Featured Articles

“Submarine duty taught me well.”

Born in San Jose, Calif., Jeff Seveland thrived amid the lush warmth of central California. His father was a Navy man, and it seemed that every other kid in school grew up in a military household. So it only made sense that, shortly after completing high school, then two years of automotive tech school, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy.

Seveland spent five of his best years (’95 to ’99) as a machinist’s mate in the Navy.  At 6’3”, he’s no easy fit for submarine duty, but that was the assignment.

“As it turned out, Navy submarine duty was a great fit for me despite the dozens of head wounds I suffered hitting the bulkhead,” Seveland recalled, his hand involuntarily moving to his rub his scalp. His duty included seven months at sea in both South America and in the Mediterranean Sea.

“One thing’s for sure,” he quickly added. “Working on a submarine and its wide range of equipment was the perfect entry point, and training, for my jump into boiler work as a civilian. He explained that, on the sub as an “A-Ganger” (critical services crew), he serviced refrigeration equipment, oxygen generators, CO2 scrubbers, high pressure air and hydraulic systems, and a wide range of other mechanical and HVAC equipment. Choosing not to reenlist, Seveland was quickly hired as a building technology and commissioning technician with energy services companies.

Quantico-bound

It was while Seveland was in his early years in the energy services industry that he was assigned to Quantico, Va. where he commissioned and installed new commercial boilers. “Funny how things change: I expected automotive, but boilers won the decision. The jobs I took were a great fit for me, made to order for the type of work I like most and am good at.”

Quantico is headquarters for many training institutions, including the Marine Corps, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI and DEA academies—though is best known as the largest Marine Corps base with 12,000 Marines.

“There was plenty of low pressure cast iron equipment, high pressure steam systems and an assortment of firetube and watertube boilers that needed attention at Quantico. “I guess that’s what they call job security,” he said, smiling.

Soon after, Seveland joined Framingham, Mass.-based Ameresco, a leading renewable energy and energy efficiency company offering Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC) for federal agencies, funds used to provide energy solutions for public and private organizations.

“Fortunately, after so many years of preparing for the perfect job—with training and experience that fit me like a glove—the move to Ameresco was the best fit of all.” Today, as Ameresco’s O&M Site Supervisor for Quantico, Seveland—now 19 years into fulfilling the company’s 25-year, $1.1 million annual contract there – directs the efforts of a team of employees on the base.

Today, Quantico includes 80+ Marine Corps buildings for a total of more than 1.2 million square feet. Through its ESPC contract, Ameresco provides predictive and preventive maintenance, condition monitoring, commissioning, repair and equipment replacement services. Boiler maintenance is an important facet of this, one that also includes maintenance and replacement of pumps and circulators, valves, controls and water treatment systems.

Building 15

Among the many Marine Corps facilities at Quantico, Building 15 is a typical residential quarters. According to Seveland, Building 15 is served by three boilers—two for space heating and one for domestic hot water (DHW).

“As is often the case, if one boiler failed, another could jump in to meet heat demand,” he said. “Even if the DHW boiler would go out, either one of the other space heat boilers could be adjusted for service.

“All three boilers have served the facility well since their installation in 2003, so we plan to replace the three units soon, preventively,” he added. Building 15, he explained, consists of three floors, including the basement and rooftop levels, 80,816 square feet, and 114  residential rooms, each with its own bathroom, and many other common area bathrooms.

With so many Marines on base, it doesn’t take a military strategist to understand the need for many residential buildings at Quantico. Banish from your mind any recollection of WWII-type boot camp barracks. The Marines on this base have earned the right to a good night’s sleep in real beds, hot meals, and bathrooms with plentiful hot water.

Boiler of Preference

“The provision of space heat and domestic hot water is our key focus at Quantico,” added Seveland. “With so many large boilers and volume water heaters on base, we know a thing or two installing, maintaining and servicing hydronic heating systems.”

Ameresco teams, including Seveland’s, work to find the most innovative and best fit equipment and technology for each project.  They found the best-fit for installations at Quantico to be Thermal Solutions’ Evolution boiler. “We were first introduced to these systems back in 2006.”  The boiler he refers to is a copper fin-tube constructed, with water-backed tube sheets and maintenance-free burner.

