The Heat Exchange

Get to know John Colborne.

Scale is a buildup of various minerals (including calcium, lime and magnesium) that reside on boiler tubes and the base of the boiler. Scale can dramatically affect the life expectancy of your equipment and also significantly lessen the efficiency of the unit.

When scale builds up on boiler tubes, it interrupts the transfer of heat. This results in the tubes potentially overheating, cracking or in a lot of cases, bursting, which would result in an immediate shut down of the unit and quite a messy mechanical room!

It's that time of year again! Are you ready?

There is a lot you can learn from the highly qualified technicians at The Wilkinson Companies.

Watch today's lesson here:

Did you know that GT Wilkinson, Inc. is the exclusive representative of Power Flame for eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine?

Power Flame Inc. is an innovative and forward thinking force in the commercial/industrial combustion equipment industry. They manufacture gas, oil, combination gas/oil, low NOx burners and combustion control systems. Designed for Commercial, Industrial and Process Applications, each one of their products share environmentally conscious designs and are crafted from quality materials by their expert staff of dedicated professionals. Recently acquired by Astec Industries, Power Flame represents a significant percentage of the United States market share.

The Wilkinson Companies recently had the opportunity to assist in completing another barge launch with Senesco Marine.

Wilkinson delivered a high pressure steam mobile boiler to Senesco Marine in North Kingstown, RI, to help with the moving operation for a large oil barge. The steam boiler provided 240 lbs. of steam pressure to move the barge down the dock.

Watch the video here!

Turndown has been a trending topic in the boiler industry for many years but is it as important as we think?

What is boiler turndown? Boiler turndown is the ratio that a boiler can fire at full capacity to its lowest firing rate before the system shuts down. For example, if a boiler is a 1 million BTU boiler that can fire as low as 250,000 BTUs, then the boiler has a 4:1 turndown ratio.

Boiler turndown certainly has an effect on efficiency, but for each application that effect could be different. There are three major elements that are impacted by a boiler’s turndown; boiler loads, operating cycles, and overall efficiency.

It’s that time of year again… time to think about a system shutdown for your cast iron, fire tube or water tube boiler. Maybe your system requires corrective or preventive maintenance, or perhaps you take your system offline for the summer. Either way, we can offer solutions that keep your boiler at peak efficiencies.

Boiler industry professionals know there are two primary sources of fuel in the commercial market: natural gas and oil. Over the last decade there has been a large increase in natural gas conversions around the country due to the drop in natural gas costs because of fracking and greater distribution. For the last few years, the price of natural gas was significantly lower than its counterpart, but the cost of oil has become more and more competitive with natural gas. This has resulted in organizations questioning the benefits of converting to the use of natural gas only.

Constellation, an Exelon company, recently teamed with The Wilkinson Companies to help customers effectively manage their energy and efficiency needs. For many businesses, energy is one of the top five expenses affecting bottom lines. It can be challenging however to effectively manage usage, identify the right efficiency upgrades, and find the best payment structure for executing projects. That’s why Constellation created Efficiency Made Easy® (EME) – a solution that can play an integral role in achieving a customer’s strategic financial and environmental goals.