Central Dining Facility, Emerson College, Boston
Retrofit Team
Hot-water System Designer: Vanderweil Engineers, Boston
Plumbing Installer: Commonwealth Plumbing Corp., Rockland, Mass.
Materials
The central dining facility at Emerson College was built around 115-years ago. With a historic structure of that age, installing completely new plumbing systems would come at a premium—and space wasn’t the only concern. With the all-new renovation came metered faucets on timers, which are wonderful innovations, but in an installation like the dining hall, they added a level of complication.
“Most of the faucets are on timers, which limit the amount of water that can flow out,” says Rich Dean, senior plumbing designer for Vanderweil Engineers. “When you have the limited amount of time, you don’t purge the line. Viega’s double-drop elbow gets water to the faucet from the source quicker, and that improves user experience.”
Dean designed the hot-water plumbing systems for two bathrooms in the dining facility. One bathroom provided the space necessary to install regular tees, but the other bathroom was too small. Peter Hannon, vice president of Commonwealth
Plumbing, explains: “It’s a very old building and just has the issues that come with renovations to a very old building. We had to drop individually to each sink as opposed to having the space to run it horizontally down right to the fixture. Due to space within the wall, we didn’t have that luxury. The tight quarters made the double-drop elbows the best choice.”
An average user will take 30 seconds or less to wash his or her hands. Most of the time that means the water he or she uses will have been sitting in the pipe line for a while. It won’t be freshly heated water until the line is purged. “That dead-leg water is in those faucets,” Dean says. “It will purge itself over time, but not usually fast enough.”
By using double-drop elbow fittings in the bathroom installation, the team was able to eliminate the dead leg in the line completely. “Installing the double-drop elbows allows us to get the piping much closer to the fixtures to minimize the dead legs,” Dean notes. “Having warm water at the faucet is a better experience for the user, so they’ll think the best of the facility.”
Although Dean has used Viega products before, Emerson College marks the first time Vanderweil Engineers has installed Viega’s double-drop elbows in a commercial project.
“They’re very good about marketing the product and educating the engineers,” Dean says, noting he attended Viega’s water-quality seminars, which were held across the country in various locations. “The water-quality seminar was excellent. Extremely informative and to the point. Very detailed. It’s been helpful in our day-to-day design duties.”
Double-drop Elbows: Viega
The Retrofit
For the Emerson College project, the main focus was providing hot water to users in spite of the low-flow faucets. In a series design installation, like the sinks in a bathroom, when water is turned on at the end of the line, the water circulates through the whole system, purging the line and providing hot water to the active fixture almost immediately.
“We’ve done a loop system before similar to this,” Hannon says. “This was the first time we’d used these particular fittings, the double-drop elbows. We met our installation goals, especially where there was a lot of wood in the building; pressing saved us from having to solder.”
Photo: Viega