Mark Walton, sales director at Specialist Heating and Cooling Hire firm, Watkins Hire, explains the options for temporary boiler hire and offers some advice on hiring temporary boilers – both for companies that think they will need to and companies that think they won’t!
Whether you’re using your boiler as an integral part of your manufacturing process or simply for heating the plant and offices on site it’s a business critical asset and, as such, will tend to be well-maintained. However, no matter how fastidiously the boiler is maintained and how efficiently it is serviced during summer shut down, the hard truth is it can break down suddenly with no warning and no apparent cause.
A pair of steam boiler supporting a hospital
What’s more, while older boilers may be at greater risk from increased wear and tear newer boilers also carry some risk. And when that risk could equate to tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds for just a few hours of having the boiler out of action, putting a contingency in place to get things back up and running is not just sound business planning, it’s basic common sense.
The fact remains, however, that many industrial companies do not have an effective contingency plan in place, presumably because boiler breakdown hasn’t happened to them yet and they are hoping it never will. Years ago, this would have been acceptable as most plants in the 1960’s and 1970’s had standby boilers as standard practice. When those assets were replaced in the 1980s however, pressure to reduce capital expenditure meant that the standby boiler was often not replaced when the duty boiler was renewed, leaving plants more vulnerable to business interruption issues due to boiler breakdown. And if we look at the situation today, many of those boilers installed in the 1980s are still in place after 20 or 30 years service and they are leaving plants more vulnerable than ever to unplanned stoppages and expensive down time.
Preparing for the Worst
The key to managing this issue is to plan ahead what you would do if the boiler broke down, even if you think it’s unlikely to happen. While the preference might be to have the boiler repaired as quickly as possible, in the real world this could take days or even longer – all time when production, and therefore profit, is being lost. In fact, planning a boiler hire strategy will take very little time and should be a cost-free option as most hire firms will carry out a site audit free of charge and help the customer to plan what type of equipment they would need in the event of a boiler breakdown. Organising this in advance of any equipment hire requirements is simple and could save vital hours if the boiler ever does break down. That’s because the boiler rental company will not only have specified something appropriate in advance, but will also have considered elements like access restrictions, a suitable site for the temporary boiler equipment and site-specific health and safety issues.
A pair of 500kw lphw rental boilers providing heating and hotwater to a retail shop
With the site audit in place, all that’s required if the boiler breaks down is a phone call to the hire equipment provider who will organise everything as per the pre-agreed plan. There is, however, more that can be done ahead of time to ensure that the hire equipment can be installed and commissioned as quickly as possible once that call has been made. By ensuring that the existing boiler pipework has a docking station – where water supply, power supply, fuel connection and drainage points are already prepared for a temporary boiler to be installed – the plant can save days on the installation time. While it is good practice for a docking station to be pre-installed when a permanent boiler is commissioned, it is a relatively simple task to have one retro-fitted to the existing pipework even if this is not the case. By doing this, the plant’s management team could have a temporary boiler up and running within a day of their main boiler’s breakdown, whereas connecting the hire boiler to the pipework without a docking station is likely to take several days.
Selecting the Right Technology
While any hire company completing an audit of your plant will be able to recommend the most appropriate temporary boiler solution for the environment, it is useful to understand the types of technology available. There are three generic kinds of temporary boiler for industrial use: steam boilers, low pressure hot water boilers and medium to high pressure hot water boilers.
Steam boilers are most likely to be specified where there is a process requirement for steam; for heating chemicals for example. The Steam boiler hire market has continued to grow over the past four years, though the effect of the recession on manufacturing and industrial markets has seen this growth decline over the past year. The probability that some part of a steam plant will cause an interruption while in service at least once during any 12 month period is about 20%, so regardless of the economic downturn, plants that require steam in order to operate should plan ahead for the installation of a temporary steam boiler as part of their business continuity strategy.
Temporary low pressure hot water boilers are used to produce both heat and hot water and this type of temporary solution can also be used for a plant’s process requirements if the process requires hot water. Equally, they are sometimes used simply to replace the heating and domestic hot water within a plant. While the process itself may not depend on the installation of a temporary hire boiler in this scenario, as the plant must remain warm enough for staff to work and provide hot water for hygiene it can still be considered business critical, particularly during the winter months.
Finally, medium to high pressure hot water boilers are utilised to provide district heating and process heating where higher temperatures and pressure are required.
Practical Solutions
Whatever your requirements, temporary boilers are available in a wide range of sizes – from 22kw portable electric Low pressure hot water boilers upto 3 megawatt high pressure high temperature boiler running on Natural gas or diesel, Steam boilers are also available in a wide range of sizes – from 250-hr/hr to 16000-kg/hr with working pressure upto 24 bar, the contingency planning site survey will ensure that you hire the right type and capacity for your needs. Costs are likely to be within the £300 – £4,000 per week range which is a negligible cost when compared to the cost of lost production while the boiler is out of action.
22kw portable electric boiler
It’s worth noting too that temporary boiler hire can be a useful resource at any time, not just when there is an emergency boiler breakdown situation. Temporary boilers are often used to provide additional capacity at peak production times, to keep the plant operational during routine maintenance or to test a new production line. In many cases, long term hire of a ‘temporary’ boiler can even be a more attractive alternative than installing a new permanent boiler, as the capital outlay is replaced by predictable monthly costs and an integral service contract with the hire provider.
All too often, temporary boiler hire is seen as a distress purchase. In fact it should be used as a business continuity and asset optimisation solution to ensure that potential loss of production can be largely avoided.
Does your company operate from Multiple Office locations and do you want a single point of contact for your entire specialist HVAC hire requirements? Our dedicated National Accounts team can help.
- National Accounts 07500 788345 – Email Nick Campey
- National Accounts 07787 518171 – Email Terry Stevens-Smith
