UK health and beauty retailer The Boots Group is replacing its steam traps at its Energy Centre with GEM traps from Gardner Energy Management.
The move follows the successful installation of GEM traps on the Energy Centres" hot water calorifiers. Around 30 GEM traps have been installed onto other applications including boilers, super heaters and the steam distribution systems.
The 15MW Energy Centre, located in Beeston, Nottingham, services the company's head office, production, and distribution facilities. Prior to the installation of the GEM traps, Energy Centre manager Paul Egner found that the mechanical traps failed on a regular basis necessitating their overhaul or replacement.
"We first installed a GEM trap onto one of our pressured hot water calorifiers, which was sized to allow the calorifiers to operate from cold start-up all through its range," says Egner. "The trap worked well and we soon installed GEM on all four calorifiers."
Instead of using a valve mechanism to close off steam for maximum energy and water conservation, the GEM steam traps use the patented venturi orifice design to drain condensate from the steam system. As the GEM steam traps have no moving parts to wedge open or fail, it provides the ultimate in reliability necessitating only minimal maintenance and requiring no spares, testing or monitoring equipment.
"There is always a problem when attempting to quantify energy savings precisely but there is overwhelming evidence that GEM traps save energy and therefore reduce carbon emissions over thermodynamic and float type traps," said Egner. "Since we have been retrofitting GEM, not a single trap has required maintenance except filter cleaning. We have now standardised GEM on all our applications both within the Energy Centre and on the steam distribution systems across the site. In lots of places traps are located in difficult to access areas and in underground ductings. Any reduction in labour and having to reach traps in difficult areas is both a cost saving and a health and safety advantage..
GEM steam traps are available in a range of sizes for a cross section of applications.