Commercial Electric Boilers

Commercial electric boiler / Industrial electric boilers – are compact electrically powered heating devices designed for heating anything from large residential properties to commercial and industrial buildings, with a three phase, 400 Volt electricity supply. The boilers heat water, just like a gas or oil boiler, and this water is pumped around the building giving off its heat via heat emitters such as radiators, underfloor heating, unit heaters or trench heating, in what is normally referred to as a traditional ” wet ” heating system or a hydronic heating system. Needing no flues, these powerful electric commercial and industrial boilers are over 99.5% Gross Calorific Value efficient.

With the continual push to reduce carbon emissions and to accelerate sustainability within the commercial and industrial heating sectors, a commercial electric boiler, when coupled with a zero emissions electric source such as wind or solar generated environmentally friendly electricity, they are the perfect solution for a commercial or industrial heating system that is emission free, with green energy and not reliant on fossil fuels.

There is also an argument for nuclear generated electricity to be classed as zero emissions or green energy, as no CO2 is added to the environment whilst producing the electricity but some people say nuclear energy cannot be considered truly renewable because it relies on a fuel. These fuel rods tend to be either Uranium or Plutonium, that are not only highly processed and refined, but also are not replenished by incoming solar energy or biological processes, like wind, solar, tidal, and biomass are. But this is not our argument to come down on one side or the other, it’s up for you to decide this.

We have two ranges of commercial and industrial electric boilers –

1. The Thermo Max range – this range has full BMS compatibility (ModBus or 0 to 10 Volt control)  and is easy to cascade without any additional controllers – just a simple 2.5mm cable between boilers. We can cascade these units up to 5MW in heat output.
2. Our “FHEB” range – more limited controllability for BMS systems (only on/ off via volt free contacts and thats it) they can be cascaded, but a sperate controller and more electrical wiring is required. These are ideally suited to “one off “ boiler installation as such, for cascading and BMS systems use the Thermo Max range, it’s a much more capable electric boiler and easier to install.

Thermo Max Industrial / Commerical Electric Boilers Range – 120 kW to 500 kW

The Thermo Max range of industrial electric boilers are 100% efficient central heating boilers suitable for wet heating systems such as radiator, unit heaters or underfloor heating. The power output of this range is from 120kW to 500kW, with 8 models covering this range. They are suitable for heating systems with a maximum temperature of 90 Degrees C, and a maximum working water pressure of 6 Bar. The Thermo Max range of commercial and industrial electric boilers is designed to operate in sealed heating systems only – not open vent, and subsequently you should ensure that an adequate heating expansion vessel is installed.

The boilers are well made, for example the water heating chamber is manufactured from 4mm steel and tested to a hydraulic pressure of 8 Bar. The immersion heaters or heating elements used in these boilers are manufactured from stainless steel Incoloy 800, which ensures a long product life cycle. The outer casing is manufactured from 1.5mm steel and is finished with an electrostatic plastic coating, which ensures good durability.

Features –

• 8 models within this range of commercial and industrial electric boilers- consisting of either a 120 kW electric boiler, 150 kW electric boiler,180 kW electric boiler, 210 kW electric boiler, 255 kW electric boiler, 300 kW electric boiler, 400 kW electric boiler, and finally a 500 kW electric boiler. They can also be used in cascade for large kW outputs. For example, two 500 kW electric boilers can be used to make as such “one” 1,000 kW electric boiler. Cascading electric boilers has some benefits of redundancy and also normally better heat load matching to the heating system requirements to name just a few.
• They do not come with a heating pump or expansion vessel, and these should be sized according to your wet heating system requirements for your site.
• These industrial electric boilers can be used in a cascade installation – ensuring that larger power requirements can be satisfied – there is no actual limit of the number of boilers that can be connected together but we recommend a maximum of 10 boilers – thus up to 5 MW of output per cascade.
• These electric boilers have either 7 step output control for the 120kW model or 15 step output control from the 150 kW to 500 kW models. This is referred to as PID regulation, and ensures that automatic modulation of the boilers power to suit the heating systems requirements.

Technical Data for Thermo Max Electric Boilers

Please note as standard these boilers are suitable for continual running at a flow temperature of 90C maximum.

Electric Boiler Output Modulation -These Themo Max electric boilers have either 30,15 7 or power output stages or heating output levels

This is important to know – for example – the 400kW boiler can be set to a maximum output of 399 kw but also as low as 15 kW – as you can see from the below chart – Page 11 of the manual – in essence the boiler covers many different output requirements – thus you can set the maximum output of the boiler to say stage 25 – i.e. 339 kW maximum output, and the boiler will ramp up and down these heat output stages to suit the heating system requirements  

 

The boiler will also ramp up and down the above power levels to your set kW output , according to the heating system requirements

Thus, our 400kW and 500 kW electric boilers have a 30:1 turndown / modulation ratio , the 150kW to 300kW models have a 15:1 turndown / modulation ratio whilst the smalller 120kW commercial electric boiler has a 7:1 turndown ratio.

