Pump audits and load profiles

Learn how a pump audit can optimise your temperature control system and reduce energy consumption, improve reliability, and lower environmental impact.

In this module, you’ll discover how a pump audit can optimise your temperature control system, helping to reduce energy consumption, improve reliability, and lower environmental impact. Most industrial processes rely directly on heating, cooling, or refrigeration systems. But many of these systems are inefficiently designed, which means maintenance is expensive and energy bills are large.

A common issue is the use of constant speed pumps and regulating valves that don’t account for load variation. As a result, when the need for cooling is low, the pumps still run at full speed. Identifying the load profile and designing a temperature control system that adjusts to specific demands offers significant potential.

To better understand this, let’s look at a few examples from a cooling system. If your cooling system’s load profile shows consistent high flow, switching to a pump regulated by differential pressure sensors can reduce energy consumption by nearly 12%. However, a temperature-controlled, demand-driven system can deliver even greater savings of up to 36%.

If the load profile shows a low flow rate with few peak periods, a differential pressure regulated system can reduce energy consumption by nearly 30%. But a temperature-controlled system could cut energy costs by as much as 72%.

Although these savings highlight the benefits of system optimisation, few organisations are aware of their pumps’ load profile. In such cases, a pump audit can provide valuable insights into potential savings.

A pump audit maps your system’s performance through on-site measurements of existing pumps. Pump auditors use advanced equipment to assess differential pressure, power consumption, and the liquid’s temperature, density, and viscosity.

The result of a pump audit is a report that compares the existing pump system with a recommended alternative, along with data on investment costs and graphs illustrating the break-even point for new investments.

Following the recommendation of a pump audit brings financial, operational, and environmental benefits, including:

  • Improving business performance by reducing running costs. With potential savings of over 70%, the payback period for pump system optimisation is just one to five years.

 

  • Gaining a complete overview of your entire pump system to help you to keep production running smoothly and reduce downtime.

 

  • Reducing energy consumption by an average of 30%, which cuts CO2 emissions by the same percentage. This improves sustainability and helps you comply with even the strictest energy regulations.

 

Let’s recap:

  • Unregulated temperature control systems that don’t consider the load profile can be optimised for greater efficiency.

 

  • A pump audit gives you an overview of load profiles and provides actionable design recommendations.

 

  • Following the recommendations results in energy savings, improved reliability, and a reduced environmental impact.

Course overview

Modules
Modules: 4
Completion time
Completion time: 30 minutes
Difficulty level
Difficulty level: Advanced