Southeastern Health Switches to Miura Boilers for Quick Steam, Energy Savings, and Easy Maintenance

When it came time to change out their steam plant, Joe Buri, Director of Facility Services at Southeastern Health, which has a history that dates back to 1906, initially planned to go with the traditional boilers they were using.

But after attending a North Carolina Healthcare Engineer Association conference, he became intrigued with Miura’s boilers, which produce steam in less than 5 minutes, substantially reduce energy costs, and were easier to maintain.

After speaking with colleagues who had made the switch, Mr. Buri and his team decided that the hospital, which today provides services to more than 16,000 inpatients and 65,000 emergency patients annually, would add its name to the growing number of healthcare and other facilities that choose Miura.

“Miura boilers were unique in both design and concept,” explained Buri. “They were vertical and lacked the traditional hand/man holes most of us were used to. They also had the ability to make steam very quickly and teardown for inspection could be accomplished in hours by one person. With some of these unique abilities it required further investigation by our team.

“After doing our own research, we visited hospitals that had chosen Miura. Our engineering staff and design engineer came away impressed with the versatility of the boilers from an operational perspective, and also the ease of maintenance. After further investigation we became believers that these little units could do the job and we designed the new plant around Miura Boilers.”

Working with Boiler Masters Inc., based in North Carolina, the hospital installed four EX-200 SGO Gas/Oil Series High Pressure Steam Boilers in their energy plant and a single 100HP unit in an off-site laundry.

“The four boilers provided us with an economical way to maximize our usage of the boilers. And being quick steamers also allowed us to completely shut off boilers that were not needed but could be ready and on-line in minutes. We have had good success with these units and have reduced our fuel usage by 20% while adding additional load at the same time. The boiler in the laundry is used only for production. It shuts down every night and weekend saving almost 40% from the previous year.”

Muira’s EX Gas/Oil Series High Pressure Steam Boilers are the most versatile industrial steam boilers in the world. The EX design minimizes carryover and produces 99% dry saturated steam in less than 5 minutes from a cold start. Faster start-up means less fuel used, greater savings, and more responsible use of precious natural resources.

EX Series are available in 100HP, and in 50 HP increments up to 300HP models. The unique 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.

Miura’s low-water content boilers have a range of impressive benefits, including enhanced reliability through their modular design, advanced controls, and advanced monitoring; and a best-in-industry safety record with zero catastrophic vessel failures resulting in casualty.

“Miura’s unique technology allowed us to stage boilers based upon load, and their quick recovery became an important key in giving us the flexibility and also the savings that we were looking for,” explained Buri. “They’re also quick to go from gas to oil and we’ve done that several times without a hitch.  Plus the ease of the maintenance is another key point that we enjoy. We’ve had essentially no problems with Miura.”

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

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.

“After doing our homework, we came away as believers that these small, compact Miura boilers could do the job.  They certainly did and it made the design of our plant a lot easier.  We were able to get this much horsepower into a little space and create a much more efficient plant than what we had before, added Buri. “I know our staff is pleased with them.  We’re used to them now and I’m pretty glad that our team ventured out and had an open mind to look for something new and different.  I think other people ought to as well.”

The main mechanical contractor for the Southeastern Health was Boiler Masters of Greensboro, NC, a company that has been serving the energy needs of hospitals and other facilities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia since 1980.

“We’ve partnered up with Boiler Masters very well, said Buri. “They’ve done a great job with us.  We have them working on other initiatives, with some of our other buildings off campus.  In fact, we’re working with them right now to pull out one of the old boilers that have been decommissioned to make room for another Miura EX-200.

Overall, Mr. Buri is very pleased that he switched from a traditional boiler name and went with Miura for quick steam, versatility and ease of maintenance.

“The Miura boilers have performed better than expected and I know our staff is extremely pleased.”

About Miura America Co., Ltd.

Miura Boiler was founded in 1927 and has grown to be one of the largest industrial steam boiler manufacturers in the world. Forward-thinking companies in North America, who want to conserve oil and gas resources while saving money and reducing emissions have embraced Miura Boiler technology resulting in the accelerated growth of Miura’s market share. The company is already the market leader in Asian countries.