Heat-Source Swap Test

Four heat sources can drive the same dryer. Most sites are not choosing between four — they are choosing between the one or two their utilities already support. Answer four questions and the worksheet rules out the rest before you start comparing quotations.

The model behind the answer

Declared worksheet assumptions, not supplier commitments: electric heating needs spare three-phase capacity, steam needs a boiler that already exists, gas needs both a piped supply and a permit route, and a heat pump is only counted as repaying its higher capital cost above 3,000 running hours a year. That hours threshold is a worksheet assumption for shortlisting, not a performance figure — a peer-reviewed review of heat-pump drying reports a specific moisture extraction rate of 1.0–4.0 kg of water per kWh against 0.1–1.3 kg for hot air, and notes that the payback depends on long hours of operation.

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