Design of Pumping Installations with the Energy-Efficient Pumps (EEP) Tool †

Abstract

Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC); domestic and commercial buildings; district energy; industrial processes and water treatment; municipal wastewater and water supply; and agriculture and irrigation, among others, represent a wide breadth of domains where pumps are used. From this perspective, the number of pumps that will be required to ensure future human demands is expected to increase significantly; accordingly, power consumption is also expected to increase sharply. Therefore, the energy efficiency of pumps will become an even more important topic of concern when designing a pumping installation. The objective of the present study is to introduce a user-friendly Excel workbook that enables the design of pumping systems with centrifugal pumps. It was initially conceived for use in Hydraulic Machines Master’s lectures, but its use might be examined from a wider perspective. The workbook includes 22 worksheets, all linked to each other, addressing different aspects of the design. Special attention is given to the calculation of the major and minor head losses, to the cavitation phenomenon, to the use of dimensionless coefficients to determine the rotation speed to obtain a specific operating point, and to the calculation of the system curve. Today, energy efficiency represents an important goal in every pumping facility; therefore, one of the objectives of this tool is to enable the user to quantify both the shaft power and the efficiency of different operating points, thus allowing a sustained definition of the best solution.