How the Right Combustion Analyzer Saves Time, Money and Lives
Whitepaper: Fieldpiece discusses how to use a combustion analyzer, while ensuring safety and saving money.
As HVACR technicians, assessing whether the furnace we’re servicing is working efficiently is critical to understanding the overall health of the HVAC system — and to the success of our service call. The best way to confirm that a furnace is operating efficiently is to evaluate its combustion process. Is the gas pressure set properly? Is the flue draft correct for safe ventilation? Is the stack temperature within the expected range? The best way to answer these questions is to test the system with a combustion analyzer.
Combustion appliances like furnaces and boilers combine fuel, oxygen and an ignition source to create heat. This process is called combustion. As a technician, you can adjust a furnace to control how much fuel, oxygen or heat is part of this process. If the adjustments allow too much fuel or too much oxygen into the reaction, an imbalance that leads to incomplete combustion occurs. When this happens, the furnace won’t work as efficiently as it should. Also, it could create a dangerous amount of carbon monoxide (CO), an odorless, colorless, tasteless and toxic gas. By optimizing combustion and fine-tuning the furnace, a technician lowers energy consumption and costs. This also helps prevent pollution and eliminates the risk of CO poisoning for the home’s occupants.