Economizer

Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers

(UK), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy
consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a uid. The term economizer is used for other
purposes as well. Boiler, power plant, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) uses are discussed in
this article. In simple terms, an economizer is a heat exchanger.

year, boiler combustion eciency has risen from 80% to

more than 95%. The eciency of heat produced is directly linked to boiler eciency. The percentage of excess air and the temperature of the combustion products
are two key variables in evaluating this eciency.
The combustion of natural gas needs a certain quantity
of air in order to be complete, so the burners need a ow
of excess air in order to operate. Combustion produces
water steam, and the quantity depends on the amount of
natural gas burned. Also, the evaluation of the dew point
depends on the excess air. Natural gas has dierent combustion eciency curves linked to the temperature of the
gases and the excess air. For example, if the gases are
chilled to 38C and there is 15% excess air, then the efciency will be 94%. The condensing economizer can
thus recover the sensible and latent heat in the steam condensate contained in the ue gases for the process. The
economizer is made of an aluminium and stainless steel
alloy. The gases pass through the cylinder and the water
through the nned tubes. It condenses about 11% of the
water contained in the gases.

Stirling engine

Robert Stirling's innovative contribution to the design

of hot air engines of 1816 was what he called the
'Economiser'. Now known as the regenerator, it stored
heat from the hot portion of the engine as the air passed
to the cold side, and released heat to the cooled air as
it returned to the hot side. This innovation improved the
eciency of Stirlings engine enough to make it commercially successful in particular applications, and has since
been a component of every air engine that is called a Stirling engine.

2.1 History

Boilers

In boilers, economizers are heat exchange devices that

heat uids, usually water, up to but not normally beyond
the boiling point of that uid. Economizers are so named
because they can make use of the enthalpy in uid streams
that are hot, but not hot enough to be used in a boiler,
thereby recovering more useful enthalpy and improving
the boilers eciency. They are a device tted to a boiler
which saves energy by using the exhaust gases from the
boiler to preheat the cold water used to ll it (the feed
water).
Energy heat recovery with condensing economizer.
The boiler room is a huge energy guzzler. It consists of
thermal uid boilers or steam boiler, with exhaust gases
through a common chimney. An indirect contact or contact condensing economizer will recover the residual heat
from the combustion products. A series of dampers, an
ecient control system, as well as a ventilator, allow all
or part of the combustion products to pass through the
economizer, depending on the demand for make-up water and/or process water. The temperature of the gases
can be lowered from 200C to 10C, while preheating
the process water from 8C to 80C. On average over the

One of two original 1940s 'Greens Economizers inside

the Killafaddy Board Mills boiler house on the outskirts of
Launceston

The rst successful economizer design was used to increase the steam-raising eciency of the boilers of
stationary steam engines. It was patented by Edward
Green in 1845, and since then has been known as Greens
economizer. It consisted of an array of vertical cast iron
tubes connected to a tank of water above and below, between which the boilers exhaust gases passed. This is the
1

5 REFRIGERATION

reverse arrangement to that usually but not always seen in

the re tubes of a boiler; there the hot gases usually pass
through tubes immersed in water, whereas in an economizer the water passes through tubes surrounded by hot
gases. While both are heat exchange devices, in a boiler
the burning gases heat the water to produce steam to drive
an engine, whether piston or turbine, whereas in an economizer, some of the heat energy that would otherwise all
be lost to the atmosphere is instead used to heat the water and/or air that will go into the boiler, thus saving fuel.
The most successful feature of Greens design of economizer was its mechanical scraping apparatus, which was
needed to keep the tubes free of deposits of soot.

4 HVAC

Economizers were eventually tted to virtually all stationary steam engines in the decades following Greens invention. Some preserved stationary steam engine sites still
have their Greens economisers although usually they are
not used. One such preserved site is the Claymills Pumping Engines Trust in Staordshire, England, which is in
the process of restoring one set of economisers and the associated steam engine which drove them. Another such
example is the British Engineerium in Brighton & Hove,
where the economiser associated with the boilers for
Number 2 Engine is in use, complete with its associated
small stationary engine. A third site is Coldharbour Mill
Working Wool Museum, where the Greens economiser
is in working order, complete with the drive shafts from
the Pollit and Wigzell steam engine.

