A lot of our customers running boilers and steam systems know they should be measuring condensate return, but the “why” often gets lost. The short version: condensate coming back to the boiler still carries 20-30% of the original steam energy as sensible heat. Return it, and the boiler needs less energy to make more steam, and less make-up water too. That is real money, not just an environmental checkbox.
The Contrec 515 CS02 Condensate and Steam Flow Computer is built to measure both sides of that loop. It takes a steam flow signal from a flowmeter such as a vortex meter, along with temperature and pressure from the steam line, and temperature from the condensate return line. From this, it calculates steam and condensate volume, mass, and net energy using the IAPWS industrial formulation tables, so it works whether your steam is saturated or superheated.
In actual application, this lets a plant see the full picture: total energy in, how much came back as condensate, and how much was actually used for production versus heating. That split matters for internal cost allocation, and in some cases for tax incentives tied to energy use.
It has a local display and alarms for the process parameters, and it also pushes data out over Modbus RTU or TCP-IP, so it connects into Contrec’s DataMod software, a building management system, or a SCADA package without needing a separate gateway.
Before we quote this, we would normally check your flowmeter type, line pressure and temperature range, and whether you need condensate return metering only or full steam-to-condensate energy balancing.
Hope this helps.
