What is a heat exchanger?
What is a Heat Exchanger ? Suppose you have a gas central heating furnace (boiler) that heats a hot water radiator in different rooms of your home. It works by burning natural gas and creating a line or grid of hot gas jets on top of the water flowing through a network of pipes. When water is pumped through a pipe, it absorbs heat energy and heats it. This arrangement is what the heat exchanger means. The gas jet is cooled and the water is heated. A Heat Exchanger is a device that allows heat from a fluid (liquid or gas) to be transferred to a second fluid (another liquid or gas) without the two fluids mixing or making direct contact. Consider this if it is not completely clear. Theoretically, you can get heat just by pouring cold water on a gas jet, but then the flames will go out! The essential principle of heat exchangers is to transfer heat without transferring the fluid that carries it.