Heat Timer Corporation

  As HVAC professionals begin getting their sleepy boilers ready for the upcoming heating season, they know that the first few weeks can be hectic, as dormant boilers are lit and unexpected startup problems pop up all over. It’s typically a time with some long days and a steady stream of calls from residents and building operators. Professionals who’ve been doing this for a while, know that even if a boiler has been professionally inspected and serviced during the summer months, idle heating systems are still susceptible to both sediment and corrosion. Sediment settles out of the cold motionless water and compacts in pumps and valves, and of course as Mr. Young famously said, “rust never sleeps.” The physics of heating system inactivity conspires to create a rich set of winter startup problems for commercial heating professionals. As a premiere manufacturer of advanced heating control systems, the experts at Heat-Timer® have seen their share of these startup problems, and taugh...

  The world’s most advanced Heating controller got even better and more capable with the introduction of the Heat-Timer® Platinum Series. With Internet connectivity available as an upgrade, building owners and managers are now able to monitor, and  adjust their heating controls from the comfort of a mobile app , or via our website accessible to any device connected to the internet. The software is designed to present information integrated from many different Platinum controls, housed in many different boiler rooms, buildings, or multiple addresses. If you are a building management company with many buildings in your portfolio, it is possible to see all your properties neatly organized into a hierarchy that allows you to drill down into individual controls, or get summary reports on your buildings or properties. You can also set alarms that notify you of a wide variety of conditions in the building before they become critical.  All remotely accessible, with frequency an...

The actual phrase “penny wise, and pound foolish” is often mistakenly credited to Benjamin Franklin, but it actually originated with an Oxford Scholar named Robert Burton in his book, “The Anatomy of Melancholy” written in 1621! Needless to say, in 1621 domestic hot water wasn’t even a thing. It was before the advent of electricity, multi-story distributed hot water systems, and certainly before the advent of modern boilers, computerized boiler controls and mixing valves. And yet the phrase is nowhere more relevant than when it is applied to DHW installations where mixing valves are sometimes omitted for small overall reductions in material cost or piping complexity in a commercial, domestic hot water setting. So here’s “penny wise and pound foolish” as applied to  your domestic hot water system . The Purpose of a 3 Way Mixing Valve in DHW In DHW applications using traditional direct-fired storage tank systems, a mixing valve has always been an important part of the overa...

Everyone has purchased something with an irresistible mail in rebate.  Sometimes that product is even free after the rebate. Yet, the Wall Street Journal has estimated that about 40% of mail-in rebates are not redeemed. Many sources say that the number is well over 50%.  According to the research done by the Wall Street Journal and others, many people forget to mail it in within 30 days of their purchase. Or, they lose the receipt. Others actually receive the rebate check and forget to cash it. These customers are literally leaving money on their kitchen table. Do not leave money on the table when it comes to upgrading your heating system this summer. Both Consolidated Edison and National Grid are offering rebates to their gas customers who upgrade their boiler controls for their multi-family or commercial building. These utility rebates will pay property owners to purchase an energy saving internet boiler controller with apartment sensors.   Adding an internet boi...

It is finally summer. It is warm outside, people are out on the street and the boiler room is cool and quiet, without the water hammer, the clanking of the leaky steam traps, and the roar of those big ancient burners guzzling fuel. Why does it get so noisy down there?  It is like that Classic convertible that hasn’t been driven since last summer. There are alarming new noises from worn-out parts, and the engine starts hard and is using a lot of gas. Maybe this summer is the time to finally get some of those things fixed and make it run like it used to. Old cars aren’t the only worn-out fuel guzzlers out there. Buildings with outdated heating systems are fuel guzzlers too. Maybe this summer is time to fix a few things in the boiler room to get some peace and quiet. A steam system survey is the first step to improving system performance A car making strange noises usually means a trip to the mechanic to figure out what is wrong. Fortunately, mechanics today have computerized diagnost...

Summer is a great time to maintain or upgrade the steam or hydronic heating system in your building or apartment complex. The system can be offline for days now, without angry calls from residents! The boiler room is quiet, most pipes and valves are not burned hazards, and the boiler room temperature is not pushing 140 °F. Time spent in your boiler room now doing preventive maintenance and making some smart system upgrades will reduce your energy costs, and will keep you out of the boiler room at 3:00 AM during the upcoming heating season. Here are five suggestions for summer preventive maintenance on your commercial boiler equipment: 1. Start with a good cleaning A dark, dirty, and the cluttered boiler room is a boiler room filled with potential problems that you can’t see. Start your summer heating system maintenance with a good cleaning. Remove anything stored in the room that is not needed for boiler operation, replace any burned-out bulbs, and consider upgrading the lighting to ma...

  The Climate Mobilization Act, NYC Local Law 97 (LL97) became law in May 2019. This environmental law mandates reductions in carbon emissions from buildings in New York City starting in 2024. It also adds a requirement to report annually on a building’s carbon emissions. This new law covers both new and existing commercial buildings larger than 25,000 square feet, or groups of two or more buildings with a total area of more than 50,000 square feet if they are under the same tax lot or part of the same condominium project. The carbon emission targets vary based on the occupancy class of the building and are calculated by the square footage of the building. These building carbon emission targets are going to decrease over time in two stages. The first stage, from 2024 to 2029 has been set based on annual energy benchmarking data to affect only the top 20% of carbon emitters. The second stage, from 2030 to 2034, reduces the emissions caps to impact 75% of all buildings. Unlike pr...