Most boiler houses lose tens of kilowatts through bare back plates, economizers and valves. We measure it with FLIR, model it in 3D, and show exactly what removable insulation gives back — surface by surface.
FLIR-measured, not estimatedISO 12241 heat lossUp to 96% reductionSurface ≤45 °C
In a boiler house the hottest surfaces are the ones engineers open most — doors, valves, pumps, manways. Traditional insulation blocks that access, gets stripped off to service the equipment, and rarely goes back. The high heat-loss components stay permanently exposed.
01 · Sagging soft blankets
Lose contact with the surface
Wraps collapse inward and lose contact with the surface. Hot spots grow inside — unnoticed.
02 · Aluminium boxes skipped
Cut open, never reinstalled
Cut open for every inspection. Heavy, rigid, and rarely reinstalled — so the surface stays bare.
03 · Never insulated
Nothing off-the-shelf fits
Boiler doors, manways and pump bodies — nothing off-the-shelf fits.
The Inzonex answer
Engineered to fit, fasten and serve
One access problem, solved. Three details that let modular removable insulation keep performing on boiler-house hot surfaces — doors, valves, pumps and manways — year after year.
Easy installation · Snap-button fastening
Opens by hand in seconds
Stainless snap buttons fasten and release each module by hand — no tools, no fixings drilled into the equipment. Modules go on fast at install and unclip in seconds for valve operation, manway access or inspection, then snap back exactly.
Serviceable · reliable · Zip-out core
Renew the core, keep the module
The module unzips so the mineral-wool core lifts out — to clean the outer fabric or renew the insulation without scrapping the whole module. The shell stays in service; only the core is replaced, so the module lasts for years.
Modular · form-fitting
Follows the equipment's shape
Modular sections connect to one another and wrap the exact geometry — boiler doors, valves, flanges and pump bodies — minimising creases and gaps that leave hot bridges or let moisture sit. The tailored fit holds the surface ≤45 °C and survives repeated access.
The engineering
How a steam boiler loses heat — and where
A package boiler running at 6–10 bar sits at a saturation temperature around 165–185 °C. Every bare surface at that temperature is a continuous heat pump into the boiler-house air. Three mechanisms move that heat — and standards exist to quantify each.
Convection
A hot bare surface warms the air right next to it, and any draught carries that warm air away. A real boiler house always has some air movement (≈0.5 m/s), which pushes the loss well above the still-air textbook figure — so we use that, not zero.
Radiation
At 120–180 °C the bare metal also radiates heat away as infrared — this happens even in completely still air. We add that radiation explicitly (ε≈0.9 for bare steel); a single lumped coefficient under-counts it on hot surfaces.
Where it concentrates
Economizer, back plate, valves, flanges and the boiler door, burner flange and pumps — the large or awkward shapes a standard jacket skips. On the surveyed Cochran these few surfaces hold most of the 49.8 kW.
Method: ISO 12241 / ASTM C680 steady-state, convection at 0.5 m/s plus explicit radiation. “Touch-safe” means a clad surface at ≤45 °C (ISO 13732-1 contact-burn guidance for metal). These are the same equations behind every number on this site.
Data: FLIR survey of a UK commercial boiler house, CAD surface areas ×1.4, ISO 12241 steady-state. Author: Dmytro Aheiev (ORCID 0009-0001-5512-0291), Inzonex.
Start with a 3D model
Pick a boiler, then walk its surfaces
Each model is built from our own CAD and a real thermal survey. Rotate it, toggle bare vs insulated, and open a measured page for every surface.
Pick a boiler. Each surveyed surface becomes a page that answers a real engineering question with FLIR temperatures and ISO 12241 heat loss — then links back here.
Bosch ZFR — double-flame-tube (twin furnace). Open the 3D model and walk each view — bare ↔ insulated slider on every surface. Total 53.4 → 4.0 kW (−93%).
Per-component bare loss: Door 32.9 · Burner flange 11.0 · Metal frame ×4 4.9 · Safety valves ×2 3.0 · Hatch 1.5 kW. Volkswagen heat-loss study, ISO 12241.
Proof · real install
See it on a real boiler house
A Bosch steam boiler insulated end-to-end — door, burner flange and steam valves. FLIR-verified surfaces from up to 190 °C down to touch-safe. The measured before / after:
Before · bare door, 96 °C (FLIR)After · insulated, 30 °C — touch-safe
The first step is never rip-and-replace. It is closing the bare spots a standard jacket leaves behind, on the surfaces that pay back fastest.
Survey, don’t guess. A FLIR pass finds the real hot spots and their temperatures — the basis for any honest number.
Start with the boiler door, back plate and economizer (if it has no aluminium cladding). Largest area × highest temperature = fastest payback, and the surfaces most often left completely bare.
Then the hottest fittings. The 3 manholes, the boiler supports and the safety valves run hottest (~180 °C) and lose the most per m²; removable modules insulate them yet still open for access.
Insulate access points removably. Manholes, boiler doors, pumps and strainers must stay serviceable — fixed lagging gets cut off and never returns, so use removable modules that unbutton in seconds.
Leave safety-critical parts clear. A safety valve’s spring, lift, drain and discharge stay uncovered; only the body and standing pipe are insulated.
Verify touch-safe. Target ≤45 °C on the insulated surface — confirms both the energy saving and the removed burn hazard.
FLIR — bare manhole, 178.7 °C. A thermal pass is step one: it shows exactly which surfaces are losing heat, and how hot, before a single module is made.
Up to 96% heat-loss reduction on a fully insulated surface; surface temperature ≤45 °C; payback typically under two years. UK patent application GB2508992.1.
Get your free assessment
See what your boiler house could save
Three quick questions — we reply with a measured 3D before/after and an interactive ROI built for your boiler. No call, no spreadsheet.
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FAQ
Boiler-house insulation — quick answers
How much heat does a bare industrial boiler lose?
On a surveyed Cochran package boiler, 28 bare hot components lose about 49.8 kW continuously (FLIR-measured, ISO 12241). Removable insulation cuts that to ~2.6 kW — roughly a 95% reduction.
Can boiler doors, valves and pumps be insulated if they need regular access?
Yes. Inzonex modular panels are shaped to each part and unbutton in seconds, so boiler doors, valves, manways and pumps stay insulated and serviceable — unlike rigid cladding, which gets cut off at the first service and rarely replaced.
What surface temperature do you reach after insulation?
Below 45 °C — touch-safe under ISO 13732-1 — down from 120–190 °C on the bare metal.
How fast is the payback on boiler-house insulation?
Typically under two years; on high-loss boiler houses it is often 9–12 months.
Which boilers can you insulate?
Any make or type — Cochran, Bosch UL-S, Bosch ZFR and others; steam, hot-water and thermal-oil boilers.
What does an Inzonex boiler survey include?
A FLIR thermal survey of your boiler house and a measured 3D before/after model with energy, money and CO₂ saved per component.
Stop heating the boiler house
Send photos and equipment data for one boiler — we return a measured before/after model and your verified saving in 7–10 days. Free.
