Optimizing Wrap Around Heat Pipes

INTRODUCTION:
Wrap around heat pipes are air-to-air heat exchangers that are installed in the airstream upstream and downstream of a cooling coil to deliberately reduce the Sensible Heat Ratio (SHR) below a standard air conditioning system’s .75. Depending
on the application, they’re also used to replace all or part of the necessary reheat in a system to minimize energy usage. The energy ramifications are especially powerful because the energy savings occur not just on the reheating side but also the cooling side, unlike in the other very common usage of air-to-air heat exchangers as used to transfer energy between exhaust air and outside air. Given then that some form of reheat is needed, this analysis examines the effect on energy savings of changing the different parameters of the air conditioning system design.