Rainmaker™
Condensing Economiser

Economisers reduce a facility’s fuel use and running costs by recovering and using waste heat to preheat boiler feed or make-up water. If your site has a hot water requirement – even if you have a conventional hot water or hydronic boiler – an economiser will help you operate more efficiently.

Hot water boilers are more efficient than steam systems, but Rainmaker still raises efficiency by 5–10%, cutting fuel costs and emissions.

Isn’t our hot water system efficient enough without an economiser?

Hot water systems are inherently more efficient than steam systems. While steam boilers have used economisers for over a century, any facility with a boiler plant can benefit from the technology – including hydronic systems. The technology is particularly suited to use in institutional and light industrial sites with large hot water requirements, such as:

• Facilities with large space heating needs (hospitals, universities, pharmaceutical)
• Light industrial sites with a high-volume hot water requirement such as food & beverage production
• Sites that require domestic hot water and heating including large hotels, resorts, apartment buildings, or residential complexes

Rainmaker is suited to institutions and light industry with high hot water or space heating demand including hospitals, universities, hotels, resorts, apartment buildings, and food and beverage plants.

Condensing boilers expose the entire pressure vessel to acidic condensate, which can shorten their lifespan and limit fuel options. The Rainmaker externalises the condensing process, protecting the boiler and providing similar performance at lower cost.

No. The Rainmaker is delivered as a fully insulated, one-piece unit. Its compact design and gas transition feature make it simple to integrate into both new and retrofit systems.

The Rainmaker product line is one of the only boiler economisers designed solely for the unique requirements of hot water boilers.

Some manufacturers do offer economisers as an option. However, Thermal Energy International’s Rainmaker is the result of decades of economiser expertise dedicated to hydronic boilers. This allows sites to achieve the level of efficiency delivered by high-cost custom-made units, with a more cost-effective investment in an “off-the-shelf” model.

Industrial experience has highlighted how many condensing boilers can be subject to premature failure. The harsh acidic flue gas environment and regular heating up or cooling down often results in corrosion that causes leaks and ultimately failure.

The Rainmaker Economiser has been developed to combat this. Sites which install the technology benefit from a longer product life cycle compared to traditional economisers or condensing boilers. All surfaces exposed to flue gas or water are made from corrosion resistant stainless steel and feature 316 stainless steel tubing, minimising the risk of leaks occurring.

Within the system, only the Rainmaker economiser is exposed to these conditions, meaning the rest of the boiler system can be purchased, operated, and maintained at a lower cost than traditional condensing boilers. As a result of this approach, our customers are on track to realise standard boiler lifecycles of up to 30 years as opposed to the much shorter life cycles of condensing boilers.