The Evolution boiler’s burner features a large surface area and lower flux that allows for high heat transfer and more uniform heating, extending the life of its copper tubes. A sturdy cast-aluminum blower assembly, fitted with a replaceable combustion air filter is used to keep the burner free of contaminants.  The Evolution boiler can be operated with its jacket panels removed during inspection to avoid nuisance problems associated with pressurized compartments.

Ameresco Knows a Thing or Two

By design, the low NOx, modulating boiler’s ceramic radiant burner rarely requires inspection or maintenance. The non-condensing boiler’s (with 250, 500, 750, 1,000 or 2,000 MBH sizes) provide up to 87% efficiency.

Seveland explained that, at Ameresco, experts are on call 24/7/365. “There’s no real downtime. Sure, things tend to quiet down during the holidays, but because of our ongoing, routine maintenance and our familiarity with the equipment, we’re still on call.”

“All of the equipment on base must be properly and consistently serviced and maintained,” he continued. “I take great pride in having a tight maintenance program.  In addition to the routine boiler service work—and thanks to sophisticated building automation controls and fiber optics—we continuously monitor temperatures and pressure in all of Quantico’s buildings. If any temperature goes out of range, sensors alert us. We reply long before an alarm goes out, long before base personnel know of an active issue.”

Old and New

The existing storage tank at Building 15 is more than 50 years old, but is still doing its job well. A shell and tube heat exchanger works in concert with a 1,500-gallon storage tank. “It’s aging, but continues to perform well,” he said.  “It dates back to the days when the base had a central heating plant that’s since been decommissioned. In this case, the old adage applies: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“We helped decentralize heating operations many years ago when it was recognized how much heat was being lost in the distribution of heat throughout the base,” added Seveland.

Seveland explained that, early in his tenure at Quantico, many of the boilers were large, cast iron, low-pressure behemoths, and some high-pressure steam boilers, with an assortment of firetube and water-tube boilers.

Many of the Evolution boilers are 1,500 MBH in capacity. Some of them contribute to both the space heating and DHW loads. Typically, for residential buildings there, Seveland and his crews pair-up- a heat exchanger to a boiler to heat domestic water that’s stored in large, insulated storage tanks.

All boilers installed during the big ESPC project at Quantico receive routine combustion efficiency testing by Ameresco pros, and monitoring of water quality. He added that, every 10 years, the Evolution boilers are taken apart—an easy task given their removable jacket design—serviced, cleaned, and reassembled. The service work includes a re-sealing of the combustion chamber.

“We’ve settled on a good recipe for reliable heat production at Quantico,” concluded Seveland. “After all—if you were responsible for keeping 12,000 Marines comfortable—wouldn’t you choose equipment you could rely on?”

Sidebar

Quantico—unique among military bases

Since its establishment in 1917, Quantico has been home to many of the nation’s most  innovative, intelligent and patriotic men and women. It’s there, at the Crossroads of the Marine Corps, that vital concepts, training and equipment of the future are developed. Some of the most important techniques in warfighting were born there, including expeditionary warfare, for which the Marine Corps is best known.

In 1917, with the US just entering the largest war the world had ever known to date, the small town of Quantico, Virginia became the home of Marine Barracks Quantico, with a complement of 91 Marines and four officers. The barracks was a training center for recruits, and eventually grew into the nation’s largest Marine Corps base, having an excellent position near Washington DC.

In the 1920 and 1930s, Quantico was the center of the development of amphibious assault doctrine, and where some of the early amphibious vehicles were developed. This doctrine gave the USA an advantage in beach assaults over any of the Axis powers in World War Two.

Today the base has completely surrounded the town in almost every way, and in addition to Marine training, hosts the FBI Academy, FBI Lab, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, the Army CID HQ, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations HQ, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service HQ, the DIA, and the DEA training facility. They are undoubtedly secure under Marine guard.

A Carlson-Holohan Industry Award of Excellence honoree, Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr travels across the country as a trainer for Caleffi North America, sharing his 40+ years’ of experience as a plumbing, radiant heat and renewable energy contractor, all while bringing his rubber-to-the-road experiences to life.

Be honest, do what you say you will do.  It’s that simple, really.

If you bill your training as a technical event or class, make it that. Certainly, everyone of your attendees has an opinion, and that is a good thing. So at class end they get to decide if it checked the boxes they brought along to have filled. For example, a boiler piping presentation needs to have schematics of piping. I’d take it further and make the drawings as generic as possible.

