An aeronautics industry application had a cooling tower that cooled three 300 hp air compressors. Materials were brought into the facility by backing transport trucks into the plant through two 12 x 12' doors. In the winter, there was excessive loss of heat into the atmosphere, which resulted in excessive costs for natural gas for the unit heaters, and the employees were uncomfortable due to the drastic changes in temperature.

By using heat recapture units, diverting valves, filtration and thermostat controls, energy from the air compressors was diverted to the unit heaters, providing additional heat well above the capabilities of the existing unit heaters - at no additional operating cost. In this application, the unit heaters were not required to operate at any time during the heating period of the year, which resulted in considerable natural gas savings.

Additional energy required for the fans on the heat recapture unit was offset by the tower fans and the tower pump not having to cycle on. A rebate that was also obtained from the local natural gas provider that assisted in offsetting the capital cost of the project. In this particular application, the payback was 7.5 months.

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