Boiler scale cost money

George_10

show the significant expense increase in fuel due to small amounts of scale in a boiler.

Contractors who prevent this problem will be heros to their clients.

I got this chart from the Association of Water Technologies.

Jaitch

YES Indeed!

It's nice to see something from an "official" source that confirms what I have been telling my techs over and over again. Sweep the damn thing out! Even though we have eliminated the "old sooty boiler" and we don't get "three bags full" on every Tune Up does NOT mean we no longer run the vaccumm sweeper! Keep that sulfur deposit down to a bare minumun by a quick vac with the tune up and you WILL be rewarded. Now, you no longer have to run the sweeper for an hour or more, but ya still gotta do it!

Thanks - John

jalcoplumb_2

I think he was talking.....

about the water side.

Constantin

I'm sure he is...

... but I doubt that you'd get perfect heat transfer through ½" of soot either. For me, the message to take home is: Keep both sides of the HX clean and the fuel bills will be minimized.

I take it a step further and say: Keep the auto-fill shut off on all hydronic installs, treat the system, and thus prevent scale from being able to establish itself in the first place. Obviously, if you live in a hard-water area, I would consider trucking in a couple of barrels of sweet water as the HX fluid of choice.

t. tekushan

scale mantra

Boiler scale has been one of my (many) mantras for several years now. I found virtually the same information in a boiler book from 1898 (everything old is new again). We have a small boiler here in our building that was being fed a lot of make up water due to a return leak. This had gone on for years before I came to look after the boilers in this building.
This undersized boiler went from being marginal in performance to useless even though it ran all the time (not exaggerating; ran continuously from November to April except to fill). I repaired the leak and descaled the boiler. The performance immediately returned to marginal!
Why this subject is given such little attention is beyond me.

George_10

ttekushan

I have the same question, especially now with these high energy prices. I think of scale as a bandit robbing people's wallets. Like that printer ad on TV.

thfurnitureguy_4

OK you got me again Now that I am at the burner/ boiler part of my steam quest How do you check your scale situation and how do you fix it? Thanks for caring.

Constantin

I'd call George at Rhomar Water Systems...

... and ask him for advice. My Christmas present to myself consisted of the Rhomar system cleaner and a load of ProTek as well. If there is a easy way to detect scale, I'm sure George knows how.

Mijola

Soot inside boilers

I know that the topic was about the water side of boiler, then it also went to the fireside. Look at the attached DOL document regarding soot in boiler s and the effect on both eff and stack temp. It it interesting.

Regards,

Ed Carey

Mijola

Soot inside boilers

I know that the topic was about the water side of boiler, then it also went to the fireside.

Look at the attached Dept Of Energy document link regarding soot in boilers and the effect on both eff and stack temp. It it interesting.

http://www.oit.doe.gov/bestpractices/steam/pdfs/clnfrsde.pdf#search='Energy Tips Fouling Increases Stack Temperature'

Regards,

Ed Carey