New Water Heater Concept Promises High Efficiency, Lower Cost
The design streamlines, and even eliminates, certain components
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Florida (UF) has developed a novel method that could yield lower-cost, higher-efficiency systems for water heating in residential buildings.
The theory behind the newly termed “semi-open” natural gas-fired design, explained in an ORNL-led paper published in Renewable Energy: An International Journal, reduces the cost and complexity of traditional closed gas-fired systems by streamlining, and even eliminating, certain components.