Strategies for Capturing More Potential with Heat Recovery Chiller Design
Rising energy demands and escalating costs are making efficient building systems more critical than ever. With heating and cooling accounting for a significant share of building energy consumption, what if heat rejected during the cooling process could be captured and used elsewhere? Heat recovery chillers (HRCs) do just that, supporting more efficient, all-electric heating and cooling while reducing overall building energy use.
In an article for Consulting-Specifying Engineer, Mitch Hickmann explores key design considerations for deploying six-pipe modular heat recovery chillers. HRCs capture heat from the cooling process and use it to produce hot water for space heating, domestic hot water, or other process requirements. Six-pipe modular heat recovery chillers expand a typical chiller’s capabilities by adding a third “source” loop, allowing the system to provide heating and cooling simultaneously. In facilities like hospitals and laboratories, where heating and cooling occur concurrently, these systems can use heat recovered during cooling to help meet heating needs elsewhere in the building.
While modular HRCs can deliver efficiency benefits, realizing that potential requires a well-designed system. Flow and temperature control, system volume, piping layouts, fluid mixing, and equipment sequencing can all affect performance. Careful coordination of these elements helps the chiller operate efficiently across changing conditions while avoiding equipment lockouts and operational issues.
Modular heat recovery chillers can support more energy-efficient, all-electric heating and cooling. With the right design approach, these systems can turn otherwise wasted heat into a valuable resource, helping facilities reduce overall energy use.