Evaluation of Heating Efficiency Increase Using a Simple Heat Recovery Unit

Abstract

Heating in the winter is one of the human activities that consumes the most energy, thereby affecting the environment and leaving a carbon footprint. An increase in heating efficiency results in a reduction in the energy demand of the process and environmental protection. This contribution aimed to determine and experimentally verify the possibility of obtaining and effectively using the heat from the chimney of a gas boiler generated during the heating of a family house. For this purpose, we used a simple heat exchanger and measured the relevant temperatures on an exchange unit for almost five months during the heating season. The air temperatures measured at the inlet and outlet of the exchanger unit together with the outside temperatures were statistically analyzed to determine the effect of using the exchanger unit to obtain additional heat that could be used for other purposes. In addition, this study investigated whether there was a statistically significant difference in the temperature of the air entering the heating system with different outdoor temperature values. In the discussion, these hypotheses are either confirmed or disproved. Finally, the effectiveness of the current household heating system is evaluated.