Perhaps your company has an instrument department with portable test equipment you can borrow? How about the laboratory, if you have one. How about one of those pesky salepersons, maybe this is the time for them to demo their equipment? If you are on a totally restricted budget or you are not yet convinced this will be worth your while, consider a sharing system with some of the other local engineers (if possible).
You can locate many vendors of testing equipment through this link to the ISA
The ASME recommended instrumentation for efficiency testing includes an ORSAT gas analyzer. In the real world, this finicky, glass device is best relegated to the laboratory or a museum. Newer, digital, solid state or rugged industrial gas measurement devices can provide comparable data much easier and with suitable accuracy. Of course, if you have one, it's clean and functioning with fresh chemicals, by all means use it until you can justify easier to use equipment.
The first option might be an all in one Efficiency tester that combines, O2, CO2 temperature and CO measurements all in one device. It has the advantage of being specifically designed for this application and provides most of the required measurements. The major disadvantage is that you will need to run arround with one probe to measure values in 2 or more locactions. This one is from ITM model # 346-2.
Similar devices are available from IMR , Bacharach & Virtual-Scientific
A limitation with most of these all in one devises is they don't actually measure the CO2. They use the measured O2 and assume a corelation based on a typical fuel. Get a Bacharach Fyrite CO2 tester as a bach up!
1. TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS
A digital thermocouple meter such as:- ITM model 51 digital thermocouple meter calibrated from -200°C to +1500°C . Note, at this time all program readings are entered in deg F but a metric version of the program will be released soon.
- J-type 0.5 m thermocouple with 2 m armored lead.such as ITM model S10-8 air/gas probe
Suggest you have this type of portable meter even if you have built in temperature measurement. Built in thermometers or thermocouples often haven't been calibrated or tested for years and/or have heavy deposits on them that make fast response readings impossible. You may also need the ability to take readings where no on line meters are installed ie. combustion air exiting APH.
2. OXYGEN READING
Bacharach Fryrite O2 tester
Oxygen Analyzer such as:-
- Teledyne Model 320-P with integral vacuum pump. O - 25% O2 in three ranges with accuracy and sensitivity to 0.1%.
You should have this independent measurement tool to check built in measurement. Also if you have air preheat, the online O2 meter is always installed before the APH so using it's reading with the stack temperature after the APH will usually give you a seriously inflated loss efficiency.
3. CARBON DIOXIDE READING
Bararach Fyrite CO2 Tester ).
Note: Most gas analysers claim to read CO2 but in practise they merely guesstimate the probable CO2 by back calculating from the excess O2 reading and assuming a fuel carbon value. An imdependant CO2 reading is recommended to cross check the O2 reading.
4. SMOKE TESTER NEEDED IF ONE OF THE FUELS IS OIL
Bararach "True-Spot" Smoke Tester (21-7006). Approved by the National Fuel Oil Institute.
- Assigned ASTM No. D 2156-65.
- Developed by Shell Development Corporation.
5. HUMIDITY
Sling Psychrometer, Range: -5 to 50°C (No. 12-0011) or any wet/dry thermometer or a good quality relative humidity meter such as ITM model 622
6. EFFICIENCY SLIDE RULE
- Bacharach Efficiency Finder. (No. 11-0071) - useful for a quick and dirty comparison
7. CARBON MONOXIDE READINGS NEEDED IF FUEL IS A GAS
Bararach 0-0.5~ CO
8. SULFUR DIOXIDE READINGS - OPTIONAL but recommended if you have an air-preheater.
-Bararach Gas Hazard Indicator (as above) 0-2700 ppm
tube No. 19-5071
9. VACUUM HOSE
- Approximately 2 m heavy wall vinyl vacuum hose with 1/2 inch tubing connectors.