Dialing Down the Meter

Energy management can be loosely translated to energy efficiency or optimizing energy consumption, or in other words, reducing the energy consumed per unit produced or manufactured or per unit GDP. It is, in a nutshell, working towards decoupling energy consumption from economic growth, and ensuring that the latter grows at a much faster rate than the former. Automation and information technology tools are answering the call, though one would say that the coast is not yet clear.

As is known and oft-mentioned, a chain is as strong as the weakest link. Efficiency needs to be chain-wide, that of one node or process or stage complementing the other. Automation and controls thus can be tools to enable improvements in energy efficiency all across the chain.

The driving force behind the urge to conserve is the rising cost of energy. When energy gets pricier, industries tighten their seat-belts and get austere with respect to energy consumption. In the past, it was seen that when normalcy would return and prices would drop slightly, the belts would come off, and industries would get back to their profligate ways of energy consumption. That would be suicidal in the 21st century, what with scarcity and competition for limited resources threatening to push the unprepared out of the market.

The fittest today is the one who is the most efficient and parsimonious with respect to resource conservation. The writing is on the wall: save energy or succumb to the limits of growth. Industries perform life cycle costing analyses (LCCA) to ensure that investments in energy management would pay in the long run. Those may be of help to some extent, but then, sometimes they are left with no choice. The LCCA carried out does not enable them to determine whether to invest in energy efficiency or not, but rather, in which mode or technology to invest in.

Efficiency drivers

Automation to reduce wastages and optimize consumption can be done at several nodes along the energy process chain – right from energy generation to transmission to distribution to the final appliances at the end-users. If one takes the US, for instance, and recalls the campaign promises of President Barrack Obama, energy security (read “independence”), and thereby increase in energy efficiency, figured among the main objectives he had said he would try to fulfill during his term as President.

The US government will reportedly spend over US$49 billion to transform the nation’s energy system during the next five years, and approximately one-third of that will be directed to upgrading the grid infrastructure – the transmission, distribution and metering elements of the network, which are the critical ones as far as nipping problems related to energy losses in the bud are concerned. And the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which takes metering beyond just remote monitoring of energy consumption, will most likely lead to energy savings in the years to come.

While the two-pronged concern of energy scarcity and global warming is driving reforms in the US, which is blamed often for its non-cooperation with the rest of the world in solving the “climate crisis”, European countries, which have been pioneers in practices and technologies to improve energy efficiency over the years, were notably represented at the ZigBee Alliance meeting in Ireland recently.

The ZigBee organization has been trying to promote a worldwide adoption of wirelessly networked sensing and control technologies, to monitor and optimize energy consumption in homes, industries and commercial establishments, tightening the links between the consumer and the supplier, and inculcating the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility into the ways of functioning of energy suppliers, as well as electrical equipment manufacturers.

The European Energy Efficiency Directive for buildings has led builders and contractors on the one hand, and house-owners/ residents on the other, to think seriously in terms of reducing energy consumption by a myriad of measures. The Energy Certification scheme which labels dwellings on the basis of their energy efficiency and thereby indirectly sets a price for it on the marketplace has come in handy, as a tool for “exerting pressure softly”.

In Scandinavia, technologies – most of which are simple retrofits – to reduce domestic electrical energy consumption – are slowly being introduced and embraced, such as sensor-controlled lamps and heaters which automatically adjust supply (of light and heat) to demand. A chocolate factory in a Norwegian city, for instance, has been able to reduce its annual energy consumption (heat and electricity) by 5 GWh over a period of four years.

Of course, the economic gains and the often-attractive returns on investment are strong drivers – as strong or perhaps even stronger than the awareness of impending energy scarcity.

Asian experience

European and American automation companies operate in the Asia market along with the local competitors (or cooperators), and contribute to automating energy management in households, commercial firms and industries in this region. Some success stories:

• Indian Railways – by availing of Rockwell Automation’s power monitoring system PowerMonitor 3000, improved its power factor by 10 percent and managed to save US$ 220,000 per year.

• China Steel Corporation in Taiwan – saved over 3 GWh of energy per year by installing a variable speed drive for its descaling pump.

• New Holland Tractor in India – reduced its power consumption by 35 percent by installing Rockwell variable frequency drives.

• Korteks Mensucat – a Turkish manufacturer of polyester textiles, saved 14 GWh of energy by matching energy supply to demand after installing ABB’s variable speed drives for its cooling towers and air handling units.