This means our maximum recommended cascade configuration of 5MW – would have an incredible 300:1 modulation ratio, which ensures close heat load matching and reduced energy consumption of the heating system.

Ultimately this electric commercial boiler range can cover many kW output requirements.

Control Panel

The standard electronic control panel has a frost protection system, that ensures if the temperature of the water in the boiler drops below 7 degrees C , then the boiler will automatically switch on the immersion heaters to ensure the water temperature is increased to 7 degrees to prevent freezing .This frost protection system works even if the boiler control panel has been switched off. The control panel is conveniently situated on the front of the boiler, with no user controls are situated withing the boiler casing. Pump seized/ lock protection is also standard on this controller.

Our new “X” panel available from January 2024 is a “one and all” control panel – with all the options of weather compensation (an external temperature sensor is required), and control of a DHW indirect cylinder all in one panel.

It is a touch screen panel (lcd display), that has various language options – English, German, etc

The new “X” control panel has the following features

The BMS compatible control panel specifics/functions are:

Inputs:

Two temperature sensors

Safety thermostats switch off.

0-10 Volt analogue signal for set point temp or % of power output

On/off signal

Outputs:

Error signal

0-10V temperature signal or % of power (power steps)

Modbus TCP: RJ45 connection, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) which is a client/server protocol that automatically provides an Internet Protocol (IP) host with its IP address and other related configuration information such as the subnet mask and default gateway.

Power steps limiter, amps drawn limiter.

The control panel also has a maintenance reminder and estimated power consumption.

This control panel that gives the boilers the facility to be weather compensated, thus providing greater energy savings for the heating system, and will control the production of domestic hot water via an indirect cylinder or calorifier.

This range of electric boilers also have water level sensors that ensure the boiler will not switch on the heating elements, should there be no water present withing the boiler or if the boiler hasn’t been fully vented from air.

The warranty period for these industrial and commercial electric boilers is 12 Months, from date of invoice.

Download the industrial and commercial electric boilers – Thermomax Boiler brochure from Flexiheat UK

Download the Industrial Electric Boilers ThermoMax 120 kW to 500kW Install Manual with X control panel from February 2024

Download the commissioning and maintenance instructions for the Thermo Max range of electric boilers 

Download Industrial Electric Boilers – ThermoMax 120 kW to 500kW Install Manual prior to 2024 – Flexiheat UK

FHEB Commercial electric boiler range 

The “FHEB”  commercial electric boiler range isn’t as easy to cascade as our Thermo Max boiler range, in that an additional cascade controller is required, whereby our Thermo Max range control “X” control panel has this feature built in as standard, and just requires a 2.5mm cable “daisy chained” from one boiler to the next up to a maximum of ten electric boilers, giving a total potential heating output of 5mW.

These “FHEB” units also lack full BMS compatibility, that you get with our Thermo Max units, in that they can only accept a remote Start/Stop signal via volt free conatcts to the the boiler, the Therom Max unit can directly take Modbus BMS signals for example.

They are a less capable boiler compared to the Thermo max range, but nevertheless suit one off boiler jobs very well, where full BMS compatibility is not required.

 

 

Whether it be for heating a larger home or when used in a commercial heating system, electric boilers are prized because they are easier to clean and service than gas or oil-fired boilers and normally benefit from lower installation costs and are often easier to install in small boiler rooms or hard to reach spaces. They are also safer, as no carbon monoxide or any other combustion by products are produced by commercial electric boilers and have silent operation when in use.

Commercial electric hot water boilers

There are always discussions with regards to – At what output does an electric boiler become a “commercial electric boiler” and should be referred to as a commercial electric boiler. There is no hard and fast rule for this, but generally in the boiler market any boiler with an output above 50 kW is generally referred to as a commercial boiler. At what point they stop being commercial electric boilers and become industrial electric boilers, is really down to your opinion, as yet again there are no hard and fast rules for this either.

Ultimately commercial electric hot water boilers , use electricity to produce efficient, clean and safe water heating for a central heating system via heating elements. This heating method is preferred by many because, since it lacks the element of combustion, it poses no potential complications or dangers with regards to gas piping (and the inherent dangers of a gas leak), venting of the products of combustion and thus the elimination of carbon monoxide poisoning. In the case of water heating for a wet heating system, recent developments in electric water heating technology has allowed for more rapid heating and more consistent temperatures for the heating system.

The two smallest units that we do are available in either a 50 kW or 60 kW Output, and are suitable for heating systems with a pressure up to 3 Bar, after this size the boilers are rated up to 4 Bar pressure.

