MAINTENANCE, REFURBISHMENT & REGENERATION
Water quality – the most important component in a heating system
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Keith Mileham, technical sales engineer from Spirotech, explains why water quality is an essential component of an efficient heating system within a commercial, industrial, or public sector building to reduce their carbon footprint and help address crushingly high running costs
ith the UK firmly committed to reaching Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 and, as part of the Paris climate agreement, to cutting emissions
by 68% by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels), sustainability is high up on every company’s agenda. Organisations across the globe are under
pressure to meet environmental targets and this often is far easier for large companies with considerable human resources and bigger available budgets to invest in processes and infrastructure. One area that comes under scrutiny is of course that of energy efficiency and how effective the systems providing heating and water to a building are - whether it’s an office, factory, hospital, or university campus, for example.
Many UK universities, for example, have been planning and renewing their boiler systems in stages over several years as part of an ongoing process to reduce energy consumption. For some, this will involve the complete replacement of one, or several boiler rooms across the campus serving a variety of buildings including lecture theatres, sports facilities, kitchens and student accommodation. This represents a major investment with the work often needing to be completed in stages and during extended holiday periods. However, not every university is in the position to do this quickly and will need to upgrade their existing systems over a greater period of time. During this process, there will almost certainly be a more frequent need to replace components as the system ages. One immediate area that can be addressed is water quality, which is at the heart of the efficiency of every heating system. Getting its conditioning right will reward the building owner with efficient, trouble-free operation, helping to maximise the performance and lifecycle of both existing and new system components. There is a relationship between a poorly installed and maintained pressurisation system, which may cause negative pressures around the circuit, causing air to be drawn in through automatic air vents, gaskets and via micro-leaks. Over pressurising the system because the incorrect expansion vessel has been selected can also lead to water being emitted through the safety valves, meaning raw refill water will need to be added. Unfortunately, the newly introduced water will be oxygen-rich and further deplete any corrosion inhibitors in the system. If air continually gets into the system, corrosion will start to occur resulting in a build-up of dirt and magnetite, leading to the system needing to be cleaned and treated again. Whilst corrosion inhibitors play a part in the efficiency of a heating and ventilation system, they do not impact on the content of inert gases such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide that are present in large volumes and play their part in reducing the overall efficiency of the system. Degassing the system water is a fundamental must to ensure good water quality.
System failure is normally down to poor system design, poor installation and a lack of proper maintenance, or a combination of both. A neglected system will only get worse over time, resulting in decreasing performance. This will ultimately result in more costly repairs and, when component parts fail, results in inconveniencing the end user.
Providing the solution
Selecting the right equipment to do the job in a particular environment, as well as planning for future expansion, is key to designing the right system for a given application. Spirotech’s range of SpiroExpand and our Superior pressurisation units are designed to suit every pressurised system that facilities managers, engineers and system designers are likely to encounter. Commercial applications range from smaller heating and cooling systems up to the higher operational pressure range of 23.5 bar and beyond for special applications. In addition to selecting a suitable pressurisation solution, other key critical factors include ensuring a robust Air and Dirt solution is installed. If these are miscalculated, malfunctions become pre-programmed, inefficiency is in-built and breakdowns are almost inevitable, even if not immediately apparent. Ensuring the system design is correct is a must, seeking advice from a knowledgeable technical person can definitely aid the selection process through the design and installation stages of a heating and chilled system. It is important to ensure that the system parameters match the performance
16 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JUNE 2023
requirements of the buildings. Such action will help prevent straightforward problems being missed which could seriously compromise the quality of the system fluid.
Whether it’s a completely new system being designed, specified and installed, or the repair and ongoing maintenance of an existing one, there are certain procedures and practices that need to be implemented. Taking out equipment that safeguards systems
from air and dirt is not only short-sighted but can cost a lot of money and hassle in the short, medium and long-term. Air and dirt separators are key to maintaining the ongoing health of any heating and ventilation system. However, the removal of these solutions by contractors is far too common, even though good quality products safeguard against costly breakdowns of the boiler and other system components. When large sums of money are being invested in a top-of-the-range boiler system – often more than £100,000 – ignoring key items or seriously downgrading some parts is a serious mistake, particularly when only modest sums are needed to safeguard systems from air and dirt. Whilst the specifier and engineer may understand the key principles of design and installation, if the value engineer or contractor chooses to strip out what they consider to be ‘unnecessary’ extras to keep costs down – or replace them with lesser cheaper alternatives – then all the hard work can be quickly undone. Support for design engineers and facilities managers can be found on the Spirotech website. Spirotech’s CPD Understanding Water Quality & Total Solutions is accessed from this link:
https://www.spirotech.co.uk/cpd-cibse/
Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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