Patent ID: 7955853

Claim:
A method of creating a real-time oxidation-reduction potential (“ORP”) signature in a hot water system to detect REDOX stress and inhibit corrosion in the hot water system, the method comprising: (a) defining one or more operational protective zones (“zone” or “zones”) in the hot water system; (b) selecting at least two of the defined zones, wherein at least two of the selected zones includes at least one ORP probe operable to measure the real-time ORP and communicate with a controller; (c) either intermittently or continuously measuring the real-time ORP at one or more of the selected zones while the hot water system is at operating temperature and pressure; (d) transmitting the measured real-time ORP to the controller; (e) optionally producing one or more calculated ORPs based upon the measured ORP; (f) analyzing the measured real-time ORP or the calculated ORP or integrating at least two of the measured real-time ORPs or at least two of the calculated ORPs to create the ORP signature for the hot water system; (g) assessing whether the ORP signature conforms to an ORP setting, wherein the ORP setting is either a same ORP setting for each of the selected zones or a different ORP setting for at least two of the selected zones; (h) optionally feeding an effective amount of one or more active chemical species into the hot water system to alter the ORP signature; and (i) ramping from one of the selected zones to another one of the selected zones after a triggering event.