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Manufacturing
Taco is headquartered in
a former trolley barn in
Cranston, R.I
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
(LEED) standards for green design. There are
solar panels on the roof, which is painted
white to reflect sunlight. Runoff from the site
is controlled, and there are patches of greenery
populated with drought-resistant plants.
The building also features a number
of specialized HVAC installations, such as
a snowmelt system for the truck apron
and radiant flooring in the lobby and the
employee entrance.
The building also uses gas-fired co-generation for electricity, with the waste heat from six
turbines being captured for the building’s
HVAC system.
Taco is using the addition to modernize
its shipping operation. Fifteen forklift-like
vehicles known as “order pickers” use wire
guidance systems embedded in the floor to
gather parts individually from multi-level
inventor y racks without removing and
unloading palettes.
Making Complexity Simple
While the basic pumps and valves that
Taco manufactures do not change much
from year to year, the company is constantly
developing new combinations and controls
to improve per for mance and simplif y
installation and use.
One example is in the area of electronic
controls. Taco first got involved in electronics
in 1997 with the hiring of David Sweet,
who formerly ran his own company, Sweet
Controls. Taco began by selling zone panels
that simplified the installation of zoned
hydronic systems. Today, Taco’s basic switching
relays handle up to six zones apiece, and the
expandable versions handle up to 20 zones.
Chaffee said Taco offers controls in a variety
of configurations so that a contractor can
do an installation to whatever specifications
they choose.
The controls are designed with simple
a year, and when an opening does occur, wiring and clear labeling so that HVAC
employees often recommend friends or contractors often can do their installations
relatives for the job, according to Chaffee.
without hiring an electrician. Taco has
Taco likes its employees to be involved in expanded its line of electronic controls so that
decision-making, and this is evident in the almost any type of hydronic system can be
company’s major expansion project, which was controlled with an off-the-shelf Taco product
expected to be complete at the end of last month. that is easy to install and configure for use
Employees worked with engineers and architects with outdoor reset controls.
to lay out the building’s post-expansion
Taco promotes the use of outdoor reset,
floor plan, and when workstations relocate— which improves efficiency and comfort and
a regular occurrence during construction— reduces temperature swings within a room by
employees move the equipment and materials adjusting boiler water temperature in response
themselves.
to changing weather conditions.
In recent years, Taco has expanded its
An HVAC Showplace
range of electronic controls to include Power
Taco expanded its headquarters in 2006 Port Cards that can control purge times,
with a 60,000-square-foot addition. The new establish priority protection to override
building was designed in compliance with the a priority for domestic hot water, and pump
Taco Expands
Headquarters and Web Site
To tour the headquarters of Taco
Inc. is to see a company wearing its priorities
on its sleeve.
Taco values loyalty, simplicity and communication, and those priorities are in evidence
throughout the converted trolley barn in
Cranston, R.I. that houses Taco’s operations.
Taco enjoys $170 million in annual sales of
pumps, valves, controls and other components
for hydronic HVAC systems.
For Taco, loyalty starts with a commitment
to stay in Cranston and maintain its long-term
workforce. Mark Chaffee, senior product
manager, says that the company has turned
down several offers to relocate to other states,
and employees have returned the favor by
staying on. Annual turnover in the 500-person
workforce is less than half of one percent
© OIL&ENERGY • Reprinted With Permission
…Manufacturing
exercising to keep pumps moving. The cards
Radiant heat has been a boon for Taco Document It
plug into the boards of Taco control panels. because it is driving interest in hydronic heat,
Through its expansion and modernization,
according to Timothy Smith, Taco’s director Taco has maintained a strong commitment
Radiant Drives Growth
to thorough documentation of its products.
