In building technical services, and especially in heating, air-conditioning and sanitation technology, plate heat exchangers are particularly suited for taking over the function of system isolation, and also for transferring the available energy, e.g. from a supply network, or directly from the energy generator, to a secondary heating or cooling circuit.
Sealed plate heat exchangers are exceptionally suited for use in the main transfer stations of district heating networks, since high energy transfers are necessary here. In case of house transfer stations for room / under floor heating and industrial water heating, smaller plate heat exchangers, which are sealed, soldered or in part also welded, are generally used.
The complex ventilation and air-conditioning systems in modern buildings are not feasible without plate heat exchangers, which take over the tasks of both heating and cooling in separate units or both functions in one device.
In swimming pools, plate heat exchangers with heat exchanger plates from 1.4404 (V4A) material, titanium, SMO and others are being used more frequently,due to the chloride-content in water. The subject of “heat recovery” is also an important factor in swimming pool technology, and in this way a considerable quantity of the energy of the run-off water of overflow systems, which is normally unused, can be recycled back to the overall system with the aid of sealed plate heat exchangers.
For the use of renewable energies (solar heat, geothermal heat), it is necessary to transfer the energy contained in the transport media from the solar thermal collectors, or the ground, to the secondary circuits of the in-house networks with the aid of plate heat exchanger.
API Schmidt-Bretten have long been pioneers in the development of such high performance plates. In a long-standing research project with Stuttgart University, the basics of the present X-series have been investigated as early as 20 years ago.
Typical fields of application for SIGMA plate heat exchanger of the X-series in building technical services are:
- Employment in district heating transfer stations
- Employment in house heating transfer stations
- Employment in environmental conditioning systems
- Heating of swimming pool water
- Heating of industrial water
- Heat recovery from production waste heat
- System separation in solar energy plants
Application example:
In this field, very close temperature characteristics and mostly single-pass units are demanded. This results in the preferential use of plate types which indicate a narrow and very long shape.