Ensuring sustainable water supply systems
Effective, safe and sustainable management of water in buildings requires a comprehensive understanding of many factors, writes Kevin Devine, Sales Director, Xylem Ireland.
Maintaining health and safety standards and regulatory compliance for water supply and pressure are complex areas that require ongoing attention. There is also a pressing need to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, by cutting carbon emissions and water and energy consumption.
In Ireland, the Climate Action & Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act (2021) set a legally binding target of a 51% reduction in national CO₂eq emissions by 2030 and an overall target of a climate neutral economy by 2050.
For buildings, a roadmap from the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) sets out plans to decarbonise Ireland’s built environment across its whole life cycle by 2050.
With the construction and built environment sectors accounting for 37% of Ireland’s carbon emissions, according to the IGBC, the transformation will be challenging but it also presents opportunities to innovate, improve performance and make long-term cost savings.
For the critical areas of water supply and pressure boosting, Xylem’s latest technology can support water efficiency and the move to decarbonisation, maintain compliance and safety standards, while delivering high performance and cost efficiencies.
Efficient systems
Supplying water to large buildings is energy-intensive, due to the pumping that’s required - energy is the largest cost of running any pump. System efficiency is key to minimising cost and environmental footprint.
Years of experience have taught us that a lot of pump systems are oversized for the application. Running and maintaining an unnecessarily large system wastes energy and money.
One way to significantly reduce the energy consumption of pumped systems is by switching to variable speed technology. Older pumps typically run at a fixed speed, regardless of demand. Retrofitting with variable-speed drives enables the system to adjust to usage curves.
Xylem's hydrovar intelligent variable speed pump controller, named Best Energy Efficient Product at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) Energy Show, controls the speed of a motor to match performance to demand. By adjusting performance in this way, it ensures pump systems only use the necessary energy.
hydrovar® X
The newest model hydrovar X is an intelligent variable-speed pump drive, with the highest efficiency IE5 motors, that can cut the motor power of pumps by up to 70%. This will have an immediate impact on the energy consumption of large commercial buildings, where water demand fluctuates throughout the day.
Integrated functions provide protection for the pump and motor, and improve the quality of energy from the grid. Built-in application software makes commissioning and operation simple, enabling virtually any configuration of pumps.
All of this means excellent energy saving from a compact, easy-to-use solution suited to nearly any application. hydrovar X’s combination of motors, variable speed drives, and pumps can provide great performance, maximum savings, and a rapid return on investment.
By prioritising efficiency and innovation, together we can create a more resilient, sustainable future in water management. For more information visit www.xylem.com/ie
First published in Building Services News, Ireland March/April 2024 edition
By Kevin Devine, Sales Director, Xylem Ireland