Invest in your energy infrastructure now and reap the rewards this winter

There is no hiding the fact that the cost of living is increasing, energy prices, although currently stable, have increased drastically this year. This in turn puts pressure on businesses – and households – who struggle with the increase in bills.

It may sound counter-intuitive but investing in your boiler set up now could actually save you money this winter. Depending on your individual boiler set-up there will be a number of areas where significant energy savings could be made, these savings could considerably reduce your energy expenditure.

Some of these potential energy-saving options include reviewing electronic controls, utilising oxygen trim, and reviewing air damper performance you could also consider investing in inverters and looking into a plant master system for sequencing multiple boilers.

In the below write up our experts explain just some of the ways you could invest now to save later.

Linkageless burners

Irrespective of linkage quality, movement in each connection point will result in a level of hysteresis – or “drift”. Hysteresis tends to increase with the number of connection points; increased hysteresis reduces combustion efficiency and increases fuel costs.

Increased turndown

The ratio of maximum heat output to the minimum level of heat output, at which the boiler will operate efficiently or controllably, is referred to as boiler turndown ratio.

If the set-up is working at a small fraction of its maximum and the turndown ratio is too low, the burner will still need to be shut off when the desired pressure/temperature is achieved. This results in a rapid reduction in temperature/pressure, which requires the boiler to restart.

This is disadvantageous, as flue gases are purged during both the shut-down and start-up phases, leading to energy losses and inefficiency.

PID setback control

If a plant does not run continuously, then the second internal PID modulation circuit – which electronic fuel:air ratio controls have –  can be used during periods of reduced activity to switch the boiler to a lower steam pressure or hot water temperature to improve efficiency.

Fan speed control

Fan speed control is a straightforward add-on option on some electronic burner controls. By including fan speed control, burner turn-down can be increased without surrendering efficiency, and extra fuel savings can be achieved.

Oxygen trim

Oxygen trim is a closed loop system available as an choice on some electronic fuel:air ratio controls. Oxygen trim refers to a system of monitors used to maintain excess air at the optimum level in a combustion device.

Boiler sequencing and communication software

A boiler sequencing system helps to ensure that boilers are fired in a controlled manner, providing cost savings by avoiding individual boilers from over firing and cycling on and off unnecessarily.

Plant Master

There has been an addition to the ETC6075 Touchscreen HMI, the innovative ‘Plant Master’ mode utilises the Ethernet to connect up to 10 ETC6000 series controllers to the user interface – it has never been easier or simpler to analyse numerous boiler results.

Using the Plant Master operating mode allows engineers to view all of the boilers as one all-encompassing system; this provides an invaluable insight into the steam generation process.

Next steps

With energy prices due to increase this winter, there has never been a better time to review your industrial burner control strategy. By improving efficiency, your business can reduce outgoings and save money in these uncertain times

To discuss how our electronic burner controls could help your business prepare for the winter price hikes please do get in touch.