Last edited 15 Jul 2022

Main author

BSRIA Institute / association Website

Approach temperature

Heat Interface Units (BG 62/2015) was written by Reginald Brown and published by BSRIA in December 2015. It states: ‘The approach temperature is the smallest temperature difference between the primary and secondary fluids at any point within a heat exchanger. It depends on the design of the heat exchanger and the operating conditions. For a counter flow or cross flow plate heat exchanger it will usually be the difference between the primary return temperature and the secondary return temperature. Ideally for network efficiency, the approach temperature should be as small as possible, but reducing the approach temperature for a given heat transfer rate means increasing the physical size and therefore cost of the heat exchanger.’

--BSRIA

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

Designing Buildings Anywhere

Get the Firefox add-on to access 20,000 definitions direct from any website

Find out more Accept cookies and
don't show me this again