HVAC

Versatile Heat Transfer Solutions for Energy Efficient Operation in All HVAC Applications

The term HVAC is an acronym for ‘Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning’, with the goal of creating a comfortable enclosed space — this includes control of comfortable air and water temperatures and acceptable air quality. HVAC systems are a crucial design consideration in the commercial sector including industrial or office buildings, hospitals, schools, shopping centres, data centres, entertainment facilities and more, as well as in the residential sector including hotels and high-rise buildings. Heat exchangers are a crucial component of HVAC systems, facilitating the transfer of thermal energy between a heat source or sink and the space to be controlled. Optimal sizing and selection of heat exchangers is crucial to ensure conditions are optimal year-round for the activities performed in a given space — the right heat exchangers will continue to perform these duties for many years while being as energy efficient as possible in their lifetime.

Valutech’s portfolio includes an extremely diverse range of sizes and styles of Alfa Laval plate heat exchangers and HTL air-to-liquid heat exchangers to suit virtually all possible HVAC applications; for more information on our line-up of Alfa Laval plate heat exchangers and HTL hydronic coil heat exchangers for HVAC applications, please select your product of choice on the right. Plate heat exchanger applications in the HVAC industry include but are not limited to:

For more information, please click on the respective application. Other common applications include the heating of swimming pools, spas, and saunas.

AlfaQ Product thumbnail | Valutech Inc

HVAC Line Gasketed Plate-and-Frame Heat Exchangers

AHRI Certified® Alfa Laval gasketed plate-and-frame heat exchangers compliant with strict HVAC industry regulations, available in connection sizes up to 20”.

Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers | Valuetech Inc

Copper Brazed Heat Exchangers

Lightweight and compact Alfa Laval copper brazed plate heat exchangers for simple and maintenance-free HVAC installations.

Air to Water Heat Exchangers | Valutech Inc

Hydronic Coils

Used in residential and commercial buildings, Valutech’s line of HTL air-liquid heat exchangers are suited for a variety of heating and cooling applications. We stock a complete range of HTL coils in sizes up to 36″ by 36″.

While many of the applications listed above relate to heat pump or space heating and cooling applications, plate heat exchangers are also used in the HVAC industry for applications not directly related to comfort, including: free cooling of industrial processes, boiler isolation in boiler-heated buildings, and pressure breakers in high-rise buildings. For more information on each of these, please click on the respective applications below:

Free Cooling

Boiler Isolation

Pressure Breakers

District Heating and Cooling

A key sector of the HVAC industry is district heating and cooling networks, which are systems that transport heat between residential communities, commercial buildings, and central chiller plants via insulated pipes. District heating networks are a particularly important outlet for the reuse of waste heat from local industry due to their proximity and ability to work on a shared grid; this arrangement eliminates the need for buildings on the grid to have dedicated chillers, leading to financial savings and reduced environmental impact. As with traditional comfort heating, the heat source can be a combination of fossil fuels, geothermal, solar thermal, and industrial waste-heat sources, among others, while heat sinks include seawater and air. Trends in energy savings and decarbonation targets incentivize low grid temperatures, in turn demanding efficient heat exchangers to meet temperature requirements in the target space. Plate heat exchangers are particularly suitable for district heating applications as their versatility allows them to act as pressure breakers in building substations as part of extensive networks with altitude variations while efficiently fulfilling their heating and cooling duties.

Data Centre Server Cooling

The cooling of servers in data centres is another an important sector of the HVAC industry, with data centres accounting for approximately 2% of total global electricity consumption. Modern cooling systems incorporating plate heat exchangers are being used to replace traditional and expensive mechanical cooling systems, providing savings in energy and contributing to sustainability targets by using free cooling and other heat recovery opportunities. With IT process demands (such as 5G infrastructure, high quality streaming, and autonomous vehicles) growing, sustainable cooling solutions for data centres are becoming paramount. Per an Alfa Laval survey conducted in 2024, 97% of Canadian data centres currently use plate heat exchangers, with the majority of those applications being in heat recovery and reuse throughout the centre. Other applications include cooling and temperature control of IT equipment, isolators to prevent fouling from open cooling towers, and space optimization to reduce crowding in server rooms and data halls.

