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Economics of Removable-Reusable Insulations
We should look briefly at the economics of removable-reusable insulations. Properly specified and selected, these insulations pay for themselves in very short order... most often in less than a year, sometimes in a matter of months. The dilemma of "if I cover it with rigid insulation to save energy, I lose maintenance accessibility" no longer exists. With removable-reusable insulations, savings can now be realized by insulating equipment that was previously awkward, inaccessible, impractical or expensive to tackle with rigid insulation.
The initial overall cost of covering a piece of equipment with removable-reusable insulation may be somewhat higher than with rigid insulation. It depends on the application. But payback can be determined reasonably precisely by a quick engineering analysis of the application. Also the initial price advantage offered by rigid insulation disappears quickly the first time it has to be removed and replaced. Further the waste from the removed rigid insulation has to be disposed of, and will generally end up in a landfill.
The second area of savings stems from shortening process downtimes and outages. Rapid, easy maintenance accessibility to hot equipment and fast return to service mean less downtime. The marginal hourly cost of having a high-volume manufacturing or industrial process taken out of service for forced, routine or planned maintenance can be tremendous.
Finally, the third potential area for savings is in providing personnel protections from hot equipment. Replacement of lost labor is expensive. Workers' compensation and insurance premiums cost money. However, more importantly, there's far more than an economic cost when someone becomes unnecessarily injured.
Removable-reusable insulations and systems gives full meaning to the industry battle cry of "reduce, reuse, recycle." Good luck with your mining expedition …these products are absolutely 100 percent, 24 karat solid gold.
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