“Considerable savings in future energy bills as well as improved levels of occupant comfort can be achieved when diagnosed maintenance is carried out following a duct leakage performance test.”
Sensing Precision has launched a new more powerful air leakage tester to enable larger ductwork to be tested.
The new Air Leakage Finder (ALF225) is a more powerful version of the popular ALF150. With increased fan power, building up the static pressure fast, it can test longer and larger ductwork sections. The new ALF225 has similar simple control system and portable design.
Like the ALF150, the new ALF225 utilises three easy to change conical inlet nozzles designed to ISO5801 and allows the machine to cover the range for 1l/s to 225l/s. These precision machined nozzles, combined with a recently enhanced control POD, gives an accuracy of +/-2.5% of reading.
This all-in-one instrument provides a closed-loop controlled leakage test, and the configurable test parameters include duct size, test pressure, test duration and test class. Once it is configured appropriately, the ALF225 control pod will calculate the maximum allowable leakage for the ductwork system and then run the test – first pressurising or depressurising the ductwork to the test pressure set, then monitoring the leakage rate, and finally indicating whether the ductwork installation has failed or passed the test.
The new ALF225 joins its brother, the ALF150. The model numbers directly relate to the maximum flowrate in l/s at the industry standard +/-2500Pa, so the new ALF225 can deliver up to 225l/s at 2500Pa and can test to standards DW/143/144/154, ISO EN1507/12237/12599 or SMACANA. As well as a free test mode for custom applications like chilled beam/discharge profiling.
Ductwork leakage measurements are used to diagnose and demonstrate leakage problems, estimate efficiency losses from duct leakage, and certify the quality of the duct system. When the air leakage testing is carried out, data can be captured and subsequently saved in a .txt format via SD card or output via mini-USB cable.
Andrew Hamshere, managing director of Sensing Precision, said: “Considerable savings in future energy bills as well as improved levels of occupant comfort can be achieved when diagnosed maintenance is carried out following a duct leakage performance test.
“On-site testing for ductwork leakage is only required sporadically. The range of ALF duct leakage testers are compact, lightweight and a totally self-contained all in one unit that can be manoeuvred, connected, and operated by a single engineer.
“Our ALF range allows the engineer to be provided with everything needed to test ductwork systems for leakage under both positive and negative pressure”.
The closed loop PID control feature allows automatic fan control and pressure correction as the duct integrity is improved during a test. The intuitive single interface Control Pod reports duct static pressure, leakage flow and controls the fan. Removing the complexity that might be associated with operating a duct work leakage tester and other forms of testing equipment.
