ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as a guide to assist in identifying energy wasting problems for any size boiler. It serves as a valuable educational tool, showing logic of how to approach this complex problem. Although more than 100 efficiency improvement options are listed in this chapter, only a few will be appropriate at any one plant. In most cases an understanding of a plant’s operation is necessary to identify the causes of wasted energy and to identify the most cost effective remedy. Having specific efficiency information for each boiler, they can be matched to loads for most efficient utilization. Also, by using smaller boilers, which maintain high efficiency during very light load periods, losses associated with larger boilers can be eliminated. Boilers typically have very poor efficiency at low loads so this type of operation can be quite inefficient. Often boilers with measured efficiencies over 80% have been found to be operating at less than 60% efficiency on an annual basis.
