I work at a food processing facility where we use a significant amount of hot water during scheduled washdown periods — mostly during second shift and weekend cleaning cycles.
Lately, I’ve been exploring ways to reduce our peak demand and overall gas usage. One idea that came up was using some form of thermal energy storage (TES) to preheat water during off-peak times and hold it until washdown begins.
I’m trying to figure out if this idea is technically and financially viable. The washdowns are regular but short, and we already have decent insulation on our tanks. We don’t currently use solar thermal, but I’m not ruling it out either.
Has anyone implemented TES for hot water use in a food facility? What technologies or system designs worked best? And how do you size something like this to match irregular cleaning schedules?
Hi Riley, you’re on the right track. TES can be a good fit for food processing facilities with regular washdown cycles, especially when paired with off-peak generation or renewable sources.
Some facilities have used insulated storage tanks with integrated controls to preheat water using excess capacity from boilers or even electric resistance heaters overnight. The key is making sure the storage volume matches the thermal demand of your longest or most frequent washdown events and insulating the system well enough to hold that heat for several hours.
For sizing, we’ve seen success using historical water usage logs (if available) and mapping those against cleaning schedules to estimate peak draw. If you don’t have that data, even a few weeks of manual tracking can give you enough info to build a baseline.
Are you looking to integrate TES with an existing hot water system, or considering this as part of a larger upgrade?
Thanks, that’s helpful. We haven’t done any tracking yet, but I could probably log water usage during a few cleaning cycles to get a starting point. We’re thinking about using electric preheating during off-peak hours, but I’m not sure how well the system would hold temperature over time. Do you know if there’s a rule of thumb for how long stored hot water typically stays usable without reheating?