One emerging player looking to make a strong impact on the energy management scene is Singapore’s 3T Hypermizer. The company’s products are said to reduce real power consumption by up to 30 percent, improve load efficiency and power factor by over 10 percent, and deliver a payback within thee years. CEO Ravinder Singh tells Control Engineering Asia (see interview) that the company is targeting to expand market reach beyond the current Southeast Asia and Australasia and is actively looking for distributors in Europe, the US, and, later, in India and China.

Meanwhile, David Tan, the deputy chief executive, Energy Policy & Planning Division, Energy Market Authority (EMA), Government of Singapore, tells CE Asia about the Electricity Vending System, Energy Save Program and the 10% Energy Challenge – all schemes set in motion to create awareness among Singaporeans, and to reach the energy efficiency targets the agency has set for itself.

Dr John Wright, the director of the Commonwealth Scientific Research and Industrial Organisation in Australia, dwells on the universality of the “rebound effect”, the imperativeness of a monetary incentive to support and boost energy conservation and efficiency improvement programs and the likelihood of the emissions trading scheme (to be set in motion from 2010) and proposed fuel and electricity price rises playing a positive role in this regard.

“Australia does not really have its back to the wall, as would be true for many other countries (both developing and developed) owing to the interplay between rise in population and demand for energy on the one hand and the dependence on fuel imports on the other hand.

“Having said that energy efficiency measures are not really expedient, relatively speaking, the awareness is surely there and the deployment of new technologies will continue. It is just that the driving force is not energy scarcity or dependence on foreign lands,” Wright says.

Higher goals

The goal now is not merely to “go green and clean” but also make the most of the green opportunities that are available. There is no other way out but to become efficient, pull up one’s bootstraps, save energy, cut down losses, monitor, pre-empt and nip major concerns associated with energy scarcity in the bud.

Singapore’s David Tan believes that how soon governments reach their energy conservation and efficiency targets depends to a great extent on the cooperation and support of the stakeholders – the consumers in all sectors of the economy. Thus, political will and personal commitment are certainly indispensable, and once these are in place, automation and control solutions will serve as catalysts to bolster the said will and commitment.

And Ravinder Singh of 3T Hypermizer goes as far as to say, “When one talks about energy saving, one is indirectly referring to ‘saving Mother Earth’, and hence the cost aspect should not ideally be considered at all.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------

‘Our products enable clients to achieve 10 to 35 percent energy savings’

This Singapore company has already helped a number of companies to make welcome reductions in energy costs, and plans to help many more to do the same. Ravinder Singh, CEO of 3T Hypermizer, tells more to CE Asia.

3T Hypermizer is a budding Singaporebased company that is confident of spreading its reach outward into the global marketplace through its energy saving solutions: Hypermizer and Hypermizer-M, the installation of which, Singh says, will enable clients to reap 10-35 percent energy savings.

The Hypermizer is an Automatic Power Controller that targets lightings and mixed loads. In the box-like device, a load sensor constantly monitors the supply, usage, and wastage power, and sends the data through a proprietary load detection mechanism where software directs two specially designed coils to trim wastages, reduce consumption, and improve efficiency.

The Hypermizer-M works on a similar philosophy but is applied to three-phase AC induction motor-driven loads such as pumps and fans. With both units, the aim is to supply just the right amount of voltage and current to the loads to function optimally.

Q: How do you work with a client looking to reduce its energy bill?

A: We proceed by first carrying out energy audits, discuss potential improvements with the clients in question, and then advise them on suitable measures. For example, for one client, by just focusing on two electrical distribution boards and adopting the appropriate Hypermizer/Hypermizer-M units, we were able to show the potential to save over S$170,000 (US$113,000) over a decade. (Table 1 shows the calculations). We are confident that our products will enable clients to achieve 10 to 35 percent energy cost savings.

Q: Where are you marketing the products?

A: Hypermizer products are currently being marketed by us directly from our head office in Singapore, and also through authorized distributors in the Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. We shall be starting operations in many more countries after we are able to strike partnerships with more distributors.

We are also eyeing the US and Europe, where energy-saving devices are likely to have a good market. India and China are countries we have not looked at yet, but we are keen to solicit distributors through whom we could tap the potential in these two huge markets.

Q: Your thoughts on the energy crisis – as it builds up – and the consequent demand for your products?

