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I stand corrected...

Tom Blackwell_2
Tom Blackwell_2 Member Posts: 126
in THE MAIN WALL
Complaint was of excessively high fuel useage.  90s vintage Weil-McLain 210 input cast iron gas fired with internal draft hood.  Initial look-see revealed nothing abnormal-stack draft .02, temp 325 before dilution, manifold pressure 3.4", flame looked good-no yellow and not spilling out. Next step was with newly aquired analyzer. You have probbly guessed what came next... CO was out of range above 2000ppm and o2 was 1.8%-all of this with a good looking flame and no smell of aldehydes. BA (before analyzer), I would have passed this off as operating correctly.  How wrong could I have been.  After cleaning about 5 pounds of rust chips and dirt from the flueways with compressed air and reassembling the unit, the flame looked essentially the same, but CO was down to 16ppm and o2 was at 8.5%.  I am an engineer that has been servicing gas fired equipment for 40 years, and I am humbled by this situation.  My sincere thanks to Tim and all the others on this forum for teaching an old dog new tricks.

Comments

  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,852
    Education is powerful...

    Thanks for sharing Tom, and thanks for knowing. No more guessing :-)



    Results like that could have an impact on your energy consumption as well.



    What were the rest of the numbers, pre and post? (excess air, Co2 AFCO etc, )



    ME

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • Tom Blackwell_2
    Tom Blackwell_2 Member Posts: 126
    memory

    Mark, I didn't write it all down, but final excess air was close to 70% and efficiency was about 70%. The efficiency number is really open to interpretation and I would use it for comparison only. It appears from observing the unit and measuring airflow ( Hydro air) that overall efficiency is in the 65% range, if not worse.
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,852
    Tom...

    That piece of crap draft relief hood is messing with your numbers. Excess air is too low. If you are going to hang on to the boiler, block the fixed draft hood, set a barometric draft regulating damper and spill switch 1' above the boiler on the boiler breaching, and adjust the breaching draft to .02" W.C. and watch what happens.



    It is worth the investment and will increase the efficiency of the combustion process and all attached equipment.



    ME

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

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