Recent advances in connectivity have revolutionised service and maintenance of HVAC systems, predicting problems before they have chance to occur. Utilisation of Armstrong Fluid Technology’s Pump Manager, a Cloud-based service, can realise up to 50% savings in service and maintenance. In addition, by optimising the system’s performance and reducing energy drift, it can deliver up to 40% savings in energy usage throughout the pump’s lifecycle.
Armstrong’s Pump Manager uses the embedded intelligence and connectivity of Armstrong Design Envelope pumps to provide performance reports to system operators. With this information, operators can make changes and address issues to optimise HVAC performance, and can predict future technical issues before they become a problem.
Online trending and analysis across multiple parameters on single pumps, or on an aggregated basis for multiple pumps, assists in identifying performance degradation and facilitates a predictive and proactive approach.
Pump Manager will, for example, report issues such as excessive vibration, a broken coupling, risk of cavitation or a dead head should they occur, or conditions such as impeller imbalance, bearing failure, seal failures and shaft misalignment that would impact on operation of the pump if undetected. It provides a fully reactive and integrated vision of an individual building, able to integrate with BMS, EMS and CMMS, as well as offering API-APP integration.
In addition to optimising system performance and increasing pump reliability, Pump Manager has important service and maintenance benefits. As it is cloud-based, system operation can be viewed remotely by multiple stakeholders from various locations, enabling issues to be dealt with in the most efficient way, reducing the number of engineer visits. Those with responsibility for multiple sites can also monitor all of their HVAC assets remotely and in one place on a single system. Previously they would have had to visit each site in person, or liaise with individuals at multiple sites to collect the necessary data from the pumps/system/BMS.
The reporting function is particularly helpful for organisations submitting SECR reports. Pump Manager retains historical data and can help to identify opportunities for future efficiency upgrades. The comprehensive data also helps FM companies and energy managers to demonstrate the progress they have made towards KPIs, by enabling them to quantify the improvements in building sustainability they have made possible
