A method of monitoring the usage of a boiler, a boiler and a boiler usage sensor

摘要

A boiler 100 comprises a combustion chamber 102 in which a fuel is combusted. An electrically powered pressure control means, ideally a fan 120, controls pressure in the combustion chamber. An electrical current supplied to the fan is monitored, thereby monitoring usage of the boiler. Preferably a sensor 126, which may be a transformer sensor, Hall effect sensor or iron vane sensor, is used to detect electrical current supplied to the fan from an external power transmission source 127. The sensor ideally sends readings of electrical current supplied to the fan to a processing unit 130 via a wireless transceiver 132 and the processing unit determines whether the boiler is in an on-state or an off-state based on the readings. Monitoring boiler utilisation by sensing electrical current to the fan requires only simple retro-fitting of a boiler compared with monitoring utilisation by detecting a quantity of fuel received from a fuel source 106 using, for example, a gas usage sensor.