Dropson water softener, anti-scale solution in the Sant Joan Despí sports centre
The Salvador Gimeno and Francesc Calvet sports centres are located in the municipality of Sant Joan Despí, in the province of Barcelona. Both centres have complete sports and leisure facilities. Both have a swimming pool room, fitness room, sports courts, changing rooms and complementary areas such as a health centre, solarium, cafeteria or restaurant. In addition, they offer hydromassage services, water beds, jets and waterfalls, sauna, steam bath and infrared room, among others.
.
Calcareous problems in sports facilities
The water in the area of Cataluña has a high degree of hardness (around 40ºfH). The high content of magnesium and calcium salts is very harmful to the facilities, so lime is a serious problem, especially for this type of sports complex.
The accumulation of lime on the plates of the heat exchangers caused them to become clogged, with negative effects on the secondary hot water circuits. As a result, the efficiency of the heat exchange decreased, resulting in higher energy consumption.
Another disadvantage was the continuous maintenance of the installations, which required the cleaning or replacement of plate heat exchangers, pipes, stopcocks, etc. This meant stoppages in the production of hot water and high cleaning costs.
.
The effects of the Dropson water softener
After a sizing calculation that takes into account the type of installation, the flow rate and the hardness of the water, two Dropson EMI 7500 water softeners were installed in each sports centre.
The installation of the devices was carried out in parallel by means of a collector and accompanied by a sediment filter, which is essential to avoid the presence of impurities in the water that could damage the installations.
Example of two devices installed in parallel using a collector, together with a sediment filter.
The problems of heat exchange efficiency have been solved thanks to the Dropson water softener, which prevents limescale from becoming embedded in the installations and achieves optimum boiler performance. This avoids excessive energy costs in the supply of domestic hot water.
On the other hand, production stoppages caused by successive cleaning operations are avoided. Taps and showers are kept free of lime. The mechanisms do not block and maintain their original functions, as the lime existing in the installations gradually dissolves.
.