Firstly, I believe that products and technologies that curb fuel/energy consumption are a great thing. I also believe in Peak Oil and that we are killing the planet with over-population, over-consumption (especially on trivial consumer crap) and over-dependence on petroleum-based products. As for coal, I believe it is poisoning virtually every body of water on the planet with ethyl mercury, and nuclear has serious problems with waste disposal, and events like Chernobyl are scary as hell. I believe our problems could be resolved in large part by harnessing the sun’s energy, that is if we sanctioned it on a Government level, say, like China does, and foster economic opportunity through innovation.

Now that my position is out there, let me pursue my complaint: the rapacious corporate wolves who disguise their products beneath “green” sheep’s clothing are exacerbating our global environmental demise with products more designed to trick consumers than “save the earth.” The only “green” they can see is that which they hope you’ll hand over to them in exchange for deceptive goods.

For some time I have been curious as to how “green” new products with that designation really are. There are so many increased costs associated with many so-called green products, that are never mentioned to consumers of them. Take a high-efficiency cast aluminum heating boiler, for example – they cost twice as much as a cast iron boiler, last less than half as long and cost far more to service and maintain, due to the increased costs for tools to service them and the vastly more complicated electronics that control them.

In reality, fuel and energy efficiency can be better attained by buying quality products that will last a long time, instead of buying ‘highly-efficient’ products that don’t last, requiring the recycling/re-manufacturing/re-transporting/re-installing process over again and again once their short life is exhausted.

One thing I see coming down the pike, as I look at the deception designed and manufactured into many products in the HVACR industry, is studies proving that much of Green is another way of stimulating the economy without saving energy, but consuming more of it by virtue of the short life of these devises that push the technological envelope, and at a much higher inevitable cost to the consumer, and the environment.

Recently, I gained a customer who was almost talked into (by someone selling “green”) purchasing a $129,000 HVAC system that incorporated heat pumps and gas-fired furnaces, so he could run one or the other when the price of the fuel favoring one appliance over the other lead the decision-making. I told the customer that I could install a $150 temperature modulation control on a new and efficient, single, oil-fired boiler that would last him the rest of his life and save as much money on energy, vastly reduce his service costs over the life of the equipment and cost him a fraction of the original cost for that “green” system he almost got snookered into buying.

I’ve seen time and again, opportunists taking advantage of Federal Tax Credit incentives to sell people systems that will take far more money out of their pockets for short-lived systems, soon-to-be-deposited in the local scrap yard (if we’re lucky and not in some landfill).

I only make the point about quality here (not functionality): a Bell rotary dial telephone would last virtually forever, but a cell phone lasts until you drop it on the pavement, or until the next fashionable model comes out…about a month or two later. So how many cell phones end up in the garbage every year? Approximately, 720,472,118 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_mobile_phones_are_thrown_away_each_year. The statistic with heating systems may not be the same in numbers, but is just as alarming – the “new” technology just doesn’t last.

Hmmm. There may be a sucker born every minute, but these days there is a snake oil salesmen born about every second. This is why I use a $29 cell phone that I have had for about a year and have dropped it on the pavement about 50 times by now. I learned my lesson on the 1st $450 cell phone that I dropped on the pavement, 2 weeks after I purchased it, and it turned to garbage in that instant. (I frequently demonstrate the ruggedness of the low-tech $29 phone by deliberately tossing it into the air and letting it crash onto the pavement, and it ceases to fail each time.)

I think that creating much of the new Green technology runs parallel to stating that we’ve invented the perpetual motion machine – there’s no free lunch, and the more complicated the items are on the menu, the more they cost and the worse they tend to be for you – it’s the same with a lot of HVAC technology. Rather than replacing certain fossil fuel burning appliances with more high-tech ones, we’d be better off if we created energy efficiency-increasing products that retrofit to existing appliances – something I have already conceptualized for heating equipment.

I am all for Green, but let’s take the snake oil out of it and start doing real things for technology that actually save energy, and consumers’ hard-earned money, rather than repackaging the same old B.S. sales and marketing tricks into sheer lies that are sold to consumers who seem to have forgotten about “buyer beware” and continue to fall for the hype that Green can often be.

If you are thinking of buying Green Technology, you’d better do your homework and your math first!

A good article on some of the corporate trickery with the Green Movement can be read at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_44/b4056001.htm

About Heating System Fuel Consumption

By John Rocheleau

www.thehvacguru.com

Do you want to learn exactly why your heating system burns more fuel than it should? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t have found this article. Following are answers to the questions you have, or ones you didn’t know you had. I will explain (in defined technical terms) how your heating system is likely to be costing more to heat your home or commercial building than it should and what you can do to reduce those costs.

Anyone who drives an automobile knows that certain cars use less gas than others. The same is true for heating equipment and like gas-guzzling SUVs, some heating systems consume enormous amounts of fuel. The difference between cars and heating systems is cars offer many benefits beyond the primary one of transportation. Cars have performance, comfort and visual appeal, as well as can be a status symbol. Heating systems are tucked away in a basement, attic or closet and their operation and performance are a mystery to most not in the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) trade, and still a mystery to many in the trade – so-called, “professionals” (a term I use loosely throughout this article).

To clarify, I may interchange the acronym HVAC for heating, and vice versa, but this article is about heating systems, how they work and how they often burn excessive amounts of “fuel” – gas or oil.

Most building owners know how to set the thermostat, change air filters and check the fuel level on their heating fuel tank gauge, but that is about the extent of their heating system knowledge. Typically, building owners do not want to know how their heating system works; it seems too complicated and futile. They prefer to leave the technical aspects to the service personnel they have come to trust. Did I say “trust”? There are many reasons to examine your trust for your heating service company, fuel supplier and General Contractor if you are having a new building constructed – residential or commercial.

