Mueller Company
Decatur, Illinois
Intern: Chuck Hoover
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Mueller Co. was founded in 1857 and has been at its current location in Decatur
since 1895. The Decatur facility produces brass parts for the company’s
water products division. These parts include valves, pipe tapping machines
and pipe repair kits.
The intern focused on the facility’s lighting and steam production system.
Results:
The intern made the following recommendations:
- De-lamp lighting fixtures and replace T12 lamp fixtures with T5 fixtures
with electronic ballasts. This project has the potential to save $26,000 a
year. With a utility rebate, the project would have a 2-year payback.
- Evaluated the facility’s boiler system, which consists of two boilers.
The newer boiler is rated at 700 boiler horsepower (bhp) and the other backup
boiler is rated at 600 bhp. The steam load is separated into the summer load
and the winter load.
- The summer load consists of three pieces of equipment including
a 5,000 gallon heated hot water heater, a parts washer, and a water evaporator.
The equipment is used all year with only 6.3% of the boiler’s capacity
being utilized. It was determined that a 100-gallon natural gas hot water
heater should replace the old one. Two electric on demand hot water heaters
should be used to retrofit the parts washer, and a new evaporator should
be purchased to replace the old one. These projects have the potential
to save $52,000 a year, with a payback of 2.2 years.
- During the winter season, only 31% of the capacity of the boiler is used.
Two new 90 bhp boilers should be purchased, which has the potential to save
over $106,000 per year, with a payback of 1.5 years.
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