Fortunately I work for a manufacturer that publishes a very generic, non-biased trade journal. This makes for some excellent content for the classes.

But also be realistic in your expectations; not everyone in the room will be at the same level, and have the exact same expectations. Promote the event as basic, intermediate or advanced to help clear up the  content. A trainer should, poll the room right off to get a feel of the experience level of the class. Ask occasionally if the info is meeting the needs or expectations. A trainer needs to be prepared to shift gears

Keep additional PPTs ready to go on your desktop if you need to raise or lower the content level, or bounce around to assure everyone gets something from their time commitment.

Know also that generous giveaways and CEU offerings will get some attendees that are there for the “goods” more so then the content. It’s easy to spot folks like that. They spend a lot of time looking at their phone.

Someone is paying the trainer to get to the event and spend a few nights on the road. Expect the sponsor to have a product table, or some handouts that are brand specific. A few questions on a form or link to QR code to get feedback is helpful for trainers.

Timely topics help fill a room. Clever course names help people click on the training promos.

Like any trade, time on the job helps a trainer learn what works and what flops, so be prepared to change up your presentations or presentation style occasionally. A Toastmasters class can sharpen your presentation skills. Speak loud and clearly. Move around the room.

Watch big name, professionally-trained  presenters. See how they move and observe the techniques they use to keep the room’s attention. Who is your favorite actor and why?

Got any tips or suggestions? Pass them along.

Over the past few years—wink, wink COVID—the industry has seen a rise in purchasing activity between plumbing and HVAC companies and private equity firms and other outside influences—coming in and gobbling up already successful contracting shops with a message of making them better. Sure, it’s a smart exit strategy as well for those looking to hang up the wrenches.

But why the flurry of activity now? “What we’ve seen from COVID is that the trades are pandemic-proof and to some extent recession proof. When money gets tight, consumers may hold off on that new car, going out to eat, but when that water heater goes out, it’s a necessity,” says Dan Foley, Foley Mechanical, Lorton, Va.

Foley continues, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) will never be able to take over this industry. You will always need someone to walk into someone’s home and make a repair, and that’s not easy to do. It’s the technician’s skill that AI cannot replace.”

According to Mike Prencavage Jr., president/owner, The Family Plumber, Los Alamitos, Calif., president, PHCC ORSB, director, PHCC National Business Development, “Working on margins is crucial for any business to succeed; however, in the plumbing industry most companies aren’t struggling with tight margins to turn a profit.”

As an example, Prencavage Jr. says restaurants and bars can stand to lose greatly if more than two ounces of alcohol is poured into any drink or if larger than accounted for portions of food are served on any plate. These private equity firms have seen that plumbing companies have a greater amount of sold labor income per invoice that can offset losses on jobs allowing for much wider margins to run a profitable business.

“Private equity firms are also looking to the future of renewable energy. With the electrification of the nation soon to be at every state’s doorstep, government grant funding has already become available to plumbing companies who are leading the way by installing energy efficient products. These grant programs. combined with the opportunity to capitalize on wider margins, are creating a buzz of interest from private equity groups to get more involved in the plumbing industry sector,” says Prencavage Jr.

Speaking of grants, on a national level, the Infrastructure Bill and Inflation Reduction Act, are ripe for the taking, if eligible.

On the flipside, private equity firms offer contractors security, not only monetarily, but though the expansion of their reach and service offerings across their respective regions, expand evolving customer bases and refine overall strategic growth initiatives.

Just last month, Grove Mountain Partners—a private equity firm investing in lower, middle market home service companies and specialty business service companies—announced the sale of Unique Indoor Comfort Holdings LLC to Ace Hardware. Nate Kukla, CEO, and the entire management team, including the brand presidents, will continue to lead the company as it embarks on its next growth phase.

Grove Mountain brought together 12 independent service-providing businesses, beginning in June 2021, with the acquisition of three related companies: Moncrief Heating & Air, Unique Indoor Comfort of Philadelphia, and Werley Heating & Air. It added nine other companies in the Eastern region of the U.S., including Clay’s Climate Control, Detmer & Sons, Canella Heating & Air, A-Total Plumbing, All Phase Electrical, Dick Hill & Son, Carolina Custom, Rye Heating and Air, and Jackson Plumbing and Heating & Air.

