HVAC - Is Water Treatment Necessary?

Vat - Kickers, Soap Salesmen... they have been called many things. Water Treatment specialists ( probably the name they prefer ) are everywhere. As a technical contractor, we retain had many knock on our door. With most large commercial buildings and industrial facilities in Memphis utilizing water cooling / heating mechanical equipment, this trouble is highly competitive, but is water treatment really necessary? In this edition of Mechanical Matters® I am going to voice that very dispute and discuss several other important facts about water treatment services.

In this edition I want to answer three questions glimpse water treatment:

Exactly what is water treatment and is it necessary?

How does improper water treatment service backlash mechanical equipment?

Are qualified energy savings with water treatment?

1. Exactly what is water treatment and is it necessary?

Water treatment describes a process used to make water more choice for a desired tail end - use. These can include use as drinking water, industrial processes, medical and many other uses.
The goal of all water treatment process is to remove existing components in the water, essential it for planned utilization. ( Wikipedia. org )

In the mechanical pull water treatment is a method used to optimize most water - based specialist and industrial processes, close as: heating, cooling, processing, cleaning, and rinsing, inasmuch as that operating costs and risks are reduced.

Most water treatment programs include water softeners, inhibitors and other chemicals prerequisite to ' pleasure ' the water in order to reach the desired conditions for mechanical use and heat transfer. Products used to maintain proper water conditions are usually fed automatically by sophisticated equipment at once into a chiller or boiler ' s water. Water is used for both cooling and heating in sizeable commercial building applications. In immensely industrial environments water is used for cooling production equipment or an aid to forging a enterprise. How the water is used will determine what type of treatment is necessary.

Most water treatment companies use check kits and chemical dispensing systems which have made the use of water treatment chemicals in chiller, boiler and cooling - tower systems abundantly easier. But attention to details, same as how often systems are 24-carat, is touch-and-go to system performance. The relevant water treatment chemistry at the correct time is extraordinarily important because flat secondary problems can create major costs.

Last span I sat reclusive to breakfast with Gary Reynolds and Spring Schubert of Garratt Callahan. They are water treatment ' specialists '. Gary and I retain worked together with several retaliated customers. Their attention to draw, customer service and monstrous enlightenment of water treatment is why many buildings in the Mid - South are in good hands with Garratt Callahan. In our meeting they provided me with some great information about the importance of water treatment, the effects of poor service and things to look for in choosing a service provider

2. How does poor or no service effect mechanical equipment?

Uncalled-for Water Treatment or no treatment at all cede increase your energy consumption and operating cost date decreasing your mechanical equipment ' s efficiencies and life goal. A well designed and implemented water treatment program is highly important to the rush of any steam boiler, centrifugal chiller and cooling tower. All three of the systems shown under utilize water for cooling and heating.

Poor water treatment lets water interact with the surfaces of pipes and vessels which interject it. Strain boilers can scale up or corrode, and these deposits leave stingy more fuel is foremost to heat the same price of water. Cooling towers can scheme adding to and corrode, but left untreated, the warm, dirty water they can append entrust excite bacteria to grow, and Legionnaires ' Sickness constraint be the fatal consequence. The condenser tubes within a chiller and far cry water cooling equipment can and cast reinforcing and corrode thereupon preventing sterling heat lead. Increased energy consumption and strapped cooling performance is common result in inefficient water treatment.

Water treatment can often be categorized as ' dejected - tech ' and unglamorous. However, the appropriate chemicals, proper chemical feed equipment, and a frenetic service provider is essential to your mechanical equipment and should be ' treated ' with top priority.

3. Are known energy savings with water treatment?

Treatment Value: Expert water treatment can fashion your water, energy, and maintenance costs substantially. Conceivably most important of undocked, it liability save you the cost of fixing or replacing equipment that ' s been damaged by wee water treatment - including the downtime and lost returns usually associated with solving such problems.

The examples of water treatment ROI ( Earnings of Investment ) shown below show how true thin layers of deposited material from poorly treated water can drive up energy costs.

Scale

System: 1, 000 ton chiller

Operation: 12 hours / stage, 365 days / year

Cost of electricity: $0. 10 / kWh

Establishment thickness: 1 / 32 inch

Elimination of 1 / 32 inch of scale saved $15, 018 per year.

Biological Fouling

System: 1, 000 ton chiller

Operation: 12 hours / day, 365 days / year

Cost of electricity: $0. 10 / kWh

Bio - film thickness: 1 / 1000 inch

Elimination of 1 / 1000 inch of bio - film saved $26, 834 per year.

" Due to skimpy considering 3 / 16 - inch of scale can cause a boiler system to use 38 percent more fuel. The most miniscule amount of dissolved oxygen in the water besides element a system could be headed for sore problems. And proportionate a thin layer of bacterial slime in chiller tubes can significantly touch heat - lead efficiency. "

Wrap Upgrowth:

Being mechanical contractors we are no strangers to the importance of water treatment. However, after researching and writing this article I incubus assure you that I am much more informed about the necessity and advantage to having a excellent water treatment program.

In this edition Mechanical Matters®, I discussed three important observation about chemical water treatment. First we understanding the definition of water treatment and its use in the technical industry. Second, we sophisticated that water treatment is definitely necessary, and wayward it your specialist equipment entrust suffer. Go on we aware how just water treatment will save energy, and presently increase your bottom line.

I of course didn ' t splash all my cards at once. Acknowledged is so much more to the mechanical water treatment industry... I haven ' t even tender the surface. If you are not sure your mechanical equipment has a befitting water treatment program or pleased with your current assistance provider, please dispose of me a call. We at S. M. Lawrence Company bedfellow with good water treatment specialists like Garratt Callahan and not ' keg - kickers '. For a definition of ' Drum - Kicker ', potency to my website, jimmyveteto. com and judgment on the glossary.