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Most of the homes in the developed world still depend on millions of boilers 15 to 20 years old, designed with outdated technology. Designed and built for a bygone era when fuel prices were insignificant and concern for environment was almost nonexistent, today they cost a packet to the owners. The worst part is that they do not have the least inclination how much money they waste due to the inefficiency of the old technology.

Oversized!

To aggravate the situation the heating system is often oversized. It is depressing to note that not only money being wasted but also the systems contribute to the emission of polluting gases.

Can you check this wastage and harm to Environment?

Sure the wastage and the emission of harmful gases can be reduced. Only way however is by;

• Selecting a low temperature heating boiler

• Selecting an outdoor reset control (based on an accurate heat load calculation).

How much can you expect to save with these improvements? It is estimated that up to 30% of your annual heating cost can be saved. Simultaneously a significant reduction in harm to the environment may be achieved ( for an average Northern European home up to 15 Tons of CO2 emissions over a period of 15 years). 

Add a seamless integration type solar system to supplement the Oil fired boiler and your savings on heating fuel costs will increase by a further 60% and the CO2 emissions will reduce by a further 16 Tons approximately.

New Innovations

With the increased cost of fuel prices and also the concern for the conservation of the environment, manufacturers have developed new designs incorporating many innovations to overcome the previously encountered problems. The following is to illustrate such advancements found in Viessmann oil fired boilers, a major stake holder in this sphere.

Viessmann offers two different design series which they call (a) Vitorond 100 and (b) Vitola 200. Both these are low temperature boilers.

Vitorond 100 oil fired boiler

Innovative Heat Exchanger designs

This model incorporates a triple pass heat exchanger which is designed to achieve a higher degree of efficiency. The common single pass heat exchanger design would pass the flue gas through it once. But the three pass heat exchanger of Viessmann Vitorond 100 would send the energy laden flue gas three times through it to extract energy which otherwise would have been just released to the atmosphere as waste. 

Greater Control with electronics for heating efficiency

The common practice with a boiler is to install a easy to use space thermostat. But for better control and extra saving of energy this particular manufacturer has developed their own microprocessor based control system known as Victronic system. In a conventional space heating boiler the temper of water temperature is set at a high temperature by default. One of the outstanding features of the new system is the sensing of outdoor temperature and regulating automatically the optimum indoor temperature by means of boiler water temperature control. Naturally this optimization saves you much on heating bills while making the indoor conditions more comfortable by being precise. In addition, this innovation enables it possible to run boiler at low temperature safely by protecting the heat exchanger from condensation leading to corrosions and numerous other complications. This low temperature feature would significantly contribute to energy saving and environmental protection.

Pressed for space?

The old conventional oil fired boilers and what is commonly available now in the market, are generally not concerned about space saving. They therefore in addition create problems in a retrofit when shifting to location and placing. New designs are however compact and lighter making it possible to negotiate them in narrow corridors and small machine rooms. This in turn would reduce material used and resulting in less CO2 released.

Direct vent designs

Oil fired condensing boilers with direct vent option, do not require a chimney or a combustion air supply which is a great convenience when installing new or retrofit. In addition included are full-swing doors which can have left or right sided hinges installed in combustion chamber and easy to clean flue gas passage ways would make them conveniently accessible for all maintenance work.

It is worthwhile studying Viessmann model Vitola 200 designed 40 years ago and of which there are over 2 million boilers are still in use all over the world. Don’t miss part 2 of this article that will follow.