A: In my opinion, at the juncture at which the global economy is currently poised, any amount of saving in energy conservation is good. When one talks about energy saving, one is indirectly referring to “saving Mother Earth” and hence the cost aspect should not ideally be considered at all. But in practice, it is a different story.

The return on investment is often the USP (unique selling point) on which one competes in the marketplace. Hypermizer and Hypermizer-M have a payback period of three years and this is truly quite attractive and makes a lot of business sense for our customers.

--------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Profiting in Process

Energy efficiency can offer a competitive edge for the process industry, says Priyanshu Kumbhare.

Today, the process industry today faces an increasingly competitive environment, in particular, facing pressure to reduce operational costs without hurting profit margins or compromising the quality of the product. Global recession has confronted management with the challenge of maintaining output of high quality product with reduced production cost to compensate for falling demand.

The process industry is extremely fragmented, manufactures multiple products, and provides tremendous opportunity for implementing energy efficiency solutions. The systems in the industry segments are extremely inefficient because the system performance is hardly monitored and most managers are simply not aware that their systems are energy inefficient, being more keen on monitoring production rather than process efficiency.

It is imperative to look beyond quick fixes that will provide temporary relief to companies. In the long term, it is crucial to look at the demand side of energy equation and introduce measures which are directed towards utilizing energy in the most optimum fashion.

Potential payoffs

Energy efficient technologies in any industry have two main benefits. They are directed towards increasing output and/or cutting operational expenses, and at the same time, they form an important component of the company’s environmental strategy. End-ofpipe solutions, which involve treatment of wastes and polluting streams, are often expensive and inefficient while energy efficiency can be the lowestcost opportunity to reduce emissions.

Relatively mature industries have realized the importance of energy efficiency and have been adopting measures to implement energy efficiency solutions, which includes providing a strategic direction to the firm. Taking the example of oil companies, in the near future, the focus is expected to shift towards investing in new energy efficient technologies and renewable fuels rather than expanding oil exploration and drilling.

Energy management measures in the global process industry could reduce the energy demand growth from one percent to -0.3 percent in developed economies, and from 2.9 percent to 1.3 percent in developing economies. Implementing energy efficiency solutions can result in savings to the tune of millions of dollars depending on the size of the firm and its current state of energy efficiency.

Push & pull

As depicted in the impact analysis diagram below, the implementation of energy efficiency measures is subject to both positive and negative forces.

Driving factors:

• Increasing operational costs: Rising utility costs, energy costs and other factors are driving total operational costs thereby denting profit margins. In order to improve the same, it becomes increasingly essential to monitor processes and identify potential areas for implementing energy efficiency solutions.

• Environmental compliance: It is the bitter truth that implementing environmental compliance initiatives in the process industry hurts profit margins. But keeping in view with the global damage caused to the environment, it is important to develop a conscience to take up such initiatives.

• Competitive scenario: Business is getting more and more competitive day by day. The drive to attain an extra percent of the market share has been forcing firms to resort to energy management initiatives.

• Government policies and planning: Environmental agencies and sustainable associations are being set up by governments all over the world in an effort to protect energy resources and ensure environmental sustainability for future generations. Implementing and enforcing energy efficiency standards boosts production with more efficient equipment and reduced costs.

Restraining Factors

• Fear/uncertainty over energy efficiency projects: Facilities that do not have in-house capabilities to carry out energy efficiency improvement initiatives can outsource these projects to Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to undertake identification and implementation plan. However, many firms in the process industry are of the opinion that energy efficiency solutions are just a marketing gimmick and, in reality, do not offer any significant benefits.

• Lack of awareness and education: It is extremely unfortunate that very few personnel in the process industry are aware of the benefits of energy efficiency solutions. In order to overcome this market restraint, it is essential to create awareness amongst employees on the need of energy conservation and fostering a spirit of responsiveness amongst them. Educating and spreading the word on energy conservation and its importance is essential, inculcating conscience on national and global responsibilities.

• Capital availability: Regardless of the payback/discount rate, thin working capital may prevent energy efficiency solutions’ purchase especially during lean economic conditions.

• Regulation/price: Energy prices are regulated by governments in many markets and certain regulations also inhibit energy efficiency investments. Energy subsidies tend to lower energy productivity.

Top to bottom

The process industry is energy intensive and improving performance through energy cost reduction would remain one of the key strategies for global competitiveness. Implementing energy efficiency solutions should be approached from several directions.

