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Posted by tmiller on February 04, 2005 at 10:11:40:
In Reply to: Converting to Natural Gas posted by Charles Hagen on February 04, 2005 at 08:51:47:
: I have 6 boilers that we burn #4 oil, due to maintence and price factors the owners want to see how much we would save if we converted over to natural gas.I relize that you don't get the BTU value from gas that you do from #4 oil, but can't you increase the amount of gas to achieve the same BTU output? Another question is that I was told by another engineer that no matter how much gas you burn you loose 10% of your btu output by using natural gas. How true is this and why?
Yes this is true. it is due to the low carbon/hydrogen ratio of natural gas. For every pound of hydrogen you burn you end up forming 9 pounds of water, which ends up sucking away on your heat of combustion and going up your stack as superheated steam. Plus the cost of gas is higher per million BTU than oil. My boiler achieves 87% efficiency with #6 oil , only 84% on gas. Tom