Stop the Waste: Using Industrial Heat Pumps to Rethink Thermal Loads

Engineers typically design thermal systems to provide the highest quality heat needed for industrial processes, leading to over-designed equipment that uses more energy than needed. Industrial heat pump (IHP) technology flips this approach, designing for the lowest-quality heat needed, then boosting to meet higher quality needs. This right-sizing approach reduces electricity requirements and energy use compared to the equivalent energy input into a boiler system, resulting in lower emissions and operating costs. Because IHPs are not a drop-in replacement for boilers, engineers must adopt a new mindset for thermal system design. This topic brief presents an alternative engineering approach for the design of IHP systems and is intended to inform industrial engineers, manufacturing end-users interested in IHPs, and energy efficiency program managers. A stand-alone one-pager that illustrates the flipped thermal design is available for download.