Cooling Towers; Essential to Maintain
In our previous blog Cooling Towers; Their Purpose and Importance, we explained how the cooling tower works and why they are essential, and while they are a vital component to every building it is equally as important to make sure they are maintained properly.
There are 2 different types of cooling towers – natural draft and mechanical draft. Natural draft towers utilize the natural convection of the air to facilitate flow while the mechanical draft towers generate airflow using fans. While both types operate differently, they both have the same issues:
- Corrosion
- Scaling
- Suspended soils
- Microbiological Fouling (Including Legionnaires’ Disease)
The lack of proper maintenance, including regular cleaning and disinfection, can cause major issues that can reduce the lifespan, reliability, and efficiency of the equipment.
These consequences can result in serious financial impacts on your business and can affect the health of those within and around your facility.
Why regular maintenance is essential
A soiled cooling tower is very simple to avoid by regular, preventive maintenance. Regular maintenance of your cooling tower ensures that:
- The reliability of your cooling tower remains optimal
- The cooling tower continues to operate as it should
- The cooling tower retains its cooling capacity
- The working life of your cooling tower is extended
Cooling towers are responsible for potential public health hazards such as outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, which is why there are regulations surrounding the regular maintenance of cooling towers.
Maintenance is about more than repairing a cooling tower when it begins to malfunction but to prevent any issues from arising – and ofcourse to keep the tower safe and compliant.
Benefits of regular maintenance
Business owners and commercial building managers who are responsible for the operation of a cooling tower at their facility, should understand the benefits that come with cooling tower maintenance services, these include:
Saving Money & Preserving longevity
Maintaining your cooling towers will save you money in operations and energy usage.
When cooling towers are not regularly maintained, the build-up of scale, corrosion, bacteria and biofilms will foul equipment and reduce the tower’s efficiency.
Parts covered in these bacteria can’t transfer heat as intended, and filters clogged with biofilm cannot process water as quickly – the system needs to work harder to achieve the same result, using more energy for less output. Business owners will soon see this reflected in their energy bills, as they will climb due to a poorly maintained cooling tower.
As the stress on the system increases, parts will continue degrade, in turn the parts needing replacement– another expense.
By performing regular maintenance, a cooling tower can function at peak efficiency, using as little energy as possible to produce an ideal output. The equipment will also last longer without repair and function better during its life, resulting in cost savings due to fewer repairs and replacements.
Reducing Health & Environmental Hazards
One of the main risks with unmaintained cooling towers is bacterial growth, especially dangerous bacteria which pose risk to people’s health and lives such as Legionella.
Cooling towers are one of the most prolific spreaders of Legionnaires’ disease, as the environment is perfect for these microorganisms to live. Legionella transfers to humans via airborne particles or water vapor; cooling towers typically produce mist during their regular operation.
By regularly maintaining your cooling tower, you can prevent the development of Legionella and other bacteria in your water system.
Conclusion
Cooling towers are the mechanism that rejects heat generated from industrial processes and are crucial for businesses to continue efficient operations. Regardless of the tower size or type, it is vital that you keep it clean.
It is important to implement a proper cooling tower preventative maintenance program as this will help increase operational efficiency while reducing costs and heighten their longevity.
Whether you are in need of cooling tower maintenance or you would like to develop a regular maintenance schedule or simply find out more on the benefits please contact us. We have a team of industry experts who can advise you.
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