Air-side economizers can reduce HVAC energy costs in

cold and temperate climates while also potentially improving indoor air quality, but are most often not appropriate in hot and humid climates. With the appropriate
controls, economizers can be used in climates which experience various weather systems. For information on
how economizers and other controls can aect energy efciency and indoor air quality in buildings, see the US
Environmental Protection Agency report, Energy Cost
and IAQ Performance of Ventilation Systems and Controls Study.

Power plants

Main article: Feedwater heater

Air-side economizers HVAC (heating, ventilating, and

air conditioning) can save energy in buildings by using
cool outside air as a means of cooling the indoor space.
When the temperature of the outside air is less than the
temperature of the recirculated air, conditioning the outside air is more energy ecient than conditioning recirculated air. When the outside air is both suciently
cool and suciently dry (depending on the climate) the
amount of enthalpy in the air is acceptable and no additional conditioning of it is needed; this portion of the
air-side economizer control scheme is called free cooling.

When the outside airs dry- and wet-bulb temperatures are

low enough, water-side economizers use water cooled
by a wet cooling tower or a dry cooler (also called uid
cooler) to cool buildings without operating a chiller. They
are historically known as the strainer cycle, but the waterside economizer is not a true thermodynamic cycle. Also,
instead of passing the cooling tower water through a
strainer and then to the cooling coils, which causes fouling, more often a plate-and-frame heat exchanger is inserted between the cooling tower and chilled water loops.

Modern-day boilers, such as those in coal-red power sta- Good controls, and valves or dampers, as well as maintetions, are still tted with economizers which are descen- nance, are needed to ensure proper operation of the airdants of Greens original design. In this context they are and water-side economizers.
often referred to as feedwater heaters and heat the condensate from turbines before it is pumped to the boilers.
Economizers are commonly used as part of a heat recovery steam generator in a combined cycle power plant. In
an HRSG, water passes through an economizer, then a
boiler and then a superheater. The economizer also prevents ooding of the boiler with liquid water that is too
cold to be boiled given the ow rates and design of the
boiler.
A common application of economizers in steam power
plants is to capture the waste heat from boiler stack gases
(ue gas) and transfer it to the boiler feedwater. This
raises the temperature of the boiler feedwater, lowering the needed energy input, in turn reducing the ring
rates needed for the rated boiler output. Economizers
lower stack temperatures which may cause condensation
of acidic combustion gases and serious equipment corrosion damage if care is not taken in their design and material selection.

5 Refrigeration
5.1 Walk-in Cooler Economizer
A common form of refrigeration economizer is a walk-in
cooler economizer or outside air refrigeration system.
In such a system outside air that is cooler than the air inside a refrigerated space is brought into that space and the
same amount of warmer inside air is ducted outside. The
resulting cooling supplements or replaces the operation of
a compressor-based refrigeration system. If the air inside
a cooled space is only about 5F warmer than the outside
air that replaces it (that is, the T>5F) this cooling eect
is accomplished more eciently than the same amount of
cooling resulting from a compressor based system. If the
outside air is not cold enough to overcome the refrigeration load of the space the compressor system will need to

5.3

Economizer setups in refrigeration

also operate, or the temperature inside the space will rise. 5.3

5.2

Vapor-Compression Refrigeration

Economizer setups in refrigeration

Several displays permit the refrigeration cycle to work

as economizers, and benet from this idea. The design
of this kind of systems demands certain expertise on the
matter, and the manufacture of some of the gear, particular nesse and durability. Pressure drop, electric valve
controlling and oil drag, must all be attended with special
caution.

Another use of the term occurs in industrial refrigeration,

specically vapor-compression refrigeration. Normally,
the economizer concept is applied when a particular design or feature on the refrigeration cycle, allows a reduction either in the amount of energy used from the power
grid; in the size of the components (basically the gas compressors nominal capacity) used to produce refrigeration,
or both. For example, for a walk-in freezer that is kept
at 20 F (29 C), the main refrigeration components
would include: an evaporator coil (a dense arrangement
of pipes containing refrigerant and thin metal ns used to
remove heat from inside the freezer), fans to blow air over
the coil and around the box, an air-cooled condensing unit
sited outdoors, and valves and piping. The condensing
unit would include a compressor and a coil and fans to
exchange heat with the ambient air.
An economizer display takes advantage of the fact that
refrigeration systems have increasing eciencies at increasing pressures and temperatures. The power the gas
compressor needs is strongly correlated to both the ratio
and the dierence, between the discharge and the suction
pressures (as well as to other features like the refrigerants
heat capacity and the type of compressor). Low temperature systems such as freezers move less uid in same
volumes. That means the compressors pumping is less
ecient on low temperature systems. This phenomenon
is notorious when taking in account that the evaporation
temperature for a walk-in freezer at 20 F (29 C)
may be around 35 F (37 C). Systems with economizers aim to produce part of the refrigeration work on
high pressures, condition in which gas compressors are
normally more ecient. Depending of the application,
this technology either allows smaller compression capacities to be able to supply enough pressure and ow for a
system that normally would require bigger compressors;
increases the capacity of a system that without economizer would produce less refrigeration, or allows the system to produce the same amount of refrigeration using
less power.

