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The advantages of a system approach

Federica Serena

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When you are planning an indoor climate ventilation, cooling or heating solution, there are a few key factors that need to be considered. Energy efficiency naturally comes to mind, along with features like reliability, low maintenance costs, ease of installation and ease of use.

The best way to do this, we have found, is to not only look at the individual units in the solution but on the system as a whole. We call this the system approach.

An analogy could be a national team in football. Just as a climate solution consists of different units – in some cases from different manufacturers – a national team consists of the very best players from many different local teams. But being individually skilled players does not automatically mean that they will play well as a team – they need to learn to work together.

In the same way, different unit modules – excellent though they may be on their own – does not necessarily comprise an optimal system solution. Just as the football players, they need to work together to produce great results.

So, what characterizes our system approach? First of all, a focus on the customer needs – that is always the starting point. The needs will determine everything else, from which unit modules are needed to control systems, user interface and level of integration. In order of rising complexity, integrated solutions might for example be:

  • An integrated solution for production of cooling and/or heating, for example two or three chillers in a small office.
  • An integrated solution for production and distribution of cooling and/or heating, for example chillers and heaters connected to pumps with variable flow management.
  • A system integration of several devices, including chillers, pumps, heaters, dry coolers, cooling towers, boilers etc, producing and distributing cooling and/or heating and including heat rejection.
  • System integration of internal and external units and cooling/heating distribution inside and outside.
  • Customized solutions for specific needs, built in close dialog with customers to define the optimal solution.

To ensure optimum results, an integrated system needs a sophisticated control system that can collect and analyze data, and balance unit loads and performances. And to facilitate ease of use, an integrated user interface that can control all aspects of the system is preferable. Hyzer, from Swegon, is an example of a solution using the system approach thinking, integrating with products like WISE and many others. It is plug & play, modular, scalable, energy efficient, and works well with many types of units, with a single user interface.

When you start to organize and design your units more as a team and a system, rather than singular units, you will end up with more energy efficient, reliable and indoor environmental friendly solution.

That is why we believe in the system approach.