Our HPC coating has demonstrated itself as the best of its kind market-wide
Wear, corrosion, and deposits are effectively prevented by a smooth surface and improved flow properties, thereby enhancing lifespan and efficiency.
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Berliner Bäder Betriebe (BBB) [Berlin pools operations] stand for several superlatives at once. They are the largest pool operator in Europe, and also have the largest swimming centre on the continent in their portfolio, with the swimming and diving pool in Europasportpark. Overall, BBB operate more than 60 indoor swimming pools, beach and summer pools in the capital city. To operate these pools, around 8,500 pumps are being used, including 500 for water treatment. The majority of these pumps are products of the Herborner Pumpentechnik.
Wolfram Kaube, Head of the Construction and Technology department of BBB, has always had good experiences with the pumps from Herborn. “They have a long service life, are reliable and low-maintenance”, says the swimming pool expert known even beyond the boundaries of Berlin. Due to his satisfaction with the UNIBAD pumps used until now, Kaube initially showed little interest, when his contact person at the Herborner Pumpentechnik, Gerd Gomoll, introduced a coated pool water circulation pump in spring 2014, with the new series herborner.X. This new generation of pumps has new pump hydraulics, which have a significantly higher level of efficiency, due to the coating and the extremely smooth accompanying surfaces. In connection with a permanent magnet motor, the energy saving is also increased for the operator. “Many parameters are only achieved on the test benches of the pump manufacturers, but not in real operation”, says Kaube in justification of his reticence at the time. Convinced of their product, Herborner Pumpentechnik offered BBB a field test.
For a realistic comparison test, a system with two redundant pumps was required. They chose the indoor swimming pool at Fischerinsel in Berlin-Mitte. Until then, two Herborn UNIBAD 15/125X3-W2 with IE1 motor pumps had been running alternately in 24 hour operation. Although the two 18 year old pumps still functioned perfectly, the Herborner Pumpentechnik replaced one of the two UNIBAD pumps with a new herborner.X with permanent magnet motor. To produce a comparison between the old and new series, the old UNIBAD was also located upstream with a frequency converter.
Both pumps were set exactly at an operating point of 150 m3/h using the frequency converter. To record the run time of the pumps exactly, operating hour counters were installed. In this way, all the requirements were created for a direct comparison of the two generations of pumps from the Herborner Pumpentechnik.
After just a month’s service life it was clear: Gerd Gomoll had not promised too much. The now – frequency converter optimised – old UNIBAD only needed 7.7 kW electricity instead of the previous 10 kW, for the same circulation performance at the operating point. The herborner.X-PM only needed 6.7 kW. The advantage of the herborner.X-PM is therefore exactly 0.97 kW at the selected operating point. At full power and an electricity price of 17 Cents/kWh this means a cost saving of EUR 1,445 per year!
Due to the positive test result, it was decided to purchase the pump. The future circulation will be exclusively carried out by the new, more efficient herborner.X-PM, and the second pump will only be switched on for filter cleaning. The conversion and purchase costs for the herborner.X-PM will be amortized by BBB within five to six years. “In the case of a pump breakdown, the amortisation time is even shorter (approx. 2 years), as in this case one must not include the incurred purchase cost in the equation”, explains Gerd Gomoll. BBB are convinced: “Due to the significant saving potential, wherever a pump breakdown occurs in our pools, we will change to the new technology”, says Wolfram Kaube. Who knows: perhaps there will be a further superlative for BBB at the end of this process, namely not only the largest, but also the most efficient pool operator.
