mag 01°2010
No sleep ’til Colorado:
LambdaConstant is being
tested in great heights
s
aving energy starts at home. That is why dave davis also conferences, frequently even more often. “We were working on
tests new equipment himself: “A lambdaConstant system efficiency and on improving individual components right to the
has been heating my own pool for years now and it works very end,” stresses Kratzer. The small number of components is
superbly!” davis has been Managing director of Heat Transfer a characteristic of the lambdaConstant system that dave davis
Products (HTP) since 2006. Ever since it was set up, the com- also highlights: a fan with a mass flow sensor, a gas burner, a
pany has been committed to efficiency on the American heating control unit and a display. done.
technology market. The Massachusetts-based company started
to develop and produce heat exchangers for heating boilers and Flexible in all situations But what davis likes best about the
for the solar industry in 1974. In the late 1990s, the company gas blower with electronic control is that it automatically adjusts
introduced condensing boiler technology from landshut to the to suit the type of gas and the gas content. That is especially
American market — triggering a development that has continued important in some parts of the USA, where propane and other
until today. HTP has since become a pioneer in the field of ultra- types of gas are used to increase the gas pressure. “There is
efficient water heating. “The people from Heat Transfer Products a large market for this in the USA. You don’t need measure-
are true pioneers in heating technology,” stresses Manfred Kratzer ments or additional jets or complex configuration work to con-
of Export Sales at ebm-papst landshut. vert lambdaConstant
from one type of gas
Advancing technology At the turn of the century, HTP was to another,” stresses
carefully monitoring what the engineers at the lower Bavarian davis. The adaptabil-
ebm-papst location were developing: a control model that auto- ity is made possible
matically adjusts the burner for different types of gas and which by a mass flow sen-
requires less installation time for commissioning. In 2005, a del- sor that measures
egation visited landshut and was quickly taken by the lamb- the gas /air mixture
daConstant system. “We are committed to European technology flowing through the
to make our products even better and to advance the American unit. This ingenious
market. For that reason, we quickly indicated to ebm-papst that device makes lamb-
we were interested in working on and with lambdaConstant for daConstant flexible
use in our heating systems,” explains davis. for other influences
HTP spent the last three years conducting extreme field tests such as differences
on 25 units in different parts of the USA to determine the effi- in elevation and fluc- What HTP Managing Director
ciency, flexibility and robustness of the lambdaConstant sys- tuations in pressure
Dave Davis likes best is that
LambdaConstant is flexible
tem. Some units were fitted to a jeep and driven through the in the piping sys-
mountains of Colorado. Others were installed in log cabins and tem, as dave davis
others were tested at camping sites. “We had units at eleva- stresses. “At higher
tions of 3,000 metres and we had units at sea level,” explains elevations, lambda-
dave davis. HTP engineers maintained constant contact with Constant has one great advantage: the heating systems work
ebm-papst throughout the tests. “Both companies benefited just as efficiently even at elevations up to 3,000 metres.” The
from this,” explains Manfred Kratzer. The learning effects of the system doesn’t just monitor the flow rate, it actually regulates
extreme tests constantly made the lambdaConstant system even the gas flow. This means that differences in pressure in long
better. In return, the two models from HTP’s Elite plus line were systems of pipes are no longer of significance. That is a char-
scrutinised and continuously improved at landshut. The engi- acteristic that cannot be underestimated in the large private
neers regularly exchanged information in fortnightly telephone households typically found in the USA.
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