How to measure low-pressure steam boiler efficiency

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · ASHRAE Journal (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (United States)

OSTI ID:5795798

Katrakis, J T ^[1]; Zawacki, T S ^[2]

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1. Katrakis and Associates, Chicago, IL (United States)
2. Phillips Engineering, St. Joseph, MI (United States)

Low-pressure central steam systems are the predominant type of space heating system in pre-World War II multifamily housing throughout the northern urban areas of the US. In Chicago alone, over 300,000 low to middle income residences are heated in this manner. Heating costs in these buildings are frequently over 50% higher than for buildings with newer hot water or forced air systems. High costs are a major cause of the precarious financial picture of these older low to moderate income buildings. Efforts to address this problem include research aimed at identifying effective and affordable ways of enhancing the efficiency of the heating systems in these buildings. The boilers are one major area where efficiency improvements are possible. These buildings use intermediate-sized low-pressure steam boilers that are also commonly found in commercial, institutional and small industrial applications for space and process water heating. As a group, their performance is the least well documented among all the heating plant technologies. Ranging in input capacity from 300,000 Btu per hour to 4,000,000 Btu per hour (87.9 kW to 1,172 kW), they are too small to warrant the cost of installing and maintaining standard commercially available steam metering equipment. Yet, they are larger than the heating plants that are subject to the federally-mandated AFUE testing. As part of the research to improve the efficiency of these heating systems, it was necessary to develop simple and affordable methods to measure the seasonal efficiency of low-pressure steam boilers in buildings. As reported in this article two methods were developed to measure the in-situ seasonal efficiency of these boilers: a benchmark method based on ANSI standards for measuring the flue and jacket losses; and a simplified method, the Time-to-Make-Steam (TTMS) method that is easy to apply and appropriate for low-pressure steam boilers.

• OSTI ID: 5795798
• Journal Information: ASHRAE Journal (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: ASHRAE Journal (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (United States) Vol. 35:9; ISSN 0001-2491; ISSN ASHRAA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320106* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Equipment-- (1987-)
ACCURACY
BOILERS
BUILDINGS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENERGY LOSSES
ENERGY SYSTEMS
HEATING SYSTEMS
LOSSES
MEASURING METHODS
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS