Most air conditioning and refrigeration equipment now can readily
reduce compressor horsepower, fan horsepower, OEM cost, and operating
cost to the consumer by 50 percent. How? Through a new coil technology.
Thermorise
Inc., an independent research company located in upstate New York, is
getting ready to start manufacturing fin tube heat exchangers (coils)
based on an entirely new combination of tube spacing, fin density, and
number of tube rows. This new coil, called the DEEP coil, uses a tube
spacing of 2, 3, or 4 inches for 3/8-inch diameter tubes, a fin density
of eight or less per inch, and multiple tube rows numbering between four
to 12. This compares to current design practice of 1-inch tube spacing,
fin density of eight to 24 fins per inch, and tube rows of one to
three. So, the DEEP coil is in a completely different “envelope.”
According
to Thermorise, the basic principle of the DEEP coil is to substantially
reduce the airside resistance by a combination of reduced fin density
and increased tube spacing. The reduced air resistance reduces fan power
needed for the movement of the air. Concurrently, the increased tube
spacing allows the return bends to be of much higher diameter — 2, 3, or
4 inches compared to 1 inch for the current design coils. This
respectively reduces the fluid resistance in the tube bends by 1/2, 1/3,
and 1/4. This results in proportional reduction in the compressor or
pump power needed to move the fluid. The combined effect is reduced fan
power, reduced compressor power, reduced OEM cost, and reduced operating
cost to the consumer, all to the tune of 50 percent from the current
level, says Thermorise. Following is a brief illustration of this new
technology.
