Whether you’re in facility management or a building owner, scheduling a commercial boiler installation can be a daunting task. It is important to know you options and understand the advantages and disadvantages of certain systems.
Here are a few things you should consider before installation begins.
1. Choose The Right Contractor
Make sure to use a contractor who does commercial and industrial boiler installations. Many contractors will be proficient at residential installations and dabble in what is called “light commercial” work. While residential systems are similar to some smaller commercial projects, there significant differences. This has lead to a lot of inefficient system installations and creates long term maintenance issues. A company that understands all types of commercial and industrial steam projects is the first place to start.
2. Choosing The Right Boiler
This will vary depending on heating demand and application. Some things to consider are high efficiency boilers and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems. These systems can often lead to major efficiency gains. Having your steam pressure needs evaluated, boiler load requirements and involving a water treatment team is a necessity.
Tech Tip: A condensing boiler is a water heating system designed to retrieve energy normally released from the boiler stack as waste. Once water vapor is created by the burning of gas in the boiler, it condenses back into a liquid and releases the dormant heat. This heat is then used to preheat the water entering the boiler, resulting in less fuel needed to bring the water up to temperature.
3. Selecting Boiler Controls
Many smaller commercial boilers will come with their own controls built in. You however can add auxiliary controls that can help improve efficiency of your system. One such control system is weather responsive controls. TJ’s Plumbing and Heating does a good job of describing how they work. “An electronic energy management system that uses a tiny computer chip to balance boiler water temperature with outdoor temperature. By constantly measuring outside temperature, they determine the optimum temperature needed to heat your facility.”
4. Selecting Boiler Burners
Depending on the size of the boiler you may have the ability to select the burner. When this is the case, you should consider installing a burner that has a high turndown ratio. This can lower the burners low-fire rate. This will allow it to run at a lower load without short cycling.
A good rule of thumb is a minimum turndown ratio of 5:1 for gas-fired, hot-water boilers.
If a burner has a turndown ratio of 5:1, then the burner’s low fire, is 1/5th of the high fire heat input. This means based on heat demand the burner may fire at 20% through 100% of maximum burner output.
Commercial Boiler Installation Help
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