Over 80% of the energy you put into your air compressor is given off as waste heat. This is usually ducted to atmosphere and wasted. This heat is created as part of the air compression process and is captured by the compressor coolant within the compressor itself. It is a thermodynamic fact that this heat has too be generated and the air cannot be compressed without the heat being generated.
You can reuse this heat
Using a simple to install heat exchanger it is possible to direct this waste heat to your central heating system or hot water system. This reduces significantly the amount of energy needed by the central heating system, saving you a considerable amount on your energy bills.
How much saving are we talking about?
This depends on several things but in principle the bigger your compressor the more you can save. If you have a 15 kw compressor we can generally recover about 12kw to your heating system saving you about £3,000 a year in electricity costs (based on 10p/kwh electricity and a 48 hour working week). From experience we can say that in 95% of cases the payback will be less than 3 years and in about 50% of cases the payback will be less than 12 months! As fuel prices continue to increase this will further reduce the payback period.
Will this work on my compressor?
The simple answer is Yes. Installing a heat recovery system is simple to do. It works on any make of compressor. There are certain practical considerations to be taken into account when designing the system but in principle any compressor over 5 kw is worth considering for a heat recovery system.