For starters, do not assume that the professional you hire to design, install, service or maintain your heating system is qualified to make all the right decisions in those respective aspects of the HVAC trade. Just as in most professions, heating professionals are often types who could care less about the quantity of fuel a heating system ends up consuming and costing its owner; their paycheck at the end of the week is more important to them. The majority of HVAC tradesmen have never been to school to learn the innumerable facets of the interrelated technologies. Moreover, many have never finished high school! But let’s not get personal. Mostly, tradesmen have gathered their knowledge through hands-on experience. Experience comes in two flavors: good and bad. If the on-the-job-training has been with lousy ‘teachers’, then the student will be a lousy apprentice and graduate to becoming a hopelessly old dog incapable of learning new tricks.

It’s not only ignorance and bad attitude that have a hand in your fuel-hungry heating appliance’s performance, though I wish it were. Deliberate sales of terribly inefficient heating equipment plays a huge role. Sadly to say, American made boilers and furnaces are among the least efficient in the world and continued sales of them guarantee that fuel companies will find you to be a better customer – you will buy more fuel! Greed will often lead to corruption, with most of the corrupt getting away with it. This is a significant reason for my writing this expose.

I have no specific desire to be confrontational with specific companies, though I know them well, but I can’t close my eyes any longer, knowing that we are all heading toward a dead-end with our consumption of natural resources. Fossil fuels are limited, they say the planet is heating up and polar bears’ extinction in 50 years is all but inevitable. But the more we consume the more we strip forever from the planet its resources and the little is left to meet the needs of its inhabitants in the future. Must we consume until we’ve proved that the human species is the most insidious parasite the planet has ever known? Do we only take and put nothing back? At least we can take less of the fuel we use to heat our homes, businesses and industries and save money as we do it.

As a precursor to understanding how your heating system works, it is essential to understand the basic terms used in the industry, so let’s start with the industry players, then we’ll move on to dispelling the mystery surrounding the more technical aspects.

Fuel Companies – “Fuel” is a general term I use to cover any fossil fuel type such as, fuel oil, kerosene, natural and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), methane, butane and any other petroleum-based gas types that I may not have listed here. Distributors of these fuels have one goal: to sell (“market”) as much fuel as they can, to whoever will buy it and for the highest price. Period! They do not have your best economic interests in mind. They are the well-known petroleum giants, names emblazoned on tractor trailer tanks barreling down highways; large publicly traded utilities and your local fuel company with warm ‘friendly’ ads in the media. Fuel companies have the most to gain by inefficiently designing, installing and servicing your heating equipment. They want to deliver as much fuel at each delivery stop as possible. I know, I used to deliver fuel when I worked for fuel companies in the early 1980s.

HVAC Contractors – “HVAC” is a general term that is often misused and misapplied. Businesses that go under this heading tend to get involved with the installation and service of many areas of the indoor climate control realm, and it is a broad one! Not only does HVAC mean heating, ventilation and air conditioning, but also humidity control, indoor air quality and refrigeration. This player in the trade is likely to be more incompetent than fraudulent when it comes to accurately designing, installing and servicing heating equipment.

Plumbing & Heating (P&H) Companies – Many heating consumers are groomed through the ages to believe that plumbers are the same as heating technicians – they are not. The only thing plumbing and heating have in common is in the way pipes are connected – threaded, soldered (sweated), welded, glued (cemented), and more recently, compressed together with company specific connection means. P & H types rarely have mastered heating technology. I can spot a plumber-installed heating system instantly. It’s one thing to be a master at piping, which many plumbers are, it’s another issue altogether to know how the piped heating system works.

Handyman – Knows a little bit more than a homeowner about heating systems.

Heating Technicians – This is who you want to work on your heating system, but not necessarily one from a fuel company. Heating technicians work for fuel companies and gas utilities/suppliers. “Buyer beware!” Only half of these guys are qualified to do a good job on your system. Still, only 10% are really good, master-types who are rarely stumped and who see the big picture – the original system design is clear to them, the service history pops out like forensic science and they can make your system work with little or nothing to work with.

The aforementioned list is comprised of the standard players in the trade, but only fuel companies sell fuel, design, install and service heating equipment, which is not to suggest that all fuel companies participate in all aspects of the heating trade, nor am I saying that all fuel companies defraud their customers, most do not.

The case for burning less fuel can be easily made if everyone went out on the ocean in a boat and saw the sickening depth of pollution in our atmosphere stretching across the water as far as the eye can see. I live on the Atlantic side of the States and the prevailing winds blow off the land, bringing with it the smog generated across the country. Otherwise, watch a sunset and marvel at the orange and red hues, for they are the result of pollutants and particulates in the atmosphere that taint the natural color of sunlight.

Let us examine what goes into our atmosphere and our lungs when we breathe, when fossil fuels are burned. The byproducts of combustion of gas types and fuel oil include, but are not limited to:

1. Flue Gas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flue_gas)

2. Carbon Dioxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide)

3. Nitrogen Oxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_oxide)

4. Nitrogen Dioxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_dioxide)

5. Sulphur Dioxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur_dioxide)

6. Soot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soot)

7. Carbon Monoxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide)

The exhausting of these compounds into the earth’s atmosphere occurs constantly across the globe and proportionately to the amount of fuel burned by heating equipment, internal combustion engines and industrial processes. The more fuel we burn, the more we contribute to the aggregate pollution of our home – Earth. Why, then, burn more fuel than necessary?

The following terms and definitions deal directly with heating system apparatus and components.

