Uses of water are obvious – drinking, washing, irrigation and even leisure activities come to mind straight away but borehole water can also be used for other less obvious applications that can reduce the reliance on mains water supply saving the consumer considerable amounts of money.
Many industrial and commercial (and for that matter domestic) processes and buildings require cooling. Cooling is often done utilising water to circulate past or through a machine that is hot consequently cooling that machine, product or area quickly and effectively.
However, in many of these applications the machinery, process or building is reaches high temperatures for sustained periods which in turn requires large quantities of water to cool the infrastructure.
Vast volumes of water means significant expense to the business which is ongoing and is also continuing to get more expensive with mains water becoming more and more expensive.
Furthermore, although the water has done its job in cooling a product, machine or area down it takes on that the heat it has cooled and you can be left with water that is thermostatically altered (hotter), the result being that the disposal of the water can then be difficult with further charges levied on the user.
What are the options to utilise Borehole Water for Cooling Purposes?
Borehole water can be abstracted in large quantities across vast swathes of the country which means that following capital outlay costs the water used becomes a virtually free commodity, depending on the scale of the project capital outlay costs can be regained in a very short period of time, typically 18 – 24 months although we have known these costs to be regained far quicker than this.
Water treatment may not be necessary and in many cases because of the utilisation of the water for cooling applications the water quality actually isn’t important as long as considerations of impacts on infrastructure are considered.
The water quality may be important for deposition of the thermostically altered water e.g.: consent maybe required to deposit to drain or a water course. However, borehole systems can assist in this to.
It is possible to re-inject thermostatically altered water back into the same (or a different) abstraction aquifer in another borehole(s). This means that as long as the correct protocols and permissions are observed and gained there are no on-going costs associated with discharging waste water to sewer systems resulting in further large savings.
Abstraction injection cooling borehole water systems can even be used in abstraction licence restricted areas.
Benefits of abstraction injection cooling borehole water systems:
- No on-going water use costs
- Large volumes of water can be abstracted
- Water quality may not be important
- The abstracted water can be re-injected into another borehole(s)
- No charges for discharging the temperature changed water
- Abstraction licenses may be gained in area where consumptive licenses are not possible
- Capital expenditure costs can be re-gained in a short space of time resulting in profit thereafter
- The abstracted water is not subject to mains water price rises
Don’t forget to check out our borehole heating & cooling case study on an office complex in Huddersfield.
If you have any questions about the use of borehole water for cooling purposes then please contact us for no obligation advice.
