How to reduce heat loss when opening the door?

Academy Online
18.03.2020

Benefits of air curtains installation.


The main aim of the air curtain is to create an air barrier between the interior and exterior of the object or internal zones of different temperatures. The barrier is designed to minimize heat loss and thereby reduce the costs of heating the room. Besides, the barrier generated by the curtain prevents insects and debris from entering the object and the curtain with water heat exchanger or electric heaters allows to worm up the room even more

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Reduce heat loss when opening the door


When you open the door to even the most isolated room, you will cause a momentary drop in insulation to almost zero. It will lead to drought, mixing of air from the outside and inside and thus to loss of heat energy. Depending on the characteristics and conditions prevailing in the room, such air exchange may occur in a very quick and uncontrolled manner. The right air curtain can reduce the loss of thermal energy by 85% as this is the efficiency of the curtain airbag. For the curtain to fulfill its role, it must be correctly adjusted to the passage it is to protect. Remember that the curtain with its scope of operation should cover the entire surface of the opening, the width of the curtain should be greater than or equal to the width of the opening and the minimum speed of airflow at the floor must not be less than 2 m/s.


How much can I save using the air curtain?


To better illustrate the benefits arising from the use of air curtain, we would like to refer to a short case study.


The calculated object under consideration is located in Warsaw where the average temperature of the 9-month heating season is approximately 5°C and the average wind speed is 4.5 m/s. The cubic capacity of the object is equal to 5,000 m3, through the 2m x 3m doorway, the air exchange takes place at 10m3/s when the door is opened and the target room temperature is 18°C. Knowing the performance of the air curtain, you can estimate what amount of air enters the room, what losses of thermal energy it will cause and thereby how it will affect the costs of heating the object. The following table shows the precise assumptions used for the calculations and comparison of heating costs for cases with and without the air curtain.


Cost of WING C200 EC air curtain use is approximately 100 € per year, therefore for the considered case savings during the year will amount to more than 4000 €.

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It is worth to mention that the right air curtain is the most effective and extremely simple way to increase energy savings at premises for various purposes. Current requirements for the energy efficiency of new objects can be satisfied with air curtains from VTS portfolio. Depending on individual needs, you can choose from devices with water heat exchanger, electric heaters or a version without the heating element which has been used in the above comparison of costs. In addition to the heating versions, all curtains are available in three sizes of 1m, 1.5m, and 2m, the curtains can be combined in a modular way for even better match of the devices to the object. To maximize savings generated by air curtains, VTS has introduced the EC solutions with extremely energy-efficient brushless drive units. 

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