Rotary Heat Exchangers Pty Ltd has developed an Indirect Evaporative Cooler (IEC) which utilises a Mylar heat wheel.
The Mylar heat wheel technology was originally developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Rotary Heat Exchangers CEO, Bill Ellul, said prototype tests of the IEC dewpoint cooler shows how much the product excels when it comes to energy efficient cooling.
“It is particularly effective in extreme heat conditions especially in low to moderate humidity climates, producing Coefficient of Performance (COP) results in the range of 10 to 20,” he said.
“This is up to a four times reduction in energy use compared to conventional heat pumps.”
Typically an efficient direct evaporative cooler will cool to near wet bulb temperature by wetting and humidifying the supply air.
“With the addition of a sensible heat exchanger between the evaporatively cooled and ambient building supply fresh air streams, the IE provides dry (in absolute terms) cooling without the addition of water to the building supply air. The building also benefits from 100% fresh air,” Ellul explained.
“This dry cooled fresh air will approach the much cooler and dryer than wet bulb dew point temperature, when the efficiencies of the EC and the sensible HE are maximised.
“In other words, on a psychrometric chart, the cooled air moves towards the cooler saturation line while maintaining its low absolute humidity; so we can describe this as a dew point rather than a wet bulb cooler.”
Ellul said dew-point cooling is normally only achieved by compressing refrigerants which pass through condenser and evaporator finned tube heat exchangers, where the evaporative cooling of the refrigerant occurs inside the tubes.
“Our cooler has three simple low energy use components - HE, EC and fans - plus the refrigerant is simply water."
Established in 1968, Rotary Heat Exchangers is the sole manufacturer of Mylar Heat Wheels in Australia.
The Mylar Heat Wheel recycles an unprecedented 90% of thermal energy (hot or cold) from one air or gas stream to another.
The technology has generated huge energy savings in commercial buildings and aquatic centres across Australia. The wheels also have an exceptionally long life often outliving the life of the building.
Recent examples of this include the Box Hill City Aquatic Centre in Victoria and the Belmont City Aquatic Centre in Western Australia.