1. British Thermal Unit (BTU) – The amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. British Thermal Units are expressed as a ratio to time -BTUs per hour (written btus/hr., or MBH, where M=the Roman numeral for 1,000; B=BTUs; H=Hour, so expressed as 1000s of btus/hr. All heating equipment is rated in BTU heating capacity. A typical residential furnace has a heating capacity of 100,000 BTUs and can heat a 3,000 square foot modern house. These are approximate numbers, of course. For an accurate BTU requirement to heat a building a Heat Loss Calculation must be conducted (see definition for Heat Loss Calculation).
2. Flue – The passageways that direct the byproducts of combustion out of a heating appliance.
3. Burner – These come in many types, but we will restrict our discussion to Gun-Type, Sealed Combustion and Atmospheric, as these are most likely the kind that are in residential and commercial buildings. Burners mix #2 fuel oil, kerosene, LPG or Natural gas with atmosphere (air), then ignite and control the combustion of their respective fuel types. Gun type burners can be seen protruding from the fronts of boilers and furnaces and burn gas and oil. Atmospheric gas burners are like the gas burner under a water pot on a kitchen stove – they are open to the atmosphere. Water heaters, Furnaces and Boilers utilize atmospheric and gun-type burners. Sealed Combustion burners are as their title implies, the combustion process is sealed tightly from the atmosphere in which they are installed, like a basement, attic or closet. Sealed combustion burners take their combustion air from the outdoors through a plastic pipe and vent their products of combustion to the outdoors through a second pipe, usually made of PVC (polyvinylchloride) or stainless steel. Gun-type and atmospheric burners generally vent to the outdoors through a chimney or mechanical venting means, called a “power-venter”. While Atmospheric burners are simple and inexpensive, Sealed Combustion burners are much more complex and expensive. Atmospheric burners are mid efficiency types, whereas Sealed Combustion burners are high efficiency types.
4. Combustion Chamber – A combustion chamber or, simply, a chamber is almost always part and parcel of heating appliances that utilize a gun-type burner, and is internal to a furnace or boiler. Inside the chamber is where the actual fire during combustion of fuels takes place. An observation door or window allows a technician partial view of the combustion process inside the chamber.
5. Boiler – A cast iron or steel heat-generating vessel that utilizes water as a heat transfer medium to warm a space to a desired temperature. Boilers incorporate a burner which facilitates the combustion of fuels. Boilers can include a chamber, but don’t always.
6. Furnace - A Furnace includes a burner, most likely a combustion chamber, a heat exchanger, a blower or fan and has ducts connected to it. The blower pulls “return air” from the conditioned space through a “return duct” and pushes it across the non-flue gas side of the heat exchanger. Once the relatively cold return air comes into contact with the very hot heat exchanger, the moving air picks up heat and is propelled toward the occupied space through the supply duct and out diffusers and registers placed in the rooms to be heated. For sake of reference, furnaces have replaceable air filters, boilers do not.
7. Heat Exchanger – A device that transfers heat from one medium (fire and flue gas) to that of another. Flue gas contains heat which is transferred through a steel, cast iron, aluminum or stainless steel barrier (prior to exiting the appliance and up the flue) into a heat transfer medium separated by the heat exchanger barrier. For sake of our discussion, air, water and steam are the heat transfer mediums relevant to this article that transfer the heat from combustion to space in the building to be heated.
8. Conditioned Space – The space within a building – residential or commercial – that is to be heated or air conditioned. We will deal with heating a conditioned space in this article.
9. Hydronics – Hot water or steam heating technology.
10. Forced Hot Water (FHW) – FHW heating systems include boilers (or sometimes water heaters) connected by pipes to heating “terminal units” like radiators, baseboard convectors, hot water coils in an airstream and radiant floor heating tubes embedded in floors. Forced hot water systems succeed gravity hot water (GHW) systems that were coal fired back in the day of their popular use. Water is heated in a boiler and is then circulated, or forced with a ‘pump’ through pipes connecting the boiler to the terminal units where heat is rejected to the space to be conditioned. The hot water temperature is lessened by the cooler room air that surrounds the terminal units and the water is returned to the boiler to be reheated and re-circulated in a continuous cycle that only stops when the room thermostat is satisfied by the increasingly heated air.
11. Forced Hot Air (FHA) – As in FHW, a heat exchanger inside a furnace takes the heat generated by the combustion of fuel and transfers it to the occupied space of a building, but through the passage of heated air inside supply and return ducts. Forced Hot Air implies the utilization of a furnace, whereas Forced Hot Water uses a boiler.
12. Steam – This system is the “Hydronic” cousin of forced hot water. Both transfer heat through water or water vapor – steam. Both include boilers that transfer heat from the fuel combustion process to the heat transfer medium – water or steam. Both include pipes and terminal units. Steam is created when water in the boiler boils and converts to steam if it is continually heated. Imagine a pot of water on a burner. The stove burner (gas or electric) heats the pot of water above it. Left long enough above the heat, the water boils and vaporizes upward. In the boiler the vapor rises up in voluminous pipes onward to cast iron radiators or baseboard. Steam seeks equilibrium with the atmosphere. Hot vapor has greater pressure than cooler air, so rushes for the nearest exit in a steam system into the lower pressure atmosphere in the conditioned space. Press the “Schrader” valve stem on your car tire and high pressure air rushes out into the lower pressure atmosphere – it’s the same with steam in a heating system. Strategically placed air vents on radiators and condensate return lines allow the air above the water line in a steam system to be forced out of the system through them, but stop as the steam comes into contact with their internal mechanisms. Steam is the least efficient heating type, as the water temperature must be raised above 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Whereas, hot water systems water temperature can be modulated based on the outdoor ambient air temperature. The warmer it is outside, the less temperature is needed in forced hot water system water.
13. Heat pumps, electrically heated boilers and baseboard element, wood and coal-fired boilers and furnaces, solar and any other system types not fired by petroleum products, are not included in this article.
14. Limit Control – This control is also referred to as an “aquastat” in FHW systems and a “Fan & Limit Control in FHA systems. Hybrid hydronic systems – a steam boiler with a FHW loop (zone) also incorporate Limit Controls. Limit controls can maintain low temperature and high temperature thresholds in a heating system. Limit Controls come in many different types and have a myriad of applications that require a specific type of Limit Control. Limit Controls are often the device that cause excessive fuel consumption and are selected for this reason by unethical fuel companies so your system burns the maximum amount of fuel your heating system can possibly burn. You will want to check the type of Limit Control on your heating system! Read on to find out why.
15. Nozzle – The device in an oil burner that meters a specific amount of fuel through it and converts the liquid fuel into a vapor that can be readily mixed with air and ignited. Nozzles have 3 means of categorization: the amount of fuel that passes through it in gallons per hour (GPH) @ 100 pounds per square inch (PSI) of fuel pump pressure; the angle of oil vapor spray that comes out of its orifice; and the spray pattern – solid, hollow, or somewhere in between. Those specifications are written as an example like 1.00-80-B. This means 1 gallon of oil will pass through the nozzle at 100 PSI, 80 degrees is the vapor spray angle and “B” is code for solid. Too high a GPH and your oil burner will over-fire your furnace or boiler and start and stop too often – “short-cycle”.
16. Burner Orifice – Like in oil burners, gas burners have metering devices and these are called burner orifices or burner “spud”. The wrong burner orifice in a gas system can be deadly, as gas is explosive and when it is not burned properly and in the correct proportion to air the outcome can be inefficient and downright dangerous. Gas burners have at least one orifice but can have many, sometime too many, as you will see later in this article.
17. Heat Loss Calculation – Software programs exist to accept data input relative to a building’s design characteristics like window and door types, sizes and U-values, structure insulation R-values, room sizes and internal heat gain like people and appliances. Once this information is entered into the program the software calculates how many BTUs are needed on the coldest day of the year to heat the building to a design temperature say, 68 degrees. There are no accurate short cuts to a heat loss calculation. Anytime a new heating system is designed it must first be preceded by an accurate heat loss calculation. For everything related to proper equipment and component sizing and selection is based on BTU generating and/or carrying capacity. Pipe diameters are limited in how many BTUs of energy they can transport with water as its heat transfer medium, just as duct sizes are limited in how many BTUs they can transport with air as the medium.

