CPS 1 - Advanced Water Heaters, Dehumidification and Tankless Coil Boilers

• Commonly involve a fin-tube copper coil submerged in the

Water Performance boiler water to provide domestic hot water;
• Lower in cost than a separate, fuel-fired water heater or a
boiler/indirect tank combination;
Study on the Performance of Tankless Coil Heating Boilers • With a tankless coil, the boiler must be kept hot in the summer
to enable on-demand hot water;
• Relative to a system with a storage tank have low delivery
Thomas A. Butcher, Neehad T. Islam, and John Levey capacity;
National Oilheat Research Alliance • While more efficiency options are available, roughly half of the
current oil-fired boilers use this design.
ASHRAE Annual Meeting, June 2020
Austin, TX (planned), Virtual Conference

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Learning Objectives Objectives

• Evaluate the output capacity and domestic hot water production efficiency of
several common, commercial tankless coil boilers;
1. Understand the efficiency of tankless coil boilers in a domestic hot water
• Also test a new concept – a “combi” oil-fired boiler with an external plate heat
mode;
exchanger and controlled circulation loop for domestic hot water;
2. Identify pathways to achieve higher domestic hot water efficiency with
• Develop best practice recommendations for systems of this type.
tankless coil boilers.
3. Provide an overview of potential benefit analysis of the HMX component
4. Provide a techno-economic assessment of a flame-assisted fuel cell
integrated with a water heater

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Outline Experimental – Test Arrangement

All units tested in the laboratory;
• Description and importance of tankless coil Lab data acquisition/control system provided full
system supervision, data collection, and data
boilers reduction

• Objective of this study

• Experimental approach
• Results
• Conclusions and recommendations

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 Experimental – Test Arrangement Units Included in Study

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Capacity Test Operating Modes of Test Item Number 6

• Hydronics Institute – 1978 Mode 1 – Boiler stays hot all summer to provide domestic hot water when needed;
• Test cycle – 5-minute fixed flow draw followed by 10-minute recovery period (no Mode 2 – Boiler goes cold between DHW calls. When a call is present or expected, unit
flow) reheats
• Each test involves three draws at this same flow; 2a Boiler heats up when DHW flow is present
• Test is repeated at different flow rates; 2b “Double Pump” – when occupant turns flow on and off twice quickly, boiler
• Boiler cycles off when boiler temperature is 160°F (88.9°C) above entering water heats up for the coming draw
temperature;
• Coil nominal capacity is the flow, in gallons/minute that results in an average rise of
100°F (55.6°C). On this unit tests were also done with insulation added on the near-boiler
piping and with a flapper damper on outside air intake.

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Efficiency Test Results of Capacity Test

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 Results of Efficiency Test DHW Delivery Following a Long Idle Period
Test Number Test Item Number Efficiency [%]
1 1 40.77
2 2 38.53
3 3 32.91
4 4 32.82
5 5 33.91
6 6, Mode 1 49.37
7 6, Mode 1 with all external piping insulated 51.82
6, Mode 1 w/ piping insulation and air
8 56.00
damper
9 6, Mode 2 w/ DP1 and piping insulation 67.14

10 6, Mode 2, no DP1 62.50

1. DP = Double Pump

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Boiler Cycling During Long Idle Period Test with a cast iron, conventional tankless coil
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boiler with an emulated control concept
• If a boiler of this type is also allowed to go “cold” between DHW draws but fired to
Boiler Water Temperature (°F)

180
pre-heat 5 minutes before the DHW call, can efficiency be improved?
• This control approach was implemented by the lab computer without addressing
how it might be done in a commercial product.
160 • The amount of time, before the DHW call was found to be adequate to bring the
boiler up to normal operating temperature.
• Efficiency in the 24-hour test increased from 33% to 51%.
140

120
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000
Time (s)

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Comparison of Boiler Water Temperatures During Long Idle Period Conclusions

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Eff = 40.77% 1. In capacity tests, conventional coils were found to fall significantly below
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Boiler Water Temperature [F]

rated values;
2. The efficiency of tankless coil boilers under summer conditions (DHW
160
load only) was found to be low – 32.8% to 40.8%
Eff = 49.37%
3. The efficiency of systems of this type can be greatly improved by control
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and design strategies that allow the units to “go cold” between long
draws and reduce idle energy losses;
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Eff = 67.14% 4. Better coupling between the boiler water and the DHW streams would
allow a lower boiler temperature to achieve the required DHW
100
temperature.
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5. Ability to operate at lower boiler temperatures results in higher
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 summertime efficiencies.
Time [s]

TIN 6 Mode 1 TIN 6 Mode 2 TIN 1

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 Bibliography
The Hydronics Institute. 1978. Testing and Rating Standard for
Indirect Water Heaters Tested with Boilers. Berkeley Heights, N.J. Hydronics
Institute.

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Questions?

Neehad T. Islam
nislam@noraweb.org

Thomas A. Butcher
tbutcher@noraweb.org

John Levey
jlevey@noraweb.org

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