How to Calculate Boiler Maintenance Costs

Boilers generate hot water and steam for radiator heat.

Boilers are used to create steam, hot water and heated air used to in heating and hot water systems. When a boiler explodes due to extreme pressure, the steam can burn anyone nearby and risks starting a fire. When a boiler fails, a building goes cold. Boiler maintenance is essential for maintaining low boiler costs and preventing disasters. Boiler maintenance costs may or may not be cheaper than repairing a boiler, but knowing these costs is essential to anyone who needs to manage a maintenance budget.

Things You'll Need

• Quotes from boiler cleaning services or heating and ventilation contractors
• Boiler maintenance log

Instructions

Calculate the Costs

1. Find out how often the boiler is supposed to be cleaned for optimal performance. This includes removing soot buildup and cleaning boiler pipes. If the water is "hard" and leaves behind scale, the mineral scale will need to be removed from the inside of the boiler.

2. Research the cost of the boiler cleaning. This can be done by getting quotes from boiler cleaning services or heating and ventilation contractors that perform boiler maintenance. Multiply the cost of boiler cleaning by the number of times the boiler must be cleaned per year to find the total cleaning cost.

3. Determine the cost of a licensed boiler-repair contractor to perform an inspection of the boiler. Boiler maintenance technicians and heating and ventilation contractors can provide references if they cannot perform the inspection themselves. Find out how often they are legally required to inspect the boiler for cracking or damage, verify that safety valves work correctly, ensure that the water-level controls work properly, and check for leaks. Multiply the number of required inspections per year with the cost of each inspection to get a total cost of licensed inspections.

4. 

   A license may be required for a boiler to be installed and kept running.

   Research whether your local jurisdiction requires a license for the boiler inspection or for the boiler to remain in operation. Find out how often the boiler licensing takes place. Add the annual licensing cost to the boiler cleaning and inspection cost.

5. Set a schedule for how often the boiler will be checked. These checks include verifying that the boiler temperature and pressure are within the safe range. Checking and adding lubrication to feed-water pumps may also be required. The results of the boiler check should be noted in a boiler maintenance log. If checks can be done without interfering with other building maintenance tasks, there is no additional cost. If additional labor costs are required or more people are required to cover this duty, add the added annual labor costs to the licensing, inspection, and licensing costs for a total boiler maintenance cost.

Tips & Warnings

• Determine whether softening treatment for water going into the boiler is necessary. If a water softener is needed, find out how much it costs to maintain the water softener. Then add this cost to the other boiler maintenance costs.

• If license renewal is required every few years, divide the cost of the license by years the license is valid for an average cost per year.

• According to "Hot Water Boilers" by Carson Dunlop & Associates, "maintenance costs for high-efficiency boilers are typically much higher than with conventional equipment."

References

• "Hot Water Boilers"; Carson Dunlop & Associates; 2003
• "Heating Boiler Operator's Manual"; Mohammad A. Malek; 2006
• "Handbook of Facility Assessment"; James E. Piper; 2004
• "Energy-Efficient Building Systems"; Lal Jayamaha; 2006

Resources

• "Boiler Operator's Handbook"; Kenneth E. Heselton; 2005
• "Energy Management Handbook"; Steve Doty, Wayne C. Turner; 2009