Congratulations to Patrick Jones who was selected as the January Controltrends fan of the month. Patrick, who is a controls pro from South Hampton England will receive a $25 Visa card. Do you want to win great prizes while staying informed about HVAC and Industrial Controls ? It is easy either sign up to receive our free news letter, or make comment on Controltrends and you will automatically be entered in our monthly Controltrends fan of the month drawing.

… on your new i-pod Nano.  Congratulation to Sam Hubey who won January’s i-pod for ordering online from www.stromquists.com. 

If you want to be like Sam and have a chance to win a Starbucks gift card and an i-pod, start placing your orders online today!

Check out my interview with Roger Rebennack. Roger is the Honeywell WEBS AX access and security guru and one of the speakers at the February 7 Building Automation and Controls Event in Atlanta. Controltrends fans will remember Roger, aka “the most exciting man in the building automations controls industry” from his interviews on Stromquist Radio. In this interview Roger and I discuss the latest changes in open systems, how integrating access and security into your building automation controls system can help you save even more energy, and why Honeywell’s Rapid Eye security
cameras are the way to go. Come see Roger in Atlanta on February 7.

In this excerpt from a Tim Chamblee Chiller Class at Stromquist & Company learn cooling tower basics. To check out one of Tim’s chiller classes at Stromquist & Company stay tuned to Controltrends for class schedules.

Grab your cup! Congratulations to the following customers who won our daily Starbucks gift card drawings for ordering online last week:

January 23 – Eddie McGreggor

January 24 – Jim Hunter

January 25 - Craig Carey

 January 26 – Brian Moore

January 27 – James Holden

If you want to get in the running for a Starbucks gift card, order online from www.stromquist.com!  You will be entered into our daily drawing each day that you place an order.  For full details of the promotion go to www.stromquist.com now.

I went down to the Georgia Aquarium this week and was blown away by what I saw. The venue that the February 7th Building Momentum Event is taking place is breath taking. Imagine sitting in a beautiful room, being severed delicious food, occasionally looking over your shoulder into one of the tanks to watch the seals play or the sharks swim around, while learning about the latest changes in building automation controls, systems integration, how to reduce energy usage in your building while earning CEU credits! It doesn’t get any better than this! You don’t want to miss this so Register now! I can tell you that the morning session is almost full and the afternoon session is filling up fast so click one of the registration links now and make sure you get to be part of this.

Click here to register for the 3:30PM-8:30PM Afternoon Session

I came across a very interesting and talented teacher. His name is Abel and he calls himself the Control freak. Check out his HVAC controls training video on understanding PID control.


As most of you know, understanding PID control when it comes to HVAC controllers and control loops can be pretty tricky. Abel does a great job at showing how PID works. Check out more of Abel’s posts on DDC controls at thecontrolsfreak.com

While at the AHR Expo one vendor I wanted to see was Belimo.

Belimo has announced thier new ENERGY VALVE is to be released soon and I wanted to see the new valve.

HERE IT IS:

The new Belimo ENERGY VALVE will allow flexability never allowed to the building owner/contractor to optimize coil and thus system performance.

Based on the popular Belimo CCV valves Belimo has now included Electromagnetic Flow sensors, Return and Supply water Sensors, along with Advanced Control options with the Belimo Delta T Manager included with the valves. BACnet MS/TP or BACnet IP network communications are also included in the valve setup.

Now you can accurately and automaticly control flow  through the flow sensors and Delta T through the temperature sensors based on your needs and desires.

The ENERGY VALVE will help detect and address problems that commonly impact coil performance like:

Coil degradation due to fouling and scale

Improperly sized coils

Poor valve authority in under or onerflow of the coil

Changes made elsewhere in the system that frequently impact other circuits which are inherently interactive.

Belimo’s new ENERGY VALVE is exciting new technology. For more information and availabilty call TEAM STROMQUIST at 1-800-241-9471.

Overcast, cold, and snow greeted the vendors and attendees at the 2012 ASHRAE Expo in Chicago this year. But, what do you expect it’s January in Chicago!

It’s been 30 years since I was last in Chicago and it feels the same…

Al’s Italian Beef Sandwiches….A shameless plug but soooo GOOD!

The McCormick Place… A perfect venue for thousands of people from around the world.

Photography was not allowed in the Expo but after seeing thousands of cell phone flashes going off I figured my little point and shoot would not be too pushy. Sorry I hand to leave the big gun cameras in my truck so please forgive me for the picture quality.

The Expo was so large that to be able to cover as much as possible I split the Northside and Southside of the convention into two days.

Come on in with me….

The view from the Northside:

As expected the was a large international showing of vendors. Here are some of our regular vendors putting thier best foot forward.

Peerless Boiler:

Table wares from A.J. Antunes:

Aaron Contente showing the new Honeywell Delphi Systems:

Functional Devices RIB Relays:

Our friends from Italy the guys of Pietro Fiorentini:

Testo Meters:

Honeywell Analytics:

Belimo Air Controls:

There were many new products on display and as soon as I get all my notes in one pile on my desk LOOK for more posts coming up.