About this industry
A commercial or institutional building earns its keep in the spaces tenants never see — hydronic loops that want BTU-grade energy metering, cooling-tower basins and fire-water tanks that must not freeze, parking decks and refrigeration machinery rooms that need gas monitoring, and elevator hoist motors that have outlived their original makers. Prater Technical Partners supplies that building-services layer across the Badger Meter family (hydronic energy metering, domestic & fire-service meters, gas detection), Aspeq electric heating (Indeeco, Heatrex, Accutherm), WIKA-ST pressure transmitters, and Reuland Electric elevator-duty motors. The same lines that settle a district-energy takeover also allocate tenant billing and keep the make-up air warm. Prater Technical works with you to spec each one from the loop, the line size, and the mechanical-room realities.
- District heating & cooling energy at the riser, floor or zone—Dynasonics UHC-120
- Campus & multi-building hydronic zone energy—Impeller 380DS BTU System
- Building steam submetering—Vortex VN2000 Inline·VN2000 Compact Insertion
- Retrofit metering on live chilled-water mains (2–36 in.)—VN2000 Hot-Tap Insertion
- Low-loss hydronic mains metering where pumping energy matters—Preso Ellipse Pitot·Preso Venturi
- Building water & cooling / utility water service metering—ModMAG M1000
- Hydronic-loop & pump-control monitoring on plastic lines—Impeller PVC Tee
- BTU & energy reporting into building automation—Dynasonics TFX-5000·ModMAG M2000·FC-5000 BTU Monitor
- Chiller-system & heat-exchanger flow verification—Hedland Water VA
- Potable cold-water metering for property management—E-Series Ultrasonic G2·Dynasonics U500w
- Comfort-heating elements in convection airstreams—Accutherm Two-Pass Finned
- Metering in cramped mechanical-room piping—Preso Gemini Cone
- Debris protection upstream of turbine & compound meters—RecordALL Plate Strainers
FAQ: metering, heating & building services
Which meter fits chilled- and hot-water energy (BTU) measurement?
For a clamp-on answer with no pipe cut, the Dynasonics TFX-5000 measures flow or BTU energy on chiller and cooling-tower water and speaks Modbus RTU / BACnet MS/TP to the building-automation system. Dedicated energy meters — the Dynasonics FC-215 and UHC-120 — carry district heating and cooling accounting at the building takeover, riser, floor, or zone, and the FC-5000 BTU Monitor computes hydronic energy to EN 1434 from a paired flow meter and RTDs. Start at the flow meters page.
Do you handle domestic and fire-service water meters for buildings?
Yes. RecordALL disc, compound, and turbine meters cover commercial and tenant domestic service from apartment branch lines to high-rise risers, and the UL/FM-approved Fire Series meters dedicated fire mains and combined fire + domestic services. HR-E encoders feed a scaled pulse or 4–20 mA into the building's systems, and AquaCUE cellular AMR settles tenant billing across a campus or portfolio. See RecordALL and AquaCUE.
Can you keep cooling-tower basins and fire-water tanks from freezing?
Yes — that duty is engineered electric heat. Indeeco cooling-tower heaters and screw-plug immersion heaters from Indeeco, Heatrex, and Accutherm protect tower basins and sumps through winter shutdown or standby, with matched control panels; tank heaters cover fire-suppression water storage; and Indeeco heat trace handles roof and gutter de-icing. Most of it is engineered to order from your basin drawing and winter design temperature — start at the electric heating page.
What gas monitoring belongs in parking garages and refrigeration machinery rooms?
Carbon monoxide and NO₂ in the garage, ammonia in the machinery room. The GasSens Midi controller runs CO/NO₂ car-park ventilation control and life-safety monitoring tied into building air-handling; the B14 alarm receiver covers a CO or toxic point in an enclosed bay; and B12 and E12-15 IR sensors watch ammonia in refrigeration machinery rooms, with the D16 PortaSens III as the portable leak locator. All of it is on the ATi GasSens page.
Can you replace an obsolete elevator hoist motor?
Yes — that is Reuland Electric's core elevator work: VVVF elevator-duty motors replace legacy Otis, Westinghouse, and Dover hoist motors, retire motor-generator arrangements in DC-to-AC conversions, and drop into geared and gearless traction drives even when the original maker or frame is gone. NEMA Design D high-slip motors cover drives that need high starting torque, and CSA / NYCHA-approved builds handle NYC public-housing and code-gated elevator work. See Reuland Electric.
Working a hydronic-energy retrofit, a tenant-metering spec, or an elevator modernization? Talk to Scott — send directly to Scott Prater at scott@pratertechnical.com, or call him directly at 917-580-0878 during business hours.
Compiled by Prater Technical Partners.