Plant Engineering
Transfer stations, pumps, heating curves, hydraulic balancing and domestic hot water
Plant engineering connects the heat network to the buildings and the generation side – through transfer stations, pumps and supply-temperature control. Clean hydraulic balancing and low return temperatures are decisive for efficient network operation. This topic area covers transfer stations, pump technology, heating curves, hydraulic balancing and domestic hot water.
7 articles in this category
Sizing Heat Transfer Stations in District Heating
How to size house transfer stations: domestic hot water priority, space heating loads and diversity factors — with sizing guidance for district heating connections.
Pump Sizing in District Heating Networks
Central vs. decentralised pump concepts: sizing, index-point control and energy demand
Heating Curves — Fundamentals and Application
What is a heating curve and how does it affect the design of district heating networks and heat pumps?
Pump Switching and Control
Pump switching and control in district heating networks: parallel and series configurations, redundancy concepts and differential-pressure control.
Hydraulic Circuit Types
Basic hydraulic circuits with diagrams: throttle, diverting, mixing and injection circuits for heating, ventilation and district heating compared.
Hydraulic Balancing
Hydraulic balancing in district heating networks: static balancing, automatic differential-pressure controllers and combination valves compared.
Domestic Hot Water in District Heating
Instantaneous water heaters, storage water heaters and Legionella protection: variants of domestic hot water preparation in thermal networks
Overview: Plant Engineering
Plant engineering comprises the components between network, generation and consumer. Their design largely determines which return temperatures the network achieves and how much pumping energy is needed. The articles in this topic area cover the building side and the network side alike.
On the building side, the topics are the sizing of heat transfer stations with temperature approach, simultaneity factors and domestic hot water, heating curves for supply-temperature control, and the basic hydraulic circuits such as mixing, injection and throttling circuits. Hydraulic balancing compares static and dynamic solutions up to pressure-independent control valves; the article on domestic hot water covers system variants, priority control and legionella protection.
On the network side, pump sizing describes how to determine flow rate and pump head as well as index-point and speed control; an online calculator supports preliminary sizing. The article on pump switching and control adds concepts for multiple pumps and feed-in points. Together these articles link network hydraulics with operations optimization.