Themes such as sustainability and energy efficiency play a big and active role in companies. But did you know that this also plays a role in the choice of humidification? The method of humidification has a big effect on your energy consumption and so also on the sustainability of your business. Two popular techniques are steam humidification and high-pressure humidification. But which method is more sustainable? Find out the differences between steam humidification and high-pressure humidification in this blog post.
What is steam humidification?
In steam humidification, water is heated to boiling point and then evaporated to generate steam. This steam is then supplied to the air to increase humidity. This process is relatively simple. Due to the fact that a soom boiler was already present, steam humidification used to be often chosen in hospitals and laboratories. Nowadays, however, high-pressure humidification is increasingly chosen in these sectors. In addition, heating water to boiling point requires a lot of external energy and thus causes high energy consumption.
What is high pressure humidification?
High-pressure humidification operates at pressures of up to 100 Bar to atomise water into small and fine droplets. This water mist can be supplied to the air indirectly through an air handling unit (AHU) or directly in the room. The droplets of water evaporate due to the heat present in the air, increasing humidity. Often, some of the heat is already freely available or, on the contrary, the room needs to be cooled. As a result, apart from electricity for the pump, no external energy is needed to evaporate the water; the energy is taken from the air.
Which humidification method is more sustainable?
Based on sustainability, high-pressure humidification comes out on top. Steam humidification brings the water to the boiling point, leading to high energy consumption and operational costs. With high-pressure humidification, the water does not need to be brought to boiling point. As a result, less energy is required to achieve the desired humidity. In addition, high-pressure humidification can use heat from the air. So do you have machines that generate a lot of heat? Then this heat can be used to humidify the room. When combined with heat recovery or a heat pump, the sustainability of high-pressure humidification becomes even higher.
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