Reader contribution

Submitted by Hans De Keulenaer on Mon, 2008-03-17 13:36.

EPQU Magazine welcomes reader articles. Contributions can be received anytime in Word format using the submission button. Contributions will be screened by the editorial process. Articles should comply with EPQU Magazine's editorial scope. When in doubt, feel free to send an outline proposal first before developing the full article.

In this issue's reader article, Dragomir Vasic introduces a basic technique of frequency regulation for preparing the fuel-air mixture in hot water boilers used for district heating. This simple and relatively low-cost measure saves 25,000 euro per year, with a payback of just 0.6 years.

With such compelling economics, one would expect most old boilers to be retrofit in this way, but according to Dragomir, this is often not the case. It's often easier to charge customers for high losses rather than to engineer change.

An energy service company would be a solution, bringing in specialised expertise to facilitate the project. But it's often a barrier to companies to open up their operations, and expose their inefficiencies to a 3rd party.