January 31, 2005—Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, North American Commercial and Institutional Boilers Market, selected AERCO International, Inc. as the recipient of the 2004 Technology Leadership Award for leading the way in high efficiency boiler technology.
Every year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in technology leadership within its industry. The award recognizes the recipient’s excellence in all stages of the technology life cycle—incubation, adaptation, take-up, and maturity—to ensure a continuous flow of improvements.
“AERCO was the first company in the North American boilers market to develop and manufacture fully modulating and condensing high-efficiency boilers that enable remarkable energy savings for users,” says Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Jorge Moreno. “The company has since preserved its reputation as the leader in developing and exploring high efficiency boiler technology.”
In designing its high-efficiency boilers, AERCO aimed to develop a way for customers to quickly change the firing input levels. For this, the company realized that it had to produce its own boiler components and take the lead in research and development.
The first effort— the KC-1000 model—was launched in 1987 and was the only high-efficiency boiler built in North America that was designed to condense and fully modulate at a 14 to 1 turn down rate. In contrast, the traditional on and off boiler types are set up to burn at maximum capacity when the boiler is turned on.
In 1998, AERCO introduced the Benchmark model, which was able to satisfy the growing need for large applications using high-efficiency technology. Not only did the company successfully increase the capacity of its existing high-efficiency boiler but it also managed to improve the firing rate to an impressive 20 to 1 turn down rate – a rate that is yet to be matched by any competitor in the industry.
With such a high turn down rate, the Benchmark—which has the capacity of 2 million British thermal units (BTUs)/hour—automatically adjusts to satisfy demand as low as 100,000 BTUs/hour and, as a result, precisely matches end users’ needs to deliver up to 98 percent thermal efficiency.
Part of AERCO’s success in developing high-efficiency technology is attributable to its patented air fuel valve that was designed to enable its boilers to have extremely stable combustion levels over the entire operating range.
For more information, contact AERCO.
