The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, December 2008.

©Copyright 2008 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-

Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in
paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

Understanding
Fuel Savings
In the
Boiler Room
Photo 1: A boiler room at Southern Connecticut State University. The control cabinets feature multiple loop controllers, vertical draft indica-
tor, and a tank gage and leak detection system.

By David Eoff calculated and totaled. The “by losses”

T
method requires only stack temperature
he crude oil peak price of $147 per barrel in July 2008 demonstrated that and oxygen content and can easily be
calculated with a portable combustion
fuel oil prices going forward will be volatile and subject to extreme price analyzer or built into the combustion
controls. ANSI Standard Z21.13 outlines
spikes. Boiler owners and plant engineers need to understand boiler efficiency efficiency calculations for hot water boil-
ers. The loss mechanisms are similar.
and what can be done to save fuel in the typical boiler room. Table 3 details the equations used to cal-
culate three of the largest boiler losses to
Table 1 illustrates the amount of fuel a Understanding Boiler Heat Losses illustrate how these losses can be affected
typical small boiler consumes, compared To better understand the effect of by boiler/burner performance.
with the capital cost of the boiler, burner, burner and controls performance on The three equations in Table 3 for
and controls. efficiency, we need to have an under- different boiler losses have several ele-
The data in Table 1 are based on natural standing of boiler heat losses. Using ments in common, suggesting a com-
gas at $10 per MMBtu and heating oil at typical packaged boiler operating data, mon strategy for reducing boiler losses,
$3.63 per gallon ($0.97 per L). It becomes boiler efficiency calculated according including:
apparent that when operated at a 25% to the American Society of Mechanical •• Reducing stack temperature;
capacity factor, a boiler will consume at Engineers (ASME) PTC 4.1, Power Test •• Minimizing excess air levels;
least twice its capital cost in fuel every Codes for Steam Generating Units, yields •• Raising boiler feedwater tempera-
year. An oil-fired boiler will consume at typical boiler losses (Table 2). ture; and
least four times its cost in fuel every year. ASME PTC 4.1 includes instructions •• Raising combustion air tempera-
Because of their relatively low capital for calculating boiler efficiency by the ture to the burner.
cost and high impact on boiler efficiency, direct method comparing steam output
burner and combustion control retrofits versus heat input. It also calculates boiler About the Author
offer boiler owners the quickest paybacks efficiency by the indirect (by losses) David Eoff is national sales manager at Preferred
based on energy savings. method where individual boiler losses are Utilities, Danbury, Conn.

38 ASHRAE Journal a s h r a e . o r g December 2008

 Annual Fuel Cost
Equipment Capital Cost
Boiler Size/Type at 25% Capacity Factor
Gas Oil Boiler Cost Burner Cost Controls Cost

300 hp Firetube $325,000 $775,000 $110,000 $15,000 $3,000 –1 0,000

600 hp Firetube $650,000 $1.55 million $155,000 $35,000 $5,000 – 15,000
40,000 lb/h Watertube $1.3 million $3.1 million $550,000 $70,000 $7,000 – 50,000

Table 1: Boiler fuel costs vs. equipment costs.

Reducing stack temperature and raising

feedwater temperature are done at the Typical Loss as
boiler level by specifying a high-efficien- Boiler Loss Explanation Percentage of Boiler
Heat Input
cy boiler with an economizer. If a steam
boiler does not have an economizer, it Energy Required to Heat Combustion Air
can be retrofitted in the field. According Dry Gas Loss 8% – 12%
From Ambient to Stack Temperature
to Kenneth McKelvy of Babcock and Energy Required to Heat Water Formed
Wilcox, the rule of thumb is every 40°F Hydrogen Loss From Combustion of Fuel From Ambient 4% – 7%
(22°C)decrease in stack temperature to Stack Temperature
equates to a 1% increase in boiler effi- Radiation Loss Heat Lost to Boiler Surroundings 0.25% – 2%
ciency. A typical economizer can increase
boiler efficiency by 4% to 6%. Energy in Unburned Fuel or Carbon Mon-
Unburned Carbon 0% – 0.5%
Using an air heater to raise the com- oxide That Exits The Stack
bustion air temperature is commonplace Energy Required to Heat Water in the
with utility boilers but is almost never Moisture in Air Combustion Air From Ambient To Stack 0.1% – 0.4%
done with packaged boilers. The nec- Temperature
essary ductwork is expensive and can Table 2: Typical boiler losses.
affect the low-NOx performance of the
burner. Adding air preheaters to packaged boilers is usually Dry Gas Loss CP(Air) x (TS – TA) * (1 + Excess Air%) x MTheoretical Air
=
considered to be impractical. However, a little-used “trick of
the trade” called an air stack can increase boiler efficiency. An CP(H O) x (Enthalpy of Steam at 1 psi and TStack –
Hydrogen Loss = 2
Enthalpy of Water at TAmbient)/100
air stack is simply ductwork run from the combustion air inlet
to the top of the boiler room, where the air may be as much Moisture in Air = CP(H O) x H2O in Air x (TStack – TAmbient)
2