A corporate-wide energy management program which permeates from management objectives on energy efficiency to the bottom unit levels should be formulated. Such a program should have the capability to cover facilities, operations, maintenance, environment, safety, health, technical services and management personnel.

In case in-house expertise is incapable of handling energy efficiency projects, emphasis should be laid on outsourcing energy management services to qualified professionals who can provide high quality and proven products and solutions.

Priyanshu Kumbhare is Consultant, Asia Pacific Energy & Power Systems Practice, Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, (www.frost.com).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monitoring Energy Efficiency in Utilities

Energy monitoring systems that measure the consumption of utilities close to the point of use can then be used to build meaningful relations between energy consumptions and their driving factors. By Endress+Hauser.

Customers in all industries are coming more and more under pressure to measure the cost of their utilities, i.e. Water; Air; Gas (natural gas, other gases or fuels); Electricity; Steam. It is also interesting to confirm that this trend is independent of the industry; we can see it in small breweries and in big chemical parks.

One important driver for this pressure is the rising cost of energy. The cost of natural gas for industrial applications, for instance, has more than tripled in less than ten years, and the price for electricity in Europe has risen by 30 percent in less than four years. Another driver are certifications according to EMAS and the ISO 14000 series, which force customers to measure the energy streams using calibrated technology.

The utilities have been neglected frequently in the past. Currently, however, they are coming more and more into the focus. Still, many companies only measure natural gas and electricity at the custody transfer point. Using these few measurements, however, important parameters like specific energy consumptions are determined that give important indications like how much energy does it take to make a ton of product?

These measurements, however, are only taken on a monthly or sometimes even on a yearly basis. Investing a relatively small amount of money, in comparative terms, it is possible to set up energy monitoring systems that measure the consumption of each respective utility close to the point of use. These measurements can then be used to build meaningful relations between energy consumptions and driving factors that enable the customer to:

- Control energy consumption with a better resolution (application-wise and time-wise)

- Identify and justify energy reduction projects, e.g. where is most energy consumed, which changes are possible?

- Detect poor performance earlier, e.g. are the boiler’s heating surfaces fouling?

- Get support for decision making, e.g. should the contract with the provider of electricity be changed?

- Report performance automatically, e.g. which energy accountability center/shift is performing best, did exceptions occur?

- Audit historical operations

- Get evidence of success, e.g. were promises made by a manufacturer of energy efficient equipment realized?

- Get support for energy budgeting and management accounting

- Provide the energy data to other systems, e.g. existing SCADA

Energy cycle

Energy management can be seen as a cyclic operation. Everything starts with the basic data collection, i.e. energy consumption is measured and converted to appropriate units.

For most of the utilities, these conversions require highest attention because the conversion from volumetric units (such as natural gas measured by turbines, steam measured by DP devices or vortex meters) to corrected volume, mass or energy, is often is done in a wrong way resulting in errors in the range of typically 10 to 30 percent. Many devices are also wrongly installed resulting in similar error ranges. Hence, if the basic data collection is wrong, the analysis will be also be wrong and all action taken will be based on wrong information.

The easiest form of data collection is pen and paper. It is amazing to see how many people in the industry still have to walk around the factory and find certain meters on a monthly basis to take the readings.

Modern systems perform this automatically, as stand-alone devices, or so-called “software recorders”, are able to record data in the commonly used 15 minute or 30 minute intervals. If these intervals are still not sufficient, a data collection every 100 ms is possible. And most modern systems of data collection are able to collect the data of up to 30 devices using bus communication and pass the data on using “Field Gates”.

Analyze this

If the data collection is the basis of energy management, data analysis is the heart, as it helps to convert the pure measurements of energy data into meaningful data.

A first basic way consists of analyzing the 15-min or 30-min data profiles:

• What is the base-load of the application?

• Why is energy still consumed without production?

• How can this base-load be reduced?

• What is the typical maximum load during productive hours?

• How can the maximum load be reduced? (important for electricity contracts)

• What is the typical load distribution?

• How can a more uniform load-distribution be obtained? (different policies of load-management are available such as peak-clipping Even more meaningful is to put energy consumptions in relation to a driving factor, for example:

• How much heating energy is consumed compared to how cold the weather is?

• How much energy is consumed to make a ton of product?

• How much electricity is consumed in order to light a building compared to the hours of daylight

Since all of these parameters establish a relationship between energy consumption and a relevant driver, they are generally called “Specific Energy Consumptions” (SEC).

