Checking in: The importance of energy audits
Gavin Harris, HVAC Product Manager – North at Kingspan Technical Insulation, and TIPCHECK Expert Level 1, explains how TIPCHECK – an energy assessment process for industrial projects – helps to pinpoint the improvements to building services insulation and provide the most significant energy and cost savings.
An analysis has identified that the energy savings that could be achieved by improving insulation solutions in the UK industrial sector amounts to 1,183 kilo tonnes oil equivalent (ktoe). This is the equivalent of the annual energy demand of 863,000 homes. With budgets under pressure from increased energy costs and many businesses committed to lowering their carbon emissions, there are clear incentives for realising these savings. However, identifying where to make improvements in complex building services is not always straightforward.
TIPCHECK energy audits offer a solution. The standardised auditing tool allows building service insulation on new and existing projects to be evaluated, not only demonstrating how the use of more efficient insulation could provide energy and cost savings, and reduce operational emissions, but also providing targeted recommendations on areas with the highest energy saving potential – allowing for rapid payback.
Understanding TIPCHECK
TIPCHECK, which stands for Technical Insulation Performance Check, is operated by the European Industrial Insulation Federation (EIIF). The tool has been developed for use on industrial facilities including manufacturing sites, cold storage warehousing, power facilities and refineries. It can also be used on HVAC building pipework although returns are typically greatest on high temperature pipework.
Assessments can either be carried out on building services plans (for projects at the design stage) or on in-situ systems and may involve the use of a variety of equipment including thermographic cameras and temperature probes. They’re designed to provide a clear analysis of existing building performance and specific, prioritised recommendations on where improvements can be made and the savings that could be achieved by implementing them.
The assessments are carried out in line with key standards including BS EN17956: 2024, BS EN16247-1: 2022 and ISO 50002: 2014. This means any outputs can feed into ISO 50001: 2018 energy management systems, if in operation at the facility.
All audits are carried out by qualified ‘TIPCHECK Experts’ who have at least one year’s experience working with industrial insulation, and have completed a five-day training course and exam. Technicians who have passed the TIPCHECK training and exam start as Level 1 Experts and can move up to Level 3 based on their years of experience and the number of reports they complete. All experts are required to participate in regular online refresher courses (at least two per year), ensuring they remain up to speed with best practice.
Assessment process
A TIPCHECK assessment will usually begin with a kick-off meeting to discuss the facility, systems in operation and what the client is looking to achieve from the assessment. The assessor will then collect information about the system or system design including data on existing or expected system performance. If the project is at the design stage, this will include information relating to the expected building service insulation specification.
For existing systems, in-person assessments will be carried out. The assessment processes used will vary depending on the project. A typical assessment will include carrying out measurements with temperature probes and thermographic equipment at various locations. To do this, assessors will usually identify individual valves or flanges which are representative of others within the system. If already insulated, the assessor may remove the existing insulation layer to carry out an inspection of the valve and some initial temperature measurements – these valves will then be reinsulated.
A second visit may then be conducted where insulated boxes are positioned around the valves and flanges to assess the relative heat losses when these are insulated or uninsulated.
Using all the data from these assessments (either of the designs or in-person), the assessor will then carry out evaluations using the TIPCHECK suite of tools to calculate the losses from the designed/ existing system and how these could be reduced by upgrading the insulation specification. This information is collected in a report which clearly identifies the energy and cost savings which could be achieved through improvements to building services insulation and identifying specific areas where the fastest paybacks can be achieved. In some cases, this can be less than a year. These highly targeted improvements can provide a clear business case for energy improvements – identifying how planned or existing facilities can be made more competitive through medium and long-term operational cost savings.
Potential cost savings will vary depending on a range of project specific factors. The EIIF has, however, provided a worked example of a single uninsulated valve sized at DN 150/6 inch on a system with an operating flow temperature of 150 °C which is in use for 8,760 hours per year. In this case, it estimates that losses from this single valve could amount to 10, 600kWh. The EIIF further estimates that if this thermal energy was transferred into electrical energy, the resulting power would be enough to drive an electric car for over 20,000km.
Delivering operational performance
Delivering system efficiencies is a key priority in energy-intensive industrial facilities and this is only likely to increase with the drive for Net Zero carbon. TIPCHECK assessments provide a valuable tool which can allow facilities managers and operational teams to be make informed decisions about improvements to their building service insulation whilst achieving rapid payback.
