16 Products that perform | Service that delivers | People that care Load matching How to maximise efficiencies in multiple boiler installations The overall efficiency of a multiple boiler plant depends on how close its total output can be controlled to match the load profile of the building. Therefore it is a really important aspect of product selection. Why match plant output to load? Matching the building’s heat load enables you to deliver the right amount of heat at the right time with little or no wastage. A commercial heating system is designed to match the peak load to heat a building up to full temperature within a short period of time. This requires a large load from the heat source; the boilers. However, most of the time the boilers will be working at much lower loads. The trick is to match both, peak loads and low loads without oversizing the boiler and wasting energy. And to do, this you need a system with a large turndown ratio. 15:1 up to Turndown The example above, with 6 boiler modules, would provide a turndown ratio of 30:1 Sept Aug Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July B1 B1 B1 B2 B1 B2 B1 B2 B3 B1 B2 B3 0 20 40 60 80 100 Available Capacity % Month of year Key B1 = Boiler 1 B2 = Boiler 2 B3 = Boiler 3 Building heat load % 20 % 20 % 20 B1 B2 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 20 B1 B2 B3 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 40 B1 B1 % 20 % 40 % % 30 % 30 B1 B2 30 % % 30 100 % 100 % 100 Turning it down Let’s look at turndown ratios. Turndown ratio refers to the width of the operational range of the boiler, and is defined as the ratio of the maximum capacity to minimum capacity. In a typical modular boiler system each module could have a turndown ratio of 5 to 1. So a vertical stack of 3 modules will have 15 to 1 turndown. This gives you a substantial range of outputs. For example: 1 x 250kW boiler module with 5:1 turndown ratio A 3-high boiler stack would be 750kW with a 15:1 boiler turndown ratio This boiler can provide a seamless delivery of energy at any output from 50kW up to 750kW. This ensures the load is matched to warm the building up and when you’ve got low loads the modular boilers are not constantly cycling and wasting energy. If you know us at Hamworthy you’ll know that we talk a lot about load matching, but why do we think it’s so important? Note: All dimensions in mm unless otherwise stated. BOILERS
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