Houston is heating up, and I’m not talking about the weather…Cougar USA is now representing Fulton Boilers! We’re very excited to partner with a family business that’s been providing innovative technology for the last 75 years.
Reopening buildings that have been unoccupied or under-occupied for the last 30-60 days may create some water quality issues you may need to address. Here are some resources to help this transition as smooth as possible:
Webinar
We recently hosted a webinar with Patrick Verwys from Triple Clear where he explains the potential water quality issues and how the Force Field filter technology can help in multiple applications when reopening buildings. Watch the webinar here.
Guides
Mike Fehr (owner of Fehr Solutions, an independent water consultant), created two checklists that outline a detailed plan to identify systems, how to flush and/or change filters, and how to test the results to ensure the system is clean. Click below for the guides on Potable and Non-Potable water systems.
Storm Sump Pump Stations protect the lower levels of buildings and parking garages from flooding. Check out this Tech Talk on the application and design of Storm Sump Pump Stations.
Storm Sump Pump Stations Tech Talk Transcription:
Hi! I’m Tim Zacharias with Cougar USA. In this Tech Talk, we’re going to cover storm Sump Pump Station applications.
So when we’re looking at a storm sump application this is going to be anything in a building that’s collecting water from a clean source, rain, groundwater, condensate from Air Handlers, or fan coil unit, things like that. And it’s going to be in the typical locations in a building: at basement, parking garage, loading docks, spots where the water’s going to collect. We are typically going to recommend in this situation an N+1 design, meaning, both pumps can handle, one hundred percent of the load coming into the Basin. But in Houston, unfortunately, we have these high rainfall events where it might be normal or require two pumps to run in certain situations, so that’s going to affect the type of float switch assembly that we use and some of the programming so that we can run those two pumps with or without alarms.
Rain isn’t the only way a building can flood. If there are Domestic or Fire Water Storage Tanks in the building, a flooding risk is always present.
Cougar Systems Level Controls constantly monitor for High Level and actuate a motorized valve to shut off the water supply to prevent overfilling the tank and flooding the space.
Flood Protection Valve Tech Talk Transcript:
Hi, I’m Tim, Zacharias with Cougar USA. In this Tech Talk, we will cover flood protection valves for fill stations and atmosphere storage tanks. In the city of Houston, we have the requirement to go through the atmosphere storage tank before we add booster pumps into our building. So, a lot of these are going to be installed on the first floor, maybe in a basement on a vault outside, and we want to prevent those tanks from overflowing and flooding the building.
In the city of Houston, we’ve had two major interruptions in water supply in the last 18 months. Unfortunately for many buildings, they didn’t find out until their tank and piping were dry and it was too late to act.
With a Level Control Panel from Cougar USA, you can monitor incoming city water pressure and receive an alarm as soon as the pressure drops, giving you time to conserve water and warn patients, tenants, and guests of the situation.
Monitor City Pressure on Fill Stations Tech Talk Transcript:
Hi I’m Tim Zacharias, with Cougar USA. In this Tech Talk, we’re going to cover Monitoring City Pressure on your fill station so when you have a flooded suction application, like in the city of Houston, where we have the code requirement to go through an atmosphere storage tank, like this before your booster pumps.
We are excited to announce the promotion of Tim Zacharias to President of Cougar USA! Tim has been with the company since 2007, having worked in various roles, most recently as Chief Operating Officer since 2017.
Mike Zacharias has served as President since co-founding the company in 2003 and will continue to work with Cougar in sales and as Chairman of the Board. Scott Magee, co-founder, will continue his role as Vice President and as a member of the Board of Advisors.
The Leadership Team has expanded to include three new members. Randy Milian and Steve Hale both join as Operations Managers of Cougar Sales and Cougar Systems, respectively. Both are exemplary members of the Cougar Family, and we are excited to see the new insight and perspective they bring to the Leadership Team!
Cougar USA’s mission is to make buildings work, so the people inside can do theirs. Over the last few months, this has become a personal mission of mine as well.
In November, my son Joey was born at Texas Children’s Hospital Pavilion for Women, and earlier this month had surgery in Legacy Tower to remove a benign cyst from his abdomen. Thanks to the amazing doctors and staff at TCH, Joey made a quick recovery – he definitely handled the surgery better than my wife Ashley and I did! After spending a few days recovering in West Tower, Joey was back smiling and being his happy self. Ashley and I feel very blessed that Joey’s case was minor compared to many families at Texas Children’s.
I have worked at Cougar for almost 12 years and I have always appreciated what our systems are used for in buildings, but it wasn’t until it was my son who needed them that I truly felt the impact of our work. It was a great feeling to know that Cougar helped provide the systems and services for the building’s operations.
When you see photographs of Earth taken from space, water seems abundant. Most of that water, though, can’t be used for drinking or for growing crops. In fact, only 1 percent of all the water on the planet can be used to support human life since most of the Earth’s water is undrinkable salt water. Even some of the fresh water is unavailable for our use because it’s frozen solid.
In the last century, the world’s population tripled, and water usage by individuals increased six fold. As the population continues to rise, the need for sufficient supplies of freshwater will become more urgent, and competition for the available water is likely to increase
The United Nations estimates that nearly one-third of the world’s population will be facing water shortages by the year 2025. Without enough water, diseases will spread more easily, and less food can be grown.
Competition over water supplies can lead to local or international conflicts and possibly war.
