The commercial water heating market has options for building owners and facility managers when it comes to selecting equipment for their facilities — tank or tankless, gas models or electric — even heat pump water heaters are seeing growth in this space. So which is the most popular? Well, it all depends on who you ask.

CPVC has been used for residential plumbing in the U.S. for more than 60 years and is unique among today’s plumbing materials. CPVC was specifically designed to be compatible with American drinking water and is impervious to chlorine. As a result, virtually all CPVC failures can be traced back to improper installation or servicing practices.

If you’re anything like me, the first thing that comes to mind when you think about variable speed circulators is 1970s rock band Supertramp. No? Okay, maybe you’re not like me. Either way, allow me to elucidate.

Every industry in the United States is currently feeling the constraints of the labor shortage. Employers continue to struggle to bring in new workers and keep existing ones. Job openings far outnumber individuals looking for work — in March, there were 11.5 million jobs to fill, and not enough workers to fill them, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary. 

The number of skilled trade jobs in the U.S. is far outpacing the supply of qualified workers to fill them. A new analysis by the skilled trades division of staffing leader PeopleReady finds that the most in-demand skilled trade jobs are remaining unfilled the longest — roughly a month on average — due to the shortage of qualified workers.

Think you know pump systems? Think again. From misidentifying the major culprits of ownership costs to taking the wrong approach in implementing variable speed drives, misconceptions around pumps create missed opportunities for greater efficiency and cost savings.

Two facets of building infrastructure have gained close attention in the wake of widespread disease: Indoor air quality and water quality within commercial structures. Adding to the problem of providing clean water, globally, are challenges posed by an aging municipal and commercial infrastructure.

The age-old question of function versus form has confounded experts in every field for countless decades.

Jeff Sweenor, president and CEO of Sweenor Builders in Wakefield, Rhode Island, looks at it differently. He asks, why not both? Function certainly comes first, but when the dust settles, his projects look as good as they work.

Heat pumps offer attractive solutions to energy-efficient heating and cooling, and the market is growing. According to a November 2021 report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), nearly 180 million heat pumps were used for heating in 2020, as the global stock increased nearly 10% per year over the past five years.

Scald protection valves are the last line of defense in protecting occupants from dangerously hot water in plumbing systems. Point-of-use mixing valves keep building occupants safe and enable a variety of important domestic hot water recirculation applications. How are designers using scald protection mixing valves to advance the broader topic of DHW recirculation?