The Heat Exchange

Boilers are often compared to cars. Just as all types of cars and trucks require tunes ups, commercial and industrial boilers also need to be maintained.

Think about the steps you take to maintain your car: regular oil changes, rotating the tires and checking that the radiator has plenty of coolant. As a driver, tending to your vehicle provides a better and safer driving experience and helps you get the most out of your vehicle.

So the question is, why wouldn’t you do the same for a boiler?

Step inside the boiler room at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. Wilkinson President, Geoff Wilkinson, Jr. visited Justin Ferbert, Director of Engineering for Hallmark Health Systems, to discuss some of the projects and upgrades Wilkinson made to the boiler room.

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.