Furnaces, home

Table I reveals that a number of processes, which are widespread, have quite low rijj when compared with the rest of the processes shown. These processes are inferior technology and work is needed to improve or replace them. Considering those with an njj less than 20 percent, the following are indicated home gas furnace, home oil furnace, home electric resistance heater, home electric hot water heater, home gas water heater, electric refrigerator, electric air conditioner, electric clothes dryer, gas clothes dryer, incandescent lamp and fluorescent lamp. Notice that all of these processes are the utilization processes which, with the exception of lighting, have not received the R D support at the level our other systems have.

This category comprises conventional LPG (commercial propane and butane), home-heating oil and heavy fuels. All these materials are used to produce thermal energy in equipment whose size varies widely from small heaters or gas stoves to refinery furnaces. Without describing the requirements in detail for each combustion system, we will give the main specifications for each of the different petroleum fuels. 

Domestic fuel oils are those used primarily in the home and include kerosene, stove oil, and furnace fuel oil. Diesel fuel oils are also distillate fuel oils, but residual oils have been successhjlly used to power marine diesel engines, and mixtures of distillates and residuals have been used on locomotive diesels. Heavy fuel oils include a variety of oils, ranging from distillates to residual oils, that must be heated to 260°C or higher before they can be used. In general, heavy fuel oil consists of residual oil blended with distillate to suit specific needs. Heavy fuel oil includes various industrial oils and, when used to fuel ships, is called bunker oil. 

The predominant air pollution problem of the nineteenth century was smoke and ash from fhe burning of coal or oil in the boiler furnaces of stationary power plants, locomotives, and marine vessels, and in home heating fireplaces and furnaces. Great Britain took the lead in addressing this problem, and, in the words of Sir Hugh Beaver (3) ... 

Even though society has moved toward centralized industries and utilities, we still have many personal sources of air pollution for which we alone can answer—(1) automobiles, (2) home furnaces, (3) home fireplaces and stoves, (4) backyard barbecue grills, and (5) open burning of refuse and leaves. Figure 6-4 illustrates the personal emissions of a typical U.S. family. 

To develop an emission inventory for an area, one must (1) list the types of sources for the area, such as cupolas, automobiles, and home fireplaces (2) determine the type of air pollutant emission from each of the listed sources, such as particulates and SO2 (3) examine the literature (9) to find valid emission factors for each of the pollutants of concern (e.g., "particulate emissions for open burning of tree limbs and brush are 10 kg per ton of residue consumed") (4) through an actual count, or by means of some estimating technique, determine the number and size of specific sources in the area (the number of steelmaking furnaces can be counted, but the number of home fireplaces will probably have to be estimated) and (5) multiply the appropriate numbers from (3) and (4) to obtain the total emissions and then sum the similar emissions to obtain the total for the area. 

Furnaces and boilers are devices that burn fuel to space heat homes, offiees, and industrial facilities. Natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and heating oil are the dominant fuels used for furnaces and boilers. In the United States, furnaces and boilers burning gas and oil take care of over 75 percent of all space heating. 

Some new features of furnaces available today include variable speed blowers, which deliver warm air more slowly and more quietly when less heat is needed, and variable heat output from the burner, which when combined with the variable speed blower allows for more continuous heating than the typical fixed firing rate. Distribution system features can be sophisticated with zoned heating which employs a number of thermostats, a sophisticated central controller, and a series of valves or dampers that direct airflow or water to different parts of the home only when needed in those areas. 

Conventional hot-air furnaces, similar to those found in homes, are often used in laboratories. A university campus or an industrial plant may have steam available, which can be conveniently put to use for heating. 

The energy involved in chemical reactions is often as important as the chemical products. For example, the fuel used in home furnaces and in automobiles is used solely for their energy content, and not for the chemical products of their combustion. The measurement of energy is discussed in Sec. 18.2, heat capacity is discussed in Sec. 18.3, the energy involved in changes of phase is treated in Sec. 18.4, and the energy involved in physical and chemical processes is taken up in Sec. 18.5. 

No. 2 fuel oil is a petroleum distillate that may be referred to as domestic fuel oil or industrial fuel oil. Domestic fuel oil is usually lighter and straight-run refined it is used primarily for home heating and to produce diesel fuel. Industrial distillate is the cracked type, or a blend of straight-run and cracked. It is used in smelting furnaces, ceramic kilns, and packaged boilers. 

Suppose that you are having a new home built in a rural area, where natural gas is not available. You have two choices for fuelling your furnace ... 

Nearly all the different forms of coal are used in some way or other. For instance, peat has been used for burning in furnaces, lignite is used in power station and home stoves, whereas bitiuninous coal is nsed extensively for the generation of electricity. Coke is used primarily in the steel industry, where high temperatures are required. 

Prior to being banned in 1976, PCB-1254 was used in home appliances including air conditioners, furnaces, washers, and driers. May have been added to automotive transmission oils to swell shrunken transmission seals in place (Monsanto, 1960). 

Asbestos-containing insulation has also been used on furnace ducts. Most asbestos pipe insulation in homes is preformed to fit around various diameter pipes. This type of asbestos-containing insulation was manufactured from 1920 to 1972. Renovation and home improvements may expose and disturb the asbestos-containing materials. 

Cresols have been identified as components of automobile exhaust (Hampton et al. 1982 Johnson et al. 1989 Seizinger and Dimitriades 1972), and may volatilize from gasoline and diesel fuels used to power motor vehicles. Vehicular traffic in urban and suburban settings provides a constant source of cresols to the atmosphere. Hence, urban and suburban populations may be constantly exposed to atmospheric cresols. Cresols are also emitted to ambient air during the combustion of coal (Junk and Ford 1980), wood (Hawthorne et al. 1988, 1989), municipal solid waste (James et al. 1984 Junk and Ford 1980), and cigarettes (Arrendale et al. 1982 Novotny et al. 1982). Therefore, residents near coal- and petroleum-fueled electricity- generating facilities, municipal solid waste incinerators, and industries with conventional furnace operations or large-scale incinerators may be exposed to cresols in air. People in residential areas where homes are heated with coal, oil, or wood may also be exposed to cresols in air. 

This is frequently the required mode of operation for fast oxidation reactions because the heat release is too fast to provide efficient heat exchange. Most combustion processes are nearly adiabatic (your home furnace and your automobile engine), and many catalytic oxidation processes such as NH3 oxidation in HNO3 synthesis are nearly adiabatic. 

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