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When is a VFD a Pump?

The correct answer is ā€œNever.ā€ A variable frequency drive (VFD) is generally described as a ā€œmotor control device that controls the speed of AC induction motors.ā€ A VFD has never pumped a drop of water. Despite this, I hear many people in our industry state that their VFD ā€œpumps 800 gpmā€. A VFD is an electrical device that, when connected correctly with a pump, can make that pump behave like a variable speed pump. A pump with a VFD is not a VFD. It is a variable speed pump (VSP). I realize this is a minor point, and most people understand that a VFD is not a pump, but it can be misleading (or at least confusing). Imagine what will happen if somebody tries to hook a VFD to a 12-inch water main. As a matter of clarity, we should not refer to a pump with a VFD as a VFD. I can’t help but get mildly annoyed when someone says, ā€œWe have two constant speed pumps and a VFD,ā€ when they should say, ā€œWe have two constant speed pumps and a VSP.ā€ We tend to use a lot of incorrect terminology in the water industry, such as saying we

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Do You Need Help? We Have It.

We regularly seek feedback from our users on how we’re doing. In a recent survey, we received excellent scores across the board on our OpenFlows products like OpenFlows Water and OpenFlows Sewer. One individual noted it would be great if Bentley were to ā€œProvide additional training, demos, and webinars.ā€

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A 2.5 Inch Hydrant Outlet is 2.5 Inches. Right?

What exactly do you get with a 2 ½ inch hydrant outlet? It depends a lot on where you are and when the hydrants were manufactured. There are numerous standard sizes, so you need to be careful, especially if you work on old water systems in the Northeast US.

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Pre-Computer Computation

In those days, a junior engineer could spend an entire day calculating flows and pressures in a pipe network. At the end of the day, he could show it to his supervisor who would say, ā€œI thought we were going to put a 12-inch pipe over there?ā€ The engineer would look at his boss, look at his day’s work, look at his boss, look at his work again, quietly deposit his work into the trash, and make the required adjustment.

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A Family-Owned Company on a Mission to Ensure Access to Water and Sanitation for All

TSA – Tecnologia em Saneamento Ambiental (which translates to Technology in Environmental Sanitation in English) has a passion for the betterment of the communities they serve. TSA’s headquarters are in Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, but they also work on projects that support cities across the southernmost part of the state. This family-owned business focuses on designing resilient and efficient water and wastewater networks. Engineers JosĆ© Vilmar Viegas and Matheus Viegas —a father-son team—and a handful of other employees work hard to bring a better quality of life to underserved communities. Their goal is to design water infrastructure that will grant access to water and sanitation services and improve water networks. These projects are key to social and economic development and that is what drives JosĆ© Vilmar and Mathues to do this work. Connected Data Brings Real-World Impact In Brazil, the most vulnerable communities lack access to water and sanitation systems. Many people live along rivers where raw sewage is dumped and are exposed to it daily. They also deal with intermittent water services that do not meet potability standards. TSA knows that by designing reliable, effective, and efficient sustainable sewage networks, they

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