About this audit

From the Burner to the Stack

The audit looks at each boiler, thermic fluid heater or furnace in turn: how efficiently it burns its fuel, how much heat leaves with the flue gas, how much excess air the burner takes, and how much of the fuel’s heat is turned into steam, hot fluid or furnace heat.

Ram Engineering carries out the audit, and we measure the flue gas with our own flue gas analyser. The audit sits beside our fuel and fluid work: furnace oil and HSD filtration take water, sludge and particles out of the fuel, and thermic fluid filtration cleans the heat transfer oil.

All plant audits

What the Audit Checks

Combustion efficiency: how completely and cleanly each burner burns its fuel
Stack losses: the heat that leaves with the flue gas
Excess air: how much more air the burner takes in than the fuel needs
Fuel-to-heat conversion: how much of the fuel’s heat reaches the steam, the thermic fluid or the furnace

Why it matters

Where Fuel Turns Into Lost Heat

A burner needs some air beyond the exact amount the fuel calls for, or part of the fuel goes unburnt and leaves as smoke and soot. Too much air is a loss of its own: the extra air is heated and carried up the stack. The flue gas shows which side of that balance a burner is on.

Heat also leaves with the flue gas when the gas is hotter than it needs to be, often because soot on the fire side, or scale and carbon on the water or fluid side, keeps the heat from passing through.

Heavy fuel oil brings its own trouble. Water, sludge and particles in the oil block strainers and burner tips and spoil the spray, and a burner that sprays badly cannot burn cleanly. Our furnace oil and HSD filtration pages explain how the fuel itself is cleaned.

What You Get

The findings for each boiler, heater or furnace: combustion efficiency, stack loss and excess air as measured, and what each finding points to.

Questions About the Fuel Oil Audit

Which equipment and fuels does the audit cover?

Boilers, thermic fluid heaters and furnaces that burn furnace oil (FO), light diesel oil (LDO) or high-speed diesel (HSD).

Does the audit include cleaning the fuel?

No. The audit measures how the fuel burns. Cleaning stored fuel is a separate job, described on the furnace oil filtration and HSD filtration pages.

Will the audit tell us how much fuel we will save?

Not as a promise. It shows how each unit burns its fuel and where heat is lost. A saving depends on what is put right afterwards, and is measured at your own plant.

Can it be combined with the insulation audit?

Yes. The fuel audit looks at the burner and the stack; the steam and hot oil pipeline insulation audit looks at the lines the heat travels through. They can be booked together.