Heat Loss Surveys

Transforming your facility with insulation begins with a walk-through of the typical areas in a building that would need insulation. We like to start with the heating plant/boiler room or the room in which steam is distributed from the main plant. If you or your company has energy goals, our insulation survey organizes the data that you will need to prove your efforts.

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We begin with identifying the “assets." The assets are the components that are missing insulation. Your building may contain some or all of the usual HOT suspects: steam traps, valves, tanks, boiler doors, heat exchangers, condensate receivers, PRV’s, control valves, etc… There are also many other applications within a facility that require insulation that are not steam related. Chilled water applications and hot water components should also be considered. For more information on the different types of applications and insulation jackets, please go to our products page.

While the heatloss survey process is fairly simple, the result is anything but! This is the timeline of an insulation survey conducted by Thermaxx:

1. Before the walk-through, we need to confirm the savings information. The cost of steam, the hours of operation and boiler efficiency are some of the variables that will assist in calculating the ROI.
2. Begin the survey by identifying the assets with missing or damaged insulation.
3. Mark each component with an item number using a high temperature marker. That item number will follow the asset through production and end up on the SLATE tag on the insulation jacket.
   

    

4. Enter all component information into the EET field APP – make, model, size and operating temperature of the components and ambient temperature of the room. All assets will be photographed.

    

NAIMA’s 3E plus software is used to verify and calculate the BTU loss on the bare component versus the BTU loss once the component is insulated. The 3e plus program also helps to determine the correct jacket thickness based on operating temperatures and materials.

The survey results are usually available within 48 hours of a site visit. What you can expect is an understanding of how missing insulation can affect your day-to-day operations. If your engineers are working in unsafe conditions with overheating and high ambient temperatures, they are not performing in optimal conditions and accidents will occur. The knowledge you gain from your survey will help to inform the decision makers on the importance of insulation and encourage a green light for funding from CFO’s.

The example below shows the total number of assets with missing insulation. The report is sortable so you can see which areas should be addressed immediately based on size and temperature. The highlights tab will snapshot the important information of return on investment, monthly cost of waiting and five years of savings.