Gulf Construction Online - VTS Clima promises substantial savings

Air Conditioning & Refrigeration

VTS Clima's range of regenerators and recuperators ensure energy efficiency.

VTS Clima promises substantial savings

01 April 2004

VTS Clima, a leading European air handling units (AHU) manufacturer, claims that its equipment helps in recovering up to 85 per cent of the energy from the air inside buildings, thus resulting in substantial savings.

Says a spokesman for the company: “Air handling units ensure comfort inside buildings by processing – heating or cooling – the supplied fresh air. A lot of energy is utilised in the process. Such ‘expensive’ air must be continually replaced with new air, irretrievably wasting the money invested in it. However, VTS Clima’s equipment minimises this loss.
“Modern recuperators and regeneration technologies ensure optimal climate and substantial savings and as opposed to traditional recirculation systems, fresh air is supplied to the building all the time.
“The main solutions applied in VTS Clima’s AHUs offer substantial savings on air handling, irrespective of the climate and building use and includes: cross-flow recuperators, rotary regenerators and glycol recuperators.”

Cross-flow recuperators
These offer an energy recovery (sensible heat) of up to 75 per cent and are ideal for use in environments, which require pure and hygienic air such as in hospitals and pharmaceutical applications, the spokesman says. The recuperator has a static system that does not require additional power supply and offers a 99.9 per cent separation of the two streams of air.

Rotary regenerators
These regenerators offer a total energy recovery of up to 85 per cent and are optimal where air-handling unit dimensions and maximum savings are material such as in commercial and residential applications. It allows for a shorter air-handling unit – exchanger length is only 300 mm – and a smooth adjustment of rotational speed for maximum effectiveness, he points out.

Glycol recuperators
Best in very cool climate or when air-handling units have to be separated, such as in hospitals and pharmaceutical applications, these recuperators offer an energy recovery (sensible heat) of up to 50 per cent. It has the lowest sensibility to low temperatures (minus 30 deg C) and offers the possibility to place the supply unit far away from the exhaust unit.
Says the spokesman: “The application of energy recovery also allows for reduction in operating and investment costs as a result of:

Decreased demand for electric energy with the purchase of a cooling machine with lower power;
Lower price of purchase of thinner power supply cables; and
Lower price of purchase of control components (water valves and motor actuators) leading to a lower demand for heating and cooling capacity.”

The table 1 shows how much can be gained by using VTS Clima air-handling units with a rotary exchanger, in comparison with the traditional solution with no heat recovery. Even though the air-handling unit with heat recovery is more expensive, the entire air-conditioning system is cheaper and in addition, heat recovery systems help to reduce the operating cost, he says.
The specifications shown in table 2 prove that air-handling units with energy recovery reduce the boiler power by 89 kW and the cooling machines by 53 kW. Even though the total power of engines in a standard system is lower by 2 kW, energy recovery system reduces the power of the cooling unit by 17 kW, giving a saving of 15 kW on the power required for operating the entire system, he adds.
VTS Clima today has 53 offices in 13 countries spanning Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The company has been keen on strengthening its presence in the Middle East region and has major plans for the coming years.
Says the spokesman: “Big development expenditures and ambitious strategies have been planned in order to establish the company’s position as a reliable and leading AHU manufacturer in the GCC market. It is our philosophy to constantly develop and improve our product and services and therefore deliver ever better solutions to the clients. For the near future, we plan to become a market leader in the impressively fast-growing UAE market, regarding the quality, technology and price.”
In the UAE, VTS Clima has offices in Jebel Ali, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It plans a further presence in countries such as Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait while paying special attention to participation in the process of reconstruction of Iraq.
“The company has a state-of-the-art industrial plant equipped with fully automated production lines. In 2003 we produced over 25,000 devices and the quality of our devices has been certified by ISO 9001, CE, Rostest and TUV,” he adds.
The company produces:

Air handling units (framework AHUs type CV) designed for large and small buildings which can be installed inside buildings or on the roofs (outdoors);
Ducted air handling units (CV-P, CV-P230V) designed for air conditioning or ventilating smaller buildings, and installed in suspended ceilings or in raised floors;
Compact air handling units (CV-A/CNWV, CV-A/COV); and
Heating units (VAG) operated by heated water, designed to heat rooms of different sizes.

Additionally, it also supplies units with controls, which improve the efficiency of its units.