GENERAL

• Undertake regular energy audits.
• Plug all oil leakage. Leakage of one drop of oil per second amounts to a loss of over 2000 litres / year.
• Filter oil in stages. Impurities in oil affect combustion.
• Pre-heat oil. For proper combustion, oil should be at right viscosity at the burner tip. Provide adequate Pre-heat capacity.
• Incomplete combustion leads to wastage of fuel. Observe the colour of smoke emitted from chimney. Black smoke indicates improper combustion and fuel wastage. White smoke indicates excess air & hence loss of heat. Hazy brown smoke indicates proper combustion.
• Use of Low air pressure “film burners” helps save oil upto 15%in furnaces.

• Recover & utilize waste heat from furnace flue gases for preheating of combustion air. Every 21°C rise in combustion air temperature results in 1% fuel oil savings.
• Control excess air in furnaces. A 10% drop in excess air amounts to1% saving of fuel in furnaces. For an annual consumption of 3000 kl of furnace oil, this means a saving of Rs.3 Lakhs. (Cost of furnace oil-Rs.10 per litre)
• Reduce heat losses through furnace openings. Observations shows that a furnace operating at a temperature of 1000° C having an open door (1500mmx750mm) results in a fuel loss of 10lit/hr. For a 4000 hrs. furnace operation this translates into a loss of approx. Rs.4 lakhs per year.
• Improve insulation if the surface temperature exceeds 20 °C above ambient. Studies reveal that heat loss from a furnace wall 115mm thick at 650°C amounting to 2650 Kcal/m²/hr can be cut down to 850 kcal/m²/hr by using 65 mm thick insulation on the 115 mm wall.
•  Proper design of lids of melting furnaces and training of operators to close lids reduces losses by 10-20% in foundries.

• Remove soot deposits when flue gas temperature rises 40°C above the normal. A coating of 3 mm thick soot on the heat transfer surface causes an increase in fuel consumption up to 2.5%.
• Recover heat from steam condentsate. For every 6°C rise in boiler feed water temperature through condentsate return, there is 1% saving in fuel.
• Improve boiler efficiency. Boilers should be monitored for flue gas losses, radiation losses, incomplete combustion, blow down losses, excess air etc. Proper control can decrease the consumption upto 20%.
• Use only treated water in boilers. A scale formation of 1mm thickness on the waterside increases fuel consumption by 5-8%.
• Stop steam leakage. Steam leakage from a 3 mm –diameter hole on a pipeline carrying steam at 7 kg/cm² wastes 32 kl of fuel oil per year amounting to a loss of Rs.3 lakhs.
• Maintain steam pipe insulation. It has been estimated that a bare steam pipe, 150 mm in diameter and 100 m in length, carrying saturated steam at 8 kg/cm² wastes 25 kl of furnace oil in a year amounting to an annual loss of Rs.2.5 lakhs.

• Maintain diesel engines regularly.
• A poorly maintained injection pump increases fuel consumption by 4 gm / kWh.
• A faulty nozzle increases fuel consumption by 2gm/kWh.
• Blocked filters increases fuel consumption by 2 gm/kWh.
• A continuously running DG set can generate 0.5Ton/ Hr of steam at 10 to 12 bar from the residual heat of the engine exhaust per MW of the generator capacity.
• Measure fuel consumption per kWh of electricity generated regularly. Take corrective action in case this shows a rising trend.

GENERAL

• Improve power factor by installing capacitors to reduce KVA demand charges and also line losses within plant.
• Improvement of power factor from 0.85 to 0.96 will give 11.5% reduction of peak KVA and 21.6% reduction in peak losses. This corresponds to 14.5% reduction in average losses for a load factor of 0.8.
• Avoid repeated rewinding of motors. Observations show that rewound motors practically have an efficiency loss of upto 5%. This is mainly due to increase in no load losses. Hence use such rewound motors on low duty cycle applications only.
• Use of variable frequency drives, slip power recovery systems and fluid couplings for variable speed applications such as fans, pumps etc. helps in minimizing consumption.

• Use of electronic ballast in place of conventional choke saves energy upto 20%.
• Use of CFL lamp in place of GLS lamp can save energy upto 70%.
• Clean the lamps & fixtures regularly. Illumination levels fall by 20-30% due to collection of dust.
• Use of 36W tube light instead of 40 W tube lights saves electricity by 8 to 10%.
• Use of sodium vapour lamps for area lighting in place of Mercury vapour lamps saves electricity upto 40%.

• Compressed air is very energy intensive. Only 5% of electrical energy is converted to useful energy. Use of compressed air for cleaning is rarely justified.
• Ensure low temperature of inlet air. Increase in inlet air temperature by 3°C increases power consumption by 1%.
• It should be examined whether air at lower pressure can be used in the process. Reduction in discharge pressure by 10% saves energy consumption upto 5%.
• A leakage from a ½” dia hole from a compressed air line working at a pressure of 7 kg / cm² can drain almost Rs.2500 per day.
• Air output of compressors per unit of electricity input must be measured at regular intervals. Efficiency of compressors tends to deteriorate with time.

REFRIGERATION & AIR CONDITIONING

• Use of double doors, automatic door closers, air curtains, double glazed windows, polyester sun films etc. reduces heat ingress and air-conditioning load of buildings.
• Maintain condensers for proper heat exchange. A 5°C decrease in evaporator temperature increases the specific power consumption by 15%.
• Utilization of air conditioned/refrigerated space should be examined and efforts made to reduce cooling load as far as possible.
• Utilize waste heat of excess steam of flue gases to change over from gas compression systems to absorption chilling systems and save energy costs in the range of 50-70%.
• Specific power consumption of compressors should be measured at regular intervals. The most efficient compressors to be used for continuous duty and others on standby.

COOLING TOWERS

• Replacement of inefficient aluminium or fabricated steel fans by moulded FRP fans with aerofoil designs results in electricity savings in the range of 15-40%.
• A study on a typical 20 ft. dia fan revealed that replacing wooden blade drift eliminators with newly developed cellular PVC drift eliminators reduces the drift losses from 0.01-0.02% with a fan power energy saving of 10%.
• Install automatic ON-OFF switching of cooling tower fans and save upto 40% on electricity costs.
• Use of PVC fills in place of wooden bars results in a saving in pumping power of upto 20%.

• Improper selection of pumps can lead to large wastage of energy. A pump with 85% efficiency at rated flow may have only 65% efficiency at half the flow.
• Use of throttling valves instead of variable speed drives to change flow of fluids is a wasteful practice. Throttling can cause wastage of power to the tune of 50 to 60%.
• It is advisable to use a number of pumps in series and parallel to cope with variations in operating conditions by switching on or off pumps rather than running one large with partial load.
• Drive transmission between pumps & motors is very important. Loose belts can cause energy loss upto 15-20%.
• Modern synthetic flat belts in place of conventional V-belts can save 5% to 10% of energy.
• Properly organized maintenance is very important. Efficiency of worn out pumps can drop by 10-15% unless maintained properly.

• Energy Auditors empanelment scheme
• Energy Audit subsidy scheme
• Soft loan for purchase of energy audit equipments & instruments

Besides these, PCRA also conducts Energy audits, Fuel Oil diagnostic studies, Studies in small scale industries, Follow-up’s; Organizes technical meets, Consumer meets, Seminars, Institutional training programmes, Workshops, Clinics; helps in organizing Action Group meetings and puts up stalls in exhibitions on conservation of petroleum products.