Let’s apply these technical terms. For starters, let’s create a scenario – you want to build a new house. The first thing you do is interview several building contractors who call themselves a General Contractor (GC). A competent GC will give you a package price for construction of all aspects and systems in the new house. He will hire and manage all subcontractors from the electrician, to the plumber to the roofer, and the HVAC contractor. These tradesmen are subcontractors to the GC. The residential building trade is an extremely competitive one and the profit margins are slim. The GC knows this, so hires the people he thinks will furnish acceptable quality at the lowest price. Unfortunately, most GCs are extremely unaware of the importance of proper heating system design and the information that needs to be considered to produce the most efficient design for the money. He is also unaware of the requisite steps involved with cranking out a professional design. It is the design that determines the cost. GCs often look at the cost only. As long as the heating system “works”, then the GC is happy, even though he will never know that the system will consume a lot more fuel than if it was competently designed in the first place. In fact, nobody will ever know that is, until a true competent professional figures it out, but then it is usually too late. Most would rather spend more money on fuel than replace the incorrectly designed system.

Here are the proper steps to designing an efficient and cost effective heating system:

1. Through in depth discussions with the GC and building owner, determine exactly what the building owner expects from the new heating system – what type of system will it be? There are numerous options for system types and the type of fuel it will utilize. What level of efficiency will the system be capable of? What level of equipment quality is expected? How many heating zones are desired? How will potable water will be heated – through the boiler and indirect-fired water heater, or a separate heating source like a direct-fired water heater – gas, electric, oil, or solar? In the case of an “indirect” water heater, I will be sure to add the requisite BTUs per hour for the domestic hot water as needed. Basically, all relevant information will need to be conveyed with person-to-person discussions, and the HVAC subcontractor should be able to drive the discussions to the point that all questions will be satisfactorily be answered so he can proceed to the next step.

2. The HVAC sub needs to obtain a complete set of working construction drawings that include all floor plans, elevations drawings, window, door and insulation schedules, and geographical orientation.

3. The HVAC designer will then interpret the drawings and harvest all of the necessary data from it to be used in the heat loss calculation software. The software will tell him how many BTUs/hour the building will require on the coldest day and will break the total down by individual room “loads”.

4. The designer will then select the proper equipment based on fuel type, “net” heating output capacity (in BTUs/hour) and how the heating appliance will be vented – through a chimney, sidewall-vented or power-vented out the side of the building or direct-vented through the roof. He will also account for quality and efficiency rating.

5. Then the heat distribution aspect of the design will be worked through. For FHW, he will determine pipe sizing and type, circulator (the ‘pump’ that moves hot water from the boiler to the terminal units) performance characteristics, flow control devices and terminal unit type(s) and sizes.

6. The designer will then choose the control systems based on number of zones, energy-savings and safety and code requirements.

7. The fuel storage type and capacity will be selected.

8. A total cost estimate will be generated and a proposal listing all of the major components will be drafted and submitted.

This is a basic list of steps. In reality, there are so many details to creating a competent design and estimate that delineating all of them goes beyond the scope of this article. The most important point is that the heat loss calculation must be competently performed before any other design step can be taken. The other important thing is that the proper equipment be selected that answers to the heat loss calculation. If the equipment heating capacity is guessed at, then the system will most likely be over-sized…for the life of the system. Next is as important – the efficiency of the equipment is crucial to future fuel consumption and a true professional HVAC system designer will promote the highest efficiency available. Spending a few hundred dollars initially is always more advantageous financially than forever burning more fuel due to poor efficiency. Consider higher efficiency equipment as an investment in future fuel savings.

