High gas bills...JohnNY

DaveGateway

I posted this on a community message board this morning.
It is regarding single family dwellings with gas-fired steam boilers.
Care to add to it?

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In light of the recent thread about high gas bills I’d like to offer what I know about gas usage and heating equipment.
When I do an efficiency test on a gas boiler, I am always surprised at what low percentages show up on an older or dirty piece of equipment.
Carbon monoxide (CO), oxygen (O2) and flue temperature readings reveal a great deal about what is going on inside a boiler and knowing how to interpret those values eliminates all the guesswork.
A simple cleaning of the burner assembly is often enough to stabilize erratic combustion, raise efficiency and lower CO levels considerably.
Keeping the operating pressure low on a steam boiler ensures you’re not burning more gas than you need.
Flushing sediment and loose scale from a boiler or water heater removes the insulating layer of crud from the bottom of the heat exchanger thus allowing the heat from the flame to be better absorbed by the cast iron and transferred to the water.
All this results in getting more heat from the gas you use.

I recently did a combustion analysis on a 40-year-old boiler for a new homeowner. It was running nearly as well as any newly installed boiler I’ve ever seen. It must have been maintained meticulously by the previous owner.
That’s a good thing.

A bit off topic:

If you’re having these things looked at, make sure your plumber or HVAC contractor is using proper combustion analyzing equipment.
Someone who looks at the boiler and feels around it or maybe uses a match to check the flue has no idea.
Use him to fix your faucets.

Recently a customer called because of a sounding CO detector. My partner, David, went to the home and found dangerous levels of CO in the home. The boiler was in terrible condition and was not venting. The customer had a home warranty and the insurance company sent their own plumber to check it out.
That plumber arrived with no testing equipment at all, looked at the boiler from five feet away and said everything was fine. “It must have been a false alarm”.
Unbelievable.

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