Even in places where fresh water usually remains abundant, conserving water makes us better prepared for unexpected emergencies. Water conservation also saves money for both individual families and the community as a whole.
How Much Water Do We Use?
Every day, people use 10 billion tons of freshwater worldwide. Water usage varies widely by country, with the United States using the most water per capita. According to the EPA, Americans use an average of 88 gallons of water every day per person in their homes.
Simple Steps To Use Water More Effectively
Small changes in your daily habits can create big savings in water usage:
- Turn off the water when you brush your teeth. All that running water adds up, probably more than you think. This simple step can save more than 200 gallons of water per month.
- Takes showers instead of baths. A bath can use up to seven times more water than a shower. Keep your showers short — do your daydreaming elsewhere.
- Wait until the dishwasher is full before you run it.
- Avoid using a hose when you have alternatives. You can use a sponge and bucket to wash your car and a broom to sweep your driveway.
- Don’t water your yard under a hot midday sun when most of the water will be lost to evaporation. Early mornings and evenings are better.
Repairs and smart purchases can turn yourhome into a water-conserving powerhouse:
- Be diligent about fixing leaky toilets. A toilet leak can waste as much as 200 gallons a day, the equivalent of 50 flushes. Ouch!
- Install low-?ow shower heads and water-saving aerators for your faucets. Using water-conserving devices can reduce your water usage by at least 20 percent and can save an average of $380 annually per family.
Sufficient water supplies are crucial not only for individual use — for drinking, cooking, washing and so on — but also for industry and agriculture. Without conservation, the planet may be facing a crisis unlike any seen before. Many steps that can be taken to conserve water are simple and can be started right now.
At Cougar USA we are proud to partner with GRUNDFOS who pushes the boundaries of possibility in energy efficiency and water conservation.
The primary purpose of a Pressure Boosting System is to maintain constant pressure in the building (surprising, right?!). In Part II of this Tech Talk, we explain the factors to consider when determining the pressure requirements for a building.
Pressure Boosting Systems – Pressure – Part 2 Tech Talk Transcript:
Hi, I’m Tim Zacharias with Cougar USA. On this Tech talk, we’re going to be talking about calculating the system pressure required for a pressure boosting application of a commercial building. This is part two of a three-part series, so if you haven’t seen part 1 on the flow calculation, make sure to check that one out as well.
A High-Performance Water Pressure Reducing (PRV) Station requires valves that are properly sized for the flow rate and pressure drop of the zone they serve. Also, the High Flow and Low Flow valves must have the proper pressure setpoints to balance the flow rates across them. Cougar USA can help in the design, installation, and start-up of PRV’s to ensure constant pressure to the fixtures downstream of the PRV Station.
Water PRV Sequence of Operation Tech Talk Transcript:
Hi, I’m Tim Zacharias with Cougar USA on this Tech Talk, we’re going to be covering the sequence of operation for a Water Pressure Reducing Valve station or PRV station.
For this example, we are looking at a PRV station here that’s designed for a high-rise building. We’re generating a lot of pressure with our booster system, down the lower floor to be able to have usable pressure up at the top of the building, and in the lower floors, we’re having to knock that pressure back down to get it below 80 PSI.
At this point, you have received multiple emails regarding companies’ response to COVID-19, so this will be a brief update on how Cougar USA can be of service moving forward. Our first priority is the safety of our employees, partners, and customers, and we will adapt to the changing situation to serve our customers the best we can.
Our office, warehouse, and panel shop are open with normal hours, but we will be limiting activities such as in-person training (more on that below). We will have a portion of our team working remotely; however, this will be seamless for you as we are using cloud-based communication systems.
Our service techs and sales team are available for site visits and will take all necessary precautions while on site.
Mission
At Cougar USA we are proud to provide complete, tailored solutions for our customers. We have the technical knowledge and experience to identify their needs, wants and potential issues. We also help design, deliver and support a complete solution. Every day, Cougar supports Consulting Engineers, Installing Contractors and Building Engineers, especially after hours and weekends for emergencies. We continue to serve our customers long after the initial sale. This level of service and quality of products build trusting, long-term relationships with our customers and partners.
Cougar USA makes buildings work, so the people inside can do theirs.
People trust our Water Control Systems to deliver efficient, reliable solutions for plumbing and mechanical applications in commercial buildings.
Our systems play an important role in the operations of hospitals, hotels, Schools, universities, commercial office buildings and event centers. Cougar is proud to serve Houston’s best buildings and institutions like Minute Maid Park, NRG Stadium, George R. Brown Convention Center, The Post Oak Hotel, The Houstonian, JPMorgan Chase Tower, Capital Tower, Heritage Plaza, Texas Children’s Hospital, MDACC Cancer Center and hundreds of others.
With few exceptions, the water demands of a Commercial Building are significantly overestimated, which has negative impacts on the long-term performance, reliability, and efficiency of a Booster System. At Cougar USA, we design our systems to be most efficient at the partial load of the building, which improves performance & reliability and reduces operating costs. In this Tech Talk, we cover the pump and system selection for Booster Systems.
Make sure to check out Parts I & II!
Pressure Boosting Systems – Selection – Part 3 Tech Talk Transcript:
Hi, I’m Tim Zacharias with Cougar USA, on this Tech talk we’re going to be going over system selection for pressure-boosting systems in commercial building applications. This is part three of a three-part series. So please check out Parts one and two if you haven’t already.
