Putting waste heat to good use even in severe frost – Kaleva Media’s printing house relies on Exocon’s smart technology

The printing house processes require continuous cooling while simultaneously generating significant amounts of waste heat. In the Kaleva Media pilot project, these energy flows and the heat extracted from outdoor air have been harnessed to operate as a single smart system. Instead of letting the heat generated as a by-product of the processes go to waste, the system recycles it to heat the property and, in the future, potentially even feeds it into the district heating network.

Experiences from the first year have been very promising.

“It is important to us that our energy solutions are economically sensible and environmentally sustainable. Exocon’s technology offers solutions to both. We monitor our carbon footprint closely, and this provides us with concrete tools for that purpose,” says Jouko Männikkö, Property Manager at Kaleva Media.

Designed for extreme northern conditions

In northern operating conditions, the power of an individual unit alone is not enough, as the outdoor temperature, air humidity, and the property’s heating demand fluctuate constantly. Exocon has built its modular technology utilizing natural refrigerants on the terms of cold winters: the company’s air-to-water heat pumps produce heat reliably down to freezing temperatures of –35 °C.

At the core of the solution are automation based on continuous learning and a patented defrost architecture. The system proactively identifies frost accumulation and the need for defrosting, ensuring that no energy is wasted on unnecessary defrost cycles and no power is lost during critical cold spells.

Transparent performance throughout the entire lifecycle

In large sites, the greatest value is created when automation controls all energy flows intelligently and data makes the system’s operation transparent.

“With our ExoCare service, we take care of system optimisation, proactive maintenance, and performance verification throughout its entire lifecycle,” describes Jarmo Lehto, CEO of Exocon. “We do not just deliver equipment; we commit to the performance of the system. We provide the customer with full visibility into what they are truly getting for their investment.”