The Benefits of Insulation
The benefits of insulation have been substantiated throughout the past several decades. Insulation will improve the performance of your existing equipment or minimize life cycle cost when adding a new high efficiency system.
There are many reasons to enhance a system with insulation. Although most commonly associated with its ability to provide a thermal barrier, mechanical insulation is engineered to provide the following benefits:
1) Insulation Saves Energy
One of your primary objectives for your facility is cutting overhead costs, and energy is often one of the most costly components of industrial processes. Insulation is a cost-effective investment that helps significantly reduce energy loss. Why is insulation so cost-effective? Read on to learn more about insulations’ ROI, and take this in: an insulation system that is properly designed, installed and maintained can have an annual rate of return of over 100%. Another benefit of reducing overall energy costs with insulation is that it also improves the performance and lifespan of the other equipment in your facility. Sometimes extreme hot or cold temperatures can cause mechanical equipment to underperform—insulation helps control temperatures to keep that sensitive equipment working at peak performance.
2) Insulation Reduces Emissions
With so much pressure on the manufacturing and industrial sectors to become greener, insulation is a great way for facilities to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions. This is particularly positive for facilities that qualify for tax breaks or other financial incentives connected to 2increasing their energy efficiency.
3) Insulation Offers Unrivaled Return on Investment
The return on investment (ROI) for mechanical insulation can’t be beat. Often companies see over 100% returns in as little as 3 years, but the energy savings start happening as soon as the insulation is installed. Insulation also helps reduce a facility’s total lifecycle cost. If you consider that a building’s initial construction only accounts for about 30% of its total cost throughout its lifetime, the rest of the cost has a lot to do with energy usage. Insulation helps reduce this lifecycle cost by reducing total energy usage over time. For example, the National Insulation Association estimates that insulation saves business owners an average of 78% of total energy usage (This is why we feel insulation should be planned for and installed during initial construction. You have to consider what a building will cost to operate throughout its entire lifecycle—not just what it costs to build it).
4) Insulation is Necessary for Sustainable Building Design
Mechanical insulation reduces energy loss and greenhouse gas emissions so significantly that no sustainable building design is complete without
insulating mechanical equipment. When insulation thickness exceeds ASHRAE requirements, it counts toward LEED credits for optimizing energy performance. Whether you’re upgrading your facility or building a new one, insulation should be considered whenever sustainability and environmentalism are concerns.
5) Insulation Protects Personnel
Insulation is a vital component in employee safety for any workplace with mechanical equipment. It protects people from coming into contact with
extreme temperatures, vapor, and liquid. Many types of insulation also have fire stopping properties, meaning they can help prevent fire from migrating and reaching pipes that may be carrying dangerous substances.
6) Insulation Controls Condensation
If a process system’s surface temperature is not maintained above the dew-point temperature of the ambient air, condensation can easily occur and cause major problems. What kind of problems? Damage to surrounding surfaces and equipment, mold growth, and Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI). CUI is not only a major safety concern due to significant equipment deterioration over time, but it is also a cost concern. If insulation isn’t properly maintained now, you could be paying big bucks to replace all or part of your system in the future.