Controlling such a factor enables the customer to control if a certain process is drifting over time, i.e. the process is becoming more inefficient. Possible causes of such a drift can have multiple reasons:

• The amount of leakage in a compressed air grid is growing because of lacking maintenance

• The specific energy consumption for making steam is rising because of lacking maintenance of steam traps (steam traps fail open in case of a failure)

• The specific energy consumption for heating a building rises because of fouling of the surfaces of heat-exchangers

Plotting points

Generally, comparing the energy consumption with a driver will reveal a linear relationship. In certain applications, this linear relationship also shows an intercept that does not equal zero.

If no actions are taken, the trend will be that the intercept grows, e.g. increasing leakage in a compressed air application or due to failing steam traps; and the slope of the linear relationship grows, which means loss of efficiency. Customers, however, will strive to reduce the intercept and reduce the slope of the linear relationship.

The linear relationship found can now be used as a target for the future. One example: if in the past it has taken 4 GJ of energy to make a ton of steam, we expect this same value for the future, too – unless we take any actions to improve efficiency.

We can now compare the real energy consumption to the expected one and record the differences. If this difference exceeds a certain value, a warning will be generated.

We can also take these differences and total them up over time in a “CUSUM” chart. In the chart depicted here, the process has become more efficient after an economizer was installed, improving a steam boiler’s efficiency. We can read directly from the chart that compared to former performance the investment in the economizer saved the company 1100 MWh of energy within 15 weeks.

Recording the performance, analyzing data every 15 or 30 minutes and displaying current specific energy consumption values can be done easily using modern time recorders that display these values close to the process. These modern recorders can even perform complex math operations.

Thus, employees running certain processes can be directly involved and start asking questions such as:

• Why are certain shifts more efficient than other?

• Why was the specific energy consumption stable for months but started drifting recently?

These analysis techniques and also the “targeting“ procedure described above can also be performed using energy monitoring software. A typical configuration of a an energy monitoring information system is depicted below.

Recipients of energy reports can be found in different hierarchies: from operations personnel to top management and in different areas of a company – production, operations, engineering, controlling, energy and eco-management.

The reports must provide information to enable the user to act. Operational staff needs to know when a problem has occurred as quickly as possible and know what they should do about it. Senior management, on the other hand, needs summary information to know that procedures and systems are working well.

The environmental department may want energy consumption expressed as equivalent CO2 emissions, and the energy reports may need to be integrated into environmental reports. Summary information may be required for annual energy and environmental reporting and may be needed more frequently by regulatory bodies.

The energy manager may be involved in energy purchasing as well as efficiency. He may need information about the profile of energy use, peak usage, nighttime usage, etc. The energy manager will also need access to the raw data in order to allow evaluation of purchasing options and to check bills.

In order to design reports, it is important to understand who needs reports and why. The broad variety of requirements that modern energy management information systems need to provide means that they have to be very flexible in creating these reports.

Taking action

Results of implementing energy monitoring information systems in the UK indicate that, when properly implemented, such a system can save 5-15 percent of annual energy costs. Further savings can be achieved via capital expenditure, e.g. for more efficient burners and boilers, economizers, etc. Savings strategies in energy management typically fall into the four following categories:

1. Eliminate – generally, one should question if certain processes or sections of a plant are really required or if they could be replaced.

2. Combine – CHP is a well-known “combine” process in which generation of heat and electricity is combined. Another example is the use of off-heat created by compressors for making air, e.g. for pre-heating factory air.

3. Change – equipment, person, place, or sequence. Equipment changes can offer substantial energy savings as the newer equipment may be more energy efficient. Changing persons, place, or sequences can offer energy savings as the person may be more skillful, the place more appropriate, and the sequence better in terms of energy consumption.

4. Improve – most energy management work today involves improvement in how energy is used in the process because the capital expenditure required is often minimized. Examples include reducing excess air for combustion to a minimum, reducing temperatures to the minimum required. Improving does sometimes require large amounts of capital. For example, insulation improvements can be expensive, but energy savings can be large, and there can be improved product quality.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Energy Inspection Checklist

You may not realize it, but your facility could be sitting on multiple energy conservation opportunities that can save thousands of dollars a year with relatively little capital investment. By Fluke Corp.

With the economic downturn, many facility managers are facing very tight operation and maintenance budgets. If capital expenditures for new HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) mechanical equipment have been frozen or eliminated, one way to free up financial resources is to “tune up” the existing equipment.

