Friday, January 17, 2014

Engineering News

Temperature Systems, Inc. strives to give our customers the most innovative products and best value to serve the needs in the Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration fields.  TSI wants to provide as much support to our customers to make sure they are successfully serving their customers.  TSI is starting a monthly newsletter to help pass along information our customer can relate to and find useful.

To start our regular monthly newsletter, I thought we would start-out with something that seems to affect everyone, and is pretty simple to talk about: Electric Wall Heaters.

On almost every commercial project, we wind up putting in at least one ‘fan-forced electric wall heater’.  The reasons vary from job to job.  But, seems like we just about always put them in entry vestibules.  In our climate, when the weather gets really cold, and the thermostat turns down at night, those darn entry doors can get frozen.  Well, we just can’t have that now, can we?  So, we put the electric heater in to help keep that from happening.  Of course there are plenty of other reasons.

We don’t usually get any questions when we design a project with vestibule heaters.  At least not questions on putting them in.  BUT…..we do get questions on the make and model that we specify.  Most of the time, in commercial applications, we will specify an ‘Architectural Grade’ heater, like the Q-Mark # AWH-4404. 

The questions we get usually are aimed at the price of the unit: “Why did you spec that?  This other one that we have always used is cheaper”.
We specify an ‘Architectural Grade’ heater for a lot of reasons.  One of them is YOUR liabilty issues.

The ‘Architectural Grade’ heaters have heavier grilles, and most importantly, slightly lower surface temperatures when they are on.  The cheaper wall heaters have skimpier grilles and can have much higher operating surface temperatures.  So, bottom line is this:  If the heater is in a Church vestibule, or the entry to a Dentist’s office or something, a little kid or a disabled person might touch it when it is on.  The chance of getting burned is much higher with the ‘cheaper’ unit.  We use the ‘Architectural Grade’ units to protect the public, and thus, protect YOU.

A Q-Mark #AWH-4404, pictured above, might cost you $500 with all the needed stuff to go with it.  A Broan #BR-198 (at right) will probably cost about $350 for a comparable installation.  So, you’re thinking

: “Hey, I just saved $150!”  Now, if some little kid burns her hand on that heater, and you have to respond to it, how much did you really save?  That’s why we spec the ‘Architectural Grade’ heaters.
Watch for a new newsletter next month.
Dave Jones

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