ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) has launched a new version of its 3E Plus® insulation thickness software program that operates in the Windows® XP, Vista, and Windows 7 environments. 3E Plus performs a wide range of energy, economic, and environmental calculations to help determine cost savings through increased insulation thicknesses. The program was developed by NAIMA to simplify the task of calculating how much insulation is necessary to use less energy, protect personnel against hot piping and equipment, control condensation, reduce plant emissions, and improve efficiency. The program and new screen-by-screen user guide may be downloaded free of charge at www.pipeinsulation.org.

3E Plus is designed to quickly and accurately determine where additional insulation can improve the efficiency of pipes, boilers, tanks, and ducts. By calculating the potential energy and cost savings over time, users can gauge the return on investment for insulation upgrades.

This new version of the program:

• Provides simple payback calculations starting with the thermal performance and cost of energy for both insulated and uninsulated piping and equipment.

• Allows users to customize program details such as insulation materials, jacketing, fuel types, and base metals which can now be saved and imported when updating to future builds of version 4.1.

• Allows users to export insulation audit data to an Excel spreadsheet.

• Performs calculations for most types of insulation materials and accepts performance data provided by the user for other materials.

• Provides calculations for many fuel types and five different surface orientations.

• Includes all the latest thermal curves and new insulation materials contained in the ASTM material standards.

• Automatically calculates thickness tables.

• Works in metric and inch-pound units.

For more information, go to www.pipeinsulation.org.

Publication date: 10/22/2012