APM Steam’s partnership with Atrium Health Cabarrus shows how a systemwide steam assessment can turn recurring condensate issues into a clear path to efficiency gains, reduced risk, and long-term savings.
Turning hidden losses into opportunity
At Atrium Health Cabarrus, steam quietly supports essential hospital functions including heating, humidification, sterilization, hot water, and foodservice. Over time, campus expansions and boiler plant changes had shifted how the system operated, creating mismatches between older configurations and current conditions. Even with a capable facilities team and periodic steam trap surveys, some inefficiencies and component sizing issues remained out of sight, hidden above ceilings, behind walls, and in mechanical rooms.
Key challenges included faulty steam traps that allowed steam into condensate return tanks, pump seals burning out alongside pressure issues within the tanks, and instantaneous water heaters experiencing high failure rates in their steam control valves.
These symptoms pointed to a broader system health issue that couldn’t be solved by treating each failure as an isolated event.
A systemwide steam assessment
APM Steam approached the project by looking beyond single components to evaluate the overall health of the steam distribution system. Technicians assessed steam traps, heat exchangers, pressure reducing valves (PRVs), condensate return units, and insulation heat loss to understand where energy and water were being lost and where repairs would have the greatest impact. In the process, they uncovered missing or improperly installed components, audible cavitation, pumps operating outside ideal conditions, and failed units no longer supporting efficient condensate recovery.
The assessment also revealed incorrectly sized PRV stations for the current boiler plant configuration, operating pressures that no longer matched today’s campus needs, and opportunities to reduce energy waste by improving condensate recovery.
Rather than delivering a dense engineering report, APM Steam translated these findings into an actionable plan that connected technical observations to operational and financial outcomes.
Bundled repairs built around performance
Instead of addressing each issue as a standalone task, APM Steam developed a bundled scope of work designed around system performance. The proposed package included:
● Steam trap repairs.
● Custom insulation jackets and trap insulation jackets.
● Heat exchanger cleanings and isolation valve replacements.
● PRV repairs and condensate return unit improvements.
● An electric condensate return unit to overcome pressure and elevation limitations.
This bundled model emphasized a key principle of steam system management: the best repair is often not the most isolated repair. By treating these components as interconnected, APM Steam helped Atrium Health Cabarrus move from reactive fixes toward a more strategic, performance-based approach.
Projected savings and long-term value
According to the executive repair summary, the proposed scope of work projected annual energy savings of approximately $144,949 and a reduction of 79,177 therms across the steam system. About $10,300 in annual savings and 6,600 therms were tied directly to condensate return improvements, highlighting the value of recovering treated water and heat energy instead of relying on colder, chemically treated makeup water.
Major projected savings categories included:
● $48,869 annually from steam trap repairs.
● $28,936 from heat exchanger cleanings.
● $22,778 from custom insulation jackets.
Throughout the assessment, APM Steam shared observations with the facilities team, explaining what technicians were looking for and why certain findings mattered, which created a valuable learning opportunity and supported better long-term maintenance planning. As Atrium Health Facilities Operations Manager Tom Grosso noted, the team “learned a lot of things from this assessment that we didn’t know we didn’t know,” underscoring the value of a partner who can help hospitals understand and improve their steam systems as interconnected wholes.