Tune up your boilers at least twice a year as air temperatures change from cool to warm and the reverse.
If you use steam to generate hot water for production, domestic use, and to meet heating requirements; consider looking at the pay back on using hot water boilers. Most steam systems are less than 50% efficient, so going to a hot water boiler to meet your requirements can yield considerable savings. The savings can be even larger if your hot water load is seasonable which means you are operating larger than needed boilers to meet your non-seasonal load demands.
If you shut down your boilers over a weekend, consider going to a weekend set back pressure for your boilers and keep the system warm instead of incurring a large load demand to heat the system back up. Each situation is different and should be evaluated either through calculations or by actual trial.
Operating a boiler at less than 50% load will waste large amounts of fuel. Boilers which frequently cycle on and off can waste staggering amounts of fuel. Consider smaller or multiple boilers if you are operating in this mode.
Do not confuse combustion efficiency as measured with a stack analyzer as being a real measure of your fuel to steam efficiency or in-service efficiency. The real measure of efficiency is total steam produced over a month compared to fuel consumed for the same period. If you are really interested in knowing these numbers, we can provide equipment from Miura boiler on a loan basis with you being responsible for installation and removal of equipment. If you are operating older boilers under light load conditions, your in-service efficiency for a month is at best in the mid sixty percent range.
Review your steam losses which include blowing steam traps, steam leaks, blowing roof vents, and condensate not being returned. If you have not been able to tend to these areas, losses can easily exceed 20% or more of your fuel and water bills. Aside from direct money saved, emissions from boiler operations is reduced because you have reduced waste load on the boilers.
If you want to contribute toward improving your companies bottom line, take a hard look at your boiler operations. We can provide a full range of service so give us a call if we can be of help. We can provide you with anything from a steam trap to a complete boiler room.
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