Improving boilers and furnaces

The guidelines for burning fuels are detailed in a table. Even with good controls, one must have some excess air for safety purposes. CO will increase drastically along with smoke when air is deficient, i.e., excess fuel. State-of-the-art monitoring and controls are commercially available in the US. Use these instruments to measure several components (CO, NO{sub x}, CO{sub 2}, SO{sub 2}). The authors recommends the following procedures for better performance: train workers in both safety and fuel-saving operations; always control the air-to-fuel ratio so that a slight excess of air is present; install a CO-monitoring controller, especially when using natural gas; industrial analyzers cost around $50,000, portable analyzers cost under $1,000. Get both. Payback for both should be less than 12 months, depending on the burner capacity and the quality of training. These procedures will save fuel. They may save on insurance rates. In fact, they may save your life.