difficult to say if “working right” means doing the job without wasting energy.

Once an owner asked me to use a pump he found on the internet and liked.  The pump  wasn’t capable of sucking water high enough out of the ground to work in the Florida aquifer application.  The owner reported that the well flowed artesian so it didn’t matter.  Conferring with the well driller confirmed that the artesian effect of the well was only seasonal.  This meant the pump would only be able to draw water out of the well during rainy season.

Well pumps are the heart of the system.  Oversizing a geothermal well pump “just to be sure” defeats the purpose of geothermal, which is to save energy.  For example, the power a pump consumes increases with the increase of head in the system.  Consider a pump that puts out 10% more head than needed.  The pump motor would consume 15% more energy.  If the geothermal pump runs 24/7, that is a lot of wasted energy. If that 15% more energy is the reason a pump motor is say 5 horse instead of 3 horse- the owner could wind up paying $1,300 per year in wasted energy.  Increasing pump size can increase electrical size and both of these impact the first cost and payback of the system.  In cases like this there is more than just energy cost and payback involved in improperly selecting a pump.

I have seen geothermal well  pumps selected that worked successfully but had required extra head solely because the pump was the same diameter as the well.  If you think about how a submersible well pump is constructed, the well water must flow past the motor to get into the pump itself.  I calculated the velocity of the water passing between the motor and the side of the well.  It was high enough to cause abrasion on the well wall and add significantly to the pump head.

Sometimes people are led into a sense of false security because the geothermal pump has a variable speed drive on it.  True the drive can be adjusted to various conditions and cover a lot of flow possibilities, but did you know that the head that the pump puts out drops when the variable speed drive slows the flow down?  There is often a cutoff point where the head cannot safely drop any lower and have the system work right. There is also a point where reducing the flow into a heat exchanger can cause a dramatic loss of capacity because the water is traveling too slowly through the heat exchanger.

On one occasion, I saw two different geothermal systems with variable speed drives on each system feed into a common discharge well.  Engineers are trained to know why two parallel systems cannot always seamlessly tie together when each system has it’s own variable speed drive.

Most recently, my own domestic well was designed and installed by the well driller.  The chlorine injection pump turned out to be oversized by a factor of 4 or 5.  The pump has a variable flow dial on it but it is incapable of operating in the range needed.  In order to get proper performance out of the over-sized pump we need to continually dilute the chlorine tank and test and monitor it carefully each week.  This type of pump costs the same no matter what size one buys so putting the the correct size pump wouldn’t cost anything additional.

The bottom line is that a certain amount of engineering is required to properly select a geothermal pump and each application is different in some way or another.  The money spent to engineer a system can pay for itself sometime in just the service calls that get avoided later.

Guy Van Meulebrouck PE

10947 US Highway 98 North

an energy star partner

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Engineers solve specific problems for people by combining science, business, and economics.  Dictionaries don’t even know this.  Many college graduates with engineering degrees are left to figure this out for themselves.  Now you know it!

Building engineers work with architects and contractors in order to help create the environments that life takes place in.   As much as people love the outdoors; most of life takes place indoors.  Children are conceived indoors (for the most part), children are born indoors, children are schooled indoors, we eat and sleep indoors, etc, etc.  You are probably indoors right now reading this.  So, creating the environment that life takes place in is a pretty big deal.  I consider it an honorable, rewarding,  and valuble endeavor.

What do consulting engineers do for you?  We sell our time to you.  It takes time to prepare blueprints, specifications etc.  Something that comes packaged with our time is experience.  Someone who has spent 4 or 5 years studying engineering and 4 years interning as an engineer is actually just starting out.  The collective experience along the way all works for you.  What to do, what not to do.  Each hour of my time I offer you benefits not only from my personal experiences of what to do and what never to do again; but the experience from working alongside teams of engineers each learning lessons about what to do again and what not to do again.

Each time I get called into solve a problem for someone, the lessons learned come along for your benefit.

Did I mention that engineers like to read?  We wouldn’t get through engineering school any other way.  After college we find lots of geeky stuff to read:  manufacturer’s literature, code books, engineering textbooks, professional magazines etc. Each of these adds to the experience we can offer you.  Getting an engineering degree proves to the world we are capable of taking on long and complex commitments and completing them.

Professionals don’t gaurantee results, but they hedge your odds for success well beyond chance and random learning on the job!  Doctors, accountants, and lawyers are great examples of this.

Perhaps the best thing you get when you hire an engineer–someone experienced on your side with no vested financial interests to anything except the success of our project.  In the field of buildings, this can be an expensive lesson to learn.

So next time you see the initials PE behind someone’s name, know what that means.  A professional engineer.  One for one, you know something about this person’s background:

• They received a degree from an engineering college.
• They interned under experienced engineers for four years.
• They passed a rigorous exam on engineering fundamentals and finer points of engineering within their specialty.
• They were endorsed by other established professionals.
• They are licensed by the State to practice engineering.
• They are bound by a code of ethics regarding professional conduct.
• They continually receive ongoing training on various parts of their industry.

Guy Van Meulebrouck PE

Guy Van Meulebrouck

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