The two most commonly used styles of plate heat exchangers in HVAC applications are the brazed plate and gasketed plate-and-frame styles. Brazed plate units offer maintenance-free operation and simple installation in a lightweight and compact form, and their gasket-free construction allows for flexibility in fluid choice. However, compared to GPHE’s (gasketed plate-and-frame heat exchangers), they are not as customizable in terms of size, plate styles, or plate count, they have a shorter life span due to the inability to access the plates for servicing, and are limited in maximum size. The efficient design of Alfa Laval GPHE’s uses a near-complete counter-current flow arrangement, allowing for temperature approaches as low as 1°C in liquid-to-liquid applications. Compared with shell-and-tube heat exchangers and other inefficient units that are limited to approaches of around 5°C, this allows for significant energy savings as heat sources/sinks will require smaller energy inputs to achieve desired temperatures in a target space. Alfa Laval GPHE’s are available with 14 paint systems in the C2, C3, and C5 corrosion categories to support indoor and outdoor applications, including specialized paint applications. For applications requiring a larger heat transfer area or the ability to service and maintain the unit, GPHE’s are the ideal style of plate heat exchanger. It must be noted that GPHE’s, while still relatively reasonably priced, are more costly to manufacture than brazed units, and their gasket-based construction introduces the risk of cross-contamination and gasket degradation in the presence of abrasive or corrosive fluids, meaning they must be replaced over the unit’s lifetime to maintain performance.

For information on the use of plate heat exchangers for domestic hot applications, please click below:

Plate Heat Exchangers for Domestic Hot Water

Trends in the HVAC Industry

Valutech has worked with major consultants and contractors in Ontario and beyond for over 30 years to provide optimal HVAC heat exchanger solutions and expertise for heat transfer and heat pump applications in developments of all sizes, from small-scale condominium retrofits to towering new developments and large-scale commercial projects. Our experts factor in fluid compatibility with gasket and plate materials, maintenance and service needs, port sizes and flow rates, and insulation requirements, among many other considerations when sizing and selecting the optimal heat transfer solution for your HVAC process.

Heat Pumps

One of the major trends of the modern HVAC industry is to replace boilers with heat pumps, garnering support from policy makers and system designers in both the residential and commercial sectors. Heat pumps are electrically-driven systems that efficiently transfer heat from a source fluid (usually water or air) to a system side fluid in order to heat or cool a building. They are approximately four times more efficient than the equivalent fossil-fuel boiler for residential and commercial building heating, with the potential to create massive energy savings and reductions in CO2 emissions, especially when combined with electric boilers or thermal energy storage systems. Currently heat pumps account for 10% of global building heating duties, and within space heating and cooling applications their efficiency results from the ability to pull heat from or reject heat to a reservoir, reducing loads on chillers and allowing for precise control of temperature differentials between condensers and evaporators.
 Consequently, thermally efficient and robust heat exchangers are crucial in order to take advantage of the potential efficiencies afforded by heat pump installations; brazed plate and welded plate heat exchangers are common choices for heat pump systems as they can accommodate high pressure refrigerants and are versatile enough to act as condensers, evaporators, and subcoolers. In addition to residential building applications, heat pumps are used to recover heat from industrial processes such as data centres, as well as from natural heat sources like seawater and sewage; this heat is then typically supplied to local processes via district heating networks to ensure as little heat is wasted as possible.

Alfa Laval plate heat exchangers are widely used in heat pump applications due to their versatility and highly efficient lint up making them suited to perform virtually any industrial and commercial heat pump application. For more information on how Alfa Laval heat exchangers are used in heat pump applications, please click here.

District Cooling Case Study: Deep Lake Water Cooling in Toronto

The use of efficient heat exchangers and heat pump systems lowers heating costs, allows for electricity-based heating incorporating renewable energy sources, and provides the utmost system flexibility. On a larger scale, the widespread use of energy efficient heat exchangers and the implementation of systems to harness renewable heat sources or reuse generated heat to minimize the waste of energy is a major factor in creating sustainable urban developments, as well as saving financial and material resources for other crucial applications. It is estimated that heating and cooling of buildings accounts for around 24% of global energy consumption; sustainability initiatives in the HVAC industry reduce CO2 emissions and create a pathway for the industry to contribute to broader environmental sustainability on a global level.
For example, the City of Toronto utilizes the world’s largest Deep Lake Water Cooling (DLWC) system, which transports water from the depths of Lake Ontario, filters and treats it to a potable grade, and to supplies it to residents and businesses in downtown Toronto as a reliable and renewable source of cool water. This network spans 180 buildings across 3.7 km2 in the downtown core to provide cooling as well as domestic tap water in a system that, as of 2024, features 27 Alfa Laval plate heat exchangers each with capacities of 8.5 megawatts to cool water from 13°C to 5°C. This system saves over 90,000 MW·h of electricity annually, corresponding to 40,000 tonnes of CO2 emission reductions. These benefits are in addition to the elimination of cooling towers and chillers, which significantly reduces water consumption while allowing for repurposing of roof space.

Questions about heat exchangers used in the HVAC industry?