If any of the steps outlined above are skipped, then greater operating and service costs will result. Some HVAC subs do not design the systems they install, their equipment/parts suppliers do the calculations for him and he automatically believes they did the calculations right. Often a lot of rounding up gets done in the HVAC design world, as nobody wants to be left holding the bag if too small a system is installed, then doesn’t sufficiently heat the house on the coldest days of the year. And that rounding can account for 25% of the system capacity – it will be too over-sized and cost the building owner more money to heat.

I can’t express enough how many HVAC systems are incorrectly sized and designed. I see them every week I am out in the field. It is more normal for systems to be designed incorrectly than to be designed correctly. Yes, I repeat: most heating systems are designed incorrectly and burn too much fuel!

While plumbers and HVAC companies are often incompetently designing and installing heating systems, fuel companies are more often intentionally designing systems to burn the greatest amount of fuel their systems can get away with. Again, not all fuel companies are doing this, only the unethical ones are. Still, there is a great amount of ignorance in heating system design. HVAC sales engineers (like myself – see my resume: http://www.protechhvac.com/john-rocheleaus-bio/) are few and far between. Companies will pay great money to acquire a competent sales engineer. Conversely, HVAC companies aren’t looking for them because they know it is a futile search.

Residential building owners are the most taken advantage of by companies through deliberate and unintended shoddy heating system design, installation and service. This is true because homeowners do not have the desire to learn about their heating system, nor the time to get over the learning curve. Therefore, they do not know the right questions to ask of a GC, HVAC or fuel company. They often are meticulous in scheduling the annual cleaning/inspection of their heating system, yet lack the important knowledge to determine if the cleaning was done right. They will never know if the system was designed and installed right and if the technicians who have worked on it through the years knew what they were doing. Any incompetence along the lifespan of the system, from design to the last service call before the system is replaced, will cost the homeowner more money. Mostly, homeowners are oblivious to the extent they are being ripped off!

Here’s a rip-off scenario of a different kind. People think they have to spend $30,000 to save a grand a year in fuel cost! They are lead to believe this routinely by energy auditing “professionals”. In a blog post to come I will explain how “energy auditing” firms are duping their clients into believing they need some kind of sophisticated analysis to determine how their client can save money on fuel, and that they need high tech HVAC equipment to save money on energy costs. This is a huge scam, considering the energy auditor will charge tens of thousands of dollars to evaluate their building before any energy efficiency measures are carried out. They fly under the flag of the monetary incentives for the building owner provided for in the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – The “Economic Stimulus Package”.

Recently, I was contacted (through a referring party who worked for the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission) by a woman who had been a policymaker with the same state agency for 20 years. She inquired about converting 3 heating systems in 2 apartment buildings to higher efficiency gas-fired boilers, so she could do her part in reducing her carbon footprint and qualify for benefits under the U.S. “Stimulus Package”. I told her the ramifications of changing her chimney-vented boilers to direct-vented types would be a costly endeavor, approaching $10,000 apiece. I also told her that I could make her cast iron mid-efficiency FHW boilers burn as much as 15-30% less gas. Of course, she was all ears. She hired me for a couple of grand to install temperature modulation controls on the 3 boilers and make a few other modifications. The end result means she will spend about the same on fuel as the new technology high efficiency boilers would require, and she got these modifications for about $28,000 less!

Commercial building owners are generally more required by job description to know important things like, the benefits of heat loss calculations, proper equipment output capacity and the steps required of technicians doing maintenance. This is not to say that commercial building owners are not somewhat in the dark, too. Not all commercial buildings are managed by people who are wise to HVAC technologies and the tricks-of-the-trade, shall we say. Nevertheless, commercial systems naturally consume greater amounts of fuel – the space to be heated is bigger than homes – and when they burn inefficiently the wasted fuel is also greater than that wasted in residential applications. Therefore, it is more imperative for commercial building owners to make sure they are getting the correct answers from their HVAC professionals.

Like the fox that guards the hen house, your fuel company is not unlike the fox. The more fuel your heating system uses, the more money you pay your fuel supplier. It’s logical then to believe that the greatest amount of fuel they can sell you is what they endeavor to sell you. Like the fox scheming to eat the hens, fuel companies can and do design and service heating systems in ways that demand the burner burns more fuel than is otherwise necessary to heat your building. All they have to do is skip the heat loss calculation and pick an inefficient, oversized American-made boiler and sell it to you. You trust them and are confident that the new boiler will heat your house reliably. You hope you will save money on fuel, but at least it won’t break down soon. Unfortunately, the fuel company salesman didn’t tell you the new boiler is a single-pass flue design and has a gross stack temperature of 450 degrees. He also didn’t tell you that you could have bought a European boiler with a triple-pass heat exchanger and resulting 300 degree gross stack temperature. He also didn’t offer to sell you a temperature modulation control and an indirect-fired water heater. Instead, you got a boiler with a “tankless” coil (for domestic hot water) that requires the boiler maintain constant temperature 24/7 all year long. All the while, heat constantly escapes up the chimney into the atmosphere.

What if you are considering the purchase of a building? You walk-through the building and make note of as much detail as you are able to in a limited number of walk-throughs. You calculate the cost of things like paint, landscaping, obvious mechanical systems repairs and the like, but you most likely know very little about heating technology, but do you know how fuel efficient, or inefficient the heating system is? You can ask what the past fuel costs have been, but without knowing what the infiltration rate of the building is and how many BTUs are required to heat the building on the coldest day of the year, then you will not be able to make any educated conclusions about the heating system’s efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, you will not be able to accurately predict the cost to heat the building. If you buy the building you will find out in the first year what the heating system consumes in fuel, assuming the weather is typical winter weather.