as 20°F (11°C) warmer. This inexpensive, purely mechanical Value determined from table maintained by the
Radiation Loss =
boiler modification will increase boiler efficiency in enclosed American Boiler Manufacturers Association
boiler rooms. Table 3: Boiler loss nomenclature.

Low Excess Air Burners Save Fuel

One of the most cost-effective fuel-saving strategies for a Boiler owners often cannot operate a boiler if the emissions
packaged boiler is specifying/retrofitting to a low excess air are out of compliance. However, the only penalty for operating
burner. The typical standard burner offered by the boiler manu- a boiler with higher than guaranteed excess air, or lower than
facturer has a guarantee of 15% to 20% excess air operation guaranteed turndown, is additional fuel consumption. Although
at high fire only. (5% excess air is approximately 1% stack fuel consumption is an important consideration, it is less urgent
oxygen.) Because ambient air is 79% inert (nitrogen, argon, than the threat of government regulators shutting down a boiler
and water vapor), it’s important to minimize the amount of fuel because of an air permit violation.
wasted heating mostly inert air. A high-performance burner will
deliver 12.5% to 15% excess air performance from midfire to Real-World Boiler Operation
high fire. This lower excess air performance over a much larger Even for burners that are operating within their guaranteed
boiler load will deliver significant fuel savings because less fuel emissions, the technician doing the boiler tuneup should main-
will be wasted heating mostly inert combustion air. tain an “excess air cushion” to accommodate higher ambient
Many burners are not tuned in the field to meet published temperatures, variations in fuel pressure, and other unexpected
excess air guarantees, and many boiler owners do not hold the changes that affect burner stoichiometry. To reduce the amount
manufacturers responsible for achieving these guarantees— of “excess air cushion,” the new burner should be equipped with
especially with low-NOx burners. When aggressive emission a combustion control system that can compensate for changes
guarantees are made for NOx or carbon monoxide, excess air in ambient conditions (Figure 1).
and burner turndown guarantees are sometimes sacrificed. It is important to understand that boiler manufacturer ef-

December 2008 ASHRAE Journal 39

Advertisement formerly in this space.
 Drum Oxygen Analyzer
Pressure
Drum
Combustion Pressure
PT Airflow

Air
Actuator

Oil
Flow
Gas Oil
Jackshaft
Actuator Flow
Firing Rate Gas

Figure 2: Fully metered combustion control flow transmitters are

Oil used to monitor fuel and air flow. The controllers modulate fuel
control valves and air dampers(s) to maintain the correct fuel-air
Gas ratios despite changing conditions.

Figure 1: Single point positioning (jackshaft) combustion control Oxygen

system fuel and air control devices are mechanically linked. Adjust- Analyzer

able fuel valves or linkage assemblies allow fuel flow and airflow to
be characterized at all firing rates.
Air
Actuator
ficiency guarantees, ASME PTC 4.1 efficiency calculations,
and the discussion above assume:
•• The boiler is fired by hand;
•• Firing rate is fixed at 100% and run to steady state; and
•• No changes in ambient conditions occur. Fuel
Actuator
Few boilers operate under these conditions in the field. Firing Rate
The objective of good burner combustion controls is to
operate the burner in real-life conditions as close to these Oil
optimum conditions as possible—despite changing boiler
loads, varying ambient temperatures, and other environ- Gas
mental factors.
Figure 3: Parallel positioning with oxygen trim fuel and air are electroni-
Fully metered combustion control systems monitor fuel
cally characterized in the controller. Air is biased to maintain stack oxy-
and air flow and will adjust fuel valves and air dampers to
gen on the setpoint curve established during burner commissioning.
keep burner flow rates constant despite changing conditions.
Oxygen trim can be added to these systems to help ensure that and now are often applied to boilers as small as 150 hp (1470
the stack oxygen setpoint established during burner commis- kW) (Figure 3).
sioning is maintained over time. In the
past, fully metered combustion control
systems were limited to large watertube
boilers because of their high capital cost.
Newer combustion control systems of- Advertisement formerly in this space.
fer fully metered combustion control
with oxygen compensation available off
the shelf at substantially lower prices
(Figure 2).
Parallel-positioning combustion con-
trol systems offer oxygen trim without
the expense of fuel and air meters.
These systems safely compensate for
changing ambient conditions and will
maintain peak low excess air operation
over time. They are extremely economical

