How to Calculate Fuel Cost For Boiler
This is a complicated problem about how to calculate the cost of boiler fuel. Because the boiler has many kinds of fuel, such as natural gas, heavy oil, light oil, bituminous coal, anthracite coal, biomass and so on. And the purchase cost of different fuel is certainly different. In addition, we know that the higher the boiler efficiency, the less the cost will be under the same fuel.
Let's first understand several obvious factors that affect boiler cost.
How many BTUs per gallon? For starters, different fuels are sold in different units. Heating oil, kerosene, and propane are sold by the gallon; natural gas by the hundred cubic foot (ccf) or therm (defined as 100,000 Btus); firewood by the cord; wood pellets and coal by the ton; and electricity by the kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Second, different fuels have different energy densities. According to The Engineering Toolbox (a great source of facts related to energy), a gallon of propane contains 91,330 Btus, while a gallon a #2 heating oil contains 139,600 Btus. Pellets contain 16.5 million Btus per ton, and natural gas contains 950 to 1,150 Btu per cubic foot.
Boiler efficiency matters. Third, the amount of useful heat obtained from a given fuel depends on how efficiently it’s burned. Combustion efficiency varies widely — from as low as 30% for the worst of the outdoor wood boilers to over 95% for a top-efficiency, condensing gas boiler. The efficiency of different fuels boiler is different, the fuel needed is different, the fuel cost is also very different.
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