Hotels take hospitality seriously! A good hotel’s first priority is to take care of their guest and make them comfortable. Griswold Controls has been helping hotels with guest comfort for decades.
Hydronic HVAC Systems
Since 1960 Griswold Controls has made automatic flow limiting (automatic balancing) valves for the hydronic HVAC industry with valves installed in thousands of hotels worldwide. An automatic flow limiting valve
maintains a constant flow despite pressure changes in the system, so the heating or cooling coil in each zone has the flow it needs at all times.
In comparison, when a system is unbalanced you have some equipment in the building that has excessive flows due to high pressure differentials and some equipment that has inadequate flows due to lower pressure differentials. High flows can lead to excessive heating/cooling, high velocity noise and erosion, wasted pump energy, and dehumidication problems. Low flows can lead to inadequate heating/cooling and short circuiting of equipment. Typically, an unbalanced system has the higher flows near the pumps and the lower flows are in the index circuit, the equipment farthest from the pump. These low flow and high flow issues are a disaster for a hotel manager and can lead to excessive guest complaints which can impact occupancy. The natural reaction to complaints about inadequate heating or cooling is to increase pump speed which leads to increases in pump energy and wastes money.
Domestic Hot Water Recirc System
Cold showers and lack of hot water are also a hotel manager’s nightmare! Unbalanced systems also happen in domestic hot water recirc and lead to loud complaints from guests and impact occupancy rates.
The same flow issues that exist in an unbalanced HVAC system also exist in an unbalanced domestic hot water recirc. system but now you have the added issue of users having inadequate hot water for their shower or 
faucet and that can lead to much more angry complaints! So, balancing a domestic hot water recirc. system is as important as balancing a HVAC system. Often these systems are balanced with ball valves or manual balance valves, both requiring balancing labor and, in the end, neither maintains balance when the system has pressure changes. Unlike HVAC systems, these are open systems and as people open and close faucets and run washers it causes even more pressure changes than a HVAC system experiences which can cause even more flow changes. Another factor with an open system is water will take the path of least resistance so if a faucet is open close to the pump in an unbalanced system the faucet farthest from the pump will have less hot water available to it.
The same flow limiting cartridge used in our HVAC valves can be installed in a lead-free valve and used to control the flow in domestic hot water systems. The burden of balancing is shifted from the contractor to the valve itself as it maintains flow, regardless of pressure changes, through the life of the valve.
Recently a building manager was interviewed about the impact in their system of removing Griswold Controls automatic flow limiting cartridges for cleaning and they said they had complaints about inadequate hot water from the day the parts were removed for cleaning. Once they were replaced the complaints stopped. So, adding automatic valves can guarantee the hot water is distributed to each unit and remains balanced regardless of pressure changes in the system. Typical domestic hot water recirc systems use flow limiting valves set at 0.55 gpm since 0.55 gpm is adequate for a faucet or shower but the flow can be different for larger zones. And since the valve is pre-set for the flow no human balancing is required. This is less flow than is typically specified for a manual system since they have to pump more flow to make sure that there is enough hot water at every location when system is unbalanced due to pressure changes. Designing for less flow means smaller pumps which saves initial install costs.
Whether you install Griswold Controls Balancing Valves on your HVAC system or on your domestic hot water recirc system or on both systems, you can rest easy, knowing we are controlling the flow rate at all times!
Do you have a question on this Application Tip or any of the Griswold Controls products? Fill out the form below and someone from Griswold Controls will get back to you shortly.
Questions about this application? Contact info@GriswoldControls.com, call 949.559.6000 or fill out the contact form on this page.