Comfort... hard to quantify but worth investing in

• Heat recovery saves money, improves working comfort in winter
• Resulted in annual savings of 218 MWh of heat (equivalent to over € 17 000) 

A company producing cables for electricity infrastructure located in the Czech Republic carried out a comprehensive energy audit resulting in several energy-saving measures. One of the proposals was to reuse waste heat from two production areas to warm adjacent halls.

The air-handling and -extraction units in the production halls were mainly designed to prevent overheating. Excess heat was channeled out of the building through unsealed openings, which let cold air in and made working conditions in winter less comfortable. Taking waste heat from the exhaust system to the adjacent halls just made good sense.

Key benefits

Apart from providing a more confortable working environment, which is difficult to quantify, the € 102 000 investment generated annual heat savings of 218 MWh, or equivalent to € 17 000 in reduced operating costs. The payback period on the project is expected to be 5.9 years.