Technical Specification –

For the full technical details on the two above electric commercial boilers, including full dimensions and boiler clearances, please download the brochure below –

Download the 50kW-60kW Commercial boilers electric technical brochure from Flexiheat UK

Download FHEB 50-100 kW Electric boiler installation and maintenance manual Flexiheat UK

We also do a range of wall mounted commercial electric boilers that are wall mounted , and used in a cascade boiler configuration, for more details on this range of electric boilers, please click Wall Mounted Electric Commercial Boilers

Commercial electric boilers for hydronic heating

We do a full range of Commercial electric boilers, which are all floor mounted and benefit from a CPU and LCD touchscreen control, which ensures automatic temperature control and highly accurate means of regulating the processing power and thus the temperature, ensuring our technical solutions are what make our electric commercial boilers stand out above the competition. They are characterized by robust construction, easy installation, reliable operation and long product life.

Our commercial electric hot water boilers are equipped with a “multistage protection system” that permanently monitors the water temperature and pressure in the heating system, in case of approaching the pressure or temperature of unauthorized values, the corresponding warnings are displayed in the LCD display and in the event of exceeding these limit values of pressure or temperature of these electric boilers it will turn automatically turn the boiler off, and in the third level of protection, the system automatically cuts off the complete power supply to the electric boilers using voltage triggers, which guarantees safety.

Then we move onto the mid range outputs for these commercial electric hot water boilers, and these go from 70kW to 100kW of heating output

 

For the full technical details on the above range of commercial electric boilers, including full dimensions and boiler clearances etc, please download the brochure below –

Download the Commercial Electric Boilers 70kW-100kW Technical Brochure Flexiheat UK

Download the FHEB 50-100 kW Electric boiler installation and maintenance manual Flexiheat UK

Industrial electric boiler

Our Industrial electric boiler range, benefits from space saving designs for the most difficult to access plant rooms with outstanding performance levels that are compliant with current legislation. Again, there is no hard and fast rule for at what kW does a Industrial electric boiler be classified, over a commercial electric boiler, but we say that when an electric boiler is over 100 kW of output then we call these units our industrial electric boiler range. We do as standard 6 models that range from 120 kW up to 240 kW, but can also go up to 1 Mega Watt if so required in a single boiler. You can also use these boilers in a boiler cascade configuration, giving you the benefits of better heating load matching (High turn-down capability)- which results in higher efficiencies, redundancy, flexibility with footprint allowing installation in irregular boiler house spaces and finally increased reliability with heat provided by multiple electric industrial boilers.

This range of electric industrial boilers can be used on heating systems with a maximum working pressure of 4 Bar, and require a minimum working pressure of 0.4 Bar. Our “FHEB” commercial electric boiler range of can produce water up to 90 Degrees C.

Below you can see the back of these electric boilers, which shows the flow and return connections, the boiler flow switch, which is fitted as standard on these boilers from 100 kW and above, and is an option on the 50kW to 100kW models. You can the automatic air eliminator and the safety valve (or valves depending on the kw output of the boilers), on the flow connection and the filling and drain point on the return connection of the boiler. All of these components come fitted as standard with our industrial electric boilers (except the flow switch which is an optional extra on the 50kW to 100kW versions) and are included in the price of the unit.

Below is the technical table for this range of electric boilers, that are available in 120kW,140kW,160kW,180kW,200kW and 240 kW Outputs  – Again we can also manufacture these single piece electric floor standing boilers in an output of up to 1 Megawatt if so required, so please enquire with us , if you require these boilers in an output from 240kW to 1 Megawatt, and we will quote you on your specific requirement.

For the full technical details on the above range of industrial electric boilers, including full dimensions and boiler clearances etc, please download the brochure below –

Download the Industrial Electric Boilers 120kW-240kW Technical brochure from Flexiheat UK

Download FHEB 120-240 kW Electric boiler installation and maintenance manual Flexiheat UK

Electrical Standards that apply to our Commercial & Industrial Electric Boilers 

All of our commercial & industrial electric boilers conform to the 2006/95/EC Low Voltage Directive (LVD) and 2004/108/EEC Electromagnetic Compatibility  (EMC) standards and approvals.

Specifically –  Applied LVD standards: – EN 60335-1/2010

Applied EMC standards: EN 55014-1:2010+2010/A1:2010+2010/A2:2012,EN 61000-3-2:2008+2008/A1:2011+2008/A2:2011,EN 61000-3-3:2009,EN 55014-2:2009,EN 61000-4-2:2009,EN 61000-4-4:2008+2008/A1:2012+2013,EN 61000-4-5:2008,EN 61000-4-6:2010 and EN 61000-4-11:2008.

And also carry the full CE certificate and approvals. All of our commercial and industrial electric boilers come with a 24 Month warranty as standard.

