Let me emphasize that the techniques used by Levi, Essen et al. are industry standard. They are written into regulations world-wide. They were developed by the ASME and other professional organizations. They are mandatory: you have to test any large boiler with these techniques on a regular basis, or the local government inspector will shut down your apartment or factory.
Horace Heffner believes these techniques are "amateur" "shabby" a "Barnum and Bailey act" and -- in short -- not reliable for some reason. He has described the test he would do instead, sparging steam into a barrel. Any HVAC engineer knows how to do that. It has some practical limitations, as I described. After the Jan. 14 test was published, I myself recommended a sparge test to Rossi, Levi et al., but only in addition to the main test, not as a replacement, because it is so limited in time and capacity. (No matter how big you make the barrel, it is limited in time unless you use a highly insulated tank, because it cools down.) I think it is unlikely that Heffner knows more about how to test boiler performance than the committees at the ASME and elsewhere who have written the regulations and designed the tests that have been standard for the last 150 years. Hundreds of thousands of engineers perform these procedures. They probably know what they are doing. It isn't likely they are bumbling amateurs making huge mistakes, and Heffner the only person in the world who knows how to do this right. That's my guess. - Jed
