The cooling season is winding down, which means you may forget about your boiler for the next 5 or 6 months. Well, hopefully you will hire an HVAC to clean and test your boiler and you’ll re-insulate any pipes whose insulation has gotten frayed or fallen off. Good. But there is another area that is often overlooked but can lead to a major cost savings during the heating season when fuels are highest in cost: steam traps.
If you have them, steam traps represent a potential source of energy loss. Steam traps are there to keep steam in your radiators where the latent heat can effectively warm a space and prevent it from leaving and returning with condensate. If steam leaves a radiator, that is wasted heat or, to put it more accurately, wasted natural gas or oil to produce that heat and wasted expense for you. Fortunately, steam releases most of its latent heat in a radiator. But a failed steam trap can let through significant steam (say, 20% of what enters), raising your energy bill by 20% more than you are already paying.
Steam traps can fail for a variety of reasons, mainly age. After all, they are working in a very hot environment. A rule of thumb is that a steam trap is effective for about 5 years. There are many exceptions to this rule, but something to keep in mind. If your steam traps have not been tested in several years, there is a good chance that a significant percentage is not operating ideally and allowing steam to leave the radiator, and as stated above, causing you to waste energy and expense.
The problem is that one does not know which steam traps are failing because heating is a closed system. Steam traps do not “announce” themselves operating or failing! Thus, periodically it is important to test your steam traps by using an ultrasonic leak detector, which can detect and inform you of steam leaking through traps. A good leak detector will enable a user to hear the rushing sound of a leak to determine the need to replace. Testing can save significant energy costs, especially in this age of high fuel costs!
If energy cost savings is not enough to convince you to implement a steam trap testing protocol, think about safety, security, and longer lasting equipment. Steam going into the condensate can potentially shorten the life of piping and storage tanks of your system, costing quite a bit to repair or replace. And, of course, being able to use less natural gas or oil to heat your space also means lower greenhouse gas emissions.
When is a good time to perform the steam trap testing? Now or very soon, as the heating season is winding down. Inventory and test your existing steam traps while your boiler is still producing steam for space heating. After testing, you will have a list of which steam traps have passed and which have failed. Now you have the summer to properly procure and replace the failed steam traps and you are assured of a much more efficient heating system in the fall when space heating is needed again. And with fuel prices at record highs, any effort to reduce energy waste is very beneficial.
CCES has the experts to perform, recommend and/or oversee the maintenance of your boiler system, including testing and conditioning your boiler, installing new insulation, and performing steam trap testing. Now is the time to start the effort so you have an efficient system in the fall. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.