By adopting best maintenance practices, the increased operating efficiency will reduce energy consumption, and the cumulative energy bill savings can then supplement the general budget.

While HVAC systems vary widely in terms of equipment and operational characteristics, the following checklist should generally apply to most main equipment types and energy waste areas.

Building automation

Energy consumption checks: Use a power quality meter to evaluate the facility’s voltage, current, and kWh energy consumption. If possible, log energy consumption over time on specific circuits, and by specific equipment and areas. Compare hourly usage rate to the utility fee structure and adjust usage patterns out of high-demand, high-cost times of day. Also check control system supply voltages to ensure proper controller operation. Controller communication bus values may be checked to ensure the integrity of the communication wiring.

Control system: Check all sensors and indicating thermometers for properly calibrated gauges. Check valve and damper actuators as well. Actuator problems can cause higher than normal heating and cooling usage and high energy bills. Actuator output voltages and current signals can be checked using a regular digital multimeter.

Operational checks: Log air temperature over time, over occupied and unoccupied schedules, identify areas left in the wrong temperature mode at night or on weekends, wasting energy. Setpoint checks: Check the accuracy of all temperature, pressure and humidity control setpoints by logging those values over time. Control inaccuracy may waste one percent of energy per degree of error.

Lighting system

Electrical checks: Thermography applications for lighting include ballast and breaker contact temperatures. Look for hotspots and compare values with baselines or previous temperature measurements for evaluation.

Illumination levels: Use a light meter to measure footcandle or lumen levels. Where possible, reduce illumination levels to industry standards. Especially consider reducing illumination during seasons when more natural light is available.

Operational checks: Set up a recording meter to sample illumination levels during a facility’s unoccupied hours. This will help identify areas where the lights are left on inadvertently or unnecessarily.

Fan system

Electrical checks: Measure the voltage and amperage of the fan motor and compare to nameplate conditions.

Temp checks: A set of parameter values should be checked at air handlers. Take readings with a handheld temperature meter and compare them against those indicated by the control system to ensure accuracy. Sensor calibration should also be an integral part of all maintenance programs. The following should be measured:

• Outside air temperature

• Mixed air temperature

• Return air temperature

• Discharge or supply air temperature

• Coil face discharge air temperatures

• Space temperature sensors

• Economizer and related dampers

• Wet bulb temperature or relative humidity (RH) sensors

Air pressure checks: Check pressure drops across filter banks to ensure adequate air flow. Excessive pressure drops will cause higher than normal energy consumption. Measure air pressure drops across heating and cooling coils to ensure that the coils are clean. Measure the inlet and outlet air temperatures to ensure proper temperature rise or drop.

Steam system

Insulation checks: Loose or missing insulation costs thousands of dollars in extra fuel costs per heating season. Use a thermal imager to inspect system insulation and identify insufficient areas.

Steam trap checks: Steam traps remove condensate from heating and process equipment. If the traps fail open, valuable steam is lost. To spot a failed trap, use a non-contact thermal imager, infrared thermometer or a contact thermometer to compare the temperature of the trap to the pipe on either side of it. Thermography and infrared thermometers hold obvious advantages for traps mounted in awkward areas. Normal temperature differences across steam traps are approximately 20 deg F. If you don’t see a distinct temperature difference on either side of a steam trap, it may be failed and needs to be further investigated.

Air temp checks: Proper combustion requires that the combustion air be between proper limits. Use a digital thermometer designed to measure ambient air temperatures and consider checking the carbon monoxide level in the boiler room, as well, to ensure safety.

Other checks: In addition to the steps made above, also check the feedwater temperature, fuel oil heater temperature, and other items such as lubricant. These checks may not only save energy but also costs due to equipment repair or failure. When taking readings near any combustion equipment, measure not only CO but CO2 and temperature as well.

Cooling system

Electrical checks: Check compressor voltage and amperage to ensure that the motor is operating at manufacturerrecommended levels.

Temp checks: Check the temperatures of inlet and outlet air and water temperatures at heat exchangers to verify they are operating at their most efficient levels. Chilled water supply temperatures for most chilled water systems should be between 5.5 deg C and 6.6 deg C.

Pressure checks: Use a digital multimeter with a pressure attachment to take the inlet and outlet pressures of shell and tube heat exchangers, to ensure the tubes are not fouled. Fouling will result in lower heat transfer and higher energy consumption.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------