The hard reality of a plant maintaining its boiler and forgetting about the rest of the steam system can be a horribly wasteful proposition.  An energy efficient steam system that has been properly designed and maintained will produce and use only the amount of steam needed to get the job done.  The neglected one will have: 

	oversized steam traps, blowing, leaking and plugged because of dirt
	control valves wiredrawn, unable to shut as a result of wet steam
	high back pressure in condensate lines due to blowing traps
	undersized steam and condensate lines with no provision for utilizing flash steam
	low steam temperatures because traps are discharging into flooded condensate lines
	uninsulated valves, traps (F&T and bucket traps only) and whole sections of steam system piping
	low percentages of condensate return that escalate boiler fuel, chemicals, water and  sewerage costs.

How do you make a steam system energy efficient?  Here’s a list of the crucial steps to follow:
	Have an expert check your steam traps at least once a year.
	Make certain that the traps are properly sized, correctly applied and of the highest quality.
	Protect all traps with upstream strainers.  Install blow-down valves to blow them free of dirt, un-dissolved boiler treatment chemicals and pipe scale.  Perform this procedure at least once a month, religiously.
	Eliminate system problems such as waterhammer.  Re-design systems to reduce potentially dangerous situations.
	Keep the steam quality high.  Control valves will wire-draw if drip legs are not adequate or if steam traps are not draining the condensate.
	Size both steam and condensate lines correctly.  Over the years, through expansions, systems see unregulated contractor alterations and equipment additions that never take into account the very limitations of the system.
	Return as much condensate as possible.  It contains valuable energy in BTUs that can save as much as 26% on boiler fuel costs.
	Insulate the system as thoroughly as possible.  Insulation generally has a six- to nine-month payback on the initial investment.
	Condensate pumps should be used to return condensate to overhead lines where adequate lift pressures do not exist.
	When sized correctly and fed dry steam, control valves will last almost twice as long.  Oversized valves will wire-draw since they are working too closely to their seats.  If undersized, they starve a system of proper energy.
	Do not allow condensate to stay in one place.  It only needs air to turn it into corrosive carbonic acid which will eat away at the pipes, destroy coils, heat exchangers, unit heaters, etc.
	Use air vents and vacuum breakers.  Air inhibits good steam transfer and prolongs start-ups.  Breakers do their job at the high point of a piece of thermostatically controlled equipment and on steam mains.  The vacuum is broken and condensate is allowed to flow.
	Recover flash steam in the condensate.  It was paid for once by producing steam — why not use it twice?  Observe the roofs of most plants that produce steam.  More often than not, there are vent pipes spewing valuable energy dollars into the atmosphere.

The list goes on and on...  The reasons for maintaining an efficient steam system are obvious … wasted energy is wasted money.

Contributed by Bruce Gorelick, Enercheck Systems, Inc.