2020 - Volume #44, Issue #2, Page #36
[ Sample Stories From This Issue | List of All Stories In This Issue | Print this story
| Read this issue]
Ventilation System Captures Waste Heat
The “Keep The Heat” heat exchange system was on display at the recent Iowa Power Farm Show. Instead of exhausting inside heated air out of the building, like conventional exhaust systems, it uses a double fan system and plastic tubing to capture heat before it leaves the building. The system has been used mostly by industrial and commercial facilities such as welding shops, machine fabrication shops, and municipal garages, but the company says it has a place in farm shops, too.
The system uses a turbine fan to force fresh air into a system of corrugated tubing encased inside a 20-ft. ventilation duct. A big double tube system mounts outside the building. Fresh air from the outside enters in through the top tube and is forced into the corrugated tubing, and then into the building interior through pvc tubing. A second fan pulls exhaust air through the bottom tube and out of the building.
“The exhaust fan draws the contaminated air across the corrugated tubing and then blows it outside the building. At the same time it warms the fresh air flowing through the tubing and into the building. That’s why we call it an air-to-air heat exchanger,” says owner Kevin Stibal.
“It does a great job of removing welding smoke, diesel fumes, carbon monoxide, and so forth. However, most of our farm customers use it in shops that have partitioned wash bays, which they use to clean semi trucks and trailers. Using pressurized hot water to clean the trucks creates a lot of humidity that can cause machinery to rust. Also, the humid air costs more to heat than dry air. If they open up the doors to get rid of the humidity, they lose a lot of heat. Our air-to-air heat exchanger gets rid of the humidity without getting rid of the heat.”
The Keep The Heat air-to-air heat exchanger sells for $6,800 plus shipping. “The system includes everything you need except for the wall-mounted pvc tubing,” says Stibal.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kevin Stibal, 205 North McKenzie Lane, North Liberty, Iowa 52317 (ph 319 358-7794; kevin@keeptheheat.com; www.keeptheheat.com).
Click here to download page story appeared in.
Click here to read entire issue
To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.