Here are the mechanical reasons behind high fuel and electricity cost:

1. No one did a heat loss calculation before the heating system was installed and they guessed at the BTU capacity of the heating appliance (boiler or furnace) and/or the radiation (baseboard or duct and diffusers sizes) capacity was undersized. A boiler/furnace that is too big, as discussed, will short cycle and consume too much fuel like city driving. A boiler or furnace that is too small will not adequately heat the building, the conditioned space will not reach the desired temperature so the thermostat will never be satisfied and the boiler/furnace will never shut off – and burn too much fuel.
   
   
2. The boiler or furnace was installed incorrectly. The supply and return piping was the wrong diameter and/or the ducts and/or diffusers were the incorrect size.
3. The number of installed zones (each zone has a thermostat, so count tally them up and that’s the number of zones in your system) was either too many or, less likely to cause excessive fuel consumption, too few.
4. The installed zone(s) had too much radiation capacity connected to it/them. Too much baseboard radiation on a forced hot water zone will cause a heat imbalance in the building and hot and cold spots will ensue. The solution is to split the zone into more “loops”.
5. Ducts or pipes were not insulated in unconditioned spaces. You really don’t want to inadvertently heat basements, attics, crawl spaces and the like, therefore, the ducts or pipes need to be insulated. Ducts also need to be sealed to prevent air escape.
6. The installer did not set up the combustion process to achieve the carbon dioxide, oxygen, smoke, gross stack temperature and draft levels that the manufacturer intended. Too high a stack temperature (too much negative draft in the smoke pipe) means too much heat is escaping up the chimney. Too low a CO2 percentage of flue gas means the fuel isn’t being completely combusted (at least as much as is possible with the equipment). Too much smoke in a smoke test means the boiler or furnace will “soot up” quickly. An 1/8″ of soot is equivalent to an inch of fiberglass insulation. You don’t want insulation on the heat exchanger, otherwise the heat generated by combustion will not transfer into the heating medium – air or water – and the heat will go up the chimney in excessive stack temperature.
7. In the case of oil burners and power gas burners, if the burner output capacity in BTUs was not matched to the boiler/furnace “input capacity” then the burner will either short cycle (burner output too great), or the burner will never shut off (burner output too little).
   
   
8. The installing contractor selected a boiler with a temperature limit control that maintains temperature in the boiler that is too great for the application. The installer incorrectly set the temperature limits in the aquastat (boiler) or fan and limit control (furnace). Too much fuel and electricity will be consumed as a result.
   
   
9. The wrong flow capacity circulators were selected and installed in the forced hot water system. Not enough heat is transferred to the space (the burner will short cycle) or electric consumption will be too great.
   
   
10. The burner – gas or oil – metering device (orifices with gas; nozzle with oil) was incorrectly selected, which usually means the wrong boiler/furnace or burner was incorrectly selected and installed. Almost always, the manufacturer of the heating equipment charges their engineering department with the task of Research and Development to determine what nozzle of orifice(s) are correct and set up the burners to include the correct ones with their burner/boiler or furnace. Nevertheless, incompetence can get in the way and that is often messed up in the field.
11. The installer did not set the correct metering rate for the requisite gas input rate for the burner. This means that he did not adjust the “manifold pressure” for the gas after the gas valve on the gas burner. With today’s high efficiency, multi-stage firing burners, this is a very technical set up feature that absolutely must be done. In certain cases, a gas explosion can result if the manifold pressure in each firing stage is not set correctly. This must always be done in the field after complete system installation.
12. The installer did not follow the manufacturer’s installation and/or service instructions to the letter. Too much fuel or electricity will be consumed, too much or too little heat will be generated, and/or a safety issue will result.
13. Water through pipes and/or air through ducts was not properly balanced, causing heating imbalance in the conditioned space and excessive electrical consumption by circulators and blowers.

The bottom line is if the designer did not properly design the system, then:

1. Too much electricity and/or fuel will be consumed.
2. The system will most likely never work correctly.
3. The system can become a danger to people and property.
4. Consequential damage costs can result.
5. Civil litigation costs can be expected.
6. The installed cost of the system will not be accurately represented.
7. The environment will suffer.
8. The building owner will pay with his money, time and frustration level.

The bottom line is if the installer did not properly install the system, then:

1. Too much electricity and/or fuel will be consumed.
2. The system will most likely never work correctly.
3. The system can become a danger to people and property.
4. Consequential damage costs can result.
5. Civil litigation costs can be expected.
6. The installed cost of the system will not be accurately represented.
7. The environment will suffer.
8. The building owner will pay with his money, time and frustration level.

The bottom line is if the service technician did not properly service the system, then:

1. Too much electricity and/or fuel will be consumed.
2. The system will not work correctly until a technician who knows what he is doing fixes the problem(s).
3. The system can become a danger to people and property.
4. Consequential damage costs can result.
5. Civil litigation costs can be expected.
6. The service cost of the system will not be accurately represented and will always end up costing more.
7. The environment will suffer.
8. The building owner will pay with his money, time and frustration level.

The bottom, bottom line is any of the above bottom lines can be combined and the result will be a veritable nightmare for the building owner. I see the outcome on a regular basis and this is why people hire me – to fix these screw-ups. At least 90% of my work is generated from the screw-ups of other HVAC designers, installers and service technicians. This is not to say that we don’t all make mistakes. We do, I do. Some who make mistakes offer no solutions or apologies for their mistakes. I do.

So what can you do when you suspect that someone has made mistakes with the design, installation or service of your heating system, or any HVACR system in general? Contact me. This is why I offer design, installation, service, consulting and expert witness services in the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, Ventilation, Refrigeration, Humidity Control, Exhaust and other aspects of the “HVAC” realm. There’s a huge market for it.

