New Heating Options

for Industrial Buildings⁽¹⁾

3 Ways to Heat Your Building for Less

Industrial Space Heating Solution IN MANY PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA, space heating is the largest element of industrial building energy use. This is especially true as our economy evolves from heavy manufacturing toward more light manufacturing, assembly operations, warehousing, and distribution. Important options for new and existing buildings can dramatically reduce the cost of building heating. We'll look at three technologies that promise to reduce the cost of heating industrial buildings.

1. The High-Efficiency Radiant Solution
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2. The Heat Recovery Solution
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3. The High-Efficiency Industrial Space
Heating Solution

Many manufacturing, warehouse and distribution buildings need space heating systems that are both economical to install and will operate efficiently. Because these buildings require ventilation, owners sometimes install makeup air heaters sized to meet the full heating requirement of the building. However, this approach ignores the fact that excessive reliance on makeup air heaters will pressurize the building, forcing heated air out through every crack and opening.

Control Volume of Outdoor Air

An alternative is to use high-output direct-fired gas heaters that introduce far smaller volumes of heated air into the building, allowing building pressures to stay in balance and reducing energy use. An example of
such a product is the S-Series Blow-Thru@ industrial space heater from Cambridge Engineering. Because of its blow-through design, the blower, belts and bearings are all on the cool, upstream side of the burner. This design allows the unit to operate with a 160°F temperature rise, far higher than achievable with most makeup air heaters, which use a temperature-limiting draw-through design. For this reason, the direct-fired heaters bring a much smaller volume of outdoor air into the building, eliminating the pressurization effect. Frank Horstmann from Cambridge was a recent presenter at a Technology and Market Assessment Forum sponsored by the Energy Solutions Center. Horstmann stresses, "We emphasize that this is something
different from a makeup air heater. A makeup heater's role is to provide tempered building air to offset ventilation volumes. The S-Series is designed to actually heat the building efficiently regardless of the outdoor temperature."

Replacing Older Steam System

Blow Thru Diagram An example of a building that was successfully retrofitted with high efficiency direct-fired heaters is the North American headquarters and manufacturing plant of Durr Industries in Plymouth, Michigan. In 2006 the company decommissioned its steam boiler heating system and replaced it with Cambridge Blow-Thru@ heaters for the plants and a hydronic boiler system for the office. After the conversion, the annual natural gas consumption for the plant was reduced by 23%, or 6697 MCF. Gordon Harbison from Durr Industries indicates, "We have been very satisfied with the decision to change from our steam-based system, especially with the savings generated and our reduced natural gas consumption. The shop levels are much more consistent throughout, increasing our worker comfort levels." Harbison explains that the project had a payback of less than three years. He notes, "This is of course controlled by the fluctuating price of natural gas, but no one at Durr is disappointed in the savings or the decision to install."

Finding the Right Solution

These are three of the prominent families of technologies that are being deployed to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions in heating industrial facilities. We hope this article provides some insight in helping find the solution that is exactly right for your building today.