Hot Spot Energy: anyone heard of them or used their products?
KeithH
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
Tripped over a company (small?) I’d never heard of with neat energy recovery products called hotspotenergy. Anyone ever worked with them or their products? I’m particularly interested in the ac waste heat recovery devices.
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Replies
Keith,
The device you are talking about is called a desuperheater. Desuperheaters are connected to the condenser of an air conditioner. During the cooling season, as long as the air conditioner is operating, the air conditioner can preheat the home's domestic hot water using waste heat from the condenser.
The bottom line: the amount of heat that can be gathered from a residential air conditioner isn't worth very much. The value of the heat is less than needed to justify the cost of installing the desuperheater.
That said, the equipment can make sense for a commercial space. That's why HotSpot Energy brags that its equipment is used by McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Burger King.