DELInstallations said:
Lou,
Freon FYI:
Last I knew, it's no longer 2010, the last year for production of equipment containing Freon, unless you have a different calendar or understanding.
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/phaseout/22phaseout.html
I'm not going to argue the points with you....you have your own ideas in your head. As I stated in prior discussions, I install and work with the hardware on a daily basis, not an armchair quarterback. The system you are referencing is a far different product. 3-30 tons is a very small unit in the scope of cooling. What that product is intended for is an application where the investment is not going to be made in a central chiller plant and the owner has a desire to compartmentalize the central installation...best I can say would be the application of an apartment building, townhouse or similar.
As far as the T-stats, you can fire companies and complain all you want, but when the investment is made for a BAC system, the first item to control, besides efficency is to remove the human aspect out of the equation and provide a means for checks/balances in the system. Units are hooked up, but the control is given to the BAC. There's far more sensing done "out of sight" of the standard end user. There's a lot more in the equation besides simply setting the T-stat for X temperature and letting it go and hoping for the best.
For further reading:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1042577628591401304.html
Definition of freon: with a "small f"
[SIZE=xx-large]fre·on[/SIZE]
/ˈfrēän/
Noun
An aerosol propellant, refrigerant, or organic solvent consisting of one or more of a group of chlorofluorocarbons and related compounds.
If you want to be a PITA, then I'll stop calling tissues Kleenex as well.
Everything you have said about VFR is wrong. Ask someone who installs them. Among other things, they are scalable to the size of most commercial buildings including hospitals, apartments, office buildings, and so forth, including high rises. They are very nice systems, highly efficient, have a small footprint, are very quiet, but are pricey.
To the more conventional (non VFR) hvac in commercial buildings. The "not hooked up" sliders comment is ridiculous and frankly would constitute fraud. That 10 year old article is entertaining and maybe your clients are that gullible, but if I had a lease which included the hvac and found out my land lord had installed fake thermostats in an attempt to trick me, there would be big issues.
An honest system, like the Honeywell controls I recently had an opportunity to explore at a hospital controlled every room in the building to a precise temperature from the low 60's to above 80. The control system included a GUI with all of the set temps at each thermostat and the actual temp. It had a graphic illustration of the hot lines and cold lines through the building with the temps and flow rates in each of those lines at key points. There were no "sliders". I haven't seen a "slider" since I was in college, they had them in some of their ancient buildings that hadn't been remodeled since my dad was in school.
Who knows what any one random building has. But when I stay at a hotel, I find a thermostat on the wall with set temp and actual temp. When I set it to 68, a local air handler clicks on and cold air comes out until it gets to 68, then it shuts off. When I wake up, I push it up to 74 and I get a nice flow of warm air, just like a paying customer should expect.
