MADISON, Wis. — UnityPoint Health - Meriter has been recognized three times as one of the “100 Top Hospitals” and is part of one of the nation's most integrated health systems. Their dedication to providing comprehensive, coordinated care through clinics, hospital, and home care services for patients located in south central Wisconsin underscores their commitment to every part of the hospital. This includes their boiler plant, where five Miura EX-300 SGO Gas/Oil Series High Pressure Steam Boilers were recently installed, replacing a competitor’s 1200HP and two 600HP units.

“We were first introduced to Miura at an event a few years ago,” explains Ryan Unzicker, Meriter’s facilities manager. “When it came time to replace our units, there were a number of reasons why we switched to Miura.”

Among the reasons Unzicker cited were efficiency, low NO_x, and how quickly the units generated steam — a critical concern in Madison, Wisconsin, where the average winter temperature is about 20 degrees.

“Miura boilers are very efficient compared to the boilers that we replaced,” added Unzicker. “Low NO_x was also an important consideration, but what we really liked was the fact that these boilers recovered very quickly. With Miura’s low-water content design, they start up within a few minutes and begin producing steam. We have been able to put at least 60 pounds of steam (per square inch) in the entire hospital system within about 15 minutes or so, where it used to take the old boilers hours to recover.”

The new Miura boilers gave Meriter the capacity they needed for heat, hot water, sterilization, humidification, and other requirements, while using less fuel and producing fewer emissions than traditional boilers. They were also engineered to fire automatically with Miura’s advanced control system and modulate themselves (step-fired), maintaining pressure as needed and rotating so that all boilers ran about the same number of hours.

Miura’s low-water content boilers have a range of impressive benefits that are attracting a growing number of customers in healthcare and other industries. Among these are improved efficiency (fuel savings average about 20 percent based on customer comments); enhanced reliability through their modular design advanced controls and advanced monitoring; and a safety record with zero catastrophic vessel failures resulting in casualty.

Miura’s modular approach also makes it easy to achieve an N+1 system, a redundancy required for hospitals that enhances overall reliability, since users never sacrifice production due to annual inspections.

Plus Miura’s unconventional design and smaller size provides a number of key advantages including reducing the amount of costly square footage required and making installation and standard maintenance that much simpler.

“Our boiler plant isn't that big,” added Unzicker. “We took three boilers out, a 1200HP and two 600HP boilers and replaced them with five 300HP boilers, and we’re even considering a sixth boiler. I do like the fact that you can get around pretty easily making routine maintenance much simpler.”  

Prior to the installation, Unzicker and his team spent some time at the Miura manufacturing facility in Rockmart, Georgia.

“We went to the factory to see the construction. The thought process as to how the units were built and the engineering process seemed to be extremely well done to me,” explained Unzicker. “I think that the amount of water that flows through the boilers, all the safety features they have, and the control features (which are very simple and straight-forward) make it a quality install and a very reliable system to me. Everything seems to be very well made.”

Miura’s EX Gas/Oil Series High Pressure Steam Boiler is very versatile. The EX design minimizes carryover and produces 99 percent dry saturated steam in less than five minutes from a cold start. Faster start-up means less fuel used, greater savings, and more responsible use of precious natural resources.

Available in 100HP, and in 50HP increments up to 300HP models, the EX Series design consists of rows of vertical tubes sandwiched between two round headers. Both headers are encased in a castable refractory with only the tubes exposed to flame and/or combustion gases. The upper header is attached to the lower header only by the tubes. As the tubes expand and contract, the headers float up and down accordingly.

The ‘floating header’ concept allows for even thermal expansion of the tubes, therefore reducing stress points within the boiler.” The ‘leaky tube’ problems associated with firetube and bent watertube designs have been eliminated.

The main mechanical contractor for the UnityPoint Health - Meriter project was AMS Steam Products of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hot Water Products Inc.

“We enjoyed working with the folks at AMS,” acknowledged Unzicker. “They are very knowledgeable. I think one of the good things about the Miura system is that it’s integrated and easy to work on, so you don't have to have a bunch of different crafts trying to work on a boiler.  It's good to have a couple mechanics that can do the whole thing.” 

As far as recommending Miura to other hospitals, Unzicker has already taken that step.

“We recently had an open house here at the boiler plant,” added Unzicker. “I think it was record attendance because all of these guys like going to these open houses and seeing new equipment. We had quite a few touring the boiler plant, and I got a lot of acknowledgement about how well and how good the plant looked and operated, and I think Miura probably picked up some sales interest. I certainly would recommend them.”

For more information, visit www.american-boilers.com or www.miuraboiler.com.

Publication date: 8/7/2017

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