Use of CAE Methods for Exergy-Economic Evaluation of Plate Heat Exchangers for Heat Recovery

The heat recovery can substantially reduce energy consumption needful for heating or air conditioning of buildings. The aim of work is to use a CAE method for design, optimization and evaluation of dimensions of plate heat exchangers for heat recovery. The evaluation is based on exergy based criterion and economic analysis. We used simple payback time criteria, exergy and total energy consumption. We used previously developed CAE method to evaluate pressure drop and effectiveness and thus compute electricity use of fans and energy consumption of ventilation for region of Central Europe. We also used available data of prices of heat exchangers for final customers to carry out economical evaluation. All results were compared according surface area of plate heat exchangers. It was found out that the narrower heat exchangers provide lower operation cost, but yield higher simple payback time. This method gives tool for design of reasonable big heat exchanger for given application.