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Boiler efficiency is a loose term that can mean different things to different people but is none the less very important. If heat is being lost through the system or your boiler is not burning fuel at a consistent, satisfactory rate, emissions standards will be hard to meet and you will end up with a lot of waste. When discussing boiler efficiency, it can refer to thermal efficiency, combustion efficiency or fuel-to-steam efficiency. Because these three types of efficiency formulas calculate differently, they each can have their own economic implications.

Thermal efficiency is a simple ratio that is expressed as a percentage and measures how the boiler's heat exchanger transfers the heat from combustion to the steam or water in the boiler. So the basic calculation is the input energy divided by the output energy. Thermal heat can also be lost through convection and radiation making the thermal efficiency calculation limited as it only measures the effectiveness of the heat exchanger.

Measuring how effective a boiler transfers chemical energy from fuel into usable heat is called combustion efficiency. If there is not enough oxygen in the combustion chamber, some of the fuel will not be burned resulting in soot, smoke or carbon monoxide build-up. If there is too much oxygen present, excessively hot flue gas will be created and cannot be transferred into steam production. When using the combustion efficiency calculations, a boiler is considered to be running efficiently when there are low levels of unused fuel and no extra oxygen is needed.

Fuel-to-steam efficiency measures the efficiency of the boiler's heat transfer from the combustion process to the water/steam in the boiler while also measuring the heat exchanger efficiency and accounting for radiation and convection losses through other areas of the system. The Input-Output Method and the Energy Balance Method are two ways to calculate fuel-to-steam efficiency.

Hi-Tech Overlay Group's staff of professionals are available for boiler and pressure vessel services to ensure the right calculations are being used for efficiency to meet regulations and for system optimization. We guarantee expedited field services to minimize plant downtime during planned and unplanned maintenance. Our permanent repairs will help eliminate future equipment downtime. Contact us today!