“Other people’s s*** is my bread and butter.” That opening statement immediately captured the attention of all the students in a metal shop class back when I was in high school. It came from a local plumbing contractor who had shown up to discuss his trade and encourage soon-to-be members of the workforce to consider it a worthy path towards a good life. His speech made an impact, as I know of at least four students from that class who indeed became plumbers. I also know that the provocative leading statement from the local contractor has specifically stuck with them, as several of those now-plumbers have brought it up to me at various class reunions over the years. I actually wasn’t even in that shop class, but it was my dad who was the local contractor inspiring them to get passionate about something less than appealing to the average 17-year-old.
My Path
I didn’t follow the family business, but I didn’t stray too far. I went to school for mechanical engineering and then entered active duty in the Air Force. I worked on mechanical systems, but the lion’s share of my focus was on HVAC. I never put much effort into the plumbing systems we in the Air Force owned and operated, but my dad’s passion for the things others might not find so sexy stuck with me. I became obsessed with understanding HVAC control systems, as I saw it as my potential niche in an organization that desperately needed more competency in the topic. I went and got a master’s degree with my focus on the topic of HVAC controls and then developed a course at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) to get others up to speed as well.
As a mechanical systems instructor at AFIT, I was responsible for teaching all the disciplines of facility mechanical systems, but the curriculum I inherited, and expanded upon, was dominated by topics in HVAC. I didn’t think we needed much on plumbing systems. I viewed it as the easy discipline within the mechanical engineering umbrella. I figured if students could get through my courses in HVAC, they certainly could understand plumbing systems.
I was forced to face the ignorance of that mentality once I left active duty and joined Questions & Solutions Engineering. On the first day on the job, my boss explained to me how in many of the high-rise residential buildings we work in, the biggest issues we find ourselves troubleshooting are complex domestic hot water systems. I had come to the firm to commission HVAC systems, it never crossed my mind we would ever be working with plumbing systems. Since that day, I have found myself troubleshooting and optimizing all sorts of plumbing systems in existing buildings and have learned many lessons the hard way along the way. All the same engineering principles used to govern HVAC systems apply, but the applications of those principles are quite different in plumbing systems. My appreciation for the complexity of these plumbing systems has grown extensively.
The Course
To honor my roots, as well as to grow as an engineer, I wanted to expand my understanding of facility plumbing systems. To do so, I followed the same playbook I used to learn HVAC controls on a deeper level. I convinced leadership at AFIT (where I remain on faculty as a reservist) that our career field needed a comprehensive course on the topic. It would be mutually beneficial; I would be forced to learn a new discipline, and members of the Air Force would get access to more education on the topic as well.
Six years later, we are finally launching the course this June! It seeks to be all encompassing with aspects of design, construction, operation and maintenance all interwoven into the lessons. In the Air Force, we own and operate many plumbing systems, and to do that effectively, we need to have a solid understanding of why and how the systems are designed the way they are. Beyond that, we typically oversee outsourced designs of such systems, so having baseline knowledge of the process will help us provide more diligence in our design reviews and project oversight.
We often have such systems constructed by outside contractors as well, but inspections are performed by our in-house staff. Therefore, having a comprehensive understanding of the construction process, industry lingo, standard construction practices as well as contractor-performed tests, is vital.
As a commissioning engineer, what I am most proud about with this course is the endless amounts of case studies from the field which seek to bolster our operations and maintenance prowess. The course seeks to establish a troubleshooting mindset for the students as they prepare to go back to their bases and identify opportunities for improvement. We have instruction on configuring booster pump controllers for stable, energy efficient control, instruction on addressing airlock in plumbing risers, instruction on optimizing water softener regeneration cycles and even a whole lesson on troubleshooting the source of plumbing crossover.
The real goal is to better equip students to be stewards of the over 47,000 facilities the American taxpayers entrust us in the Air Force to own and operate. Table 1 shows the course outline. If you are employed by the Department of Defense and are interested in the course, please check out the new course, WENG 562 Facility Plumbing Systems, in our course catalog located here: https://www.afit.edu/CE/course_desc.cfm?p=WENG%20562
WENG 562 Facility Plumbing Systems course outline
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Module |
Lessons |
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Introduction |
1.1 Course Introduction |
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1.2 Air Force Plumbing Policy |
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Potable Water Distribution Systems |
2.1 Potable Water Distribution System Overview |
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2.2 Water Properties and Engineering Fundamentals |
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2.3 Potable Water Distribution System Design |
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2.4 Design Example |
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2.5 Fixture Considerations |
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2.6 Water Meters |
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2.7 Valves |
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2.8 Booster Pumps |
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2.9 Water Heaters |
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2.10 Domestic Hot Water Recirculation Systems |
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Sanitary Drainage and Venting Systems |
3.1 Overview and Terminology |
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3.2 Design Methodology |
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Water Quality and Safeguarding Potable Water Systems |
4.1 Water Softeners |
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4.2 Pure Water Systems |
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4.3 Backflow Prevention and Cross-connection |
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4.4 Crossover |
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Storm Water Systems |
5.1 Overview and Terminology |
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5.2 Design Methodology |
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Miscellaneous Systems |
6.1 Compressed Air Systems |
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6.2 Natural Gas |
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6.3 Sustainable Efforts |
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The Plumbing System Lifecycle |
7.1 Design Phase |
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7.2 Construction Phase |
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7.3 O&M Phase |
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7.4 Case Study: High Rise DHW Issues |
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I am well aware that teaching continuing education on facility mechanical systems is not widely considered the tip of the spear for the American military, but it doesn’t stop me from approaching it as such. I hope you can sense the passion I have for this course; I got that from my dad. I got a good bit of my plumbing knowledge from him too. He even makes a cameo in the lesson on how to test your water hardness. This course is dedicated to him, Randy Ryan, the plumber, the veteran, and the motivator.