A Solution to Wasting Energy in Water Heating
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057255 |
| Pages | 20-21 |
| Published date | 01 May 1982 |
| Date | 01 May 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
A Solution to Wasting Energy in Water Heating
In the current economic recession
—
one of the worst ever
to affect this country — we have all become particularly
conscious of the cost of living. Turning on a tap and get-
ting hot water, for example, can no longer be taken for
granted. Heating water uses energy, and energy costs
money. Industry in general should be acutely aware of this,
since it uses over 40 per cent of the country's energy, near-
ly half this consumption being related to heating.
It is not too dramatic to state that the world is facing
energy starvation and that ways must be sought to combat
it. In any crisis we need to identify the problems and then
take real steps towards their solution. If the crisis is the
enormous expenditure of energy in heating water, what are
the problems?
Conventional hot water systems are inefficient. Primary
water is heated in large quantities (whether it's constantly
needed or not) and pipe-fed to a secondary water storage
tank, where it is maintained at operating temperature to
meet peak demand. Hot water in storage naturally loses
heat (standby loss), so boilers must fire periodically to
compensate for this. All too often boilers used for
domestic hot water are also used for space heating, so that
when little or no heating is needed the boiler may be up to
three times the capacity required for the hot water service
alone. In addition, scale build-up progressively impairs the
efficiency of the system. These various factors can waste
up to 70 per cent or more of fuel used. Little wonder, then,
that there is an energy crisis.
With conventional systems there are further drawbacks
which are not energy-related. Most systems need fairly fre-
quent and major maintenance and cleaning, causing ex-
pense and inconvenience. Because boilers are often so
much larger than they need to be, valuable space is taken
up in the boilerhouse.
Add to this the considerable amount of space occupied
by large secondary water storage tanks, and it is not
dif-
ficult to see that the conventional system as a whole takes
up space which could be used profitably for other pur-
poses.
These are the problems. The solution is simply this — a
hot water system which:
(1) Is cheap, quick and easy to install;
(2) Virtually eliminates standby losses;
(3) Is easy to clean and maintain;
(4) Is compact and not wasteful of space;
(5) Does not allow scale build-up, thus maintaining
constant efficiency;
(6) Uses the minimum of fuel with almost instan-
taneous response to demand;
(7) Quickly pays for the cost of installation.
The Beaumont water heater system, designed and
manufactured by Beaumont (UK) Ltd in Romsey, Hamp-
shire, fulfils all these criteria and is a system which has pro-
ved capable of energy savings of up to 70 per cent.
The cleverness of the Beaumont system lies in its
simplicity. There is no primary water or system at all. The
burners fire into two U-shaped cylindrical heat exchangers
which are totally immersed in the secondary water. In this
way heat is transferred direct, producing hot water almost
immediately.
The thermostat controlling the burners is also immersed
in the secondary water, so that the burners only fire as and
when the temperature of the secondary water calls for
heat. What this means is that the burners heat only the
quantity of instant hot water needed at any one time,
eliminating standby losses and thus costly wastage of
energy, whether in the form of fuel-oil, natural gas or
LPG. Another factor is that heat is retained by a 2in thick
layer of insulating material encased in an easi-clean
aluminium jacket.
Each Beaumont system installed is tailored to the precise
requirements of the customer, ensuring that the water
heater is the right size for the job it has to do. In this way
plant is not over sized and the expense of unneeded equip-
ment (together with valuable space required for it) is ob-
viated. There are 18 models for the customer to choose
from in the standard range, with storage capacity from 100
to 500 gallons and outputs from 150,000 to
1,250,000
BTU/Hr. This range means that most industrial and com-
mercial requirements can be met by the Beaumont range
with a choice of oil, gas or LPG.
The wide range of models available is made possible by
the Beaumont's cylindrical modular design. Each water
heater is constructed in ¼in mild steel sections, each being
20 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT + DATA SYSTEMS
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