Most of steam power plants in Korea are using the method of heating the feed water whenever the ambient temperature around the power plant area below 5°C to prevent freezing water flowing in the pipe in winter time. But this kind of heat supplying system is not useful to save energy. If we take the method that the temperature of the each pipe is controled by direct measure of temperature by attaching sensor on the outside surface of the feed water tubes, then we can expect that a plenty of energy can be saved. In this study, the computer simulation is used to compare the energy consumption loads of both systems. Energy saving rate is calculated for the location of Incheon area in winter season. Four convection heat transfer coefficients for the ambient air and three initial flowing water temperature inside the tube were used. The result shows that the temperature control system using sensor represents more than 95% of energy saving rate in Incheon area. Even in the severe January weather condition, the energy saving rate is almost 75% in two days basis and even 83% in one day basis.

• 한규일(부경대학교 기계시스템공학과) | Kyu-il HAN (Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 608-739, Korea) Corresponding author