James O. Edwards, P.E., Senior Engineer, Project Manager, URS Corporation, Denver

More Efficient Heat Recovery

With today’s ever-increasing energy costs, it is as important as ever to design HVAC systems that minimize energy use. Given the high ventilation requirements of many applications, engineers must design cost-effective heat-recovery systems. Air-to-air heat exchanger systems require the air distribution ductwork for the two airstreams to be in close proximity. However, many times it is impractical to configure ductwork to use this approach. Run-around hydronic loop systems allow for heat recovery from a system where the airstreams are not in close proximity.