Proving the benefits of retrofitting physical water treatment
Demonstrating the benefits, including improvements in the potential performance and energy savings, from the retrofit installation of sustainable water treatment to existing buildings is a major factor in the take-up and case for investment. Being able to demonstrate what is flowing where, not flowing or, even, flowing backwards can go a long way to establishing confidence with potential customers that your company knows what it is doing.
Surveying existing large-scale heating and DHW installations to establish a basis for installing improvements can be a daunting task. Environmental Treatment Concepts (ETC) has found that the PF330 portable clamp-on flow and heat meter from Micronics is an ideal tool for the job.
ETC has helped many commercial and industrial clients save large sums of money with effective physical water treatment. The build-up of scale from hard water can reduce the efficiency of heat exchanger by up to 40%. The Micronics products are used to demonstrate how bad the performance is before installation of water treatment and the improvements afterwards for LTHW pipes from 5 to 450 cm diameter. Water flow rate is a key factor in the process, and the PF330 provides essential information for assessment and timeframes for improvement.
Simon Elliot, technical services manager with ETC, says, ‘The PF330 has proved to be a great tool to undertake plant surveys, including identifying circulation shortfalls and even pumps going backward. It’s a valuable tool for demonstrating how well our installations work to improve performance and reduce energy consumption.
‘We’ve got a lot of public-sector (MOD and hospital) installations with very old pipework, where we’ve been pleased with the product performance, and the ongoing service support has been there when we’ve needed it.’