The working principle of commercial and Industrial electrical Boilers 

Temperature and hydraulic pressure sensors monitor changes in the heating system and send information to the micro controller that processes them and controls the operation of the boiler.
Communication of the user with the electric boiler is facilitated and improved by displaying all the parameters of the system on the graphic LCD display and simple commanding with the four keys.
The operating temperature of the boiler is set in steps of 1 ° C, it is possible to set the value in the range of 10 to 90 ° C.

The power of these commercial and industrial electrical boilers is set in steps of 10kW for our 50 to 100kW output models and in 20kW steps for our 120kW to 200kW and in 40kW steps for our 240kW model (, or the heaters are arranged in several heating groups (depending on the nominal boiler power). Heating and switching off of the heating groups is successive, with a 3 second spacing with a 3-stage engaged power divided by a temperature of 3 ° C. The heating groups do not have a certain order of inclusion, but the microprocessor makes a decision on their inclusion and exclusion based on the time of each heating group operation. This ensures a uniform distribution of the heating time of each heating group, resulting in a longer lifetime of these electric commercial boilers.

The thermoregulator (such as a thermostat) can also control the operation of the circulation pump ( supplied by others). The pump is switched on when the external condition for the operation of the boiler is active. This is also a condition for the operation of heating groups. The pump stays on for 2 minutes after switching off the external operating conditions due to the heat dissipated from the boiler after being switched off. The control voltage for the circulation pump (230Volt / 1 Phase / 50Hz) is sent to the auxiliary terminals . Also, the thermoregulator starts the boiler pump regardless of the external operating condition if the temperature of the electric boiler exceeds 90 ° C, in order to reduce the temperature in the industrial and commercial electric boiler, and thus prevent the boiler locking out on over temperature.

Electric boiler weather compensated control option 

In general, these commercial and industrial electric boilers can be ordered with a version of a microprocessor thermoregulator that has the ability to operate the boiler temperature according to the outdoor temperature – “Outdoor Temperature Compensation” or sometimes called weather compensated control – hereinafter referred to as O.T.C. mode. In addition to the electric boiler, an external temperature sensor in a plastic protective box is installed, which is mounted on the outside of the building and connects with a 2-core cable to the boiler.

In OTC mode it is possible to set two independent curves (set with 5 reference points) and one fixed temperature. In this mode, the operation of the boiler is programmed at a 24-hour level, where it is possible to select one of two working curves or a fixed temperature value for each hour. For example, in the time period from 00 -06 hrs, the boiler temperature will slip over the economic curve, during a period of 06-22 hrs for a comfortable working curve, and in the period of 22 – 24 hrs, it will set the fixed value of the set temperature.

The micro controller ” merges ‘’ these 5 points generates a curve that will “slide” the boiler’s water temperature. In the same way, an economical performance curve is assigned. The principle of forming a working curve is such that it is possible to set a practically unlimited number of curves of different forms, in a simple and quick way, adjust the boiler temperature in relation to the outside weather conditions, and therefore the whole heating system to obtain optimal heating comfort in the most economical way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Commercial electric boilers for hydronic heating?

Yes, commercial electric boilers for hydronic heating are available all the way up to 5 Megawatt of heating Output. They are incredibly efficient at 99.8%, and require no flues to be installed, which not only makes them easier to install but often cheaper to install to. As more and more electric is being produced from renewable energy and is CO2 neutral or better, these electric boilers can help reduce the environmental impact to the environment.

Commercial electric heating boilers?

Commercial electric heating boilers are now a common product, being well proven, long lasting and highly efficient. We do a full range from 3 kW all the way up to 1 Megawatt of output. After 15 kW these boilers need to be powered by 3 phase electrics.

Electric boilers for commercial buildings?

Using electric boilers to heat commercial buildings is becoming more prevalent these days, as using electric which can be produced without adding any CO2 into the environment, thus you can have carbon neutral heating system. They are available from 50 kW to 980kW, as stand-alone single units and these are detailed on this dedicated web page – industrial electric boilers, but also can be used in a cascade boiler configuration for higher outputs.

Commercial electric hot water boilers?

Commercial electric hot water boilers are available form 50kW all the way up 5 mW megawatts output. At these kW outputs the boilers are powered by a 3 Phase / 400 Volt electrical supply and can be used to not only do the wet heating system, but also to do domestic hot water via acommercial calorifier or cylinder. Both of these products are available for sale from Flexiheat UK.

Commercial Electric Boilers / Industrial Electric Boiler For Sale UK & Ireland

We think that we have the best range of Commercial Electric Heating Boilers in the UK and Ireland for both electrically heating a wet heating system  and / or doing your domestic hot water requirements via a hot water cylinder. Should you require anymore assistance or information on our Commercial Electric Boilers / Industrial Electric Boilers , please don’t hesitate to contact our sales team on 01202 822221 or click here for our email contact form.