The growing popularity of radiant heat is
Today, the company operates one of the most
Senior Product Manager
Mark Chaffee displays
fueling the need for new controls, and Taco is
detailed Web sites in the home heating market,
a new single zone relay.
responding with a variety of options to help
with documents online for nearly all its
with mixing. One of the most sophisticated
products, new and old.
controls, the Radiant Mixing Block, is on
The commitment to documentation has
display in the Taco lobby, where it is used to
a long history at Taco, according to Smith.
operate a snowmelt system for the adjacent
He told Oil & Energy that Taco has had
outdoor walkways.
product selection software available to its sales
The Mixing Block is an inclusive package
representatives since at least 1985. Taco
that offers injection piping, pumping, air
launched its first Web site in 1991. “One of our
elimination and control with only four pipe
goals is to look around at technology and look
connections.
for ways to use it,” Smith said, “This is not
According to Sweet, the water temperature
traditionally a high-tech industry that we’re
for radiant floor systems must be carefully
in. Part of the focus in the last 20 years has
controlled to achieve the desired effect.
been to make Taco the easiest company to do
“People are buying warm floors,” he said,
business with.”
noting that it’s not enough to get the room
He added, “There are any number of
temperature correct if the floors are not warm.
products you could use, so how do you know
By using an outdoor reset control, installers
if you’ve picked the best for what you’re doing?
can ensure that system temperature is of marketing programs. “Recent focus groups We give you the tools you need to help you
adjusted to keep water circulating through in the Midwest have shown that homeowners pick what works best for you.”
the floors without overheating the room. are installing hydronic heat instead of forced
With the growing popularity of radiant
(For more on getting temperatures right, see air because they want radiant floors in their heat, Smith finds that homeowners are
Continued…
sidebar on Page 28.)
bathrooms,” he said.
Taco uses its own Radiant Mixing
Block to control radiant floor and
snowmelt systems in its lobby.
© OIL&ENERGY • Reprinted With Permission
… Manufacturing
Going All the Way
With Outdoor Reset
EDITOR’S NOTE: Taco Inc. has responded
to the rising popularity of radiant heating by
introducing specialized products and backing
them with a series of documents collected under
the heading “Radiant Made Easy.”
With Taco’s permission, Oil & Energy is
reprinting the following excerpt from Taco’s
“Radiant Made Easy” collection entitled “Go All
the Way: Zone-by-Zone Outdoor Reset,” which
discusses the advantages of using outdoor reset
controls on different zones.
We have long seen the benefits of outdoor
boiler reset. We have started to utilize mixing
reset to make radiant systems work more
efficiently and produce a more comfortable
environment.
Now it is time to take the benefits of
outdoor reset all the way: zone-by-zone
outdoor reset. By placing an outdoor reset
control directly onto the pump (00-VR, RMB)
or valve (iSeries-R) used to supply water to
a particular zone, the ultimate in control can
be easily achieved.
An example would be if the outdoor
temperature is 10°F and the selected heating
curve is 1.0, the heating curve calculations
would require a supply water temperature of
130°F. 130°F is being supplied to a manifold of
four loops all designed to require the same temperature based on the original system design.
Today, due to a larger than normal heat
loss through windows and no solar gain, one
of the rooms is colder than the others on the
manifold. Because a thermostat is supplying
feedback regarding the room air temperature,
the supply water temperature is increased to
bring the colder room up to temperature.
Effectively this would supply excessive heat
to the other three zones unless those room
thermostats shut off supply to the zones. What
you have now is individual zones that are
supposed to be working under the same design
conditions and same water temperatures
fighting each other for control of the system.
Why not improve the system? By using
a pump or valve with built-in outdoor reset,
every zone can be optimized. The valves and
pumps with integral reset can be pulled
directly off of the primary loop. This makes
it convenient to add a radiant zone to an
existing system or design a system that has
very diverse temperature requirements.
Also as loads change from season to
season, usage rates of a room change, or the
design of the room changes (i.e. area carpet
installed), the pump or valve automatically
adjusts to provide the optimal supply water
temperature to match the load required
for that particular room. Zone-by-zone
outdoor reset takes comfort control to a whole
new level.
© OIL&ENERGY • Reprinted With Permission
…Continued from previous page
interested in the particulars of home
heating like never before, and Taco is
aiming to answer the demand by making
information crafted for consumers available
on the Taco Web site.
Taco is looking to expand its Web site
with separate sections for homeowners,
technicians, sales representatives and
others. Visitors in the future will be able to
log onto the site and self-identify in order
to see customized content, Smith said.
Hounp Pongvongkeo
and Amphan Miya
Pongvongkeo
assemble Taco
controls.
Taco’s new warehouse has 35-foot ceilings and 12 shipping doors.
Pump cartridges come off a Taco assembly line.
Taco’s Chris
Intaglia and
Mark Chaffee
tour the
company’s
new, modern
warehouse
space.