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!