Heat Loss Evaluation

Rilco Pre-Insulated Supports vs Weld-On Supports

With infrared photography, the research and development team at Rilco has analyzed the heat loss of our pre-insulated supports compared to that of a weld-on support for a 24” steam line in order to determine which is more effective in regard to energy conservation.

When the supports were tested, the imaging revealed that the pipe temperature at the weld-on support point had a very large reduction in process temperature due to its various thermal inefficiencies. These inefficiencies in real-life applications result in significant amounts of wasted energy over the life of the plant, lower quality steam, and process problems due to cold spots.

With these findings in mind, we then calculated the potential total energy savings for the lifetime of a plant. It totaled up to 315,360,000 kW conserved over a period of 30 years. Therefore, Rilco pre-insulated pipe supports save a vast amount of energy resulting in largely reduced energy costs.