Air supply units with recuperation

Recuperator

— units that supply and exhaust and thus solve all the main tasks of ventilation. They are convenient primarily when organizing a ventilation system from scratch when any equipment is missing. On the other hand, supply and exhaust units turn out to be noticeably more expensive, heavier, larger and more high consumption than pure supply units, which is especially noticeable in large centralized units (see “System”). However, even among them, this variety is found quite often. Nevertheless, decentralized ventilation units are mostly made as supply and exhaust units. Firstly, they do not require a high flow rate, and the device can be made relatively small and inexpensive; secondly, when organizing decentralized ventilation, it is easier to entrust all tasks to one unit than to provide separate modules for supply and exhaust. This type, in addition to working on the “supply-exhaust”, prevents heat from being “blown out” from the room during the cold season. The principle of operation of the recuperator is that it takes energy from the air being blown out and transfers it to the incoming air — thus, ventilation sends relatively cool air out and supplies pre-heated air into the room. The use of a recuperator can significantly reduce heat loss and, accordingly, heating costs — the amount of returned heat in the most advanced heat exchangers can reach 97% (see “Heat exchanger efficiency”). Moreover, such systems are often passive and do not consume energy themselves (and where it is required, the consumption is still lower than the amount of heat saved).