NEWS | WINTER 2012 

Important Maryland Law updates

Maryland’s Safety Inspection Boiler and Pressure Vessel unit enforces regulation-compliance, regarding

commercial boilers and pressure vessels, via periodic inspections/monitoring of all repair work.

Specifically, Maryland law requires:

• Any boiler or pressure vessel installed must meet standardized, nationwide construction guidelines: the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code.

• Annual or bi-annual inspections of these boilers and pressure vessels (depending on the type of equipment) are required.

These inspections may only be conducted by inspectors commissioned by National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel staff. As well, there are approximately 270 insurance company inspectors that are authorized by the unit to conduct inspections.

• A certificate of inspection is required to operate commercial boilers. Boiler and pressure vessel installers must notify the state’s Chief Boiler Inspector thirty (30) days prior to installation.

For more dos and don’ts of boiler operations, and other references, go to: http://dllr.state.md.us/labor/safety/boilpub.shtml.

Insulate Pipes & Fittings to Save Energy

In an October 2011 article in the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Journal, the author predicted the yearly

savings of insulating a single 6-inch NPS gate valve would be:
 
• Annual energy savings = $670.60
• Annual emissions savings = 3.64 metric tons

The complex computations required to determine this insulation-savings estimate was made easier by using The National Mechanical Insulation Committee’s online calculator. 

In the ASHRAE Journal article, the author also cited findings from a mechanical insulation survey performed for the State of Montana - in which mechanical rooms in 25 state capital system buildings in Helena were assessed (about 1.3 million square feet).

The surveyors pinpointed 3,500 instances of pipe components and equipment that were bare or had severely deteriorated thermal insulation.

The calculated total annual savings from insulating these components was determined to be about 6 billion BTUs, or about 8% of the total natural gas used to heat these 25 buildings annually!

Why aren’t pipes/fittings always insulated?

Basically, pipes and related fittings are oddly shaped, which makes each more expensive to insulate than usual surfaces. As well, to perform maintenance on fittings, surrounding insulation must be removed, which is time-consuming.

How should pipes/fittings be insulated?

The first option would be to have your HVAC contractor create custom insulation (from preformed pipe insulation) to fit each piece.

Another approach is to have a fabricator measure, create and install custom R/R (removable and reusable) insulation blankets. The advantage is that while costly, the blankets are easier to remove than other types of insulation.

The third option is to use a modular thermal insulation blanket kit that meets ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) C1695 standards.

Kits enable the contractor to fabricate and install R/R blankets onsite using standardized materials, without the delay of custom-fabrication.

Additionally, the first inch of insulation from a kit-blanket reduces heat loss by at least 88% and provides the shortest payback for insulation outlay.

To find out which option is best for insulating your pipes/fittings, email info@sagaserv.com.

There are many risk mitigation and asset protection benefits that your operations and finance staff will appreciate:

• Equipment will perform more efficiently, which will keep employees, clients, and tenants comfortable and complaints to a minimum.

• More efficient operation also means reduced energy consumption, which provides electricity usage savings and a ‘greener’ operation.

• HVAC downtime will be reduced, which, in turn, positively affects staff productivity.

• There will be fewer service calls, which saves staff time contacting your supplier to schedule appointments.

• The cost of repairs will decrease. Conversely, if you don’t have a maintenance plan, this is where it starts to get expensive.

• If you’re managing tenants, their satisfaction with your level of property management service will increase, which should positively impact lease renewals (saving money lost to unoccupied space and marketing costs to find new tenants).

Satisfied tenants also provide good word of mouth advertising (and written references) for your company.

• There's a reason that manufacturers recommend a maintenance schedule: equipment will last longer. And, extending the life of costly boilers, etc. saves on replacement costs. 

Return on Investment for PM

If you’re wondering what the actual ROI is for PM, we’ll give you an example that supports switching from a short-term to a long-term approach.

In 2007, Washington Business Journal published an article with a real-life corporate example to explain the ROI and benefits of preventive maintenance.

In the article, author David McGarry asked these questions: “How does one quantify the extended life of a chiller? Can one know how much longer a compressor will last if it receives proper preventive maintenance than it would if no PM takes place?”

McGarry cites an example of corporate real estate managers (within a large telecom firm) who believed their preventive maintenance program was significantly underfunded. To convince the firm’s decision makers that investing in preventive maintenance makes good financial sense, the managers partnered with a commercial real estate firm.

Together, they surveyed approximately 12 percent of the telecom company’s portfolio (of 119 million square feet) to determine the value of preventive maintenance.

Looking at the equipment in each building (e.g., chillers); the amount of equipment (e.g., number of chillers); the size of equipment (e.g., tons); and the age of equipment, the team was able to analyze:

• Actual cost of preventive maintenance
• Cost of repair/corrective maintenance
• Cost of replacing equipment
• Expected useful life of equipment
• Effects of preventive maintenance on expected useful life
• Frequency of required repairs when equipment is not maintained
• Effect of PM on energy consumption

Their analysis revealed an investment in preventive maintenance would produce a 545 percent return on investment: a net value of $2 billion over a 25-year period for a $39 million per year ($0.33/square foot) PM program. The bulk of the estimated return was from increasing the useful life of equipment and energy savings.

More specifically, the team assessed that the average size of the firm's chillers was 350 tons. At $1,000 per ton, each of these units would cost an average of $350,000 to replace. Conversely, maintenance of each chiller was only estimated to cost $5,500 per year, adding years to the equipment life.

Keep in mind, these numbers are from 2007! The savings would be even more significant today. This kind of ROI presents a powerful argument for maintaining all of the HVAC equipment in your organization’s portfolio.

For a no-cost preventive maintenance estimate for your operation, contact info@sagaserv.com.

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 Sagamore Mechanical Services
 11521 Cronridge Drive | Suite A |  Owings Mills, MD 21117

 call 410.356.3667
 email service@sagaserv.com