Here’s what you need to do to prevent the mistakes from being made in the first place:

1. Research your prospective HVAC installing contractor’s background – ask for references, his training history, employment history, his website, his specialization(s), if any.
2. Ask your installing contractor, or general contractor, who is responsible for the design of your system. If they say their parts supplier, tell them you are not interested. You must hire an installer who does his own designs. That way, if things go wrong he is solely responsible for the system shortcomings. In the worst case scenario, you do not want to have to sue multiple companies/individuals, or your legal bills will preclude your success.
3. Make sure you get a copy of the heat loss calculations…in their entirety! If they can’t offer you a copy (this means they have not done the calculations in Wrightsoft, Elite, or an equipment manufacturer’s proprietary software), then fire them before you hire them!
4. Ask your installing contractor to see his portfolio of past installations and the names and contact information of his customers with those systems. If he can’t provide that information, then move on to the next installer who can.
5. Ensure that you speak directly with the installing contractor. If your general contractor/builder does not allow this…fire him before you hire him!
6. When you speak directly with the prospective installing HVAC contractor, make sure you discuss the type of fuel you intend to burn; the type of venting method you will be using (masonry chimney, high temperature metal chimney; sidewall/direct-vent, or “ventless”) and the efficiency range (mid-efficiency or high-efficiency) of the equipment that you desire. Also, do some research on heating system types, product types, brand names, furnace and boiler material construction types (cast iron, steel or cast aluminum) and the approximate costs for each versus what your return on investment (ROI) will be for each.
7. Pick your installing contractor’s brain for his reasons for selecting the types and brands of the equipment and materials who chooses to install. If his reasons don’t sound quite right, then there is a red flag. Get other installer’s opinions and recommendations and go with your gut feeling.
8. Tell your general contractor/builder that you want several alternate HVAC installer quotes…then go with your gut feeling on which one to select for your project.
9. Educate yourself as much as you can with all that you can stand to know about heating systems. “An Educated Consumer is Our Best Customer!” You’ve heard that slogan before. Be that educated consumer.
10. Never buy a system because it was the low bid! You virtually always get what you pay for. “Pay Now or Pay Later!” You’ve heard those cliché’s as well.
11. Let me design your heating/HVACR system(s). Then you will know you covered all the important bases. I will provide you with a heat loss analysis, Bill Of Materials (estimate for every single part that your system(s) will be comprised of, down to the last screw and wire nut), Proposal with all the essential information and legalese, in an understandable presentation, and any and all product specifications that comprise your system.
12. If you don’t hire me for your designs, estimates or proposals, then let me review those of your installing contractor so I can pinpoint any shortcomings.
13. If you live in my area of business, then consider me for the system installation and service.
14. If you hire someone else, then let me inspect his work…before you make the final payment to him! That way you will have leverage if he did something that is wrong and the system won’t perform as intended. He will come back to fix a problem if he knows he will get paid when the problem is fixed.
15. Make sure that the installed system is inspected by the local Municipal mechanical inspector and/or the Fire Chief. But don’t rely too heavily on the “rubber stamp of approval” from the inspector, as a good majority of inspectors have no idea what they are even looking at.
16. Check with your state’s Public Utilities Commission to see if they prescribe and enforce energy efficiency measures and codes. You will be surprised how many installers do not know of or follow these prescribed codes and measures, or if they even exist.

I could tell you volumes more about HVAC systems efficiency and safety, but that will have to be seen in past and future Blog postings. In the meantime, good luck and be educated!

Contact me if you would like to discuss any of the services I offer. In the meantime, watch your heating and energy bills closely!

John Rocheleau

603-545-1282

Baby Boomers surely recall the Oil Embargo of the early 1970s, but what about the automobile carburetor that allows a car to get 150 miles per gallon? Even the Honda Civic CVCC got 55 miles per gallon in the 1970s, but where did it go? The truth is folks, Big Business does not want us to know about anything that will “cannibalize” their market share.

For those of us who live in Northeast USA and most of Europe, we can expect colder seasons to bring with them higher consumption of heating fuel oil, natural gas and liquified petroleum gas (LPG). The majority of heating systems in these regions are forced hot water, while in other parts of the country forced hot air is preferred, as the furnace is often coupled with air conditioning due to the hot temperatures 3 seasons of the year.

New Hampshire is where I’ve lived most of my life and is where I have always practiced my trade. I cut my teeth, so to speak, on oil burner technology, having the privilege of working for 2 highly ethical family-owned fuel oil companies that had been around since the 30s. So had some of the heating equipment that they installed in the beginnings of oil burner technology. I found it curious that the older the equipment was the more durable it was, and some brands were more efficient than today’s models! General Electric made a down-fired oil burner/boiler that was 88% efficient! Timken Rotary burners/boilers were as efficient as the technology made in America today.

In my opinion, most boilers and furnaces made in America today should be outlawed, they are so fuel hungry! Single-Pass flue designs, such are American boiler designs, should be banned. The Europeans have us beat in boiler designs and have for years, but do you know that tariffs imposed by our government kept these designs from our marketplace until relatively recently? That’s right people, the U.S. Government (in other words, lobbyists) kept fuel consumption high in the Northeast by restricting free trade of efficient heating technology.

Buderus, a German company, has been making cast iron heating equipment since the early 1700s and is finally competing fairly with American manufacturers, now that their North American headquarters is based in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Their “Scotch Marine” boiler design has a triple-pass heat exchanger that retains the majority of heat it produces, while American designs can have more than twice the amount of heat leaving the boiler (and the building), right up the chimney. I just installed a Buderus G215/7 oil-fired boiler that had a 200 degree net stack temperature. The same size American boiler would have a 450 degree stack temperature!

