5 Ways to Reduce Energy Consumption in Your Temperature Control System

Energy Is the Largest Running Cost of a TCU

The purchase price of a Temperature Control Unit is a fraction of what it costs to own. Over a service life that can exceed 30 years, and we still service units installed in the 1990s, energy is the largest running cost. Five practical measures below, in the order we would look at them.

1. Right-Size the Unit

An oversized TCU wastes energy on every cycle. If your unit has 36 kW of heating capacity but the process needs 18 kW, you are paying for capacity you never use, and the larger pump and heaters draw more energy even at partial load.

Measure your real heat loads during production, not just during start-up. Many operations find their TCU is larger than the process needs, because the original specification carried safety margins on top of safety margins, or was sized for a worst case that never occurs.

To see what your process actually requires, enter your figures in the Boe-Therm configurator at https://www.boe-therm.com/configurator. It sizes heating, pump and cooling against your data rather than a catalogue step.

2. Cut Idle and Standby Running

Units left circulating and holding temperature through breaks, shift changes and weekends consume energy without producing anything. This is the cheapest saving available, because it costs nothing but a change of habit.

Check what happens to your TCUs when production stops. Agree a shutdown routine with the operators, and use the controller's setback or timer functions where the process allows it. On applications where a full cool-down would cost too much time at restart, a lower holding temperature still cuts consumption against running at full setpoint.

3. Optimise Your Cooling Strategy

Cooling is often where energy is wasted. Key improvements include keeping the cooling water supply temperature as low as practically achievable, using free cooling (cooling towers or dry coolers) instead of mechanical refrigeration when ambient conditions allow, checking that cooling valves are properly calibrated and not hunting, and sizing the heat exchanger correctly for indirect cooling. An undersized exchanger forces the whole system to work harder.

Also review your cooling water flow rates. Excessive flow wastes pump energy, and insufficient flow reduces heat transfer and can cause temperature instability.

4. Maintain Your Equipment

A TCU with scaled heat exchangers and fouled process circuits has to run its heaters and pump longer to hold the same setpoint. Descaling and filter changes are the cheapest energy measures available. The main culprits are scale buildup, which acts as insulation and reduces heat transfer, degraded thermal oil in oil systems, worn pump impellers, and faulty temperature sensors that make the controller overshoot or hunt around setpoint.

Put a preventive maintenance schedule in place covering regular water quality testing and treatment, annual heat exchanger inspection and cleaning, thermal oil analysis with replacement when degradation indicators are reached, and calibration checks on sensors and controllers.

5. Insulate and Eliminate Heat Losses

Uninsulated pipes, tanks and TCU components radiate heat into the production hall. That is energy you paid for which adds nothing to the process. In high-temperature applications above 100°C, losses from uninsulated surfaces can be substantial.

Insulate all process piping between the TCU and the point of use. Check that cabinet insulation is intact. Make sure hose connections are insulated, particularly on oil systems where surface temperatures can exceed 200°C. Consider the surroundings too: a TCU standing in a cold area loses more heat to the room.

What It Is Worth on Your Plant

The size of the saving depends on how far the current unit is from the actual process load, and on how the plant is run. We calculate it against your figures rather than a catalogue example: send us the heating capacity, pump size and operating hours you run today.

Boe-Therm's technical team can review your current temperature control setup and recommend specific improvements based on your actual operating conditions. Contact us to discuss it.