December 2008 ASHRAE Journal 41

Advertisement formerly in this space.
Burner Turndown Affects Efficiency ing gas. Simply measure the gas manifold
Burner turndown is important for pressure (downstream of the gas flow
fuel savings—especially during low- control valve) at high fire, divide by the
load conditions. The typical burner gas manifold pressure at low fire, and
is designed for 6:1 turndown f iring calculate the square root. The number that
natural gas and 4:1 turndown firing is left is the burner turndown.
oil (6:1 turndown means high-fire fuel
flow is six times low-fire fuel flow). Multiple Boiler Plants
In practice, many burners operate at Finally, multiple-boiler plants can save
3:1 turndown—meaning they light off additional fuel by installing a modern
at 33% of high-fire heat input. If 33% lead/lag controller. A typical system
firing rate produces more steam (or hot monitors one header pressure or tem-
water) than the plant load, the burner perature transmitter, operates the optimal
eventually shuts down on high steam number of boilers to meet the current
pressure or high water temperature, and plant load, and fires the boilers at their
all the losses associated with post purge, most efficient firing rates to minimize
standby and purge are incurred again. fuel consumption.
Frequent boiler cycling also introduces When fuel prices were relatively inex-
thermal shock to the boiler tubes and pensive, it was common to have one boiler
refractory to shorten boiler life. running in automatic and a second boiler
Because boilers tend to be oversized running at low fire in case the first boiler Advertisement formerly in this space.
(typically 5% for every engineer who tripped offline. A modern lead/lag control-
touches the design), it is common for ler will keep the lag boiler off, cycle it on
boilers to cycle on and off during low- occasionally to keep it hot, and only bring
load conditions. Each time a boiler cycles it online if the lead boiler trips offline or is
off, it drafts cold combustion air during not capable of handling the current plant
the post purge and standby periods. When load. Because steam and noncondensing
the boiler is cycled on again, it must go hot water boilers are more efficient at high
through a purge period when more cold fire, a lead/lag controller will fire fewer
air is cycled through the boiler to purge boilers at the highest firing rate possible for
the furnace of possible combustibles prior highest efficiency. Condensing boilers are
to ignition. All the heat lost to this cold more efficient at low fire, so this strategy
air has to be recouped by the burner when is reversed for condensing boilers.
it lights off again. It is not uncommon to With the high fuel prices in the U.S.,
see small boilers cycle up to 10 times per high-performance burners and controls
hour during low-load periods. are inexpensive compared with the price
A high-performance burner will oper- of fuel wasted by the typical boiler. Boiler
ate safely at 10:1 turndown on gas and owners who previously installed high-
8:1 turndown on oil. A turndown ratio performance burners and combustion
of 10:1 means low-fire heat input is just controls now can reap the benefits.
10% of high-fire heat input. A high- Because of fuel price volatility, the old
turndown burner is much more likely adage should apply: “Hope for the best,
to stay on during low-load conditions but plan for the worst.”
and not incur all the cycling losses of a
typical burner. Bibliography
To determine boiler turndown, put Dukelow, S.G. 1991. The Control of Boil-
the boiler in manual firing rate, lock it ers, pp. 74–85. Research Triangle Park: Instru-
at high fire, and clock the fuel meter. ment Society of America.
Stultz, S.C. and J.B. Kitto. 1992. Steam. Its
Repeat the procedure with the burner at Generation and Use, 40th Edition, pp. 9 – 22
low fire. Divide the high-fire fuel flow to 9 – 27. Lynchburg, Va.: The Babcock &
by the low-fire fuel flow. If the burner Wilcox Company.
doesn’t have a dedicated gas or oil meter, White, F.M. 1986. Fluid Mechanics, 2nd
Bernoulli’s equation provides a way to edition p. 169. N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Higher
approximate burner turndown when fir- Education.

December 2008 ASHRAE Journal 43