Optimal settings of residential oil burners

Residential oil burners are capable of almost complete burning of the fuel oil, without visible smoke, when they are operated to deliver approximately 12% CO2 in the flue gases. The positions of the air damper and of the comb ustion nozzle are adjusted at start-up and during operation in order to max imize the combustion efficiency. In practice, one factor at a time is varie d, starting with the air damper. However, this method fails to detect the i nteraction between air excess and nozzle position and results in non-optima l settings. Optimal designed experiments allow obtaining local regression m odels and statistical analyses indicate if experiment augmentation is requi red. The air damper and combustion nozzle settings are changed in the direc tion of local gradient until a second order model that contains the optimal point in its experimental region is obtained. The gain in combustion effic iency thus obtained may be up to 5% as compared with the classical approach . (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.