Hard water? Easy solution
February 6th 2006 For businesses located in the 60% of the country that suffers from hard water, the resulting lime scale is hitting profits. According to government figures, scale can build up at 1.5mm every year. If the water has to be heated, the scale has to be heated first – wasting energy (resulting in higher fuel bills) and causing unnecessary carbon emissions.
Work to evaluate the effect of hard water scale deposition on boiler efficiency has recently been carried out at a national laboratory accredited by Government to determine the SEDBUK rating (energy efficiency) of domestic boilers. The results showed that just 9 grams of limescale on the heat exchange surfaces of a 23kW gas boiler reduced overall boiler efficiency by 5.6% in the ‘steady state’ fully-fired condition. In heat up mode, the same amount of scale resulted in a 17% increase in consumption of gas required to heat the water to the preset temperature. Whilst this research focussed primarily on domestic appliances, there is a direct correlation between the build up of limescale and reduction in the performance of commercial appliances.
The solution is softening the water at the point of entry from the mains supply. Tapworks says its North Star Range of commercial water softeners help save salt and water – the two essential inputs to the process, through the inclusion in their products of Genius Chip technology. The exact amount of salt needed for each regeneration of the system is measured and calculated in proportion to the amount of softened water used since the last regeneration. In addition to this ‘standard proportional salting’ facility, the Genius Chip also adjusts the salt levels automatically to reflect the consumption.
The range features a space saving tank-in-tank design, low voltage electronics, making them safe and easy to install, the Genius Chip technology, a back lit display that provides easy to use advanced flow and consumption information, high capacity resin that offers long life and improved efficiency and remote telephone diagnostics, allowing off-site analysis of data to determine whether an adjustment is needed, often saving the cost of a service call.
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