2013 Issue

40 • 169 ft. of 1/2-in. Aquatherm Greenpipe SDR 11 • 2,149 ft. of 1-in. Aquatherm Greenpipe faser SDR 7.4 • 4,880 ft. of 11/2-in. Aqua- therm Greenpipe faser SDR 7.4 • 1,200 ft. of 3/4-in. AquathermGreenpipe faser SDR 7.4 • 286 ft. of 6-in. Aquatherm Greenpipe faser SDR 11 • 1,885 ft. of 2-in. Aquatherm Greenpipe faser SDR 11 • 520 ft. of 2 1/2-in. AquathermGreenpipe faser SDR 11 • 585 ft. of 3-in. Aquatherm Greenpipe faser SDR 11 • 429 ft. of 4-in. Aquatherm Greenpipe faser SDR 7.4 EnvisionMechanical also had to think about insulating piping that was in plenum. Af- ter careful consideration, Envision chose an external reflective-insulation wrap that combines fire protection, vapor barrier and thermal insulation. Learning A New Skill At first, the challenge was “getting used to fusing and pre-fabricating,” said Dick Thompson, sales manager for EECAquatherm. However, four Envision Mechanical install- ers completed the factory training. When installed by Aquatherm-trained and certi- fied technicians, the pipe and fittings carry a 10-year, multi-million dollar warranty covering product liability, labor, personal injury and property dam- age. Thompson said the warranty, which is basically an insurance policy issued by Zurich Insurance, was a factor big factor in Aquatherm being used on the job, and that the training went quite smoothly. EEC Aquatherm also provided on-site training and assistance during the entire construc- tion process. “We picked it up pretty quickly,” Thornock said. “Once I started seeing how it goes together, I was happy with Aquatherm and okay with using it right from the beginning.” Hundreds of Connections – Only A Few Leaks Envision Mechanical purchased a machine to fuse pipe up to 4-in. and rented a butt- fusion machine for 6-in. piping. “The job went really well,” Thornock said. “There were no real hiccups. There were some leaks that were operator error, but we only had a few leaks out of hundreds of con- nections.” The installation crew had to make fusion connections in some tight spaces and had to make several fusion connections in the air, but Thornock said setting up prefabrica- tion benches helped save some time. Ultimately, the piping choice was based on the savings that could be achieved by using Aquatherm. Not only were Aquatherm’s material costs lower than that of copper, but additional savings were realized from reduced labor resulting from Aquatherm’s process speed. PIPING SOLUTION | continued from page 39