Commercial or Residential Boilers

So, recently we have come across a very common notion amid the customers about the difference between the residential and commercial boilers, lining up its credibility on the quality of the unit that people believe to vary between the two. But to be true, the fact has made its own space in the ball, with each of the two being differentiated on the grounds of size of the units and not on the quality rendered.

This article is especially featured to crack the myths, render the approach and bring out the sincerity of the two terms.

These systems are deliberately diverged on the roads of BTUs and not on the actual size of the units. The BTU that stands for British Thermal Units is nothing more than an approach to measure the heating or cooling capacity of the units. However the BTU is assumed to be equal to the amount of heat produced by one single mach.

For a product to be incorporated as a commercial boiler, it has to be an ample of at least three hundred thousand BTU device. Anything less than that would be considered to be intended for the Residential service.

A boiler, say a residential or a commercial unit, are pressurized vessels that are powered either by a number of heating sources or are operated on electricity in order to render the heating services at your place. These systems are designed to run by burning the combustible fuels including natural gas and propane gas. However, Coal burning units had been fairly popular as wood burners or oil burners in the past, but despite of being cheap these devices were soon eliminated as an outcome of the continuous difficulty faced by the customers in storing and firing of materials of the unit.

In case of the commercial applicants, the principals of convenience and ease of operations are more importantly taken into consideration and that is probably an answer to why natural gas is most suitably used for the commercial industries. Natural gas is one of the most cost efficient and convenient fuels that allows itself to be piped directly to the unit, making it far simpler for the system to be operated.

Whereas on the other hand, most of the residential areas happen to be miles away from the installation of piped natural gas line, being deprived for the same, they have to preferably fall for either the electric powered unit or the propane powered unit. But a considerable fact that stands by their side is that each of these devices are highly efficient and less costly to run as compared to the alternative appliances.         

Residential Boilers can be well demarcated as either condensing or non-condensing units. The term condensing, for the sake, hampers the boilers that are designed and manufactured to recover more heat from the amount of oil or gas being burnt, turning them into highly efficient units as compared to the Non- condensing systems that comes with a standard efficiency rate.

While looking at the other side of the coin, the commercial boilers are designed in operation with a fire tube, small water tube and electric resistance to boast a fuel efficiency that marks itself on being as high as 99%.

Major components

When we talk about the production of a commercial boiler, the curiosity happens to drag your emphasis on the ingredients used. We have mentioned a list of elements that constitute the commercial boilers. Have a look.

• Burner- the Burner is the heart of the boiler that is responsible for the creation of mixture of fuel of oxygen that produces a consistent, efficiently burning flame. In simple terms, the burner operates to provide the flame required to heat the water in the boiler.
• Combustion chamber- the term is referred to the area within the boiler that is especially designed to accommodate the burner and provide a safe and secure zone for high-temperature combustion of volatile fuel. The chamber is carefully materialized with cast iron, steel and other heavy-duty metal in order to keep it good for the conduction of fuel burning.
• Heat Exchanger- It, being a vital tool, functions to transfer the heat produced by the burners to the water in the boiler.
• Controls- System controls are installed in order to provide the customers with maximum and smart access to the boiler with features including the set water temperature, ignition, air and fuel supply mixtures, and internal pressure. Other than the regulatory controls, a number of safety controls are also installed in order to ensure that the internal pressures in the boiler don’t get to high, that water temperature stays within a safe range, and the system continues to operate properly.
• Exhaust stack- These are the pipes that are installed in order to fetch the exhausted gases from the inside of your facility to the outside. This series of pipes is carefully constructed to make sure that the dangerous gases like carbon monoxide are vented outside the house without causing any harm.

A Residential Boiler comes with no difference when it comes to the construction of the boiler. It also hampers the same elements as a commercial boiler, say, from Burner to the stacks or from a chamber to controls.

To conclude, the only major difference that comprehends the two terms is the size of BTO (BRITISH THERMAL UNIT) and nothing else to a sincere extend.