Boiler Efficiency Definition ?

Danscrew

I have three 3 million BTU condensing Boilers ( Crest Lochinvar's ) at my Job in Brooklyn NY. My Question is how is efficiency measured is it the amount of cubic ft. of gas to how many BTU'S of hot water produced? The Building is 35 stories and 500,000 sq. feet of commercial office space. That is empty at this time except for 3 floors and the lobby.

Second question is has anyone had any experience with very strong magnets on the gas supply line( 2 inch supply). Right before the main gas valve inside the boiler. What the company is claiming is the magnetism thru the pipe makes the gas more efficient before Ignition. Waiting to see the numbers on this one. LOL thanks Dan

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Danscrew

Magnets? That's a new one. I have some swampland to sell...any takers!!! LOL

Efficiency=btus of gas burned versus btus put into the hot water. With steam boilers they talk of "fuel-steam" Hot water "fuel-hot water"

Zman

Those Crests are sweet. You will get your best efficiency if you spend time dialing in the outdoor reset curve. Lower return temps is where the savings are.


I love a good magnet/efficiency story. Tell us more? Or, maybe you shouldn't, those gas companies have killed for less.

GroundUp

One cubic foot of natural gas (aka "therm") holds 100,000 BTU. If you were to calculate the exact flow rate and delta T during operation (Flow rate X delta T X 500), you would know the BTUs produced. For example if you were creating 7,326,948 BTU as evidenced by the aforementioned calc and during the exact same period used 66.675 cubic feet of natural gas, your effective combustion efficiency is 91%.

Now, in a system like this there is bound to be some distribution loss and flow rates are often changing so it's probably not feasible to collect the exact numbers, but that is how it's done.

Rich_49

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mNECDHgDrg&list=PLuuV0ELkYb5VE0I4evUZ30b5U78CRlRdg&index=31