A well-designed HVAC energy recovery heat pipe system will provide effective and affordable energy recovery during the hot summer and cold winter months as well as throughout the year. If cutting carbon emissions is your goal, ACT’s solutions can greatly improve your buildings’ efficiency with the bonus of a 2-year typical payback period. Cut your facilities’ energy bills and get a rapid return on your investment. We have the expertise to develop a customized energy recovery HVAC heat pipe system for your application.

ACT has experience in a wide range of HVAC systems including:

• Retrofitting HVAC systems
• New construction commercial buildings
• Long distances- up to 300’
• Passive HVAC systems
• Pump-assisted HVAC systems
• Enhanced dehumidification requirements
• LEED building HVAC requirements
• Green buildings
• Hyperscale and Co-located data centers
• Mobile edge computing

Types of systems

1. Air-to-Air Heat Pipe Systems
   1. ACT-HP-AAHX is a counter-flow heat exchanger-energy recovery system that features ACT’s high-performance, high-reliability heat pipes that can be designed for new construction or retrofit projects. Save energy by pre-cooling or pre-heating your incoming building supply air.
   2. Configuration and control options
      1. Tilt function: Totally passive side-by-side Air-to-Air Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger units; can be designed with an added Tilt control mechanism to transfer operation from summer to winter. AAHX Passive-Split Loop Thermosyphon Heat Exchanger Systems are not one continuous flat slab with a center divider. They may in fact be separated by many feet and/or oriented at an angle to each other. Performance is comparable to a pumped glycol loop system and valve control is simple and cost-effective when choosing an integrated 0-10Vdc proportional ball valve, which is placed in the vapor line to modulate the amount of heat transferred.
      2. Pump-Assisted Split Loop Thermosyphon Heat Exchanger: allows AHUs to consume less energy all year by combining traditional air-to-air heat pipe technology in one season and low energy input pumped two-phase in the opposite season. This partially pumped solution also allows ducts to be separated by over 100 feet, and they can be oriented at an angle to each other.
      3. Passive Split Loop Thermosyphon Heat Exchanger: are not one continuous flat slab with a center divider. They may in fact be separated by many feet and/or oriented at an angle to each other. Performance is comparable to a pumped glycol loop system and valve control is simple and cost-effective when choosing an integrated 0-10Vdc proportional ball valve, which is placed in the vapor line to modulate the amount of heat transferred.
         
2. Wrap Around Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger
   1. ACT’s Wrap-Around Heat Pipe Heat Exchangers provide enhanced passive dehumidification and offer engineered performance to enhance your system’s efficiency. This greatly reduces your system’s energy costs. ACT-HP-WAHX Wrap-Around systems can be designed for all major AHU OEMs. For retrofitting existing systems, ACT can ship a pre-engineered unit, fully charged and ready to install. ACT offers onsite installation for certain projects, or units can be factory installed. Typical design-build/install costs are recouped in a 1-2 year payback period.
      
   2. Configurations and Types of Systems
      1. Passive Wrap Around Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger has an optional active control valve option to accommodate projects with variable discharge temperature requirements (for a space such as an auditorium that has long unoccupied periods).
         
      2. Thermal Passive Valve: Control re-heat with ACT’s patented Thermal Passive Valve. For applications that do not have a variable discharge temperature requirement, this valve can be used to maximize energy savings while passively preventing overheating of the air being delivered to the space.
         
      3. Passive Split Loop Thermosyphon Heat Exchanger: controls re-heat for applications with a variable discharge temperature requirement, or those just looking to prevent overheating; these systems are often more cost-effective for higher flow rate, and larger coil sizes.

Examples of HVAC Energy Recovery

ACT HVAC Systems Benefits

• Carbon emission output reduction
• Lower energy consumption
• Eliminate cross-air contamination
• Qualifies for LEED and High-Performance Building requirements
• Adheres to AS9001 requirements
• The ability to reduce the size of your AHU
• Retrofit into an existing space
• Eliminates active overcooling and reheating for dehumidification
• Variety of install options
  • Ship ACT the AHR
  • Ship to factory
  • On-site install 

• Vivarium Project
• Lehigh University
• Multi-Story High-Rise Building
  

Government resources related to HVAC in commercial buildings

• EPA calculator

How do ACT’s Energy Recovery Systems compare to that of Enthalpy wheels or energy wheels?

Wheels do not seal perfectly and the volume of the wheel itself leaks from one duct to the other.  So, applications requiring zero transfer (cross-contamination) between streams cannot use energy wheels.  Wheels require side-by-side and equal-sized ducts, limiting the packaging freedom that many applications require.  And finally, wheels are active moving machines with motors, belts, pulleys, bearings, etc. requiring highly skilled maintenance personnel to keep the wheels turning.

ACT’s HVAC systems have separate ducting so there is no chance of cross-air contamination and because ACT’s systems are custom engineered, there are no geometric limitations. Utilizing passive systems, you can avoid any maintenance at all.

Let’s talk about your energy recovery options

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