Engineers Newsletter PREVIEW: Hydronic Heat Recovery Control

Quick Facts

Topics: Engineers Newsletter

About the Author

Mick Schwedler, Applications Engineer

Mick has been involved in the development, training, and support of mechanical systems for Trane since 1982. His areas of expertise include system optimization and control (in which he holds patents), chilled-water and geothermal system design, and decarbonization of hydronic systems. Mick’s primary responsibility is to help designers properly apply Trane products and systems. He provides project-specific support, authors technical publications, and presents seminars.

Mick is an ASHRAE® Fellow and served as ASHRAE President 2021-2022. He is a recipient of ASHRAE’s Exceptional Service, Distinguished Service, and Standards Achievement Awards. He is past chair of SSPC 90.1 and contributed to the ASHRAE GreenGuide publication. Mick has been active on several USGBC technical and education groups, chaired the LEED Technical Committee, and served on the LEED Steering Committee. Mick earned his BSME degree from Northwestern University and his MSME degree from the University of Wisconsin Solar Energy Lab.

The impact on our industry

Due to increasing interest in reducing energy costs and energy use, and more recently in reducing emissions, recovering heat from hydronic systems is getting more attention today.

The goal of a hydronic heat recovery system is to recover, rather than reject, heat from the condenser of a water-cooled chiller or chiller-heater. Recovering heat reduces the amount of energy needed to offset the heating load, and also reduces the amount of makeup water and energy used by the cooling tower. Trane has one of the industry's largest portfolios of chiller-heaters, leading the way for energy efficient solutions.

What you’ll learn in this issue

This EN discusses proper control of three common hydronic system configurations that are used when cooling and heating loads are expected to be simultaneous: “sidestream” (see example diagram below), preferential loading in a primary-secondary (decoupled) system, and piping evaporators in series.

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Engineers Newsletters are topical, informative articles that provide engineering professionals who design HVAC systems with reliable, objective, and technologically current information in a non-commercial format. They've been published by Trane’s Applications Engineering team since 1972 and have long been a trusted technical resource throughout the industry. Subjects range from HVAC system configurations to acoustics to interpretation of ASHRAE standards.

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