Koreans are a nation of ondol that keeps their butts warm at home, in the subway, and even at bus stops. ㅋㅋㅋ
But strangely enough, Japan, a nearby country, has no floor heating despite its sedentary lifestyle.
Instead, as bathing culture developed, the technology to heat hot water developed!! Based on this hot water technology, Japanese boiler companies entered the world’s largest market, North America, and achieved great success with 80% thermal efficiency.
But here, Kyungdong Navien appears like a comet. The condensing boiler released by Navien has a thermal efficiency of 98.8%. The American authorized testing agency couldn’t believe this figure and re-measured it several times. The core of this incredible technology is condensing technology. What is condensing technology? To put it simply, it is a method of heating the water in the primary heat exchanger by burning gas fuel and then heating the secondary heat exchanger once more with the waste gas heat.
A regular boiler discharges hot exhaust gas directly into the air, but a condensing boiler uses the heat again to maximize heating efficiency. In addition, the biggest advantage of a condensing boiler is that it is cheap!! The average exhaust gas temperature of a regular boiler is very high at 120 degrees, so the exhaust passage must be made of expensive stainless steel. In particular, in the US, long exhaust pipes of 10 to 20 meters are required due to the structure of houses, so if it is made of stainless steel, the cost is enormous. However, a condensing boiler reuses the exhaust gas and drops the temperature, so the exhaust pipe can be made of inexpensive materials.