“We are grateful for our partnership with Grove Mountain and are proud of what we have built and accomplished,” said Nate Kukla, CEO. “Now, we are excited to be part of the Ace team which will allow us to leverage their combined financial and operational capabilities and expertise. Since day one, Unique has been passionately dedicated to an employee-centric, high-integrity, and customer-focused culture. Ace shares in our mission and values and brings a plethora of resources to allow us to continue and grow the business.”

Also, this month, Auctus Capital Partners—a leading financial services and investment banking firm focused exclusively on creating value for the lower middle market, which specialize in merger and acquisition advisory, institutional private placements of debt and equity, financial restructuring, valuation, and strategic consulting—announced its role as exclusive advisor to The Precision Group and its affiliated entities, supporting the environmental and infrastructure services leader in completing a majority recapitalization by PowerVac, a Pillsman Partners LLC and Peninsula Capital Partners, LLC portfolio company.

The Precision Group is comprised of three separate yet complementary companies that serve a diverse array of commercial, industrial, and municipal customers. Founded in 1992, Precision Industrial Maintenance, Inc. provides environmental remediation, industrial cleaning services, hazardous and non-hazardous waste transport and disposal, and other industrial waste services. Martin Environmental Services, Inc. was acquired by Precision Group in 2002, adding new services in asbestos and lead abatement, and disposal services. Precision Trenchless, LLC was formed in 2013 to focus on environmentally-friendly pipe rehabilitation using less disruptive technologies, such as UV-Cured and other Cured-in-Place Pipe Lining (CIPP) methods, potable water line rehab to minimize air, water and soil pollution and support advanced monitoring services.

The group of companies operate as a unified provider of services to several broad regional markets with strong projected growth through 2026 — including the sewer and pipeline rehabilitation market with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6%, as well as trenchless pipe rehabilitation (4.8% CAGR), and liquid waste management (3.7% CAGR).

“Underpinned by significant government support for the repair of aging infrastructure, pipeline rehabilitation and wastewater management services are seeing record investment.  In addition, an ever-growing awareness of ESG issues has been driving strong investor demand,” says Muhammed Azfar, CEO and managing partner, Auctus.

More to come on this topic.

Businesses that entrust their data storage to the state-of-the art Novva data center outside of Salt Lake City will benefit from a location chosen for its many data center-friendly attributes. The area offers outstanding connectivity, low power costs, and a central-western site with easy access to a major international airport. In addition, the site’s climate and 5,000-ft. altitude allow for many hours of free cooling annually.

Just as important to Novva’s clients, the new data center has a low disaster risk. The area is not prone to earthquakes, floods, or adverse weather events such as hurricanes.

And finally, for the additional peace-of-mind that makes this data center truly start-of-the-art, the cooling system for the computer servers boasts Aquatherm PP-RCT piping that will provide virtually leak-free service for decades to come. The Aquatherm piping will never scale or corrode, and the cooling water flow will remain unchanged throughout the anticipated 50-year lifespan of the pipe. All of this data adds up to a win for Novva and its clients.

The “hyperscale” data center in Salt Lake City will be Novva’s flagship data center. The 100-acre Utah campus is planned to ultimately include more than 1.5 million square feet of data center space and will accommodate 250kW to 30 MW clients. The construction is taking place in four phases. The first phase, which includes a 300,000-sq.-ft. data center, a 120MW substation and an 80,000 sq ft headquarters office building for Novva, was completed in December 2021.

Beating the Heat

Reliable cooling systems are an essential component of modern data centers. Computer servers are notorious for generating heat—and heat is notorious for being an enemy of computer servers.

The decision to install Aquatherm pipe as part of the new data center’s cooling system was driven by Steven Boyce, vice-president of infrastructure and design at Novva Data Centers. Boyce has been involved in the IT and data center space for more than 20 years, and has worked on multiple successful startups during that time.

When I first learned about Aquatherm, it was a no-brainer,” Boyce said. “I had been using steel pipes in my builds, which would corrode and rust, and in turn, fill my equipment with sediment and pieces of rust. Efficiencies would be diminished, and the pipes would eventually have to be replaced. Aquatherm’s total installed costs are lower, and their warranty is something that no steel vendor could match.”

Once the decision was made to trust the cooling system’s performance to Aquatherm pipe, Novva turned to the Salt Lake City branch of Harris Mechanical for the installation.

