Greater Efficiency
Because a combination plant provides heat for both domestic hot water and space heating, and their loads tend to occur at different times of the day, the combination plant is able to reduce the peak design load and lower the overall heating capacity required by the system. As a result, a combination plant typically uses less gas-fired equipment to provide heat for the system as compared to two separate plants and is able to achieve greater efficiencies and increase energy savings.
Additionally, Benchmark Platinum’s dual returns, when paired with a low temperature application such as the SmartPlate EV, allow engineers to take full advantage of diverse load demands specific to a site and design a customized system that maximizes operation efficiencies by keeping cold water separate and creating a much larger condensing zone thereby enhancing boiler efficiency up to an additional 7 percent.
SmartPlate EV water heaters also minimize radiation losses and maximize boiler efficiency by utilizing Benchmark Platinum’s boiler water as little as 5°F above the required potable water temperature.