Mechanical Insulation: the Forgotten Technology

 Energy efficiency is often conveyed through images of compact fluorescent light bulbs and sleek new technologies. But capturing efficiency opportunities needn’t always be complex.

Insulation – both for mechanical piping and equipment and buildings — is among the most effective, proven, common sense approaches to minimizing thermal energy waste. But because of its simplicity, it is often overlooked.

Insulation: Theory vs. Practice

Insulation offers big energy savings potential for both the commercial and industrial sectors, which, according to the Energy Information Administration, together accounted for 50 percent of U.S. energy consumption. Much of the mechanical equipment used in these sectors – such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, furnaces, process piping and equipment, boilers, water heaters and refrigeration, among many others – requires insulation.

In practice, mechanical insulation is often applied once and left unmonitored for years. The consequence is wasted energy: uninsulated or partially-insulated mechanical equipment constantly wastes heat or cooling through general properties of heat transfer to surrounding air.

Moreover, uninsulated applications cause industrial and commercial equipment to work harder than necessary to generate the required output, resulting in increased cycling, greater energy use and shorter equipment lifetimes.

This simple concept has considerable energy implications on a national scale. The National Insulation Association (NIA) released a 2009 study estimating that comprehensive insulation maintenance and upgrades across our nation’s commercial and industrial facilities could achieve up to $4.8 billion in annual energy savings alone. Such a campaign could also yield annual reductions of 43 MMCO2 and generate approximately 89,000 jobs.

A Look Ahead: Saving Big with Insulation

NIA and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Technologies Program, in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, honed in on energy-saving opportunities in industrial facilities explicitly.

Their analysis, based on data from DOE’s Save Energy Now program, estimates a total of $2.5 billion in energy savings could be realized through simple mechanical insulation maintenance in industrial plants. A national initiative could also create an estimated 27,000 jobs per year.

In a period of rapid technical innovation and efficiency advancements, it can be easy to overlook simple, conventional and proven methods of energy conservation.

Mechanical insulation is a low-cost, low-risk solution that can easily be specified, installed and maintained to maximize the efficiency, productivity and product lifetime of existing mechanical and refrigeration equipment.