FIELD TEST OF THE FLAME QUALITY INDICATOR
The flame quality indicator concept was developed at BNL specifically to monitor the brightness of the flame in a small oil burner and to provide a ''call for service'' notification when the brightness has changed from its setpoint, either high or low. In prior development work BNL has explored the response of this system to operational upsets such as excess air changes, fouled atomizer nozzles, poor fuel quality, etc. Insight Technologies, Inc. and Honeywell, Inc. have licensed this technology from the U.S. Department of Energy and have been cooperating to develop product offerings which meet industry needs with an optimal combination of function and price. Honeywell has recently completed the development of the Flame Quality Monitor (FQM or Honeywell QS7100F). This is a small module which connects via a serial cable to the burners primary operating control. Primary advantages of this approach are simplicity, cost, and ease of installation. Call-for-service conditions are output in the form of front panel indicator lights and contact closure which can trigger a range of external communication options. Under this project a field test was conducted of the FQM in cooperation with service organizations in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. At total of 83 field sites were included. At each site the FQM was installed in parallel with another embodiment of this concept--the Insight AFQI. The AFQI incorporates a modem and provides the ability to provide detailed information on the trends in the flame quality over the course of the two year test period. The test site population was comprised of 79.5% boilers, 13.7% warm air furnaces, and 6.8% water heaters. Nearly all were of residential size--with firing rates ranging from 0.6 gallons of oil per hour to 1.25. During the course of the test program the monitoring equipment successfully identified problems including: plugged fuel lines, fouled nozzles, collapsed combustion chambers, and poor fuel pump cut-off. Service organizations can use these early indications to reduce problems and service costs. There were also some ''call-for-service'' indications for which problems were not identified. The test program also showed that monitoring of the flame can provide information on burner run times and this can be used to estimate current oversize factors and to determine actual fuel usage, enabling more efficient fuel delivery procedures.
- Research Organization:
- Davis Aircraft Products Co, Inc. (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-00NT40994
- OSTI ID:
- 839106
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 4 Feb 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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