LAS VEGAS, NV ― On its way toward the goal of zeroing out the carbon footprint of its facilities by 2030, Armstrong Fluid Technology helped customers realize significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings of their own.
The company announced at the AHR Expo Monday, January 31, that its increased efficiencies had saved its customers some 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity usage, thus preventing more than 2 million tons of GHG emissions and surpassing the target set in the “2 by ’22” initiative, which was launched in 2018.
“At the time it seemed an aggressive and even foolhardy goal,” Steve Lane, an Armstrong communications manager, told a group of trade journalists assembled at Armstrong’s AHR display at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Lane said the company worked with systems engineers, building managers, and contractors to achieve the GHG savings.
“We’re very excited to work with our customers more than ever before,” Lane said. Part of that work, he said, involves maintaining systems at optimal efficiencies in order to avoid the “performance drift” that can affect older buildings.
Lane chuckled that Armstrong is “pausing to bask in our success” but that he expects further GHG-reduction goals for its customers in the future. “The work is anything but finished,” he said. “In fact, it’s barely begun.”
The company said the estimated GHG reduction was based on a complete audit of about 20 different installations over a wide range of applications. The results were validated by Bureau Veritas.
Armstrong, which is based in Toronto and has facilities around the globe, intends to reach net-zero carbon emissions at its own buildings by 2030, a goal that Lane called a “breathtaking challenge.”
The company also unveiled a new line of pumps, driven by permanent magnet motors, designed to lower operating costs by 20% compared to variable-speed pumps with standard induction motors. The pumps, which are expected on the market soon, range from 15 horsepower to 50 horsepower and are intended for medium-duty uses.
“Better performance at higher RPMs means that in some cases a smaller Design Envelope Permanent Magnet Pump can deliver the same flow and pressure as a larger, more expensive competing model,” David Lee, Armstrong’s offering manager for the line, said in a press release. “These new pumps also feature smaller dimensions and are less expensive to purchase and install because permanent magnet motors offer a substantial reduction in both size and weight.”
The new line features cloud-based connectivity to Armstrong’s Pump Manager, a tracking service that provides analytics and insights into the pump’s performance along with alerts, alarms, and data storage. They follow a smaller-horsepower line of pumps, introduced in 2017, that also have Pump Manager-connectivity, said Peter Wolf, an Armstrong business development manager.
Other features in the new pump line include:
- Armstrong’s patented Parallel Sensorless Control, which stages multiple pumps and regulates output for optimal efficiency.
- A quadratic pressure-control curve that provides more efficiency than a linear pressure-control curve.
- A constant-flow function for maintaining a desired flow rate in recirculation applications.
