This article was written by Will Jones, a Thermaxx Jackets insulation expert.
One solution: introduce a duct system at the ceiling level of the boiler room and use a powerful fan to pull the heat to the outside of the building. At the same time, install a louver system that will allow combustion air and makeup air into the now cooler space. This sounds like a simple solution, and it probably is. The problem is that now we have exponentially increased our energy dollar waste!
| Uninsulated PRV Station |
The incoming air temperature is cooler, which causes it to pick up as much heat as possible before it is finally exhausted outside. The valves, tanks, boiler front/rear, and uninsulated piping are now losing even more valuable BTU’s than before. If the cost of a therm of natural gas was $0.12, then losing this much heat isn’t a big deal. However, today the cost of a therm of natural gas is usually around the $0.45 to $0.98, so the above solution is not recommended. We need to stop the heat loss!
Stopping Energy Dollar Loss with Removable Insulation
Follow the piping off the non-return valve and see if there are more gate valves prior to the line tying into the boiler header. The boiler header (below) is usually a huge energy loser. The pipe is large (10”, 12”, 14” or larger) and the header usually spans all the way across the boiler room. It also has the boiler lines going into it and all the building mains going out of it. Each line will have a flanged gate valve, which is another major energy waster.
The lines from the boiler to the header, the header, and subsequent building mains typically lose thousands of dollars in wasted heat energy every year, year after year after year! They are your first priority. Now that we have the boiler mains, header and subsequent piping identified, we next move to things such as: water heating tanks, P-K or Aerco type water heaters, pressure reducing stations, condensate tanks, deaerator tanks, steam traps, boiler front face/rear, and possibly many other components.
All of the identifying and cataloging mentioned above is time consuming work! Thermaxx Jackets can help by completing a comprehensive boiler room heat loss analysis. The analysis will bring all the above component heat loss information together and show:
Don’t wait, contact Thermaxx Jackets and get us in your boiler room to start saving money! Once the boiler room is insulated, you can begin to insulate all the mechanical rooms and really cut energy costs while drastically lowering your carbon footprint through the reduction of Greenhouse gasses!