Freeze protection method in ventilation system using two hydronic circuits
Authors: Publication Year: 2011

Freeze protection in ventilation systems is important to avoid freeze damages and increase in maintenance costs. Freezing in a ventilation system can appear in construction and operation phase. The aim of this study was to test a new method for freeze protection in ventilation system. This method implies use of an additional heat exchanger. The method used two hydronic circuits: the first one with water on energy supply side, and second one with mixture of glycol and water at the secondary side. The mixture transfers heat from the energy source via an additional heat exchanger to the coil in the air handling unit (AHU). AHU with freeze protection from a manufacturer was tested in the laboratory. Since it was not possible to obtain a supply air temperature of -20 oC in the laboratory conditions, a model was developed on the MATLAB\Simulink platform. Several operation scenarios were tested on the Simulink model and they included use of three types of energy sources: boiler, heat pump, and district heating with outdoor temperature compensation. Results showed that even new method with mixture of glycol and water could tolerate low air temperature, the AHU would require known sequence control for freezing protection, where the circulation pump between energy source and heat exchanger starts first. This sequence control is necessary regardless of energy source. Finally, the article gave recommendations on how to define sequence control to avoid freezing in AHU.

Additional Info

  • WP: Energy supply systems and services
  • Publication Year: 2011
  • Name of conference: The 12th International Conference on Air Distribution in Rooms. Roomvent 2011
  • Town: Trondheim
  • Country: Norway
  • Date from: Sunday, 19 June 2011
  • Date to: Wednesday, 22 June 2011

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