Water treatment
Ensuring the right treatment
For optimum performance, commercial heating systems need to enjoy the same attention to water treatment that has been the norm for domestic systems for many years. Ross Anderson, director of ICOM Energy Association explains how a new guide can help
t will probably be surprising to many HVR readers that, until recently, there has been no industry-wide best practice guide for the water treatment of commercial wet heating systems, especially since water treatment for domestic heating systems has been well- defined for many years. Nevertheless, this has been the case, leading to a range of problems that include limescale build-up, corrosion and fouling from both biological and non-biological sources. These, in turn, impose a number of issues on the building owner or operator. Inappropriate or inadequate water treatment leads to reduced energy efficiency, reduced reliability and, potentially, early failure of system components and central heating plant, all of which leads to increased costs and increased environmental impact. To make things worse, there have been some significant changes in commercial wet heating systems that serve to exacerbate the problem. These include higher pressure drops, lower flow rates and use of a wider range of materials in the systems. Unfortunately, the industry has lacked
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any clear, independent guidance on this subject, so even when people know they need to do something, they may not be sure what that something is. Water treatment isn’t just a matter of adding a few chemicals every so often. If it is to be effective, the water treatment regime needs to take account of oxygen content, total hardness, conductivity, suspended solids, total metals, chlorides, settled sludge, sulphate, microbiological activity and pH. Consequently, choosing the wrong water
treatment regime can be as damaging as having no water treatment at all. Water treatment companies have issued their own guidance, of course, but that’s not the same as having independent and authoritative best practice guidelines. Boiler manufacturers have also sought
www.heatingandventilating.net
to ensure their products benefit from appropriate water treatment – not least because they often get the blame when a lack of water treatment causes problems with the boiler. However, they are often not in a position to influence the ongoing maintenance of their products. All of these factors have led to boiler manufacturers and water treatment companies teaming up under the aegis of ICOM to produce a comprehensive and definitive guide designed to help all of those with responsibility for the maintenance of commercial wet heating systems. To that end, the 60-page ‘Water Treatment and Conditioning of Commercial Heating Systems Guide’ is written in language that does not require specialist knowledge and is available as a free download.
In the beginning
The new guide makes the point that water treatment is something that needs to be considered in the early design stages – and that the design intent should be made clear to the installer. Similarly, once the system has been
commissioned and handed over, that design intent needs to be communicated effectively to either the maintenance contractor or the end-user’s in-house maintenance teams. However, where the water treatment is
sub-contracted (as is often the case) the contractor may change every couple of years, so it is easy for the detail to be lost. Having recourse to a best practice guide that is followed by the entire industry should therefore help to ensure that appropriate water treatment is maintained when responsibility passes from one company to another. It also enables the building operator to evaluate the treatment being provided by a contractor. For contractors, the guide underlines the need to establish the system’s water
volume to ensure correct dosage rates, and to analyse the chemical make-up of the water to ensure the most appropriate corrective actions are taken. Crucially, it also provides a step-by-step guide encompassing every area from initial cleaning and flushing through to ongoing treatment. It also covers issues such as methods of system fill and water types (including use of demineralised, reverse osmosis or softened water), pressurisation, de-aeration and filtration. As Pete Mills, commercial technical
Top: ICOM Energy Association director Ross Anderson launches the Water Treatment and Conditioning of Commercial Heating Systems Guide (above)
operations manager at Bosch, noted at the time of the launch: “This should be seen as an important milestone for the industry and we hope the standard is widely adopted within specifications, which should help to drive improvements in heating system reliability and efficiency.” Mick Casey of Deep Blue Water added:
“The guide is a well written and ‘hands-on’ practical working document for engineers and specifiers alike.
“It is a very important step in providing a
best practice guide for those involved in water treatment of commercial heating systems. In doing so, it will also help to drive improvements in reliability and efficiency for end users whilst also reducing their lifecycle costs.” Get a PDF or hard copy of the guide by emailing
info@icom.org.uk
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