Reverse Return Piping Gone Wrong

A hotel condenser water system that never worked right

Not because of a bad pump. Not because of a bad chiller. Because of piping that was installed backwards, and nobody caught it until years of poor performance forced the question.

That is the case at the center of this AABC webinar. A hotel's condenser water system underperformed for years before a TAB investigation traced the root cause to incorrectly installed reverse-return piping. Flow measurements did not match the design intent, and a closer look at drawings against field conditions confirmed why.

CxPlanner is sponsoring this session because the story is a familiar one. Piping gets installed close enough to the drawing, TAB gets treated as a checkbox instead of a real investigation, and the gap between design and field only shows up once occupants start complaining. Verifying installation, running thorough TAB, and commissioning the system properly are what catch this before handover, not after.

What you'll walk away with

• How reverse-return piping works, and how installation errors distort flow distribution across a system
• How to analyze TAB data to identify condenser water flow issues before they become comfort complaints
• How to compare design drawings against field conditions to catch installation errors
• How TAB and commissioning work together to prevent the performance and comfort issues this case study walks through

About the speaker

Jeremy Johnson, TBE, CxA, American Testing, Inc

Jeremy Johnson works the part of a project most people skip past: the point where the drawing and the installed system stop agreeing with each other. His investigation into this hotel's condenser water system is a working example of what disciplined TAB and field verification actually catch, and why that verification has to happen before the building is occupied, not after.

How to register

Registration is open now for this live AABC session, free for AABC, ACG, and EMA members.

Register here →