There is a considerable increase in energy demand during autumn-winter conditions due to the necessity to keep optimal microclimatic conditions in pigsties. When heat exchangers are used in the ventilation systems on the premises of pigsties, clean and cold air (in the autumn-winter period) gets an amount of heat energy from unclean but warm air. Up to now heat exchangers have not been used widely in Latvia and therefore there is no experience about the use of heat exchangers for microclimatic stability in piggeries. The goal of the investigation is to clear out the possibilities of heat exchanger use at farms in Latvian climatic conditions.

The article deals with experimental results obtained from experiments about plate counter-flow heat exchanger models with plastic cellular boards (HE PVC) and plastic plates (WVT 120K) as heat transfer surfaces. Operational parameters which describe the energy efficiency of heat exchangers were calculated – power of recovered heat energy œ, heat transfer coefficient, and coefficient of performance (COP) by recovered heat. The parameters were analyzed depending on outside air temperature in an interval from +6 C to -16 C.

In the weather conditions of Latvia it is important to achieve heat transfer as completely as possible, widening thus the interval of heat deficit coverage towards lower outside air temperature.