Modern Pump Selection Part 5: How the System Curve Moves

Modern Pump Selection Part 5:  How the System Curve Moves

Effective and efficient pump selection demands a thorough understanding of the system curve and how it reflects what happens in the actual system.  This is especially true in today’s variable speed systems.  It’s so important that even though we’ve touched on it many times before, we are going to “hit pause” in this series to focus specifically on ...

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Modern Pump Selection Part 4: Why You Should NEVER Over Head a Variable Speed Pump

Modern Pump Selection Part 4: Why You Should NEVER Over Head a Variable Speed Pump

Variable speed drives do not compensate for an imperfect pump selection. In fact, they can make the situation worse. It is okay to be slightly conservative in your pump selection if you are not 100% sure how the pumps are going to be piped, but....

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Modern Pump Selection Part 1: What Are Efficiency Islands?

Modern Pump Selection Part 1: What Are Efficiency Islands?

It makes sense to select a pump based on a wide range of operating conditions, not just peak load.  This will yield more savings than a pump selection based on the singular sweet spot of Best Efficiency Point (BEP).  Instead of focusing on that point where the system curve intersects with the BEP, we need to look at a broader operating range, the boundaries of which form what is called an “Efficiency Island”.  Efficiency Islands are.... 

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Pump Affinity Laws Are Key To Saving Money in a Hydronic System

What are the pump affinity laws and why are they so important? 

Pump affinity laws define the mathematical relationship that exists between pump speed, flow, total head, and power consumption.

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How To Read A Pump Curve – Part 1

If a picture is worth a thousand words then a pump curve must be worth several thousand.

 Make no mistake, there’s a lot of information on a centrifugal pump curve like the one shown here.  It’s no wonder that many newly practicing engineers are a little intimated by them.

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