19 - PROVEN HYDRONIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

Hydronic systems use water as a conveyor belt for heat. In a heating application, thermal energy (e.g., heat) is created at a heat source, loaded onto a stream of water, carried by that water to where it is needed within the building, and unloaded from the water into the space at one or more heat emitters. The water is neither the source of the heat, nor its final destination — it’s only a means of transport.

In a cooling application, heat is absorbed into a stream of chilled water at one or more heat absorbers, carried back to a mechanical room, transferred to a medium at higher temperature, and rejected to the atmosphere, a body of water, or into the earth. Again, water serves only as the conveyance medium for the heat. This issue of idronics™ extends this discussion to complete hydronic distribution systems.