The recreation complex on the Newham campus of Seneca College, known as ‘the sports center’ was first opened in 1972. As part of an upgrade to the heating system, two new boiler pumps were installed in 2009.
Two years later as part of an initiative to extend the installed base of Design Envelope pumps, Armstrong measured the pressure at the gauges on either side of the two pumps. It was discovered that the pumps were actually operating at a much lower performance point than originally specified. Based on the actual requirements of the system, the pumps were oversized, and operating away from their best efficiency point.
Armstrong suggested that Seneca replace the pumps with Design Envelope variable speed pumps that would adjust operating speed to match the requirements of the system. To make the retrofit as easy as possible, and avoid any changes to piping, it was suggested that they use the same size pump as originally specified, and take advantage of the variable speed capabilities of the new Design Envelope pump to continually adjust speed and pressure.