If you are an owner of an inefficient American boiler design, or even a high efficient European design, there is hope for greater efficiency. A “temperature modulation control” can save as much as 30% on your fuel bill. For around $800, this easily installable control will monitor the outdoor temperature and as it drops the control will raise the boiler water temperature proportionately. In example: If your thermostat is set for 70 degrees and it is 60 degrees outdoors, then corresponding boiler water temperature will be maintained at approximately 100 degrees, all things being equal. Whereas, if it is 0 degrees outside, the control will demand a much higher boiler temperature say, 170 degrees. Conventional boiler controls have fixed temperature settings and if your fuel supplier is servicing your boiler/furnace, then you can probably expect that they have jacked the settings up to their highest settings – 180-200 degrees, 24/7/365! The higher the control settings the more fuel they will sell you! Tell me, where is the incentive for them to save you money on fuel consumption? None exist, my friends! An aside: there is no corporate incentive for the fuel company’s technicians who service and clean your heating equipment to do a good job either. Why that would mean you would spend less on fuel. It’s a true story.

Would you allow “the fox to guard the hen house” when it comes to fuel consumption with your heating equipment? I wouldn’t, especially given I am in the business of creating energy efficiency for my heating customers. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve arrived at a new customer’s building to find the temperature controls cranked up to their highest settings, even in the summer when there is no heating demand. This is unconscionable and should be made illegal through legislation, but I am not an optimist while lobbyists rule the day. Fuel companies are ripping off the unsuspecting consumer to such a great degree, and are free from regulation, that if the lid was blown off their scheme it would mean they would be required by law to make available to the consumer information on all available energy savings devices.

Remember the 150 mpg carburetor? Well, the same sort of energy efficiency technology exists for your boiler, but your fuel company will never tell you…unless legislation is passed demanding it! 2 Things must happen: Federal legislation must be passed outlawing single-pass heat exchanger boilers, and information on energy savings devices for heating equipment must be made available, proactievly, to customers of fossil fuel suppliers.

Contact me if you would like a free analysis of your heating system and to find out if a temperature modulation control is applicable to your system. Start keeping your money instead of handing it over to the likes of Exxon fat cats!

Stay tuned for the story!

In my estimation, roughly 40% of systems consume excessive amounts of energy commencing the day they were first turned on. Usually because the design was inept and poorly thought out, and/or because the installers cut corners by using too small a pipe or duct diameter, inappropriate controls were chosen, or the equipment was too large in capacity to begin with. For example, I ask this no-brainer of a question: Will a tractor trailer truck transport you to the grocery store to do your weekly food shopping and back? Of course it will, but at what expense for fuel? Who needs to drive there in such an expensive vehicle that consumes so much fuel, unless, of course, you are shopping for a National Guard Battalion? Well, that’s analogous to having too large a boiler or air conditioning system in your home or place of business. Another good analogy is that if your hvac equipment is too large, then it will perform too quickly and soon shut down, then come back on, then shut down again, then come back on…you get the idea. That example compares to city driving vs. highway driving. Once your car overcomes inertia and is up to speed on the highway, and cruise control has been set, it requires much less fuel than if the car was constantly stopping and going and repeatedly overcoming inertia.

These are simple examples of poor fuel economy, but with 28 years in the business, I can demonstrate endless others. Suffice to say, if 40% of all systems’ energy consumption can be reduced, then is yours among them? Protech can evaluate your system for as little as the cost of one hour of labor – $85. You could save that amount many times over if you take corrective action by allowing us to make changes to your poorly designed or installed hvac system(s). Should you become aware of your hvac system efficiency?

In the case of oil burners:

The rule of thumb is annual “proper” maintenance – fuel filter, nozzle, and accumulated soot removal – pays for itself with the savings of increased fuel efficiency. Why? A dirty nozzle affects combustion efficiency; therefore, improper oil atomization results in a dirty fire, which produces soot. An 1/8″ of soot accumulation on the heat exchanger is equal to an inch of fiberglass insulation. Insulating the heat exchanger allows increased heat from the combustion process to go right up the chimney, rather than transferring through the heat exchanger into the space to be heated. Also, did you know that your fuel company’s primary interest is in selling fuel? That may seem elementary, but there are many companies who facilitate this by not offering energy saving devices that could save you as much as 30% or more on your fuel bill. Many fuel companies do not stress among their technicians the importance (to you) of optimizing combustion efficiency, so often a poor furnace cleaning results. There are many primitive devices that perpetually cause your heating system to burn more fuel, and I can identify them in minutes, usually over the phone.

Air conditioning & Refrigeration:

Three things guarantee that your electric bill will be high – dirty evaporator and/or condenser coils, refrigerant leaks, and low SEER rated equipment. The first issue can be resolved through periodic cleaning that involves application of special dirt and grease remover. As in the example of the soot on a heat exchanger, dirt/grease on coils will block heat transfer and cause the equipment to run longer to produce the same amount of cold energy. Low refrigerant charge means there is less refrigerant to carry the heat from the indoor (evaporator) coil to the outdoor (condenser) coil, and can cause the compressor to cycle on and off excessively. Low Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) means that the equipment must also run longer to transfer heat – usually from the space to be cooled to the outdoors. The higher the SEER the less electricity is required to cool the space. For example by upgrading from SEER 9 to SEER 21, the power consumption is reduced by 57% (equal to 1 – 9/21). It is claimed that this can result in an energy savings valued at up to $570 per year depending on the usage rate and the cost of electricity. The higher the electricity cost, the more money is saved by installing 21 SEER equipment.

There are many more examples that can be given of how equipment efficiency can be adversely affected, which I would be happy to discuss with you. The upcoming cooling season will soon be upon us. Is your equipment poised to consume excessive energy? The best time to clean oil burning equipment is prior to summer when condensation can mix with the sulphur content of the soot accumulation in your furnace or boiler and cause corrosion, which dramatically shortens the life of the equipment.

Please post any comments you may have.

John Rocheleau