HOW TO PREPARE AND KEEP YOUR BOILER EFFICIENT THROUGHOUT THE HEATING SEASON
BY IRWIN SANDLER, PRESIDENT
SCIENTIFIC
BOILER/SCIENTIFIC BOILER ENVIRONMENTAL CORP.
Now is the time to start preparing your heating system to operate at peak efficiency to insure that your building will not waste heating dollars. An inefficient boiler will cost a building unnecessary wasted dollars that could be saved with proper maintenance. There are a number of simple, relatively inexpensive, but extremely necessary steps to prepare your boiler for the coming heating season.
CLEANING
The first, and one of the most important, is a proper major cleaning performed by a reliable company with skilled personnel and proper equipment. One prerequisite for a boiler to efficiently attain proper heat transfer is for the fire tubes to be free of soot and scale which act as an insulator within the tubes which translates to wasted energy and higher fuel bills. Soot build-up inside the boiler may lead to other maintenance problems. These problems are attributed, in part, to the high sulfur content contained in soot which creates sulfuric acid, which will ultimately corrode the boiler tubes.
Tests conducted by municipalities, heating plant engineers and boiler manufacturers have proven that even a small amount of soot (1/8" to 1/4") will drain boiler efficiency by as much as 30% depending on the system. This amount of wasted fuel becomes meaningful dollars to any multi-family building.
It is recommended that any #2, #4 and #6 oil and gas burner have a properly equipped company perform a "major cleaning" before each heating season. This "major cleaning" consists of wire brushing all the fire tubes, vacuum cleaning the entire boiler, breaching, chamber and chimney base.
A #6 oil burner should have a supplementary cleaning performed every 30 days during the heating season from October through April. This supplementary cleaning should consist of vacuum cleaning all the fire tubes, reflecting plates, tube sheets and the front and rear doors and chimney base. A #4 oil burner should have a supplementary cleaning every 60 to 90 days during the heating season and a #2 oil burner should have one to two supplementary cleanings during the heating season.
TUNE AND OVERHAUL
The next step in preparing your boiler for the heating season is to have a trained mechanic properly tune and overhaul the burner to insure proper combustion.
CHECK FOR LEAKS
Finally, the boiler should be thoroughly checked for leaks. All gaskets should be checked. Any leaking tubes or open seams should be attended to immediately.
Stack temperatures should be monitored throughout the heating season. A rising stack temperature is a clear indication of soot build-up which should alert building personnel that a cleaning is required.
You may contact Irwin Sandler, Scientific Compactor/Boiler at 718-241-0200 or on the world wide web at www.scientificboiler.com.