Hard water - a soft target for energy efficiency
February 1st 2006

Hard water is amazingly a problem that many commercial organisations still choose to ignore. Perceived as 'something we have to live with' by many, it's a problem that can quite easily be addressed - the technology and the equipment exists. And the motivation for addressing it is massive. Lower fuel costs, higher energy efficiencies, lower emissions and far lower maintenance costs - the damage that scale causes , a direct result of hard water, is costly - should be enough to convince almost anyone of the benefits of a water softener

Many companies and organisations operating in the commercial and industrial sectors in the UK are situated in the 60% of the country that suffers from hard water. Rainwater is naturally soft. It's only when it falls and passes through layers of chalk or limestone that the water absorbs calcium and magnesium salts and becomes hard water.

The scale that is the result of the salts in the water attaching itself to surfaces as it flows over them can, according to Government figures, build up at 1.5mm every year, and the effects of this are immediately obvious.

If the water has to be heated for whatever process is involved, the scale clearly has to be heated first, before the water is, and that's a waste of energy and the cause of carbon emissions that the environment can well do without. But most importantly, it's the cause of higher fuel bills for industry and commerce, which have to be paid for.

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 hidden costs of hard water are massive and can be attacked by softening the water at the point of entry from the mains supply.

Tapworks offers a range of water softeners in its North Star Range of commercial water softeners.

Tapworks water softeners also help you to 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 North Star range from Tapworks 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 offsite analysis of data to determine whether an adjustment is needed, often saving the cost of a service call.

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