March 12th, 2021

West Side Federation for Senior & Supportive Housing Decades Later

Introduction

West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing (WSFSSH) was founded in 1976 by a coalition of social service agencies religious institutions, and community organizations.

Thanks to Accardi Companies, after 25 years, three PK-THERMIFICS  have provided constant and efficient water heat to multiple buildings within the WSFSSH.

Challenges

In early 2020, the two Thermific-N900’s started to experience ignition/flame failures. Accardi Companies technicians determined the boilers were igniting reliably and combustion was tuned properly, but the original flame rod monitoring system on the steel core burner was not reliably monitoring and reporting back to the flame signal. Additionally, there was a concern with a D1900-2 unit due to the staff reporting water leaking onto the floor.

Patterson-Kelley Solution

While both N900 units and the D1900-2 Thermific still were in operational shape due to timely and routine preventative maintenance done by WSFSSH, minor upgrades were made to improve unit operation, bringing the appliance into the 21st century.

Efficiency

The PK Thermific N900’s flame rod monitoring system on the steel core burner was replaced. After installation, there was an immediate improvement in the flame signal strength at solid 5.0V. With these replacements, both Patterson-Kelley units were able to achieve 84.8% and 83.4% efficiency 25 years later. In addition, the decision was also made to upgrade the D1900-2 Thermific from the flame rod monitoring system to UV flame monitoring technology. When this water heater left the Patterson-Kelley factory in 1997, its operating efficiency was 85%. 23 years later, this water heater is able to achieve 85.6% efficiency.

Download the Complete West Side Federation for Senior & Supportive Housing Case Study Here.