Flue Draft Regulators

Draft regulators are used for the proper operation and efficient fuel consumption in oil, gas or dual fuel boilers. Draft regulators maintain consistent draft by counteracting the negative forces caused by changes in temperature and barometric pressure as well as the effects of wind.

The primary task of flue system is to produce a sufficient draft to carry combustion by-products away and disperse them to the atmosphere. Since the flue is an integral part of the system, its design and arrangement of parts have a significant effect on achieving efficiency. The strength of the flue draft is governed by several factors including exterior wind speed, temperature and pressure as well as internal factors like boiler capacity, exhaust gas temperature and flue height.

Regardless of what fuel is used; oil, gas or solids, a consistent draft should be maintained at all times. Combustion is simply a chemical reaction that produces heat as a by-product. The fuel to air ratio for complete and efficient combustion is fixed, any deviation will result in fuel wastage or inefficient heat exchange. It’s the draft regulators job to ensure the exhaust end of the system doesn’t prevent the combustion reaction from reaching completion.

Modern hot water heaters are set up to achieve maximum efficiency and much of the heat of combustion is recovered from the flue gasses by several passes over the heat exchanger this makes the job of the flue draft regulator especially important to ensure the by-product gasses of the reaction are expelled by use of the pressure difference between the system and the outside environment.