Water Heater Management (WHM)

Got a Project?

Get in touch with one of our AERCO specialists to discuss how the WHM feature can be applied to your project
Contact Us

Optimize Your Water Heating System Efficiency

Decades of experience with high-efficiency water heaters has enabled us to create the industry’s first effective water heater sequencing system which comes standard with the Innovation water heater as part of its fully integrated Edge Controller. The Water Heater Management (WHM) feature is the only sequencing control that truly addresses two key water heating system performance issues: cycling and standby losses.

With this unique feature, the operating system turndown will equal the individual unit turndown multiplied by the number of units employed. For example, an application using six Innovation 1350 at 27:1 will modulate to meet system load with a total turndown of over 160:1.

WHM image

Optimized Operation

Optimizes operating efficiencies at all load conditions
WHM image

No Standby Losses

Virtually eliminates standby losses
WHM image

Accurate Tracking

Accurately tracks daily domestic hot water demands
WHM image

System Reliability

Increases system reliability through reduced cycling
Product Image - Innovation Skid Packaged Systems

Up To 16 Water Heaters

The onboard robust logic is designed to efficiently sequence up to 16 water heaters on the same system to meet load requirements at all times while minimizing cycling and standby losses. It optimizes system efficiency and load tracking, and balances unit run hours which can significantly reduce service and maintenance costs.

It monitors the fire rate of all water heaters and sequences them by opening or closing the motorized valve as required to meet hot water demand.

How it Works

The manager decides which unit to enable or disable based on run hours and as a result of this logic, the manager effectively balances run hours evenly amongst all the units. When a unit is disabled, the small volume of water held in the shell is allowed to drop to ambient temperature. This is done to ensure that the disabled unit does not cycle needlessly to maintain set point and to minimize system radiation losses. Since each Innovation is equipped with a small feed-forward circulator, constant flow is maintained in the disabled unit alleviating any concern over Legionella bacteria growth. A brief time-delay has been programmed into the sequencing logic to allow a disabled unit to fire back up to set point prior to the valve opening.

WHM image

No Hot Water

Lead heater on with its motorized sequencing valve open
WHM image

Hot Water Increase

WHM opens more sequencing valves to engage more heaters
WHM image

Hot Water Decrease

WHM closes sequencing valves of unneeded water heaters
WHM image

Set Point

WHM maintains lead at set point / sequencing valve open to support fast response and the building recirculation requirement
The following chart illustrates how multiple Innovation heaters with WHM (green bar) compare with the two most common alternative system designs: 1) storage tank heaters (gray bar) and 2) hot water supply boilers packaged with external storage tanks (orange bar).

 

 

 

 

Learn more about Water Heater Management!

 

Contact an AERCO Specialist