In the UK manufacturing industry, energy costs account for a significant amount of a business’s overheads and can limit growth potential. It’s easy to understand how a business can spend so much on energy costs when our engineers have routinely identified that boilerhouse managers tend to believe they are operating at an efficiency level 15% higher than they actually are. This is likely due to them not having complete visibility of their boilerhouse components. 

Calling time on tradition 

Boiler operators can find themselves tasked with identifying the efficiency of the boilerhouse. However, they will often be making use of the burner efficiency to indicate the boilerhouse’s overall efficiency. They may be unaware this method does not highlight all potential energy losses from factors such as dirty heat transfer surfaces, carryover, radiation losses and excessive boiler blowdown rates. 

By making use of burner efficiency for overall boilerhouse efficiency, boiler operators may be overestimating their system’s performance. They would gain a better understanding of their boilerhouse by metering all energy entering the boiler – both fuel and feedwater – and compare this with useful energy exiting the boiler via steam. 

This monitoring method was once only possible by investing heavily in Building Management Systems (BMS) or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software systems. Monitoring in this way was a costly means of measuring energy use and could be prohibitive for smaller businesses. Upfront investment in such measurement systems was not cost-effective, as they only log non-compliant operations as opposed to providing the ‘why’ that exists behind that data. This is critical for boiler operators as without it they may fail to observe where energy costs could be reduced and efficiency improved. 

Because boilerhouse operators also tend to overestimate energy system performance, these energy losses could be greater than first anticipated, resulting in increased fuel costs to account for creeping losses via the flue, radiation, distribution, flash, blowdown or condensate. 

The path to success 

While management teams may anticipate some distribution loss, true figures can only be discerned with a monitoring system that provides a complete overview of the system. 

Spirax Sarco’s B850 boilerhouse energy monitor for instance, offers a cost-effective means of measuring overall boilerhouse efficiency. The monitor accurately calculates boilerhouse efficiency based on measured inputs from fuel, feedwater, steam output, condensate return and blowdown. Cost-conscious boiler operators can utilise this data to improve their steam system’s efficiency, yielding energy savings and reduced business expenditure. 

With the right data in-hand, operators and management teams can systematically improve steam systems, limiting energy losses at multiple points. Targeting water treatment and boiler water condition, for example, can significantly improve overall energy efficiency and lower plant total cost of ownership. 

Treatment can help prevent alkaline deposit build-up on heat transfer surfaces. This build-up can act as a barrier against effective heat transfer, dramatically reducing boiler energy efficiency. For example, a deposit layer just one millimetre thick could lower system efficiency by around 10%. 

The economisers, flue-gas shut-off dampers and blowdown heat recovery are other areas in the boilerhouse system where losses can be found. These present scope for efficiency savings, which boilerhouse operators can make using intelligent monitoring systems.  

Back in the game 

By cutting the costs of energy, businesses could find that they are able to save money on their fuel bills. 

Rigorous monitoring of boilerhouse energy performance provides the foundations for cost-saving and reduced fuel consumption. The future is uncertain enough, the finer detail of the operator’s steam system doesn’t have to be – with an energy monitoring system, losses can be quickly identified and rectified to put a stop to excess waste. 

To see how you can lower your energy costs and improve efficiency, download the latest guide from Spirax Sarco: ‘A roadmap to identifying the true efficiency of your boilerhouse’ here.