Energy Academy
Assessment & Retrofit9 / 10

Capstone: Boiler Optimization Simulator

Hands-on: tune a live industrial steam boiler, read the flue gas, and decide when to invest or replace.

20 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead


You've learned how combustion works, where boilers waste energy, and the practical levers for efficiency. This capstone puts you in the boiler house as the auditor: not to wiggle sliders until a light goes green, but to diagnose what's actually wrong with a real industrial steam boiler and prove your fix works. The simulator has two modes: 🩺 Diagnose (the main event), six call-out cases, each with a different underlying fault. Read the control panel, walk the plant, work out the true root cause, prescribe the fix, and verify the boiler recovers. You're scored on your diagnosis, your prescription, and whether the boiler actually improves. 🎛️ Learn: the guided tuning sandbox from your studies, for refreshing how each lever moves…

In this lesson

  • 01How the diagnostic cases work
  • 02The skill: differential diagnosis
  • 03What the cases teach
  • 04After you finish
  • 05Related lessons