It is often the case that as you approach an industrial site, you will see cooling towers, chillers and air blast coolers external to the building. Once you get inside, there will be air handlers, unit heaters and other systems providing heating to both processes and the
environment.

Our client had several machines that required cooling. They were housed in a large facility along with other shop floor processes, offices, and amenities. Traditionally, the machines were cooled by mechanical chillers and the offices etc. heated by various means such as DX, air handlers, and boilers.

A careful study of the building’s overall heat map showed that the waste heat from the machines could be utilised to heat or even cool other areas. Moreover, by liaising with the machine designers, it was ascertained that they did not actually need chilled water to cool them but could utilise water at an ambient temperature.

The innovative solution was to run a “ring main” of water around the site with which the various processes could exchange energy. Any excess heat is dissipated via an adiabatic air blast cooler. Processes utilise highly efficient water/water heat pumps to locally obtain their required temperature. The overall effect is to keep the energy within the building – just redistributing it to where needed.

This national award winning design has had a dramatic effect on utility and maintenance costs and provided for lower overall installation costs.