Sweco looks for speed and ver­sat­il­ity in heat pump selec­tion tool

Design is getting increas­ingly com­plic­ated, with numer­ous product options for every variety of build­ing. Design­ers need to be able to obtain the most accur­ate inform­a­tion on products quickly and easily.

Oilon man­u­fac­tures indus­trial heat pumps and has developed the Oilon Selec­tion Tool program for design­ers to help them choose the right pump model for each situ­ation. We had the oppor­tun­ity to hear Sweco’s views on the needs and wishes of the designer.

The future is every­day for Sweco

Sweco is a built envir­on­ment and indus­trial engin­eer­ing company that provides design and con­sult­ing ser­vices for pro­jects of all sizes. Founded more than 125 years ago in Sweden, today Sweco is the industry leader in Europe and carries out tens of thou­sands of pro­jects in 70 coun­tries around the world.

Sweco wants to look ahead since the results of its work will only become a reality for most people in the future. The life cycle of engin­eer­ing solu­tions for build­ings, infra­struc­ture, energy and water is always many tens of years.

Sweco employs 16,000 people world­wide, of whom 2,100 work in Finland. The company’s turnover is EUR 1.8 billion.

The designer is always busy

 “There are always count­less things to con­sider when design­ing energy systems,” says Jussi Alile­hto, senior con­sult­ant at Sweco. “Heat pumps are complex devices and, at the design stage, one needs to get as accur­ate inform­a­tion as pos­sible as to how they can be applied to dif­fer­ent situ­ations.”

“The tra­di­tional cata­logue is just not enough. One has to be able to dimen­sion the system accur­ately and here the only pos­sib­il­ity is good soft­ware. Devices work dif­fer­ently in dif­fer­ent situ­ations and getting the best energy effi­ciency makes things even more com­plic­ated.”

Accord­ing to Alile­hto, the timetable for build­ing real estate is always as short as pos­sible – both in design and on site. The designer has no time to call the man­u­fac­turer and ask for details, but the inform­a­tion must be avail­able imme­di­ately. If not, the designer moves to the next man­u­fac­turer.

Designer deeply involved at the draft­ing stage

At the first stage, the heating needs and heat loads of the build­ing are the start­ing point. With a rough draft, the designer will already go deeply into the detail, explor­ing tem­per­at­ure levels, effi­ciency and elec­trical power. For example, if 80°C heat is required, a pump with a maximum of 65°C is out of the ques­tion.

“Does this device work best in these cir­cum­stances – would the altern­at­ive be better,” con­tin­ues Alile­hto, describ­ing the designer’s choices. “The cus­tomer wants to know the answer right away.”

“After the rough design has been approved, the designer will focus on more details – dif­fer­ent per­form­ance values, dimen­sional draw­ings, dir­ec­tion of pipe con­nec­tions and other detail. Cus­tom­ers often point to addi­tional needs at a very late stage and even during con­struc­tion, plans may have to change.”

“Espe­cially in renov­a­tion pro­jects, it is essen­tial to see if the device can fit into the space avail­able and whether it can be trans­por­ted there. Dif­fer­ent desires, such as low GWP refri­ger­ants, must be avail­able at an early stage. The price level is also import­ant and the price level for the budget is needed in the early stages.”

There are many options for imple­ment­a­tion

In Alile­hto’s opinion, a good selec­tion tool should be quick to use. Many pro­grams are simply slow. If it takes 10 seconds instead of one second, the designer chooses the faster one.

“When design­ing, it is import­ant to see all the details of the device – elec­trical fea­tures, flow and everything else,” says Alile­hto. “This is engin­eer­ing work, and mere kilo­watt details do not tell you any­thing. There can never be too much inform­a­tion. Of course, it’s a good idea to get a simple version and altern­at­ively an engin­eer­ing print out. Prin­touts must also be easy to create – for example, in PDF format.”

“An import­ant feature of the selec­tion tool is also the ability to make ver­sat­ile con­fig­ur­a­tions, for example, mul­tiple pumps in par­al­lel or in series. The freely model-​able options make it easy to optim­ise effi­ciency and tem­per­at­ure levels. Occa­sion­ally, space con­straints may also force the heat pump to be divided into several devices.”

The role of heat pumps will increase in the future

Jussi Alile­hto has been employed by Sweco since 2008 and earlier worked in auto­ma­tion con­tract­ing. He has seen a wide range of real estates and is often involved in the deploy­ment phase of the systems and in the mon­it­or­ing of the war­ranty period. Inter­ested in tech­no­logy, Alile­hto is not afraid to “open hatches” and always wants to under­stand how the devices work.

“Earlier a build­ing had only a cir­cu­lat­ing pump and a valve for reg­u­lat­ing the amount of heating water,” says Alile­hto. “Now the situ­ation is quite dif­fer­ent. The more complex the system, the greater the respons­ib­il­ity of the designer. In addi­tion, there should be an entity respons­ible for the system after the war­ranty period. It would be best to collect all activity-​related data, for example, in the cloud. Mon­it­or­ing the entire life cycle of a build­ing is vital, and heat pumps play a major and import­ant role in this.”

“It is obvious that the use of heat pumps will increase sig­ni­fic­antly from the current state. The fresh chance of redu­cing elec­tri­city tax by the Con­fed­er­a­tion of Finnish Indus­tries is a right step towards elec­tri­fy­ing society and redu­cing burning. ‘Elec­tri­city is poison’ is a weird old atti­tude. Heat pumps and wind power are steps towards an emission-​free future.”

Down­load Oilon Selec­tion Tool Here!