Ask Rick: Wrap Around Heat Pipes | What is a typical payback?

Q.  What do you see as typical paybacks for Wrap Around Heat Pipes?  How much does it change with geographical location?

Wrap Around Heat Pipe from Heat Pipe Technology

Wrap Around Heat Pipe from Heat Pipe Technology

Paybacks that we are seeing with typical Wrap Around Heat Pipe applications are ranging from 2 to 4 years.  Paybacks are most influenced by:

  • percentage of cooling coil use –  more use equals more savings
  • system size – paybacks are typically better on larger systems
  • energy cost –  a very big factor in payback for any type of system

 

Wrap Around Heat Pipe: Payback by Location

As expected, the geographical location has a major influence on the payback.  Since the design OA dry bulb is relatively consistent, and the heat pipe is a sensible heat transfer device that reacts only to dry bulb temperature, the same heat pipe selection is actually used for all locations.  The southerly locations do have more hours when cooling is required and the heat pipes can become operative.  Note that the payback is surprisingly low at 26 and 28 months even as far north as St. Louis and Boston respectively, decreasing to 12 months in Puerto Rico.  Bear in mind that coil use drives this chart.  You could also have applications, like laboratories, where cooling is used more often and the wrap around heat pipes would have a quicker payback.   Payback is always application specific.

Please feel free to contact us for a payback on your specific application.

Related Documents from Heat Pipe Technology:  Optimizing Wrap Around Heat Pipes

Related Blog Posts:
Wrap Around Heat Pipe | How does a Wrap Around Heat Pipe work?
Ask Rick: Control for Wrap Around Heat Pipes

 

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