Testing Your Pump Performance

Pumps consume about 20 percent of the power in the United States industry. The main pump industry that need the full pump performance for effectiveness and to gratify their customers demands include municipal water systems, power plants, pipelines, etc. All of these need a pump to keep their operation going and this is why they need constant pump performance testing to check their effectiveness and functionality. The pump performance testing can prove of real aid because it will reduce the energy costs involved by identifying problems, poor efficiency and decreased maintenance.

The pumping systems are the largest source of power consumption and a 100 horsepower pump, for example, requires 40.000 dollars in energy every year. The pump performance testing and improvement will save huge operational money, considering the fact that there are tens of thousands of installed horsepower pumps at many facilities.

There can be at least three factors that can contribute to reduced pump efficiency. The three most common factors that the pump performance testing can diagnose are the pumps that are incorrectly sized for their service conditions, rebuilding pumps that often continue in service without mechanical failure and the reduced hydraulic cavitations. These problems are more common in pumping stations that have multiple pumps, which are running in parallel.

Another thing you should know is that pumps are designed to operate near a specific flow-rate, known as the Best Performance Point. When pump performance testing you should check these values and observe those that are significantly below or above the BEP, because these are the ones that often result in poor cavitation, reliability, impeller, case damage, wasted energy and high maintenance costs.

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