navenjohnson Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 (edited) Can anyone recommend a NG boiler installer in Northern Colorado? Edited June 13, 2016 by navenjohnson updated repost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McKee Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Hey, Food for thought, which may be some of the reason for the installer hesitance. Any boiler with pressure over 15 psi requires a lot of differences in install, operations, licensed boiler operators, etc. You want 15 psi or lower. Right off the bat that will save you greater than 50% CAPEX costs and who know how much in long term OPEX cost.....but a lot. 30hp is about 1M btu/hr, which is a pretty good size. I run a 1.5M and a .5M between my two distilleries. But the sizing is dependent on a lot of things;total capacity mashing and distilling, if you're going atmospheric boiler at any elevation over 4000' you'll need to derate the boiler by as much as 20%. Meaning your 1M btu/hr boiler will have an output of 800,000. Additionally, the output of the boiler is automagically derated 10-15% just based upon efficiencies. The true cost of a boiler system, is not just the boiler. Header installs (at 1M btu/hr assume at least a 4" header) in carbon steel, condensate return pump system, wiring and controls, stack install, gas piping install, etc, etc. All of those things add up pretty quick and if installing a 15psi+ system, all of those items get much more expensive. On a used boiler, ask the following questions:Was a condensate system used? If not, that means that single pass water was being used which quickly erodes tubes in a boiler. Has the boiler lost any tubes? If so, how many and how were they plugged? Is the boiler's local control system newer than 10 years? Figure your installer might not want to work on an older system or that spare parts may no longer be available. Did the boiler have an automated blow-down system? Were water treatment chemicals used during the boilers previous life, if so what and how much? I don't think that you're getting a run around from your potential contractors, I think they may be trying to save you potential long term headaches and expense. Ask them some more questions and see if there might not be a compelling issue to just buy a new one. All in, a 1.0M btu/hr boiler, headers, condensate system, controls, piping, etc should come in at less than $50K installed. If you can't afford that, you may need to think about a smaller boiler and initial startup (as I did with my .5M) then expand to a larger system in the future (as I did when I installed our 1.5M system). Cheers and good luck, McKee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernhighlander Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 We have sold low pressure steam boilers to distilleries all over the US. I can give you a really great price. Email susan@distillery-equipment.com or call 417-778-6100 and ask for Susan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
navenjohnson Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 McKee, Thank you for the great info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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