Harris had experience installing Aquatherm pipe, although the Novva data center represented the company’s largest data center Aquatherm installation to date. To handle the first phase of the Novva system, Harris installed a BASX custom chiller package (which included the pumps and controls), the Aquatherm pipe for computer system cooling, and the comfort system piping and plumbing. The piping work for phase 1 began in mid-May 2021 and was completed in October 2021. The system was commissioned and turned over to the owner in December 2021.

Fast and Furious

Jeff Reading, operations manager, construction, Harris Mechanical, explained that the Novva data center started out as a core and shell project, with the office built first and the data hall scheduled to be built out later. However, as anyone in construction work knows, it’s always best to expect the unexpected.

“We finished the core and shell construction in May 2021, and the data hall was right on its heels as a change order to the original project. So it came at us fast and furious,” Reading said. “The original plan was to complete the entire chilled water loop, which runs underneath the floor on both sides of the building. However, it was decided to install the piping in stages as the facility is built out. So far we have installed about half of the piping that will ultimately go in there.”

The installation to date has included 4,418 ft of Aquatherm Blue Pipe SDR 17.6. The main system piping is 10-in., and the takeoffs are 4-in.

Training Professionals

To handle such a large project. Harris Mechanical sent several installers to Aquatherm’s U.S. headquarters in nearby Lindon, Utah, for training.

Having Aquatherm-trained technicians opens up new opportunities for HVAC and plumbing companies. The company gains differentiation in the market, and enjoys the time- and labor-savings associated with installing polypropylene pipe.

Aquatherm training is the most intensive, comprehensive training in the polypropylene piping industry. Attendees receive both classroom training and hands-on training with multiple fusion machines, and must pass a rigorous test using all the fusion tools correctly.

After the training, Harris completed the installation using McElroy fusion tools and a combination of socket fusion for the 4-in. pipe and butt fusion for the 10-in. pipe. The system runs at a low pressure (35 to 45 psi); the cooling system supply water runs at 55°F and returns to the chiller at about 60°F.

According to Reading, Harris Mechanical  had a good experience with Aquatherm piping at the Novva data center, and the ease of installation compared to steel pipe helped Harris stay ahead of the project’s tight schedule.

“It was a smooth process,” he said. “We definitely gained experience and confidence with the pipe throughout the project, and our installers became accustomed to ‘leapfrogging’ and working with more than one [fusion] machine at a time.”

A Smooth Path

The underfloor piping system presented one of the major installation challenges at this project. The floor is raised 5-ft., and all of the facility’s piping, wiring, HVAC ducting, and utilities run through the raised space.

Aquatherm’s building information modeling (BIM) capabilities and Scan-to-Fab service helped ensure that the installation went smoothly by preventing underfloor conflicts and collisions.

“Using 3D BIM and Revit really helped with coordinating this installation,” said Autumn Turner, a fabrication drafter at Aquatherm. “Not only was all the HVAC and plumbing under the floor, there were floor stands every square foot. It took a lot of coordination to avoid all those potential obstacles.”

Turner noted that careful coordination enhanced the already-fast heat-fusion installation of Aquatherm pipe, and that less time and money spent on welders is a major benefit of choosing Aquatherm.

“Aquatherm  is just easier  work with than steel pipe,” she said. “It takes a lot less time to weld, and when you add in the BIM support and drafting it was easier for the installers to get situated into the floor and navigate the space.”

Turner added that Aquatherm’s BIM and Revit capabilities will ensure the future installation phases of the massive project also go smoothly.

Rhett Coles, Aquatherm’s fabrication drafting/scan-to-fab manager, said that Aquatherm’s Scan-to-Fab service and in-house fabrication makes any piping installation easier and smoother. Spools can be custom made in any size or configuration and shipped to the jobsite ready to install. In addition, any pieces fabricated by Aquatherm are covered by a comprehensive 10-year warranty.

“In the case of the Novva data center, we were in constant communication with Steven Boyce and the owner’s group,” Coles said. “We were not providing a cookie cutter system to them. They would tell us whatever they wanted or needed and we would work directly with them to help them fully accomplish their goals.”

A reliable, leak-free piping system with a long life span, and a smooth installation in any space,  including challenging underfloor designs? The data are in: Aquatherm is the right choice for data centers.