Top energy and water-saving trends in the HVAC industry in 2022.com

Top energy and water-saving trends in the HVAC industry in 2022

October 16, 2023 | Blog

Maintaining a good water quality throughout the HVAC equipment is vital for the health of the entire cooling system, especially chillers and cooling towers. Any HVAC operator or plant manager would quickly agree that water is the most significant element to evaporative cooling system performance. It’s because water quality is essential for proper heat transfer and the healthy service life of the chillers, process equipment or building systems connected to the evaporative cooling equipment.

Yet, most industries ignore checking the quality of the available makeup water and choose not to invest in ongoing water treatment of the condenser water. While it may seem cost-effective at first, it can impact equipment commissioning and operational water efficiency, shortening the lifespan of the equipment. Hence, this small mistake may end up costing much more in the long term.

Therefore, you must give careful attention to water quality during the initial fill while commissioning an evaporative cooling system. And if you find that your water resources are not viable, you have to retrofit your HVAC system with water treatment technologies like SBR.

It implements innovative electrolysis technology to sterilize the water and maintain suitable and consistent water quality throughout the system even after commissioning. This has a direct impact on the performance of evaporative cooling systems, thus improving system efficiency, available uptime and equipment longevity while lowering the maintenance needs. If you’re still not convinced about the role water plays in HVAC efficiency, read on this blog to know in detail why maintaining consistent water quality should be on top of priority.

It can bring down your costs

For any plant owner or HVAC manager, the operating cost of an evaporative cooling system is often viewed as the most crucial deciding factor. However, the quality of the available makeup water and the operating cost of the cooling system are interconnected with each other. With a proactive water treatment program, you can keep your cooling towers and chiller condenser tubes free of scaling, bioaccumulation and corrosion. This way, you end up reducing the maintenance cycle, saving more water than ever and ensuring zero downtime that can lead to a lower total cost of ownership.

It can increase the lifespan of your cooling equipment

When you ignore available makeup water quality and choose not to implement a water treatment program, you leave your equipment more vulnerable to water-based problems. Water is a universal solvent that can dissolve many substances, including gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide. As a result, water can cause corrosion of metals, which can cause unwanted side effects for industrial uses, such as equipment damage. Hence, bad water conditions alone can cause a cooling system to lose as little as two to seven years. However, the same system could last for 15 to 20 years if the makeup water quality is consistently maintained. Hence, a water quality checkup has to be a part of your equipment selection process so you can invest in a water treatment system.

It can prevent water-related problems

As water continues to concentrate in an evaporative cooling system, the dissolved ions in makeup water end up exceeding the solubility of minerals, causing scaling and bioaccumulation. It can lead to harmful bacteria entering your cooling system from the makeup water supply. These bacteria may grow in number, creating more equipment-related problems or an outbreak of airborne microbes like Legionella. However, an automatic water treatment system like SBR continues to clean the makeup water without using harmful chemicals, thus preventing the growth of bio-organisms and keeping you free of worries.

To summarise, water treatment solutions to maintain water quality are the crucial building blocks for all evaporative cooling systems. Implementing an effective treatment program will help you ensure efficient operation of cooling water systems and appropriate service life for the equipment they serve. An automatic non-chemical water treatment system like SBR is the most sustainable option capable of reducing chemical usage while increasing water efficiency. By combining innovative cooling efficiency technologies, this system can effectively tackle challenging water quality while reducing the dependence on chemicals, thereby reducing environmental impacts.