Two staged systems may need to double the pressure handlers installed in the cycle. The diagram displays two dierent thermal
expansion valves (TXV) and two separate stages of gas compression.

5.3.1 Two staged systems and boosters

A system is said to be in a two staged set up if two separate gas compressors in serial display work together to
produce the compression. A normal booster installation
is a two staged system that receives uid that cools down
the discharge of the rst compressor, before arriving to
the second compressors input. The uid that arrives to
the interstage of both compressors comes from the liquid
line and is normally controlled by expansion, pressure and
solenoid valves.

The economizer concept is linked to subcooling as the

condensed liquid line temperature is usually higher than
that on the evaporator, making it a good place to apply the
notion of increasing eciencies.[1] Recalling the walk-in
freezer example, the normal temperature of the liquid line
in that system is around 60 F (16 C) or even higher (it
varies depending on the condensing temperature). That
condition is by far less hostile to produce refrigeration, A subcooled booster has a subcooling heat exchanger (SHX) that
provides subcooling for the condensed liquid line.
than the evaporator at 35 F (37 C).

5 REFRIGERATION

A standard two staged cycle of this kind will possess an

expansion valve that expands and modulates the amount
of refrigerant incoming at the interstage. As the uid arriving to the interstage expands, it will tend to evaporate,
producing an overall temperature drop and cooling the
second compressors suction when mixing with the uid
discharged by the rst compressor. This kind of set up
may have a heat exchanger between the expansion and
the interstage, situation in which that second evaporator
may serve to produce refrigeration as well, though not
as cool as the main evaporator (for example to produce
air conditioning or for keeping fresh products). A two
staged system is said to be set up in a booster display with
subcooling, if the refrigerant arriving to the interstage
passes through a subcooling heat exchanger that subcools
the main liquid line arriving to the main evaporator of the
same system.[2]

A subcooled economizer reduces the amount of gas compressors

in the system.

pressure gas.[3] This means there is no need to install two

compressors and still benet from the booster concept.
There are two types of economizer setups for these compressors, ash and subcooling. The latter works under
the same principle as the two staged booster displays with
subcooling. The ash economizer is dierent because it
doesnt use a heat exchanger to produce the subcooling.
Instead, it has a ash chamber or tank, in which ash gas
is produced to lower the temperature of the liquid before
the expansion. The ash gas that is produced in this tank
leaves the liquid line and goes to the economizer entrance
of the screw compressor.[4]

Some screw compressor manufacturers oer them with economizer. This systems can use ash-gas for the economizer input.

5.3.2

Economizer gas compressors

The need to use two compressors when considering a

booster set-up tends to increase the cost of a refrigeration system. Besides the gears price, two staged systems
need special attention over synchronization, pressure control and lubrication. To reduce these costs, special gear
has been elaborated.
Economizer screw compressors are being built by several
manufacturers like Refcomp, Mycom, Bitzer and York.
These machines merge both compressors of a two staged
system into one screw compressor and have two inputs:
the main suction and an interstage side entrance for higher

Refrigeration cycle optimizers such as EcoPacs E-Series, keep the

original design of the refrigeration cycle without modication.

