Patent ID: 7286960

Claim:
A system for isolating effects of one or more process parameters on performance of a heat transfer device, comprising: an efficiency correction unit adapted to receive data representative of at least one measurable process parameter or a change in the measurable process parameter of the heat transfer device, and configured to compute a normalized efficiency of the heat transfer device, wherein the normalized efficiency represents a corrected efficiency that isolates effects of one or more process parameters on performance of the heat transfer device, the efficiency correction unit comprising: at least one base load filter adapted to remove effects of a varying load on the heat transfer device, wherein the varying load is configured to utilize an output from the heat transfer device to produce useful work; at least one efficiency calculator adapted to compute an initial efficiency of the heat transfer device, wherein the initial efficiency is different from the normalized efficiency; and at least one efficiency normalization unit adapted to apply a normalization model to the data to compute the normalized efficiency for the heat transfer device based on the initial efficiency.