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What can the Energy Saver do for you?
Energy issues are real for everyone, both in our homes and in our professional work environments. In multi-family environments, heating issues can become more complex but the same concerns hold true.
Smart consumers weigh their decisions on performance and value: they want the most benefit for every dollar invested. Heating upgrades all too often throw old technology at new problems. Using old technology is inherently inefficient, while high energy costs add to high installation and support costs. In addition, skilled maintenance staff is hard to find and even after all the work you do, the heat source is still over-sized and unbalanced. From an investment point of view, Rinnai addresses these issues head-on.
Rinnai Energy Saver direct vent wall furnaces can save up to 50% in energy costs compared to traditional furnace systems, while improving are quality, improving creature comfort and giving occupants more control over the use of the system. The best news is that even when left unattended, the Energy Saver effectively emits only the appropriate amount of BTU's and air velocity to uniformly heat even the farthest reaches of the space. |
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How a conventional furnace works
To appreciate what the Energy Saver does, let's look at a conventional basement-installed hot air furnace. In a typical heating cycle, the thermostat calls for heat. The furnace and blower come on, ductwork warms up and hot air is discharged through registers. Because the furnace's capacity is much greater than demand, output overshoots the thermostat and then cycles off. When the furnace blower stops, infiltration causes stratification and a sharp temperature gradient sets up. Energy is lost to the furnace, ductwork, and the basement as the system cycles. Eventually the system restarts and the cycle repeats. With a furnace you get cold system startup, drafts, blower noise and finally the hot air blast which leads to overheating, then cycle-off. Standy energy loss begins to occur, temperature stratification ensues, the big chill moves in again, and the thermostat calls for another blast of heat. Sound familiar? |
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How and why the Energy Saver does what it does
Heating a large space involves 2 principles. First - The Theory of Variable Speed, which is the ability to detect a small degree change then attack that small degree change with a small amount of BTU's on a continual basis (The Energysaver measures temperature in 1/10th of a degree and then fires in 1, 2 or 3 thousand BTU increments to attack those degree changes). Second - The 2nd law of thermodynamics, which states that heat seeks cold. When you take the large area of an apartment or small house and install the heater in that area, it becomes your heat sink. The heater must be sized to the heat loss of the structure and be able to meet the heat load requirement or we will not be able to heat the area sufficiently on the coldest days.
Once the main area is to temperature, the heat will begin to be drawn into the outer reaches of the dwelling. This is the 2nd law of thermodynamics at work. The cold air that has penetrated the outside walls has fallen to the floor and is now attracting the heat that is on the floor in the main living area, then moving to the outer rooms (connected spaces). As this takes place the floor temperature starts to drop. At 3/10ths of a degree drop in floor temperature the Energysaver unit comes on at low speed, injecting a small amount of BTU's on a continual basis. The unit does not turn on at high fire in the same way as a traditional single stage furnace would, resulting in over heating in the main area. The Energy Saver just slowly, continuously attacks that slight degree change at the floor level, never allowing the larger volumes of cold air to build up and require all the extra BTU's that are the cause of room over heating.
Unlike a conventional furnace that measures temperature in 1 degree increments, with a temperature swing of anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 degree difference, the Energy Saver measures in 1/10th of a degree, triggeraing the unit to come on when it reads 3/10ths of a degree change in floor temperature. The Energy Saver's thermister is located 2 inches off the floor. Compare this to a traditional system where the thermostat is placed on a wall about 54" off the floor; you have to fill up that space with cooler air to trigger the unit to come on. Rooms do not cool from ceiling to floor. Rooms cool down from floor to ceiling. In consideration of that fact, it is no wonder that radiant floor heat is so popular. Our bodies prefer 75 degree temperature at our feet and 65 degrees at our heads. Traditional heaters and furnaces do just the opposite. They bring their return air in from the bottom, drawing cooler air across our feet, pushing out the heat roughly 30 inches from the floor. This drives the heat upward to our heads, where we don't want it, and pulls the cold air to our feet, where we don't want it to be cold.
Fussy logic technology on the Rinnai Energy Saver instead heats up a room comfortably without cold draughts from the appliance by incrementally controlling the flow of air coming from the heater as the heat exchanger temperature rises. This also increases heating efficiency. For increased efficiency, it is important to reduce overheating the room and concentrate heating the area where people are most often situated. In the case of traditional fan heaters, the convection fan operates at full velocity from the time of ignition and cold draughts usually accompany the flow of air from the appliance. To prevent this uncomfortable situation, the Energy Saver controls the speed of the convection fan after taking into consideration the room temperature at the time of ignition. Then the fan speed increases proportionally as time passes, and the room gradually heats up. This logic improves warm air distribution, helps reduce stratification throughout the room and results in a fan speed and BTU ouput based on the conditions at the time.
In summary, the Rinnai Energy Saver sizes itself to the space by modulating heat and air flow output based on system demands at any given time, never really shutting down. It is this unique airflow (air turn-over) concept that allows the Energy Saver to effectively heat remote spaces such as bedrooms, even though the heater is located in the living room. For this reason, we often refer to the Energy Saver as a "whole house heater" (depending on the size of the house). Energy Saver owners usually don't talk about all of this technology. They just tell of greatly enhanced thermal comfort, whisper quiet operation, and a dramatic reduction in energy costs.
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