SMARTTRACE™: AN ENERGY EFFICIENT SOLUTION

Since our inception, EHT Group has helped facilities across Canada save over 10,000 MWH, and 2,000 Tons Co2 Reduced. With SmartTrace monitoring and management software, you can reduce maintenance costs, increase efficiencies and create a more energy efficient facility that keeps costs down and productivity high. Let’s take a closer look at SmartTrace and how exactly it can be an energy efficient solution for your facility.

What is SmartTrace Monitoring? 

SmartTrace monitoring is a cloud based, modern heat trace monitoring solution that is designed to provide all members of a facility with clear visibility of their heat trace infrastructure, from thousands of heat trace panels to single circuits located in various locations, SmartTrace is the solution. SmartTrace does not require any custom hardware or equipment, which means that heat trace monitoring no longer requires to be tied to one singular computer, giving your team the visibility it needs to operate efficiently, while reducing costs.

 

What is SmartTrace Management? 

SmartTrace Management is the solution that can provide you with peace of mind, knowing that your heat trace infrastructure will not cause operational issues or major facility upsets. We created SmartTrace from years of experience maintaining and managing heat tracing in live, operating facilities. Many facilities waste valuable hours managing heat tracing by deploying manpower to complete ineffective processes, which contribute to more spending and inefficiencies.

 

How exactly does SmartTrace Create an Energy Efficient Solution? 

We’ve designed SmartTrace to increase efficiency of your facility, not only will SmartTrace reduce operational risks, but it will also reduce energy consumption and Co2 emissions. When heat trace systems are first designed there are different design strategies that are implemented with energy efficiency in mind. From control strategies to heat trace cable selection.  

These are fantastic tools when designing heat tracing, but this isn’t the energy solution you can implement when you already have a fully operational heat trace system. 

SmartTrace targets a few key, and underappreciated, areas related to heat trace operation that dramatically affect overall power consumption.  

 

Forced on Heat Trace Circuits 

Forcing on heat tracing refers to permanently energizing a heat trace circuit that’s: 

1. Controlled by a heat trace controller. 
   
   
2. The control of that circuit is based on the process temperature of the line or equipment the heat trace is protecting.  

 

Why do facilities force on circuits? Well, we see lots of reason to do this but the most common are: 

1. Design – There is a design issue with the heat trace circuits resulting in the heat tracing not being energized when a portion of the process line is freezing (ex. temperature sensor placement). 
   
   
2. Temporary Maintenance – Operations will request lines to be forced on during temporary maintenance work or equipment start-up. A
   
   
3. Past pipe freezes – When operations lose faith in their heat trace system it’s normally because they have experienced a pipe freeze or burst. The easiest method to ensure operations won’t be affected in the future is to force all of the heat tracing on in an area or in similar process lines.  

 

Programming Deficiencies  

Often times (almost every time) heat tracing controller parameters are modified and deviate from the original design condition. We frequently see setpoints are increased by error, resulting in heat tracing being energized more than it needs to be. 

SmartTrace Management address these issues in a very simple and effective method.   

1. We provide clear visibility of circuits that are forced on. The simple act of providing clear visibility to facilities will almost always produce a change in behaviour to ensure temporary maintenance force on’s are removed and create more thoughtful analysis when deciding to force on heat tracing based on past experiences.

2. We are tracking these force on’s and bad actor heat trace circuits to allow design deficiencies to be addressed in the warmer months. With SmartTrace Management Pro our heat trace specialists are actively working with facility reliability engineers to create plans to design out bad actors. These can be as involved as replacing heat trace cable, to RTD relocations, to as simple as programming changes.

3. SmartTrace Management has the ability of automatically turning heat trace ON & OFF based on the ambient temperature and process temperature. Here is what we mean – When circuits are forced on often times it’s 6-7 months of the year when ambient temperatures are below 0C or dip below 0C at some time during the day. Depending on the geographical location of your facility, during the spring and fall season there is an opportunity to save 20-60% in power consumption only by forcing on the heat tracing when the ambient temperatures are below 0C (think night time), and place back into normal operation when the ambient temperature is above 0C (think daytime). 

4. SmartTrace Management is constantly conducting heat trace controller programming audits. It will automatically detect when heat trace controller programming deviates from design parameters. This is important because when setpoints are increased by error, heat tracing is being energized more than it needs to be.

We’ve covered a lot of the heat trace controller features including settings and programming options on our YouTube channel, to make it easy to see how seamless SmartTrace monitoring and management can be to implement.  

SmartTrace manages how and when heat tracing should be energized outside of normal control conditions, only producing heat when and where it is necessary, preventing pipe bursts and upsets, all while delivering energy saving benefits. When it comes to SmartTrace, you can eliminate the stress surrounding under or overheating, all while giving you the visibility over your heat trace infrastructure and making your facility more energy efficient. Curious about SmartTrace? Book a meeting with us