Media conditioning & climate testing

Media or air conditioning (T, rh, p) is used as a test method for environmental simulation or temperature control of the ambient air of components from various industries (e.g. HVAC-R, automotive industry). Test items are tested according to standards under the required environmental conditions. The temperature ranges start at -20 °C and usually end at around 60 °C. Depending on the application, we can offer you customer-specific temperature, pressure or humidity ranges.

Current test systems on the market that are used to test air / water heat pumps, for example, are climatic chambers with a cooling, heating and humidification unit attached to the roof. The disadvantage of this concept is that a homogeneous temperature and humidity distribution cannot be set in the cube-like room. Based on test engineering concepts in the automotive industry, EPE developed a concept in which the air flows in a closed circuit (loop design). This is blown into and out of the chamber via a flow straightener. The temperature control (cooling, heating) and humidification takes place outside the chamber. The result of this concept is a very excellent homogeneous temperature and humidity distribution. In addition, it is possible to set and vary the air flow depending on the standard conditions in the loop.

Test benches for environmental testing

Fan Test Benches

Measurement and characteristic determination of fans and blowers.

HPT – Heat Pump Test Bench

Testing of heat pumps through dynamic temperature & humidity control

Purge Air Test Bench

Testing of decentralised, alternating ventilation units

Adjustment test bench for room sensors

With the test bench different flow velocities under different ambient conditions can be realized on the test item.

Test methods

Simulation of the environmental conditions of the components to be tested
Conditioning – controlling, regulating, measuring:
Water (temperature, pressure, volume, density)
Air (temperature, pressure, volume, density, humidity)

Features

Environmental simulation

Temperature and humidity conditioning

Closed Loop Design

Compliance with the required test standards

Specification

	Heat pump test bench	Purge air test bench	Gas heating test bench	Fan and blower test benches	HVAC acoustic test bench	Flow channel for room air sensors
Test item	Heat pump	Decentralized ventilation units	Heat exchanger of the gas heating systems	Fan and blowers	HVAC modules	Room air sensors
Standard	DIN EN 14511	DIN EN ISO 13141-8	—	DIN EN ISO 5801 or AMCA 210	—	—
Medium	Air	Air	Water	Air	Air	Air
Temperature control	-25…+50 °C	7…21 °C (expandable)	0…120 °C	—	—	10…40 °C
Humidity control	10…92 % r.h.	10…92 % r.h.	—	—	—	5…80 % r.h.
Flow or velocity control	1000…7000 m³/h	20…200 m³/h	—	1… 100,000 m³/h	1…1000 m³/h	0.3…0.5 m/s
Key Benefit, Application	Closed-loop design for dynamic, uniform T and H control and an optimized safety concept (ATEX Zone 2), a wide range of expansion levels possible	Determination of thermal performance indicators of alternating ventilation devices	Endurance test of gas heaters (2… 45 kW); different load conditions and temperature changes (e.g. shock temperature changes)	Characteristic curve recording of fans and blowers	Testing and determination of characteristic curves of HVAC modules	Testing room sensors under conditioned conditions (air velocity, temperature, humidity, CO2 content)