Australian designed and manufactured heat exchangers are at the centre of an aquatic centre redevelopment in Victoria that has been labelled a showcase in environmental sustainability.
The Aqualink Box Hill project by Whitehorse City Council was completed last year and features: a gas turbine cogeneration plant to generate electricity and hot water; an evacuated tube solar hot water generation plant; the reuse of two unique Australian rotary heat exchangers plus three new heat wheels which recycle 90 per cent of waste heat from the exhaust contaminated pool hall air to provide fresh, dry air to the centre.
These low life cycle cost wheels from Rotary Heat Exchangers will play a central role in the project meeting its greenhouse gas emission targets and can be used for the full life of the aquatic centre without replacement, minimal maintenance and no deterioration in performance.
The heat wheels are used to recycle air conditioning energy by recovering the energy from the exhaust air conditioned air from a building to condition the fresh air coming into the building.
It does this by combining a mechanical means of transfer to the conventional heat transfer modes of convection and conduction by rotating a wheel, with a porous matrix, between the two air streams in counterflow.
The heat wheels often outlive the life of their buildings. For example, two of the wheels being used in the Aqualink redevelopment were recovered from the original aquatic centre build undertaken in 1979.
The old round frame heat wheels were recovered from the demolition with three new wheels added to the Aqualink redevelopment.
The refurbishment involved cleaning the rotors with pressurised water jets, repainting the frames and providing new bearings and motor drives.
Indoor pools are a major consumer of heating energy which is why the use of cogeneration is becoming more common in aquatic centres around Australia.
The installation of 20 high efficiency 5kW thermal output evacuated tube solar hot water heaters in the roof also provide a useful supplement to the total hot water requirements of the centre.
Whitehorse City Council estimates these measures will generate energy cost savings of more than $200,000 per annum along with a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Rotary Heat Exchangers was established in 1968 s a result of research conducted by the CSIRO and Monash University.
The high efficiency energy recycling heat wheels have been supplied to a number of indoor pools around Australia and often outlive the life of their buildings.
For example, two of the wheels used when the Box Hill Aquatic was built in 1979 have been reused for the Aqualink redevelopment.