i-KcalThermal Academy Where every kcal counts
i-Kcal Thermal Academy

Steam, hot water & thermic fluid — learnt the practical way

Where every kcal counts.

A free, open classroom for plant engineers, energy managers and students — the fundamentals of industrial heat, taught from working practice: how it behaves, how to select it, how to size it, and what it costs when it leaks. No login. No jargon without a definition. Every lesson ends at something you can do on the plant tomorrow.

Start at 100° — why steam runs industry Browse the curriculum
Lessons are numbered like temperatures: 100° basics — where water becomes steam — then 200° systems, then 300° deep-dives. Start anywhere; every page defines its terms and links its neighbours. The academy is young and growing — lessons marked soon are on the drawing board.

The six faculties

Steam Basics

What steam is, why industry runs on it, and how to read its numbers — the ground every other lesson stands on.
100°12 lessons · 7 live

The Boiler House

Boilers, fuels, feedwater, blowdown, controls and IBR — where steam is made and where most money is won or lost.
200°10 lessons · 2 live

Steam Distribution

Pipes, pressure reduction, drainage, insulation and leaks — getting steam to the process dry and at the right pressure.
200°10 lessons · 3 live

Using Steam & Getting It Back

Heat exchange, control valves, traps, condensate and flash recovery — the using half of the loop, and the recovering half.
200°10 lessons · 2 live

Hot Water & Thermic Fluid

The other heat carriers — pressurised hot water and hot oil — and how to choose between them and steam.
200°6 lessons · 0 live

Efficiency & Recovery

The economics: what steam truly costs, where it is wasted, and the recovery technologies that pay — including deep-dives.
300°10 lessons · 2 live

The full curriculum

Faculty A — Steam Basics

Faculty B — The Boiler House

Faculty C — Steam Distribution

Faculty D — Using Steam & Getting It Back

Faculty E — Hot Water & Thermic Fluid

Faculty F — Efficiency & Recovery

Calculators, not just theory

Alongside the lessons runs the i-Kcal Steam Tools suite — fifteen working calculators from steam properties and line sizing to leak cost and flash recovery. Free tools are embedded right inside the lessons that teach them; the full suite lives on the Tools page.

What this academy is — and is not

It is free, open, and vendor-neutral: the physics works the same whoever supplies your valves. It is written from i-Kcal's own working practice, from scratch, with every claim carrying its basis. It is not a product brochure — where an i-Kcal technology is the honest answer to a lesson's problem, you will find one clearly-marked link, and no more. Worked figures are teaching values on public rates — for design decisions, measure your own plant and use certified data.