5.3.3 Subcooling and refrigeration cycle optimizers

All previous systems produce an economizer eect by
using compressors, meters, valves and heat exchangers
within the refrigeration cycle. Depending on the system, in some refrigeration cycles it may be convenient
to produce the economizer using an independent refrigeration mechanism. Such is the case of subcooling the
liquid line by any other means that draw the heat out of
the main system. For example, a heat exchanger that

5
preheats cold water needed for another process or human use, may withdraw the heat from the liquid line, effectively subcooling the line and increasing the systems
capacity.[5]
Recently, machines exclusively designated for this purpose have been developed. In Chile, the manufacturer
EcoPac Systems developed a cycle optimizer able to stabilize the temperature of the liquid line and allowing either an increase in the refrigeration capacity of the system, or a reduction of the power consumption.[6] Such
systems have the advantage of not interfering with the
original design of the refrigeration system being an interesting alternative for expanding single staged systems
that don not possess an economizer compressor.[7]

7 References
Richard L. Hills (1989). Power from steam: A history of the stationary steam engine. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45834-X.
[1] Danfos, The Inuence of Subcoling on Refrigeration Control Quality. Page 2.
[2] Danfos, The Inuence of Subcooling on Refrigeration
Control Quality. Page 6.
[3] AC&R Journal: Design and Application of Small Screw
Compressors , Economizer Operation (Hermann Renz).
[4] SWEP, Refrigeration Systems: Two Staged Systems
[5] APS Bussinss Service, Refrigeration Eciency Measures

5.3.4

Internal heat exchangers

Subcooling may also be produced by superheating the

gas leaving the evaporator and heading to the gas compressor.[8] These systems withdraw heat from the liquid
line but heat up the gas compressors suction. This is a
very common solution to insure that gas reaches the compressor and liquid reaches the valve. It also allows maximum heat exchanger use as minimizes the portion of the
heat exchangers used to change the temperature of the
uid, and maximizes the volume in which the refrigerant
changes its phase (phenomena involving much more heat
ow, the base principle of vapor-compression refrigeration).
An internal heat exchanger is simply a type of heat exchanger that uses the cold gas leaving the evaporator coil
to cool the high-pressure liquid that is headed into the
beginning of the evaporator coil via an expansion device.
The gas is used to chill a chamber that normally has a
series of pipes for the liquid running through it. The
superheated gas then proceeds on to the compressor. The
subcooling term refers to cooling the liquid below its boiling point. 10 F (5.6 C) of subcooling means it is 10 F
colder than boiling at a given pressure. As it represents
a dierence of temperatures, the subcooling value wont
change if it is measured on the absolute scale, or the relative scale (10 F of subcooling equals 10 R (5.6 K) of
subcooling).

See also
Countercurrent exchange
Regenerative heat exchanger
Feedwater heater
Thermal eciency

[6] Pesca y Medioambiente N45, New Challenges on Refrigeration, Cycle Optimizers.

[7] AQUA News, Eciency and Saving in Refrigeration
[8] Refrigerant Subcooling and System Eciency, The inuence of refrigerant subcooling on system eciency.

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Economizer Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economizer?oldid=669762244 Contributors: Frecklefoot, Lumos3, WhiteDragon,

DMG413, Brianhe, Dennyboy34, Jimp, SmackBot, Gilliam, Chris the speller, Royboycrashfan, Mion, SilkTork, Robosh, CapitalR,
Mikiemike, CmdrObot, Rileyt, Frank, Acroterion, D-rew, FactsAndFigures, Melon00, Rembecki, Coppertwig, Nuttycoconut, Slightlymighty, WikHead, Kbdankbot, Erikhansson1, Addbot, Farmercarlos, Tassedethe, Scenography, AnomieBOT, Citation bot, Anon423,
Jer1980, Patrom~enwiki, John of Reading, Druzhnik, Emiliano1954, Ivanpeter5o, Carloviso, Pllorca, Satellizer, MerlIwBot, Arunsuperre, Ianblake24, Darreny, Hmainsbot1, Wriekhathaar, M3d mecanique energie, De wafelenbak, Harryadne, Srevart and Anonymous:
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8.2

Images

File:A_1940{}s_'Green{}s_Economizer'_in_a_boiler_house_in_Launceston,_Tasmania.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.

org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/A_1940%27s_%27Green%27s_Economizer%27_in_a_boiler_house_in_Launceston%2C_Tasmania.JPG
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Wriekhathaar
File:Cycle_Optimizer.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Cycle_Optimizer.png License: CC BY-SA
3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Carlo Viso
File:Exchanger_Economiser.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Exchanger_Economiser.png License:
CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Carlo Viso
File:Flash_Economiser.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Flash_Economiser.png License: CC BYSA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Carlo Viso
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Contributors:
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Tkgd2007
File:Subcooled_Booster.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Subcooled_Booster.png License: CC BYSA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Carlo Viso
File:Two_Staged_System.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Two_Staged_System.png License: CC
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8.3

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