DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing
Lower power bills with a clean heat exchanger
When we think of energy efficiency, we often think of high energy ratings on electrical motors, fuel efficient engines or LED lighting.
The truth is that basic energy saving starts with a simple spring cleaning of our equipment.
We wouldn’t run our cars or trucks on half inflated tyres, we don’t drive around with an engine needing a tune up. Why? Because we know if our tyres need air they are going to wear out early and will cost us more in fuel.
If our engine is out of tune it will at best be hugely inefficient to operate and at worst will soon break down. Why then would we not look at our heat transfer engine, your plate heat exchanger, and give it a tune up?
Somewhere in the plant room is a small unobtrusive block of sealed stainless steel that we forget is the main way you can efficiently transfer heating or cooling within your operation.
A blocked, or even partially-fouled heat exchanger, can easily represent an additional 10 to 15 per cent (or more) increase in your energy consumption.
A hot water exchanger that is fouled inside will require your heating boiler to operate at full fire continuously – just to achieve the water set point temperature.
It all happens quietly inside the heat exchanger and what you are saving in a service call out cost, you are spending two or three fold in your discrete energy costs.
Check to see when your heat exchanger was last cleaned and serviced. Your increased energy bills could just simply be an inefficient heat transfer issue that could be solved with a clean.
Saving energy could be only a clean away.