3 Ways to Improve the Efficiency of Your Commercial Boiler

September 8th, 2020

Last updated: January 18th, 2023

Commercial businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs, with energy prices at a record high plenty of people are looking at high efficiency commercial boilers and techniques to improve this efficiency. Of course there are lots of quick wins that are easy to do and make absolute sense, but you often have to look much deeper to find other ways to save money. Energy usage is a big cost to any commercial organisation, and whatever the nature of your operations, a commercial boiler will be one of the most significant costs you will face.

Commercial boiler energy efficiency is not always an easy cost to monitor. There are lots of hidden elements involved and it is hard to measure. But getting the optimum performance from a commercial boiler by servicing it regularly is important in terms of saving money but also in maximising your asset and extending its useful lifetime to its fullest.

Understanding how a commercial boiler works will of course help too and prevent all the issues that come with not servicing your boiler. Like cars, all domestic and  commerical boilers have a lifespan, but taking good care of it can help to extend the life as well as the efficiency.

Here are three ways you can improve the efficiency of your commercial boiler and how it will help your business.

1. Insulate the Pipework

This is an easy and relatively inexpensive exercise but it can save you money and improve the efficiency of your boiler. Insulating the pipes with a foam lagging from a normal DIY store prevents heat loss from the pipework. This means that it will keep your water hotter for longer and hence will reduce the energy required to heat it. From an operational point of view, insulating your pipework will also prevent the pipes freezing and potentially bursting during the cold winter months. Of course, plenty of us know that insulation is key to efficiency, but we may not know how to insulate things like pipework ourselves, so the importance of working with a commercial contractor is clear to make sure you have correctly optimised the building.

2. Manage Your Thermostat

It is very easy to simply turn the thermostat up to maximum on your central heating system and leave it. This is common in commercial organisations where the thermostat is maybe not monitored on a regular basis. Also, you may have rooms in a commercial building that are only occasionally used and hence don’t need heating to the same extent as other rooms. So you may be heating them unnecessarily which is the same as just burning money. Building management systems can help you with this sort of efficiency and give you a centralised control to manage sections and areas of your building. Managing the thermostats and individual radiators can save a lot of money by not burning energy you don’t need to. You can also improve the boiler’s efficiency by ‘turning it over’ during the summer months. This means simply turning the boiler on for 15 minutes or so periodically just to free the system up and make sure nothing is clogged or blocked. This helps the system run efficiently in the colder months when you really need it to.

3. Full Service and Maintenance of Your Commercial Boiler

There are a number of maintenance tasks which will improve the efficiency of your boiler, but should only be carried out by a professional maintenance engineer. If you attempt some of these things yourself, you may even void the warranty of your commercial boiler.

The servicing steps to ensure a high efficiency commercial boiler in your commercial premises include:

• Cleaning: You can wipe down the external casing of your boiler, but removing dust from the tubes and pipework internally needs to be carried out by a professional. Dust and soot builds up naturally through usage, but it acts as an insulator and therefore lowers the heat transfer rate. This means that the gas you burn is not making the water any hotter, so you are wasting energy and the boiler is inefficient. So periodically cleaning the tubes means the boiler is not working harder than it needs to for the same output.
• Fix leaks: Water leaks in the system reduce the efficiency of the boiler because water is escaping from the system and needs replacing and heating. So a service engineer will check your pipework, radiators and taps etc, so ensure water is not escaping and any leaks are fixed.
• Check pressure: Pressure in a commercial boiler can drop and hinder the boiler’s efficiency. A gauge on the front should read about 1.5 bar for a healthy pressure. If it is lower then you may have leaks in the system or your radiators will need bleeding. During a service and maintenance visit your engineer will check the system and re-pressurise it for you to ensure it is always running at the maximum potential.

If you want to ensure a high efficiency commercial boiler for your premises, you should get it serviced on a regular basis. It should be annual at the very least and in businesses where the boiler is constantly working and in demand you might even choose to do this more regularly. Getting your boiler serviced can also help you to expand its lifespan.

It’s not easy to remember to book a service every year among all the other aspects of commercial business maintenance, so working with a company that offers planned preventative maintenance can help.

Robinsons Facilities Services can help you with a boiler service and maintenance schedule and can also advise on how to design a commercial boiler installation to ensure the system is appropriate to your premises. A boiler can waste energy if it is too big or too small for your property, so to ensure optimum efficiency the boiler needs to be the right size and output for the premises you need it for. We can help you prevent boiler breakdowns and save resources. You can speak to us to ensure this is the case and to help with the service and maintenance of your boiler, so contact us today.