Boiler Maintenance Practices
Over the past decade many facilities across the US and Canada continue to minimize energy usage and lower their carbon footprint by designing new and retrofitting existing mechanical rooms utilizing higher efficiency boilers and water heaters. This is a great way to lower emissions, reduce fuel consumption, and create a scenario of savings over traditional lower efficiency equipment.
However, this new technology should be thought of with a different mindset from our traditional old-technology heating equipment. While these modern appliances will be set up and tuned by factory trained technicians they are often forgotten. It is often assumed that they will work as well as the day they were started. This may be the case in a perfect world, and may even be the case in your facility, but while even left untouched variables not internal to the unit may change, creating undesirable operating conditions for the appliance. Many of these changes are not directly controlled by the appliance but if identified can be adjusted to compensate.
For example, a new appliance may have been added in the mechanical room, possibly sharing an existing gas line. This could cause a spike in pressure taking the modern appliance out of its set operating parameters. This new addition may also change the dynamic of combustion air if both units are fired simultaneously. There are many other circumstances that can lead to inefficient usage or an operational failure. Please click here for an outline of several key items to evaluate annually, or as needed for your specific application, to keep your appliances operating at their highest efficiencies.